Having two full days to spend in Jaipur proved to be of no help in shaking off the lingering travel fatigue. Apparently, one is not considered a serious traveler until one has done India and now I realize why people said so. It can sap the energy out of those who don’t fully open their minds to the highs and lows of the Indian experience. And on my sixth day, I was in for another test.
the seemingly floating lake palace on lake pichola
As our next destination was quite far away from Jaipur, we decided to take the train again this time. Because our train departed late that night, we got to witness a different scene at the station, the usual touts and scams aside. Many of the locals practically kept staring at us. Intently. When I said intently, it meant that they stood around 2 feet away as a group and stared with eyes wide open as if I came from outer space! I found it really surprising as this was not at all the case during the previous days. People elsewhere generally seemed impervious to the presence of foreigners as India (or to be more precise, the places we went to) were quite touristy, so this scene at the train station was certainly strange. Then, there were also the rats as big as cats running openly on the train tracks.
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