Day 8, January 16

To enter the palace grounds, you have to pay 100 rupees right away. And we thought you could walk around the grounds for free. No way. We had to pay. Not for nothing did we come all this way.

One third of the palace is cordoned off for visitors. There is a museum here, and there’s not much room to wander around. The museum displays tableware, a room with furniture, a bit of оружие, overall not very interesting. The situation was saved by a collection of old cars, which Volchiy spotted only on the way out. The Maharajas had cool cars here, including an old luxurious 1927 Rolls-Royce, a Buick and a Cadillac. The ugliest exhibit was the Mercedes

Next our path led to the bus station, we wanted to buy a ticket to Ranakpur in advance. Volchiy promised that the station was not far, so we walked around the palace grounds and exited it from the other side. At the exit there was a little pond with lots of birds. Then we wandered along the dirty, dusty Indian backstreets. At the station they told us that they do not sell tickets for these buses in advance, come tomorrow morning. All right, we’ll come.

According to the plan, we wanted to get to the fort by tuk-tuk. We haggled for a long time again. As in the previous times, it all started at 100 rupees, and in the end some young guy finally agreed to 50. It seems it’s easier to bargain with young people; the older ones are already lazy and don’t want to drive. From the bus stop to the fort it’s not a short walk, and uphill too. For tourists, entry to the fort is expensive, 400 rupees. We thought for a long time whether to go or not. Who knows... Well, all right, let’s do it, we’ll probably never be here again, so we went. The ticket includes an audio guide (we took it in English). I understood about half of what it was saying, but it was still interesting to listen to. The fort is great; we spent a lot of time there. There is a lot to see, from a collection of palanquins and elephant seats to paintings. There is a room of love here, with beautiful painted walls and arches, a room where the maharaja met important guests (the audio guide said that the room has a secret little balcony where the maharaja’s wife sometimes sat and then helped him make a decision). There is a beautiful courtyard where the girls gathered. Almost all the inner walls are decorated with carvings and balconies, very beautiful. The audio guide promised that the red color of the walls is the natural color of the stone.

The fort offers beautiful views of the city from here. From above, it really does seem blue. They say that in the past only Brahmins painted their houses blue, and later everyone who felt like it started painting them. According to the audio guide, blue helps keep insects away and creates a cool atmosphere.

First we came out to the bazaar, where spices and vegetables were sold in a huge variety. Then we ended up on some very noisy and narrow bazaar street. On both sides they sold anything and everything except food. Tuk-tuks, motorcycles, crowds of people all mixed into one mass. Later, Volchy said

-Sometimes it seems like you’re going to lose your mind in this India.

And that was exactly how it was. Tired and terribly hungry, we had already almost lost hope of getting something to eat when we saw pastries frying in a large pan, and Indians crowding around the stall. The right place. We bought two samosas and happily went looking for a place to sit and fully enjoy the taste of our purchase. We wandered into the first alley we came across, chose the cleanest steps, and began our meal. The pastries turned out to be tasty, but very, very spicy. Nearby a little man was making tea — just what was needed to wash down the unbearable heat.

The town itself didn’t seem particularly remarkable; from the height of the fort it looked prettier. Yes, there are blue houses, all more or less the same. We decided to head back home slowly. We persuaded the tuk-tuk driver to take us to the supermarket we had seen near the railway station. There was nothing interesting in the supermarket. We were surprised by the high, for India, prices for tea (100 g for 50 rupees = 12 UAH). As for coffee, we didn’t even buy any: not only did we fail to find proper ground coffee, only instant. It was also outrageously expensive — a 100 g packet of instant Nescafe cost 100 rupees.

We also rode home in a tuk-tuk. Volchy had already gotten into character and was bargaining hard. The Indians clearly enjoyed talking to him, laughed, and gave him a candy.

We had dinner already at the familiar place, with familiar masala dosas.

On the way we bought water and a small Snickers. For some reason I was very happy about the Snickers, because we were going to come back and drink tea with it.

Volchy commented:

-I’ve never seen an adult get so happy over a small Snickers.

We decided to go to bed early, because the next day we planned to get up early to leave in the morning by bus for Ranakpur. But in the evening a motley crowd of Indians, young and old, moved in next door. Our room faced the hall where the tables were — they started eating there, although it was already around 10 p.m. Children ran through the corridor and shouted, and the adults were no quieter. It was very hard to fall asleep amid all that racket. After thinking it over a bit, I decided to go and investigate. I ask Volchy, “What should I tell them? ‘Pleaase shout up’ doesn’t seem very polite.” Volchy advised me to ask when they were planning to go to sleep.

I go out into the hall and ask the first Indian I see:

- Hello, when are you planning to go to sleep?

- At 11 o’clock, madam — the Indian replies, not understanding, - and why are you asking?

- We just want to sleep too

-A….. Are we disturbing you?

- Yes, a little

After that they quieted down a bit, made less noise, and around 11 they really did go to sleep.