Birthday Adventure in Jaipur, India
My name is Peter Card. I am currently teaching and living in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is the seventh correspondence to share my adventures living abroad. I am truly amazed at where life has taken me. I hope by sharing my experiences it encourages you to pursue your dreams as well. God Bless!
Cheryl and I debated back and forth whether or not we were going to leave the country for her birthday and as usual, after I pouted and sulked a few days, she caved in and gave me the OK to move forward with a short trip to India. My intentions were to take Cheryl to the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, one of the seven wonders of the world.
Because of our late decision to go, I did not do my normal thorough process of researching the place where we were going. Somehow in my preparations I missed the fact that a visa is required for India BEFORE you get on the plane. Almost every other place we have traveled too was visa on arrival.
So imagine my surprise when we were checking in to our flight and I was asked for my visa. I felt like the little kid who does the front of the homework sheet and did not realize that it was a two sided paper. It was totally my fault, no one else to blame, but at the same time you felt like you had been wronged.
So I handled it like I face all the other mistakes in my life. I accept my mess and keep it moving. There was no way we could make this flight so I contacted an online visa service that could have one ready in eight hours. We spent the night and morning in Dubai, which is not a bad second option and flew out the next day.
Our tour guide said we could still go to Taj Mahal, but it would be a really rushed day trip, so he recommended we spend a more relaxing full day in Jaipur, which is where we intended to spend our second day in India originally. This turned out to be great advice. Jaipur is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan in Northern India. Jaipur has over three million residents and it only ranks tenth in population in India. There are larger cities that have over twenty million. It is known as the Pink City of India as the buildings were painted pink to welcome the King of Wales in 1876. The city sits among four hills with forts located at the top of each one. We spent the day touring many forts, museums and palaces in the city. In addition we visited local craftsmen who had amazing pieces of wood carvings, screen printings and hand drawings. We also visited a local shop to see carpets and sheets are made by hand as well.
Cheryl and I often get many long glances just about everywhere we go. American black people are not seen often on this side of the world, but we probably received more attention here than we have in any other city we have traveled to in the past two years. We were asked to take pictures with people at least ten times. Our guide said it was quite possibly for some local people their first time seeing a Black American.
Although we did not make it to Taj Mahal, we had a great time in the Pink City.
If you would like to hear or see more of my adventures, you may look for Peter Card in the UAE on Youtube or the Peter Card Facebook page. Feel free to leave a question or comment at either of these places or email me at cardsimon@hotmail.com.
