Rajasthan Trip - the Summary

“Jaada hai!!!”

I scream. I don’t know where that strength came from but I am alive again. About five minutes ago, I was on the air-conditioned bus, sitting languidly; I was just tired, and didn’t want to do anything.

As I step out of the pashmina store, I picture the vendor saying, “Wait, one minute. 250 rupees.”

“Wait, madam!”

Bingo – I knew it.

“200 rupees,” I answer as if ‘wait, madam’ was a question, and keep on walking down the bustling street of Jaipur with Nazma, Alka, Callie, and Brooke. For a minute or so, the streets occupy my head and the thought of bargaining is second on my “to-do list.”

I realize that the streets of Jaipur is more like what I pictured as India before I came. Streets full of rickshaws – not available in Vizag – and autos, and occasionally horses.

“250 rupees. Last price.”
Oh, now the vendor is anxious – he’s closing his shop soon and he knows that I won’t be back tomorrow. (That’s how all the tourists are!) He brings down the price from 850 to 250 rupees.

I know that he will give in, so I keep on walking as if I didn’t hear him. In fact, there are many other stores out there that I’m sure of getting better deals later on this memorable first shopping trip. But, I’m foretelling the future again; now it is time for “Ok, fine. Take it, take it.”

He mutters “take it,” as his grumpy mustache moves. He put on an awkward smile indicating frustration and finally surrenders – A beautiful gold pashmina for 200 rupees! I win!

Although the vendor could have gotten more profit out of another tourist that didn’t bother to bargain as much as me, I’m sure he had fun bargaining with me. When can you bargain with a 17-year-old Korean girl that keeps on spitting out Hindi words? And I know for sure that he appreciated my effort to use the simple little Hindi phrases that I have learned in a month.

Our first shopping trip comes to an end as our group hop on an auto to get back to the hotel for a traditional dance performance. It takes about 20 minutes to get back – and the auto guy rips us off because he knows that we’re in a rush.

We arrive and go up the stairs to the terrace. The dancers have already started the performance. Without making much noise, Callie, Brooke, and I sit. There are three dancers and four men that are taking care of music and other supplies for the performance. The dancers are all amazing but one in a rainbow outfit stands out – she seems to take the lead all the time, and I soon realize that her outfit is the most ornate.

The highlight of the performance is when the rainbow outfit dancer starts dancing with pots on her head. By the end, she has 5 pots on her head; marvelous!

As the performance finishes up with a puppet show, the group gets ready to go have dinner. I start to walk into the dining room, and I hear my name SeoYeun.

It’s Mr. Stifler and he’s talking to the dance troupe along with Jayshree. He tells me that the dancers have gone to Korea for a performance 4 years ago. The fact intrigues me, for I have become “patriotic” ever since I came to India. Anything that has relation to my native country sparks my interest, starting with LG TV’s to Hyundai Lakshmi cars. I remember being delighted when I found boxes of Lotte ChocoPies at Karachiwala.

Mr. Stifler then asks them how old they are and the girl in rainbow outfit answers first; she’s seventeen. Her older sister, who was in the red dress, is twenty five, and her younger sister in the yellow outfit is sixteen.

The fact that the lead dancer is my age makes me admire her even more; she perfected her dance after hours of practice. Then millions of thoughts start to go through my head. Is dancing what she really wants? Wouldn’t she also want to study like other teenagers? I try to convince myself that dancing is her passion and that she gets to help her family by doing what she loves.

Dinner is delicious and I like poori the best. It’s greasy and unhealthy, but crunchy and mouth watering. The topic of our dinner table is how we had so much fun bargaining; I can also hear my name as Nazma and Alka talk to Jayshree about the night. We all laugh at how I tried to speak Hindi, and how my bargaining skill advanced within a couple of hours.

After dinner, Callie and I walk back to our rooms and start taking out what we got. We have quite a few pashminas and silk scarves. We also bought salwar tops and bangles. We start putting on our new clothes and have a little fashion show for ourselves – we are absolutely in love with what we got.

