Q. How Do I Unintentionally Avoid Indians in Rajasthan

A. Pick your hotel from Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide.

Demographic trends at tourist attractions in Jaipur:
Jantar Mantar: mostly Indians
City Palace: mostly Western Europeans
Hotel Pearl Palace: mostly Scandinavians
Hawa Mahal: mostly nobody

We started out by visiting Hawa Mahal, which was surprisingly empty. We hired a tour guide who said that the recession and H1N1 were responsible for driving tourist away. "How many cases of H1N1 does Rajasthan have?" I asked. "Oh, 60% of the cases in India are in Rajasthan," he replied. Awkward silence.

Later he mentioned that the Mumbai terrorist bombings were also a factor. Jantar Mantar and The City Palace seemed reasonably crowded, though, so I suppose all is not lost. We had lunch at Ganesh Restaurant, which sits on the old city wall. The kitchen is open so you can see how much oil (answer: a lot) goes into the food. They have a real clay oven and the garlic nan that came out of it was one of the best I've ever had.

Afterwards we struggled to find some form of motorized transportation to a nearby fort, and upon failing, decided to take a cycle rickshaw back to the hotel. Cycle rickshaws are quite popular here; it's odd because you'd think they'd be impossible to drive in the summer heat in Jaipur. Incidentally, they're single-geared.

Now we're just killing time until our 9pm train to Bikaner. I've never been on an overnight train journey before, so I hope I can fall asleep.

And We're Off

My mother and I took the early express train to Bombay too. (Don't let 'express' fool you; it still takes three hours to traverse 220km.) On the plus side you don't have diesel fumes bothering you, so it is better than the expressway.

After arriving we spent some time at the house of a family friend--which was memorable because Mr. M said "How old are you", paused and then said "OK I'm not going to ask you the next question: when are you getting married." We left for the airport at about 1.50 which was plenty of time for the 3.30 flight. And we got the airport and checked in for our 3.30 flight. And we sat near the checkin counters for a while because we figured we had plenty of time before our 3.30 flight. And then my Mom noticed that our departure time on the TV screen was 2.30. AAAARGH! Why does Indian Airlines not email people when they change their schedules. Well we got on the flight in time, although we were paged and it was extremely cringeworthy to hear my mother and me referred to as Mr. and Mrs. Martin.

Now we're in Jaipur at this place, which is quite comfortable although my Mom has found about fifteen things to complain about in the last two hours. We stopped at the Birla Temple on the way to the hotel. The Birlas are the Indian equivalent of the Rockefellers, and they sponsored this temple. It's unusual not only for the stained glass but also because in one corner of the exterior they have statues of non-Hindu figures including Jesus and Socrates. Somehow Confucius ended up next to the Madonna and Child.

Tomorrow we're off to see the City Palace and other Jaipur sights.

Here We Go Again

I'm going to resurrect this blog, since Facebook character limits are a bit of a problem and Facebook notes just seem too obscure. So here we go.

En Guatemala

I'll be off to Guatemala in two days so my blog will rise again and I will be updating it with my misadventures, just as I did for my Morocco trip. Stay tuned.

Atlanta's Most Walkable Neighborhoods - Walk Score Neighborhood Rankings

Atlanta's Most Walkable Neighborhoods - Walk Score Neighborhood Rankings:

1 Five Points 95
2 Poncey-Highland 93
3 Sweet Auburn 88
4 Midtown 87
5 Atlanta-Inman Park 86
6 Old Fourth Ward 84
7 Downtown 81
8 Virginia-Highland 80
9 Home Park 76
10 Cabbage Town 74

I just found this through Atrios's post about walkable neighborhoods in Philly. I'md a bit surprised that Decatur isn't here, although it technically falls outside the city of Atlanta, so that could be why. Having worked downtown, I'm very surprised that Downtown is more walkable than Va-Hi. Having lived in Home Park in the late 90s, I also consider it about 20 points behind Virginia Highland, not a mere 4 points.(I'm also pretty certain that they mean Little 5 Points, not Five Points, although even native Atlantans get those two mixed up.)

Will you please 'stop'?

The BBC web team has been using quotation marks inappropriately for about a decade now, but somehow I find this instance even more irritating than usual.

BBC World Service - Documentary Archive

BBC: The Kids Who Ran Iraq
I always thought one of the oddest aspects of the Iraq war was the appointment of 20-something to senior positions in the Iraq provisional authority. So I'm looking forward to listening to this from the BBC. Their blurb:

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 hundreds of young American recruits were sent by Washington to help run the Coalition Provisional Authority, the body set up to administer Iraq. The CPA's tenure was widely criticised, as were its staff who, critics say, were simply political appointees with little or no experience relevant to the massive task they faced. Five years on Pascale Harter speaks to some of the so-called Brat Pack of US recruits to find out if they feel proud of what they achieved.