Unripe Papayas and Unregulated Fireworks

Lassi Walla. Rose Lassi in clay cups. What dreams are made of...

So I bought a papaya… There are carts full of them for sale on the side of the street, and they look lovely! I asked for one. But the one I got was far from being ripe… Our whole stay at Chalo, I’d wake up and give that puppy a quick squeeze… Not yet… I googled how to speed up the papaya ripening process. It said paper bag, uncooked rice, or cotton. I wrapped it up in a dress and kept it on our bedside table. One morning, I woke up and gently unwrapped my papaya. Still firm as a papaya sized boulder… 

Annika checking the papaya

While Anni was still sleeping (because our room was dark like a cave and we can sleep forever!) I snuck out on my first solo mission. This was the first time in two weeks that I’d gone somewhere without Annika! It felt strange and new again to be facing the stares and trail of little children alone. I walked the 10 minutes out to the main road and found a papaya cart. I bought one lovely ripe papaya, some bananas, and two oranges that were green on the outside and orange on the inside and tasted like a lemon—man were they a mixed up variety!

I hurried back down our winding street. Heart pounding, pretending not to hear the catcalls and conversations stop as I walked by. It was too intense facing it alone. 

Annika and I sat on the rooftop and cut fruit, shooing flys from the highly confusing oranges.

Two little boys came up and joined us. We talked about superheroes. Which was just Anni and I listing off all the superheroes we could think of and their faces lighting up in excitement! Then more kids who lived in our guesthouse started popping their heads up. Pretty soon music was turned on and a full on dance party started! These kiddos had moves! They would watch youtube videos and memorize the dances that went with the song. One little boy sat on the side lines and would order Anni and I, pointing up at the other kids, saying “Dance!” Ok, ok here we go! We got up off our butts and started an early morning dance party. There was one song where you bent your elbows, pointed your fingerers up at the sky and shrugged your shoulders while shouting “Bungla! Bungla!” It was our favorite and I’ll tell you what, it was a better way to wake up than a strong cup of joe!

Diwali came around. Anni and I had bought saris from this weird guy named Sonny—who after showing us tons of saris in a big dusty warehouse took me aside and told me my root charka was scrunched and if I wanted, he could help me un-scrunch it…but it would involve him laying crystals on “root charka”…I politely declined his offer and told him I’d “work it out” on my own… 

Anni, Shana, Aaron, and I ate dinner up on the hostel rooftop. Our family prepared us rice, curried veggies, and roti (fluffly perfect tandoori bread), and of course chai. Fireworks exploded all around us, lighting up the boxy skyline and silhouetting a few other figures that stood on a few other rooftops. Then we rallied and got dressed up into our saris. I put on makeup for the first time in a few weeks, and earrings! It felt fun and exciting to dress up after spending the last few weeks trying to dress down and coverup! 

I’ve never experienced anything like that. I did feel very special. We met up with our host, a big broad shouldered muslim guy with a slew of offensive dad jokes, and his ex, a cutie from Estonia who helped his start Chalo. They were drinking chai at a little place called Sikora. It was where all the cool kids hung out clearly. Sikora specialized in tandoori chai, where they took a clay pot out of a tandoori oven poured the chai into it and let it bubble over the sides, catching it in a pan underneath. They repeated this a few times, poured the boiling chai into a smaller clay pot and handed over the goods! And man was it the best thing ever! Only in following days when Aaron, Shana, Anni, and I came back did we discover their house special Rose chai. Toped with a rose petal and a few cashews sunk on the bottom. A truly spectacular beverage! 

After walking around the brightly lit streets, highly caffeinated on amazing chai, taking countless selfies with strangers, and almost getting blown up by the stray firecracker, we decided it was time to get somewhere quiet and call it a night! Seven of us piled into one tuktuk. We came out changed people…Thats how brotherhoods are made! 

When men ask for selfies when we're just trying to eat aloo tiki...

Anni and I fell in love with Aloo Tiki. A fried ball of mashed potato, squished down into a patty, covered with chickpea curry, and a green chutney... Simple and perfect.

Amazing stepwell, designed to create a cool spot to kick it in the summer heat.

During our time in Jaipur, we did a shamefully small amount of sightseeing. On our last day we decided we had to go see SOME sights. We caught a bus, trying to get to Chand Baori, a famous stepwell "a deep four-sided structure with an immense temple on one face. Some 3,500 Escher-esqe terraced steps march down the other three sides 13 stories to a depth of 100 feet. The construction dates to the 10th century, and is dedicated to Harshat Mata, goddess of joy and happiness." (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ancient-stepwells-india)

After an hour of winding through the city on a crowded bus, Anni and I started to realize we weren't heading in the right direction. "Looks like we on the wrong bus, Baby..." As we were thinking this, five police officers with huge riffles climbed aboard... They also had a man in plan clothes who had a handcuff on one hand connected to a long chain that led to the police officer's leather belt! What the fuck! This was a public bus... Didn't they have police cars for transporting criminals?! It was also standing room only so they stood in the bus aisle with a gun just a few inches from Anni's head! Also! The criminal had a free hand...he could easily just reach over and grab one of the riffles and stage a getaway! While this was happening our little blue dot on Google maps was moving farther away from Chand Baori... The police noticed us looking at the map and they grabbed Anni's phone. Soon we had three officers and a criminal talking and looking at our destination. Finally they all agreed we weren't on the right bus. "No, off!" They all starting pointing at the door and shaking their heads...Fuck... So we got up and awkwardly squeezed passed these five officers and the man under arrest, and all their guns. The bus driver pulled onto the side of the highway and we jumped out, into the dusty sun.

We were standing on the side of the road for a few minutes when a group of people passed by, invited us to their home where mama made us chai, chapati, and dhal, and we met ever one in their neighborhood. "You don't plan for India, India plans for you." Once again, we'd been swept off on another unplanned wonderful adventure.

The next day before our night train leaving Jaipur, we hired a car that took us to Chand Baori...and it was a true wonder. 

Chand Baori 

We said goodbye to our sweet friends, Aaron and Shana as they made their way to Udaipur. We agreed that I'd try to meet them in Bangkok for Christmas! Anni and I caught a light overnight train to Jaisalmer, a desert city close to the boarder of Pakistan. The pink city had been good to us. Hard to believe we spent a whole week, drinking coffee, not seeing the forts, and wandering narrow streets where people sat, chopping goat meat and frying sweets.