By 10:30PM, we are more than exhausted. After talking for a few minutes about tomorrow’s schedule, we fall asleep.

The next day we have a tight schedule; Jaipur City Palace, Jantar Mantar, and camel/elephant rides. I enjoy visiting the historical sites but camel and elephant rides are the highlight of the day.

The next morning, we’re up early. Callie and I are the best roommates for our life styles seem to match pretty well; both of us go to bed early and wake up early enough so that we can both take showers.

We’re on the bus again for 6 hours – I can handle it for the moment, but it’s boring. I keep on sleeping and don’t even try to stay awake to look outside the window. I try to convince myself that I have to stay awake to enjoy the beautiful scenery but hours of walking have sapped the energy out of me.

By the time we get to the hotel, my eyes are semi-swollen from excessive nap that I have just taken but pleasant smell of the flower garland starts to wake me up. Callie and I leave our bags in the room and have lunch with the rest of the group – the food is very appetizing.

Then again, we hop on the bus; this time the ride isn’t too long. We get to Mehrangarh Fort that doesn’t really interest me when I first see it. But as I walk in, I start to notice its beauty and start making connections to the Great Wall of China. For some reason, parts of the Fort that are far away from where I’m standing seem to be very similar to the Great Wall. Then I realize that the inside of the fort is nothing like that of the Great Wall.

Delicate flowery designs on the gates attract my attention and the next thing that I find is the Mirror Palace. I’ve never seen anything like that before – it intrigues me so I stop to take a closer look.

After spending hours at the fort, our SYA group starts to walk down the market street of Jodhpur. I love seeing the bright blue color that stands out – the guide tells us that blue used to be the color for Brahmans’ houses.

I laugh at the fact – not because it is funny, but the color choice is very interesting. Why blue? Why baby blue? I feel like it should have been orange or red, for people use those colors for bindhis, but that’s just me.

The next morning, we’re up early again. We spend most of the day on the bus – what a surprise. On the way to Udaipur, we stop at Ranakpur to visit a Jain Temple called Chaumukha Mandir. Nothing has really struck me till I visit the temple; but all I can say at the temple is “wow.” Before I walk in, I think of Vampires’ castles, because the temple doesn’t look like a temple from the outside. It’s massive, and the architecture is unfamiliar to me. As soon as I walk in, my jaw drops. The designs are so intricate and beautiful – and very unique. In the beginning, I stay with the guide to learn about the statues of Adinath the first teacher of Jainism.

Although I am not a big fan of meditation, I feel really comfortable being at the temple; my mind finds peace in this mysterious place.

After spending a couple of hours, we hesitantly leave the temple. We hop on the bus again and get ready to go to Udaipur, where we will be spending the next two days.

The hotel’s name is Vishnupriya and it has a café coffee day right across from the street. I’m more than excited to see the bright purple neon sign that says café coffee day – I’m up for an Iced Eskimo. My friends and I walk in to order our drinks and it takes much longer than it does in Vizag. We’re even more disappointed by the quality of drinks; simply horrible.

Callie and I decide to visit the City Palace before everyone else. We look for an auto but all the autos seem to be full. We wait for about ten minutes and during the course of that unforgettable ten minutes – at least for me – we encounter a bunch of 8/9 year olds.

We see them coming from some random street but are not alert or anything for they’re just young children. Wrong.

“Hey, Sexy!”

I pause for a minute. Wait, did I hear that right? Did “hey sexy” really come out of those little boys’ mouths?

I try to laugh it off but the situation gets worse, because one of the boys slap my butt.

I feel violated, even though it was a little boy who did it. I don’t know how to deal with the situation so I yell out “stop it” and start running with Callie. I can’t stop thinking about how it happened so quickly, and how horrible I feel.

When Callie and I come back I start talking to Mr. and Mrs. Robison. Nazma joins the conversation when she comes back with a plate full of food.

