Day 32 - 36
Pottered around our guest house this week which has become more European by the minute, due to the influx of French students. En masse, they goad us with their beautiful Gallic bodies, soft accents, propensity to smoke, tactile tendencies and mild arrogance. We feel slightly marginalised and maturely sit a few feet away from them, b****ing.
The monsoon has arrived which brings a couple of hours heavy rain a day, leaving the place cool afterwards. It is now easy to go out and do things which we were prevented from before and the climate is actually really nice. We spent a day at Jodhpur Fort complete with audio tour headsets. Fern and Clover had to share one - one unit, two headphones - which caused regular confusion and bickering when one tried to go in one direction unannounced, thus ripping the headphones clean off the head of the other. On top of all this, we were photographed more than ever, mainly via mobile phones. People actually stood in front of the glass cases I was looking in and photographed me. I gave up smiling and tried a new approach of looking cross and walking away. Apparently Pamela Anderson is huge in India so I am sure they are confusing me with her. That'll be it.
Had lunch one day at the world famous omelette shop, where you can have the best masala cheese omelette ever for about 30p. The owner has been at this stall for 35 years, gets through 1000 eggs a day (1800 in the winter) and works 7 days a week from 10-10pm, 'happily - it's not a problem' he said. I can barely manage about 3 days a week. The food was delicious and the atmosphere only ruined by the flies.
Rufus has had a bad dose of cabin fever this week and is irritable and stressed. The solution is to send him out alone for at least an hour a day to mingle with the locals and meander around the markets. He always returns with 2 bottles of Kingfisher which helps him cope with the evening ahead. I enjoy this hour as well and spend the time obsessing over Hillary Clinton's memoirs (and Heat).
We had a meal one night at 'Crossroads' - a multi-cuisine restuarant where the portions were huge. We ordered Mexican food which was basically Indian food with a sombrero on it. We were amused to see a mouse running through the restaurant, being smiled at fondly by the waiters. I don't think environmental health is a priority in restaurants. Rufus has taught Fern to make friendship bracelets which she in turn, is teaching the local children. The girls are embracing Indian culture this week and have Mehindi up their arms (henna swirly patterns) and jewelled bindis on their faces. Fern can count to ten and say thank you in Hindi and they have made lovely local friends. I think they will be sad to leave - we all will be. I have begun to feel strangely settled here and pat myself on the back that I had the fabulous idea of staying in one place for a month (with a bit of travel chucked in). It has helped us acclimatise and understand this mad, frustrating, beautiful country before forging on ahead. We have all developed crushes on the staff in our guest house who have a kindness in their eyes and a willingness to help that we have never known. I have loved our room with its gorgeoous pink silk drapes, and the blue courtyard where we sit every day. I love Indians so much I want to be one. The best bit about them is, in an increasingly homogeneous world, they're so Indian.