Week 52: To Dausa: Change of plans

March 23, 2016

"Did you notice I gave the guy 200rupees and he gave you the 500rupees change" Rachel observed. "Of course, you'd just spend it on shiney stuff" joking and referring to his dad's expression "women are like crows, they go for anything shiney". We had paid yesterday 600 rupees to stay an extra day, then decided to move on to Dausa today. We were expecting to not get any refund, so this was a pleasant surprise getting 300 rupees.

We first got a heads up by Elsbeth and Mart about Holi celebration being soon. Then when we arrived to our hotel in Jaipur, the owner confirmed that Holi is March 23, the day after the full moon in March to celebrate spring, and good over evil. Only last night, Rachel researched Holi in Jaipur to find out more about the associated elephant festival. Yikes! The colored powder throwing and water splashing part of Holi is tomorrow, March 24, not today like we thought. And we would be targets, not the way we'd like to see our first day of the start of our second year of travelling. The elephant festival is only a decade old, designed for tourists and fought by animal groups. So we decide to leave today and wait out Holi tomorrow in Dausa.

We leave Jaipur early through a hazy combination of smoke and pollution watching camels pulling wagons of cow dung headed to the city, and people setting up to sell the colored powder for tomorrow. When we are 18kms from Dausa the air clears a bit but still a brown haze in the distance. "We have a drafter" Rachel shouts to Patrick in front. An older guy on a bike is staying close to Rachel's back wheel, drifting back then catching up until we see him on the frontage road passing us by. While Rachel's stomach is settling down, she now has a cough probably from the pollution. Almost to the Hotel Madhuvan, Patrick spots a pharmacy and buys throat lozenges for Rachel.

A second pleasant surprise today, the hotel is very nice, an elevator, TV with English channels, restaurant, only downside no hot water shower but a bucket of hot water was provided. Though they insisted the bikes stay outside by a sign reading "park at your own risk", they assure us there is security.

There is a picture of Abhaneri Baori (step well) in the lobby and we ask about how to get there, 40 kms away with 20kms on a side road from the main road. A third surprise today, the hotel didn't jump on an opportunity to arrange transportation. Instead we walked to the main road to where a shop owner told us there is a taxi stand. Patrick asks how much to go to Abhaneri? 2000 rupees the driver says, no 1000 rupees Patrick counters, then the driver says 1200 rupees about the same time another driver says he'd take us for 1000 rupees. The first driver is silent, so Patrick accepted the second offer, letting the drivers sort out if there are any hard feelings between them.

When we reach the toll booth, a toll booth guy in the official blue shirt hops in, and going to and returning gets us through this and another booth without paying. Seeing the step well doesn't take long, though we are happy to have made the effort to see it. The step well was built by King Chand in the 8th or 9th century and was used by Royals for picnicking and bathing.

Back to the hotel we settle in to wait until Holi is over.

We pass a a temple. People buy fodder from the women here and feed it to the cows.

Selling colored powder for tomorrow's Holli celebration.

A nasty pollution haze hangs over the land. Let's get rid of the EPA, eh? Come breath this for a while first.

Nice carved stone pieces are laid out along the perimeter.

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 14,829 km (9,209 miles)

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