Today we had an awesome day!
We went to the monkey temple.. A place with sacred waters that the monkeys have swarmed to because they get fed and have lots of water to drink. People bath here and pray here, but mostly they come to see the monkeys. There were so many of them!! So many babies also, which were adorable. The temple is located between the mountain... There were monkeys hanging from the roof, monkeys climbing the rocks, monkeys drinking the holy water, monkeys laying in the sun, monkeys monkeys monkeys! They were smaller than the massive monkeys of Mount Abu, and a sort of brick color, which I thought appropriate being that Jaipur got its nickname ("The Pink City") from its buildings being painted with brick powder, honoring queen Victoria when she visited. FYI: the city is not pink, it is red. Disappointing!
We fed the monkeys bananas and peanuts, and Ajda made friends with one who hung out on her back and wouldn't get off! It even started picking through her hair! It was hilarious and made for some great photos, which you will have to wait to see. I only brought my big camera because I was scared the monkeys would take my iPhone since they are known to try and take whatever you have in your hands. We played with them for at least an hour... And could have stayed there all day and hung out. We both agreed it was in our top 5 experiences so far!
An interesting observation is that I guess it's acceptable for women to be nude in public if they are bathing in holy water? Two old women stripped down and dove into the water, and no one around but is even batted an eyelash. I'm just so confused by this society, it makes no sense to me. Women must cover their heads, their faces from their mother in laws, remain modest, never show their ankles, but the next thing I know they are naked and swimming in front of whoever? I give up!
On a side note, the priests here were also pervy. They kept trying to lure us into dark temples... It's so gross. I'm not sure I these men were real priests, but I wish they would get asked to leave these temples because luring tourist girls into temples under the mask of "holy man" for some sort of personal sexual gain is exploitive and revolting for both the Hindu religion and the tourists.
We had to be back in the city by 12 30 because we had a movie to catch. We had met two German women the day before while waiting in line to ride the elephants, and they said we HAVE to experience Indian cinema. So we told our tour company and they arranged tickets for us.
Going to the movies here is wild. The theater was huge; there were easily 1000 people there. The ladies and gents have to enter through different doors. For once we were happy to be segregated because the theater was 90% men. The Tor company also got us "Deluxe Diamond" seats on the balcony so we weren't surrounded by many people... Something we were both ok with. So many people came up to us asking if we speak Hindi, and when we said no, their little group of super cool (as in indoor sunglass wearing, cellphone to the ear even when they arent talking to anyone cool) 16 year old friends
all laughed in our faces as if we were the biggest idiots they had seen in their lives. "Why would you go to a movie you cant understand?" snicker snicker snicker. Bollywood movies aren't exactly Sundance status. It's not like we were there to see Maria Full of Grace.
Our movie was called Khiladi 786. In order for you to understand what we watched for over two hours, go to YouTube right now and watch a Khiladi music video, or even better, the trailer (EDIT: WATCH TRAILER HERE http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en&client=mv-rim&v=kHdtpTrrxuo ). I thought that the movie was sort of a slapstick bad romantic comedy slash action film... Sort of like Your Highness or one of those super cheey movies that make fun of the topic at hand, like a parody of sorts.
I was wrong.
While we were dying of laughter with everyone, it turns out they were laughing because they really thought it was funny! This was an actual romantic comedy slash action film. Every time the main character, a good cop who fights evil, did something completely cheesy like pour water down his body making his tank top see-through, or roll down his window in slow motion, lower his HUGE aviators, and wink... The crowd went wild... And I mean wild. Whistles and cheers so loud that you couldn't hear the movie at all. Remind me why we needed to understand Hindi? I
I'm so befuddled by this cultures denial of homosexuality when their cinema is so homoerotic, and everywhere you look men are sitting on each others laps and holding hands. Just accept it already! The movies starlet didn't get nearly as many whistles.
We left with stitches in our sides from laughing so hard. This movie made Nicholas Cage's Drive Angry look like a timeless masterpiece.
Ps. What sort of romantic comedy doesn't even have a kiss in it?
We then went to the market with Madhu's aunt. We got henna done on our hands, and she helped us get bargains on bangles and bindis. I have enough bindis to last me the rest of the trip... But I want more!!
Then we went to their family home again for drinks before dinner. I found out that they are dear friends and distant relatives of the royal family of Jaipur, hence why everyone was kissing her feet and they are so honored everywhere we go. We went to the Rambagh Palace for dinner, where Madhu use to play as a child, before it was given to the Taj Hotels to run. The palace is so beautiful. She told us how it used to be set up, showed us some of the original furniture, and taught us a lot of history about the place. It was amazing. We had drinks in the Polo Club (took photos for you Dad!) and then dinner at Steam, which is an old train on its tracks converted into a restaurant. Te royal family had its own train to get around back in the day, so this too was original. It was so so special! We had a car to ourselves and ate thin crust pizza... Such a nice break from curry!
I think all three of us were tipsy by the end of the night... We left arm in arm giggling. I'm so thankful for the hospitality Mrs. sigh showed us while we were there, it really made for such a beautiful experience.
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