For breakfast we had rice and bread, then we took a tuk-tuk to the train station to buy some tickets to Mumbai. We met two guys from France; a dad (reminded me of Alfred Pennyworth) and his son (kind of looked like Macaulay Culkin, but less drug use), who spoke wonderful English and 4 other languages! They helped us buy tickets, which were Rs.1940 each ($29.76).
Tuk-tuk
Ridin' in style
My initials on the back of some guy's jacket!
Alfred
They invited us to go with them to the Hawa Mahal, aka the Palace of Winds. It’s a 5 story palace with 953 windows and architecture that looks like a honeycomb. The windows are dark from the outside so that royal ladies on the inside could observe life on the street below without being seen (because they weren’t allowed to be seen in public without face coverings). We piled into the tuk-tuk: 3 in the back (Ben, Macaulay, and I) and 2 up front (Alfred and driver). A few minutes after we left the train station, he driver got pulled over by the traffic police because technically we had too many people in the tuk-tuk. He kind of got in trouble for that but when they asked for his registration, he said that you didn’t have it because he left at home. Then they gave him a ticket for not having his registration in his vehicle.
"My grandmother, she is 101 years old. I love her very much"
Elephants in the street!
Only ones we saw during our entire trip.
Elephants
When we got to our destination, 'Alfred and Macaulay' offered to pay. Our driver first tried to argue that Ben and I owe him money for the ride too– which our friends said that we did not because we were young and they were paying for the ride, which they had already discussed the price and he didn't try to raise it when he was told we were coming. Then he tried to argue that we owed him more because he got a ticket and it was our fault. Of course we told him that it wasn’t our fault he didn’t have his registration. Then he said, “they wouldn’t have pulled me over if all four of you weren’t in my vehicle!" which we replied, “well, it's still your fault because that you agreed to let us all get in your tuk-tuk” and walked off.
Some random guy listening to our argument with the tuk-tuk driver, haha
Heated tuk-tuk driver
Another random guy listening to the conversation...?
Sewing like a champ
So many motorcycles/mopeds in India.
We saw the exterior of the Hawa Mahal but decided not to go in. We thanked our friends for the ride and invitation, wished them the best, and parted ways. We walked and skated around, then went to the street and got lunch at a cafe. Then we took a tuk-tuk back to our Airbnb.
Hawa Mahal
Walking into the courtyard of the palace
Architecture
Pink City
In the courtyard of the Hawa Mahal
Ruins
We asked some guys where the toilet was and they pointed in a direction. We walked over and didn't see anything but the ruins of a building.... We thought that this probably was the toilet... hahaha
Colors, cute!
Ben fell asleep while I edited some photos. Eventually I explored the area around our place. There was a monkey right by our door and I was checking him out, when Keshav’s mother came out of no where and pulled me away– just in time for the monkey to jump out at me! She said, “no no, Hanuman monkey god. Not nice!” Then some guy came up and she explained what happened (in Hindi), and he told me to follow him. We went into this little temple like place across the street. There were some small statues of deities and the man explained that Hanuman was one of their gods and monkeys symbolize him. He said that the monkeys are not very nice, so I should not bother them.
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