Dancing in the Streets of Jaipur with the Gypsies

After our visit to the fort we went to the local markets to buy handicrafts. I quickly learned that I have absolutely no skills in bartering...and after about 2 hours in the sweltering heat Kathryn and I decided we'd had enough shopping for one day. We headed back to the bar at the hotel for some cold beers. Our rationale was that we could still experience some Indian Culture from the Holiday Inn by befriending the bartender, surely bartenders are the same everywhere and he'd be willing to tell us his life story. Once we sat down, we quickly learned that our bartender (whose name, Rajender ironically rhymed with his bartender profession) was not very talkative. He was friendly enough but after learning that he was married with 2 sons and drove a Vespa and lived in Jaipur his whole life, he left us to watch the Germany vs. England world cup match. We decided since England was already down by 1, and since someone in Germany procreated to birth Hitler, we would root for mother England. Eventually we remembered that as long time members of swim teams, neither of us were very interested in soccer...or footie...except for the fact that the camera kept showing clips of David Beckham, it mostly just looked exhausting.


So, after we were a few beers deep (nobody's talking numbers here, people) we decided we knew each other well enough to start telling stories. Between all the dates from guys I've met at bars and all Kathryn's dates from Match.com and e-haromony, we had quite the array of hysterical and horrific date stories to tell. We told each other every terrible first (and last) date we had ever been on, you'd be surprised how many weirdos there actually are in southern california...or maybe you wouldn't be. They all seem nice on the outside with their fancy cars, and suave pickup lines, but once you're sitting to dinner with them, oh man you wouldn't believe what comes our of their mouths...and what doesn't. Eventually we tired of making fun of the male species and we began to feel a sense of adventure. We could faintly hear some music playing in the distance and decided to investigate.

As we began to follow the music we got distracted by the hotel pool. There were 3 different families relaxing there. All the wives were in full Sarree regalia sitting in the shade of their umbrellas, looking bored out of their minds. The men were "swimming laps" which just meant pot-bellied men with inner tubes around their middles floating slowly from one end to the other. Their kids kept hanging off them and whining in their ears. We asked the pool boy where the music was and he pointed towards the hotel entrance, thanks pool man, we could have figured that out. He said it was most likely a wedding celebration. As we walked outside and up to the music there was a group of people surrounding 2 women dancing like what you would think gypsies dance like. There were a bunch of men playing drums and someone must have been playing music somewhere. Everyone looked so happy to be a part of the celebration and were clapping along to the music. A few little girls jumped in with the women and giggled as they tried to imitate them. Before we knew it someone had pointed us out to the dancing women. We were a little worried at first that we were interrupting the wedding festivities but then they were walking toward us with big smiles! They grabbed us by the arm and pulled us into their dancing circle. Kathryn looked at me like, maybe we shouldn't do this...but our liquid courage gave us the incentive and as our Indian friends from the hostel always say, hey, It's India! We danced around in circles with then, spinning and laughing and clapping, tossing our heads back and shaking our hips and flailing our arms around. It was an experience I don't think we'll ever forget. Just the fact that they wanted us to participate in their celebration was so great. As we walked away we waved goodbye to the wedding party and headed back to the hotel. In the end, going back to the hotel gave us the best Indian cultural experience we could have asked for, and a great day was had by all...I mean by Kathryn and I.

Xoxo, and we're off to Agra!