{"id":35983,"date":"2020-01-30T12:35:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T17:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=35983"},"modified":"2020-01-30T12:35:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T17:35:31","slug":"january-23-2020-a-passage-through-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=35983","title":{"rendered":"January 23, 2020 – A Passage Through India"},"content":{"rendered":"

The drive from Udaipur to Jaipur is supposed to take something like 7 hours. Sitting in the car, I\u2019m suffering a bit of highway hypnosis and drifting in and out of consciousness, head bobbing and knocking the window, jerking me awake as I struggle against my seat belt. The mind wanders as we drive\u2026 maybe this is meditation for a 21st<\/sup> Century Road Warrior?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We stop at a roadside hotel and restaurant for a break. BudhiMan tells us the bathrooms are clean here; that India as a whole is like the quest for bathrooms \u2013 some are clean and some are not so clean. That\u2019s not just india, I think.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While wandering the gift shop \u2013 after using the facilities you have to exit through the gift shop \u2013 savvy \u2013 I feel like I should maybe buy something. There\u2019s just a vibe about it. I don\u2019t realty want to and probably should have gone for a magnet instead but I was drawn to the books arrayed along the back wall. Although I love my Kindle, sometimes I miss books \u2013 the tactile sensation of holding one, of flipping the pages, of even having them on a shelf, a friend sitting there willing to talk to me any time and tell me a story or impart a fact or opinion. I narrow my options to these two:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am awfully tempted by the first as I think it might be more useful\u2026 and I loved that it was right next to the Kama Sutra. But flipping the pages it all felt\u2026 and believe me I know how hypocritical this sounds given what I typed above and my writerly aspirations\u2026 it all felt like too many words on the page. It\u2019s a kids book and I wanted it, I don\u2019t know, eye candy colorful and super digestible. Like USA Today used to be before they made their Chicken McNugget-ian prose even less McDonald\u2019s bite-size \u201chealthy.\u201d I wanted junk food and flash and honestly I was most interested in stories. So I go with the gods and goddesses shinier cover.<\/p>\n

As we get back into the car to continue our journey north, I already regret buying it.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

It’s been a weird trip. Fun, but weird. There\u2019s been a lot of go-go-go as we pack in as much as possible in a short time frame. There have been more than a few moments where it\u2019s been so overwhelming I\u2019m not even sure I\u2019m processing or taking in the moments, feeling them wash over me. I worry I am not appreciating all I should. India is vast and multifaceted\u2026 and each place we visit seems vast as well. There\u2019s history and culture and customs galore to try and soak up, as if I were a bit of naan mopping up curry. Yeah, even I thought that simile was \u201cmeh.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is so much to see and so much to do\u2026 and we are only hitting a sliver of India. In this Golden Triangle tour though we hit the main first-timers highlights. I may have already written this \u2013 I\u2019ve been so intermittent and inconsistent in my writing and even in my notetaking on the trip that I can\u2019t really piece together what\u2019s been posted and what\u2019s been scribbled down in draft form \u2013 locals ask me if this is my first time in India and when I tell them yes they hopefully ask \u2018not the last though?\u2019 No, no\u2026 not the last time I don\u2019t think.<\/p>\n

I feel a little guilty typing this out as the Indian countryside whizzes past. The two lane highway occasionally converts into a four lane one way with two lanes coming at us \u2013 a six lane highway smushed into the confines of the 8, a road that stretches a good length of the nation. As a partial Los Angeleno, I appreciate the number system of their highways.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Buying that book was dumb. Sigh.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Tonight we are supposed to visit a dinner with music and dancing\u2026 and Budhi Man tells us I have to dance. I told him I don\u2019t dance but ask if he does. \u201cI am like Michael Jackson,\u201d he says. I tell him I\u2019m willing to get up and sway out of rhythm for a few moments as my cover charge to see that.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

We arrived into Jaipur around 3:30pm. Katie was feeling a bit under the weather \u2013 she drank from a glass at the lunch that we suspect had been rinsed with local, unfiltered water and she\u2019s worried she may have the Montezuma\u2019s Revenge-ian \u201cDelhi Belly\u201d reaction. I hope she feels better soon \u2013 I had a bit of a queasiness the other day and stuck with “finger fries” so I know of what she speaks.<\/p>\n

Not wanting to miss out though I opted for Budhi Man to drive me to a sunset vantage point. He recommended the Nahargarh Fort atop a mountain that overlooks Jaipur. It also features its own Great Wall of India (my term for it) that certainly warrants mention in the guide books. I paid the 200 rupee charge for foreigners (locals and students seem to pay 25 rupees), and wander to the top of the Palace at the center of the fort. Some spectacular views indeed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had hoped to get back in time to catch a movie at the internationally renowned Rajminder Theater. It\u2019s one of the world\u2019s greatest movie palaces where seeing a movie is as much about experiencing it with their enthusiastic crowds as it is about the film. My plan was to try and catch the latest Bollywood blockbuster there \u2013 Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior — but the showtimes just weren\u2019t working out. It took us almost an hour to get back from the sunset point to the hotel and so I missed the 6:30 screening. The next one isn\u2019t until 9:30. And while I really, really want to go, I\u2019m about people\u2019d out from the drive back\u2026 and the go-go-go lifestyle has left me feeling a bit exhausted.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m disappointed in myself and already regret not going as I type this atop the Palace Hotel at the rooftop restaurant. It\u2019s only 7:20\u2026 I could make it to the 9:30 I suppose. But the movie is 2:15, meaning I\u2019d get out at the earliest at 11:45 PM. Alloting for even smooth traffic I suspect I\u2019m a 25 minute walk or 8 minute tuk tuk ride. I may after dinner just wander down to see the venue at least. Had the movie been at 8 or 8:30 I would be all over it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Who am I kidding? I\u2019m not going to walk down there. My foot is bothering me, I\u2019m honked-out by cars, bikes, tuk tuks. The symphony of traffic is not exactly music to my ears. The best version of myself would rally and go to this thing. But I\u2019m just not sure how often I go outside my comfort zone. I\u2019m risk adverse and overly sensitive. They say you regret the things you didn\u2019t do more than the ones you did and yet, all too often I play it safe, opt NOT when I should opt TO because I think it\u2019s easier.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying to talk myself into going yet I suspect it\u2019s setting myself up for disappointment.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I walked down.\u00a0 I couldn’t justify killing an hour before the movie started and then staying out until midnight, but I did at least see the exterior of the place.\u00a0 Not the last time I’m in India, I think to myself.\u00a0 Not the last time I skip out on seeing a movie, either.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The drive from Udaipur to Jaipur is supposed to take something like 7 hours. Sitting in the car, I\u2019m suffering a bit of highway hypnosis and drifting in and out of consciousness, head bobbing and knocking the window, jerking me awake as I struggle against my seat belt. The mind wanders as we drive\u2026 maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}