I tell them about what happened and they call it a “sexual harassment.” I laugh as I tell the story but the phrase that they use makes me even more uncomfortable. The whole night is pretty much ruined by the unpleasant experience that I had with those local boys.

We spend the next day visiting the City Palace and shopping. First I spend hours with Molly and Brooke then I join Callie for our hunt for pashimina blankets. We end up finding gorgeous king-sized pashimina blankets, and cannot stop talking about it.

The following day is for Pushkar, the holy city. We visit the Brahma temple but it doesn’t spark my interest, for the Jain Temple has spoiled me. However, the shops along the street lure me, for they only have westernized clothing! I only see dresses with spaghetti straps or halter necks. What is going on? I don’t see any salwar tops or saris. There must be something wrong. Although I’m upset at the fact that the vendors don’t care about their culture, I end up buying two westernized dresses and convince myself that the prints are Indian. Therefore, my purchase of westernized clothing is justified.

Callie and I have another fashion show that night, but this time with a small audience. We chat and laugh about little things that happened on the trip – and we start talking about how excited we are for the next day. We’re finally off to Agra to see the Taj!

The Taj has been my passion ever since I was a little girl – I wished I were an Indian princess that lived in the Taj. I didn’t know why the Taj was built; I conceived it as a beautiful building that suits a princess.

When I wake up at 4:30 AM to get ready, my whole body aches. I start to regret about how I didn’t work out to get in shape before the trip. I command myself that I have to do some kind of physical exercise when I go back.

Eight hours on the bus – it’s painful. I don’t do anything on the bus but sitting in the same seat, trying to cram in a few words from my word smart book, but the situation is mentally painful. However, I survive, along with others.

Finally, by 4:30 or so, we are AT the Taj Mahal. I am totally overwhelmed by its beauty – I touch the Taj and enjoy the beauty and delicacy. I take as many pictures as I can and realize that the Taj looks better in pictures – it’s a photogenic building. When I go inside, after waiting in line for half an hour, I come out with disappointment. The interior is nothing like the exterior, but the Taj at the sunset makes up for my frustration.


The white marbles remind me of the Jain Temple and I start to compare the two buildings; I was surprised when I visited the temple because I wasn’t expecting anything but I think I expected too much before I came to see the Taj. I conclude that I like the Jain Temple better – yes, the Taj is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but I think the Jain Temple should be one of them.

When we come back, we have dinner at the rotating restaurant and I feel homesick; I think of the rotating restaurant that I went to in Canada with my middle school friends. I haven’t talked to them in a while – each and every one of their faces form a slide show in my head.

Callie and I talk about how the trip went by so fast – time flies by when you’re having fun. The next day, we’re on SpiceJet again and by 8, we’re home.

Although I’m exhausted I give out the souvenirs to my host family and show them the pictures that I took – I took 799, but show them about half of them – and tell “funny” stories like how I encountered the boys in Jodhpur. I fall asleep, and don’t wake up till late the next day for we don’t have school – the whole trip was like a dream for me. Full of events.

Rajasthan is exactly the place that I had in mind before I came to India. I didn’t know that I’ll come to such a modernized city like Vizag. People of Vizag is also westernized, for I have learned more about the Indian culture in Rajasthan than in Vizag, although I spent more than a month in the port city.

As my former English teacher once told me, India is an amazing and disturbing country to be in. I’m constantly bothered by some people’s manner – like those boys that “sexually harassed” me and people that follow us to take pictures. I was once videotaped at Kailash Giri when I was eating an ice cream cone. Despite all these unpleasant anecdotes, I still love the country. There is something about its diverse culture that intrigues my curiosity. Learning more about the culture, in fact, leaves me more confused because there is so much to learn.

I have about two months left, and I look forward to getting the best out of it. I know that there is no way for me to understand this country to the fullest, but I’m going to give it a try. I’m excited for the weekend excursions that will further help me to widen my perspective, and for the English classes that I have with Brooke – I’m learning bits of Telugu now! India seems to have so much to offer and it’s the time that’s hindering me from embracing floods of cultural exposure.