We had our first sketchy experience today. We toured the palace, and the plan was to then take a boat ride on the lake, stopping at the Kings private Islas where he holds parties. While waiting for the boat, we explored the palace gardens a bit, stumbling across an old temple that was mostly underground. The temple was very small. We went down te stairs to check it out and inside was a man on his cellphone. When he got off it he told us to sit down. We did... There was only room for 2 more people to sit, so very small. Te man told us he was the priest. He didn't speak English very well so we jut kept smiling and nodding our heads when he was talking to us. As he was talking I thought how its weird that this priest is in Indian clothing, but nothing about him showed that he was a priest. He had gold and jeweled rings on, an he had been on his cellphone when we entered, which didn't seem very holy to me. Then he asked us if we had "gents" ie: husbands, boyfriends, etc. Thats when the warning sirens went off... What sort of holy man is interested in knowing about our love lives? We said yes, they were waiting for us at the boat dock. He kept pressing on about our "gents" and kept telling us we didn't have them. That's when I said okay, we have to go. So we stood up to leave and he kept telling us no, 5 more minutes. We both were like absolutely not and headed for the exit. That's when the real priest showed up, dressed in holy clothing and headdress. The man got up and left with us... Obviously because he had been busted. As we walked away he made weird kissing noises and grazed Ajdas behind. Not cool! We booked it back to the dock and that was the last we saw of him. Everyone we have met in India has been so kind and gracious, I guess it was only a matter of time until we ran into a bad apple
The day before we had met the man who owned the little store in our hotel. He told us he could make us a custom and traditional Indian outfit for 1200 rupees. After looking around other places we thought that was very reasonable! Ada got two outfits made, and I had 1 outfit made, with an extra top.
Later that day out driver told us that if we want to see traditional Rajisthan dancing he would take us to the guest house where he is staying because a local wedding was happening and girls would be performing. Of course we wanted to go! It is wedding season in India and all we have been hearing every night is the boom of bass in the distance and see skies full of fireworks, we were dying to get inside. So we put on our new Indian outfits and got excited!
We had a Tallboy of Kingfisher in the back seats on the way. We got there and immediately wished we had drank two. As we had experienced before, we drew quite a bit of attention. We pulled up and a crew of 15 year old boys, who were clearly the cool-kids, swarmed our car and excitedly talked to our driver in Hindi our driver ensured us it was ok that we attend and that his friends are their friends. We awkwardly walked over to the wedding tent, which was a colorful tent set up off the side of the street. A big fuss was made for us, Ajda immediately got asked to dance. They pulled up chairs and we sat at the back of the tent...Everyone else (mostly women) were seated on the floor. Little girls danced at the front of the tent in gorgeous little outfits. We were trying to focus on them, while everyone else focused on us. The crowd had all turned around to stare. Poor little dancing girls! My stomach was in knots. It's hard to judge Indian people's stares; are they curious? Repulsed? Amused? Happy? A young couple came over and handed Ajda their infant, and snapped a few dozen photos. Then the wedding photographer joined in. Ajdas suitor kept asking her to dance. We were there for about ten minutes when I'm pretty sure out driver was told we have to leave. I can't be sure because he insisted, even after we left, that it was no problem that we went and that everyone was happy to see us and that it was an honor for them. I still am confused as to why it would be an honor for us to attend their wedding for ten minutes.... It was us that felt honored!
We went to bed and I happily slept ALMOST an entire night. Looking forward to the night I finally sleep all the way through.
Ps. He photo of the shrine is the God of cigarettes and booze. Who would have thought?
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