The temple they referred to was in Balaji, just three hours drive from Jaipur. We had a half day to spare (we’d already shopped until our bags were stuffed), so off to Balaji we went.

Was it the quintessential Indian experience (the one that has alluded us, though we’ve gone to all the hot spots)? Well, no. It was rather more sterile than we expected. There was no rave. There were no “possessed” people; just a well formed (if somewhat uncomfortable looking) line of people waiting to enter the temple.

So, with our hopes of fitting in a last minute intense Indian experience dashed, all that was left to do was shop. So, shop we did. We’ll be seeing friends and family members in a week and our gift list is long.

Balaji shopping

Unless you don’t mind standing in a Disneyland-style line while 300 Indians push you from behind, we’d suggest giving this town a miss.

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His answer (without even thinking about it, I might add): a marble mortar and pestle.

What? No swords or beer logo shirts? No. A marble mortar and pestle would be all he wanted. (I guess it’s time to reveal that it is, in fact, Martin that does the cooking in this family). Well, it’s taken us almost eleven months to find one, but Jaipur provided us with exactly what he was looking for.

The real beauty of it was that we were able to custom design it as well. We gave the shop the dimensions we were looking for and were able to pick it up twenty four hours later. The boy pictured above most likely polished it for us (he’s a happy one, no?)

The cost for such a beauty? $10. I love India (sometimes).

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I tell you this story, which is just one of many encounters we’ve had in Jaipur, to show the unexpected attention we’re receiving here. True be told, it’s caught us off guard. We were under the impression that Rajasthan was one of the most heavily touristed states in India. If that’s so, then where the heck are all the other tourists?

It may be off season. It’s bloody hot here right now and people tend to avoid traveling in arid places in the wrong season. Jaipur also seems a bit like a transit city. It’s not the desert that people want when they come to Rajasthan – they find that in Udaipur and Jaisalmer and other cities to the west.

So what the heck are we doing here, you ask? Well, true to form, we made a last minute decision to take a trip into this state. We had three extra days before we needed to be in Delhi. The time was too short a time to get to the desert (Udaipur & such) and too long to stay in rotten ol’ Delhi. So, Jaipur it was.

We made the best of it, though. I can count six new souvenirs stacked around our room, and that’s just from today’s shopping. I think it’s time to start calculating how much we’re going to pay in overweight to fly all this back to Germany then Sweden.

Psst…don’t tell Martin…but the shopping is nowhere near done.

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