From Gwailor

Hi all

I'm writing now from Gwailor, which is an interesting place. The city itself is a typical modernized Indian city--pretty affluent, from what I can tell. Towering over the town is a massive historical fort-the grounds inside the walls are probably two square KM. Inside it there are fifteen old temples and monuments you can visit on one ticket, and I had a very good day doing so. It was hot, so I went from one monument to another, napping or resting at each one for a half hour or so. The heat makes you slow. Right now it's hot even by Indian standards. It's 47 or 48 degrees every day, and I don't know what that is in farenheit, but it's hot as sin. Actually, I'm going to look it up right now. It's between 116 and 118 degrees F. I don't really mind it, usually I just do what I must and sleep through the hot part of the day, or just lay around and read. But today I was stuck in it--the fort is far away from the hotel. OK, while I'm bitching about the heat: I spend a hundred ruppees every day on water (one liter costs ten ruppees) and I still don't urinate. ever. I don't mind it as much as most of the tourists here now, and I don't even mind it as much as some of the Indian people; I think my body is built for heat more than cold, for some reason. These clothes really help--you have to wear giant baggy white clotes, as much cloth as possible, and a wet headcloth. It means that now my mind is stupid and I have nothing interesting to say on my blog.

I am also tired from zooming through jaipur and agra, which had sights to see but I didn't want to spend too much time in. Delhi, Jaipur and Agra form the "golden triangle" of Indian tourism, and most forgeiners who come here only go to those three places. And they are probably my least favorite places in Northern India. Delhi is what it is, it's got some nice culture and monuments, but it's dirty and polluted and huge and soulless. Jaipur might be considered nice, until you compare it with the rest of rajastan, which is breathtakingly beautiful, the people are hospitable and honest (some places) and it's charming. Jaipur is dusty, and the main palace is mostly closed because the maharaja still lives there. Agra is Agra--it's the taj, and nothing else, it's a huge dirty industrial city, with lots of communal tension/violence between hindus and muslims. There's a pretty good criminal sector there who prey on tourists, and many of the hotel rooms have faulty locks (I had to get the hotel guy to fix mine before I would go to sleep) so see the taj if you must, but get out. Basically, if you come to India, I would urge you to go a bit farther afield than the golden triangle--there are places which are closer or just the same distance from Delhi that are great.