Tuesday, Feb 9 - driving to Jaipur

Tuesday, Feb 9 - driving to Jaipur - We traveled on the highway from Delhi to Jaipur stopping occasionally for birdwatching. Traffic on highway unbelievable, mostly trucks with sign "Blow Horn" on back , Yes, lots of honking... you honk everytime you pass a car, motorcycle , bicycle or cow... and there is lots of passing. Lane markers are somewhat of a suggestion - in new Delhi the hyway through the city had five lanes on each side, but there must have been eight or nine lanes of traffic. Cars and trucks are separated by foot from the next car's mirror. That isn't a problem because we were only going 7-8 miles per hour. A divided highway with crossings in the middle at regular intervals...Scary, loud but somehow it works moving traffic at fast pace. Very little stopping due to traffic jams...
Honking is a way of life here if you don't do it a child, bike, goat, dog, car, or motorcycle may turn into your path. All of the trucks have painted on the back, along with their colorful drawings - "HONK HORN".

Zosia - Hotel in Jaipur nice... an oasis in middle of 13million resident city. We arrived by 5pm on Monday. Lots of birds... list will follow. Highlight was crashing wedding across the street. Joseph has it all on video.
Joseph - The hotel is an old palace for the Rajasthan govenor where he did live like a king. The whole operations made it look like one sees in the movies showing 100 years ago. All of the serving help dressed in turbans and sashs against their royal blue uniforms. Everyone greeting you with Namaste and bowing making you feel like a visiting prince. The buildings are a mixture of Hindu, neoclassical, and Islam architecture as is most of the city. After dinner we go to the gardens where a troop of local musicians and dancers are showing their arts - immediately Zosia and I are dragged on the podium to dance with the young dancers -OK, 3-4 minutes that was enough of snake dances of weaving in and under the other dancers. - we're tired. The fireworks going off every few minutes alert us to an event on the street. It's a wedding; Jaipur is know for enormous weddings. Oh how we had always wished to go to an Indian wedding. We heard they last for days and thousands attend. OP, our Guide, says - Let's go. So off we go to the weddding - he says we will be honoured guests. We walk right in to hundreds of people being served by uniformed servers soup, coffees, hor'd orves. The groom is being protected by his best men hovering around him as the bride has not arrived yet. All of the women are decked out in their jeweled saris. The music blaring, food being openly prepared in showy fashions on stage. one flips the Nam bread dough like pizza, a bank of women sit on a small stage making all of the bread treats. This is all an amazing show. We stay through the bride being escorted to the groom, singers calling out chants of whatever is going on. The groom and bride face each other, one assumes for the first time, and each places a flowered orange garland on the other head. No they aren't married yet, that will be tomorrow or the next day. This could go on for ever so we leave after a half an hour. What amazed me was with hundreds of people there we practically had a front row position. The ceremony was being pretty much ignored except for dozens of woman, the groom's guys and the officials.