Jaipur, 1st March 2011
WM: Today the three junior members of the wolf gang are particularly snappy and growly with each other, and refusing to cooperate about any tiny (or larger) thing. We have squabbled our day away. M even has an odd scratch across the back of her neck, which we're attributing to L trying to saw off her head in the middle of the night, without any other obvious explanantions. Maybe it's the weather (overcast and gloomy), maybe it's just a readjustment to the reduced physical living space and travelling, maybe it's just March madness? They have refused to do a collective blog, each wanting to do an individual one, even if it’s meant lots of repetition which I’m not allowed to edit away. But it’s interesting to hear it from their unique and different perspectives.
Sundae-fest by M
Since leaving Delhi on Saturday, it has been the usual rushing round India, trying to see everything all at once...
Pushkar was a nice place to spend a couple of days even if only two. We were staying in a friendly hotel called Om Hotel. There were tortoises which I very much liked but we only found out about them on our second day staying there when we changed rooms from a not very recently done up one to a much nicer one, located by a hammock. Mum and I spotted a hummingbird and they said there were two of them. There was also supposed to be a white rabbit but no one had seen him for two days. The thing that made the animals so special was the fact that they were free and not cooped up in a cage, even the humming birds. Leila and Wilf discovered a sandpit which was a great success; they spent pretty much 1 out of every 2 hours in the sandpit. My favourite meal in Pushkar was falafel and hummus with a pita bread to go with it. I’m a great fan of Israeli food.
Leaving Pushkar so soon felt weird after spending almost a month in Delhi. We’ll get used to travelling again I’m sure and things like sharing beds and cold water don’t bother me anymore. On our way out of Pushkar we came across pilgrims with pots of the sacred water from the Ghats of Pushkar. They were dressed in bright orange. Dad said that pilgrimage isn’t just about devotion to god but can be for other causes too.
Arriving in Jaipur was a little like getting to Jodphur, only bigger and dustier. Dad has been here three times and he wants to see the Pink City and the Palace museum and the Amber Fort. I went to the Albert Museum with him yesterday. Daddy had gone there to see the building not so much the artefacts. I liked the demon masks from Sri Lanka though and there were some really famous sculptures, my favourite one was from Bengal. There were some miniature paintings from Rajasthan. They were scenes from a poem of love. It started off with a lady and man meeting, then they became boyfriend and girlfriend and then they got told off by their parents who didn’t want them together and they met again and the parents changed their minds and let them marry. Then the last picture was them having sex. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a white rabbit in the hotel we’re now staying to make up for not finding the one in Pushkar. We gave it chopped up cucumber sticks and he crunched it up happily. He gets fed carrots by the gardener. The MadhuBan hotel is a bit chi-chi compared to other places we have stayed. Meals are very expensive and everything is just a little more high-class than we’re used to. We went swimming in the plunge pool yesterday . We didn’t last that long in it because it was soooo cold. Mum and Dad said it was too cold for them to even consider going in.
Last night, after going to the Albert museum, we went for dinner at a South Indian place. Mum said they did very good sundaes and so we were allowed to order one. Having never actually had a Sundae ever before (I’m not sure if mum and dad have), it was quite a surprise. W decided to have ‘plain’ scoops of ice-cream. I had a small Gold Rush which was chocolate and coffee ice-cream with butterscotch sauce and chocolate and almond sprinkles. It was a good choice because I’m not sure I could have managed a large one on my own. I would have rather had no pink wafer though, but I ate it anyway. I enjoyed my idlis and vadi as I had been missing South Indian food (not dosas though).
As today is the first of March, my friend Harriet Hare is going mad according to the line, ‘Mad March Hares’. She calms down occasionally but we’ll have to watch her closely for the next 31 days. March madness has got into the younger two also as they have gone bonkers. L has borrowed mum’s phone to pretend to be a robot controller. W is the robot, but not a successful robot as he doesn’t follow L’s instructions very closely and sometimes rebels.
Space Girl Chawawa by L
Me and W have just been playing a really silly game where the president of India phoned me up and said will you be the second Kalpana Chawawa (she was the first Indian woman in space)? I said maybe, and then he kept on phoning me until I said yes. W is my robot and whenever I phone someone up, he head butts me.
We are staying in a fancy hotel with shimmering lights and huge buffets. As we went to the Breakfast buffet, Mum said we had to eat as much as we could as it was expensive. I ate toast, cornflakes, omelette and guava juice. Mum and Dad have got a queen size bed, and it’s got 4 posters but W and I still have to share a single bed. It’s not fun sharing with W as he kicks me all night. There’s a fancy swimming pool too that’s freezing and a white rabbit in the garden. He likes eating lots of carrot and cucumber but he takes a long time to eat it. We like feeding it and looking at it. Dad says he looks like he needs lots of love because I haven’t seen many people approaching him. Me and W think he should be called Madlyn (WM: L insists it should be spelt like this, I’m not sure about transgender rabbits).
