Life in Jaipur

After spending two days ( Pushkar is delayed right now, probably I will stay one night there ) in the Pink City, I think I can share some of my observations and judgements.

TRAFFIC
It's a good way to defy death for pedestrians:) At the top of the food chain motor vehicles (bus, car, etc.) and goes down as autorikshaw, rickshaw and pedestrians. You may hear a hundred of horn sounds in a few seconds, I actually cannot figure what people understand from them and select the one that's related with him\her. Sometimes I just jump to the side of the road and when I look there was no vehicle around me:)

One tip to be away from rikshaw's insists as much as possible, walk on the side that the traffic runs in the oppsite way. It decreases the times by half.

PEOPLE
If someone, standing on your way and doing nothing, starts to talk with you, asks where you're from; probably the next step will be persuading you to have a tea together ( may also invite you to his home and office ) and he'll try to convince you to make a business. The business, the most possible, will be gem and jewelry.

Yesterday, in my first hours I was invited by a man, after taking me to his internet cafe, to his home in order to ask me some questions about Turkey ( he was studying! ). We sat in his balcony and talk, then come his friends and after little chat we went to their office in the Old City. The conversation slowly turns into making business: due to the tax policy, they're trying to find honest people who'll be seen on papers as touristic buyers of huge amount of jewelry. The begining profit will be around 10.000 euro for the first time and will rise up to 40.000 euro. He even showed some copies of foreigners' passports ( written also some monetary details beside ) whom they work with before. Anyway of course money is not so easily earned, also I remembered a page in Lonely Planet heading Gem. After I seperated from them, I looked at that page and it was all over there. Having this and other small experiences make me easily say that no good Indian starts talking with you suddenly and try to make a conversation, if he does not want to cheat you or try to have free tea/meal.

Other than this kind of people, they're polite and helpful. So nothing is different from rest of the world ln this sense. Plus English is very well known by everybody, so it's easy to communicate and try to find your way.

FOOD
Absolutely delicious. Similar to our kitchen at basis, but very nice applications and new things as well.

No problem up to now; yes it's true that generally I tried to select the good looking ones, but it's obvious that there's nothing to worry about. It's also true for the general condition of the city as no flies, rats, etc. invasion come true.
The summer season might be a little bit thougher, but no need to worry.

Now the internet cafe is closing, I will try to upload the pictures later.

Bye,