After work, we trekked to Amber Fort, the old capital of Rajasthan before they moved due to water shortage. We paid 150 rupees, and I think it cost Indians 15 rupees for entrance. You always face this sort of discrepancy if you are a foreigner. We were also approached by a "tour guide". We totally fell for it. He hardly knew anything more about the Fort than we could have found out ourselves. He did help us take pictures, but he also got in the way of some great shots. According to Jenni, he was also groping himself. He was very creepy, and I would caution anyone against falling for such tourist trap. However, it only cost me 100 rupees so in the long run I didn't lose more than my pride and $2.
In the temple inside Amber Fort, we were given the gold garland of flowers (mostly dying flowers) and a tika (the red dot) mostly because we were tourists. Usually the flowers are an offering so the tour guide probably gave us someone else's offering.
Hall of Mirrors
The religious temple we visited.
Our creepy tour guide "explaining" the female statues on the temple to us.
After running us all through the Fort and the temple, our guide tried to make us enter a large jewelry and goods shop, but when we made it clear we were not interested, our tour abruptly stopped. Sebastian said he probably got commission from each place he led us. By this time, I was feeling overheated and sick. Sebastian took care of me though by splashing water on my face and feet and encouraging me to drink more water. I ate salty food to replenish the electrolytes I had lost. The rickshaw and bus ride only made my sickness worse.
When we got home, the other students helped feed me and put me to bed. I slept in Monty and Gautam's room (two young Indian men) since they have an air cooler. That morning, Monty had walked in on me taking a shower (since I couldn't figure out how to lock the door) and now we were sharing a bed. He was so embarrased. I was amused.
The next day I still felt sick so I could not go to work. I was myself by the late morning, however. Thankfully, I have not felt sick from anything I have eaten. My bowels are working properly, Mom.
oh Monty, you should have responded in hindi 'haven't you seen a girl before?'
ReplyDeleteThe tour guide trap was something I heard about in Thailand too. I personally avoided it because I was with natives the whole time so I was never left alone to encounter that situation on my own. Anyway it's unfortunate but at least it didn't cost you much and it makes for kind of a funny story in hindsight, at least I think so. I'm so glad you're not sick anymore! Do you know what made you sick?
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