What’s more gossip?
Errrr......Ummmm....
It feels really good and fun to be travelling again. I loved Pushkar and I’m missing it right now because Jaipur is a big, noisy, dusty city. We got lost in the auto coming home last night, and I fell asleep although I was pretending to still be asleep when Mum was getting me into my night things. Dad tickled me so I couldn’t keep my eyes closed, and Mum talked about something funny so I had to laugh! Dad has really warm breath and so it partly awakened me.
Teeth! I’ve lost some more. It’s the second one in India. I think I’m going to lose more in India as I’m aiming to get to eight, that’s my target. It had only just started getting wobbly on the first day and then it fell out on the second day so it was a bit of a surprise. It was a surprise to the taxi-driver too because it was quite bloody. The Indian tooth fairy was a bit more reliable this time and gave me 50 rupees. I’m not sure what I’m going to spend it on but mum says there are good nick-nacks in the Old City in Jaipur.
M and Dad went to the Albert museum but the rest of us sat in the park, drinking Minute Maid and eating raw peas which a man gave to us. There was a little boy who wanted to play with us, so me and W ran round in circles trying to attract him, but then we tripped over each other and laughed. Mum paid her debts (from the Donkey Dare in Pushkar – we had to go and copy the Yoga tourists, it was quite embarrassing, infact extra embarrassing!) and she bought us a little chocolate bar each.
We went for supper at a posh restaurant where they did ice-cream sundaes. Mine was a chocolate ring-a-ding! It had cream, a cherry, vanilla and chocolate ice-cream and 2 pink wafers. It was quite nice but very filling.
When I woke up from the sleep, Mum told us that there was something outside (which was actually a stall with someone trying to sell puppets) but Mum said that the minute we stepped outside, the man would attract us with a puppet and do a puppet show and then ask for money, so we mustn’t encourage him. I wonder if he’ll be there tonight.
We’ve done school this morning. What have you done? I’ve been doing clocks and my five times table. We’re going to go and meet Dad for lunch. Mum’s not sure what it’s called, but she’ll check before we go. I think it’s called Nazarat. This afternoon, we’re going to go and see a Palace in the Old Pink City.
Better go – there’s nick-nacks to be buy...
Oooooh! My hips! By W
There was a cow who was going down to the holy lake in Pushkar and they’re not talking cows, just we could tell she was saying ‘Ohhhhhh! My hips!’ because she had 2 legs down there (on one step) and 2 legs up there (on another step) and she was really bumpy, the way she walked down the steps. We were staying at a very nice hotel in Pushkar, called ‘Om’. It was nice because it had turtles and it was meant to have a white rabbit, ‘cept it didn’t (only the hotel in Jaipur has a white rabbit). And the other good thing was the sandpit! And it was lovely the sandpit. We played in it at our last day, we made a big strong fort of India, but after breakfast we left, so we didn’t have time to do any more. It’s a shame there’s not a sandpit here, mum (Jaipur).
What we done today mum? Oh yes, we went to the Jaipur Palace. It was very nice cos it had a café. It was busy when we came, but it started raining and everyone disappeared and it was just us and 2 other people. I liked the weapons very much and I thought it was called ‘arms and legs’, only it was called ‘armour and weapons’. It didn’t have any arms, but it did have lots of weapons! My best weapon was the really long sword, it was longer than me and it was longer than your arm actually. I think it was for cutting off loads of peoples’ heads. Actually no, I think it was for showing off. The other really, really fun bit to do was charging mummy’s bottom. She went really far, and then I charged into her bottom at full speed. I said ‘Charge!’ when I went, she knew I was coming but she didn’t hide. And I saw an elephant ambulance and it was a very big one for carrying poorly elephants. Usually they carry people, but I think there's one for pandas too.
And we’re at Jaipur at the minute. And it’s about the end of the day. Everyone’s very tired. L and M are playing Lego, but they were fighting but now I bet they’ve sorted it out, cos I can’t really hear the shouting. At breakfast, we had cornflakes and I had 2 boiled eggs (the yolks were nice and runny). At the minute we’re writing the blog on the swing. Daddy’s very tired cos he didn’t have any breakfast because he left very early in the morning. He went out to do photos and to see lots of the Old City. We did school. I don’t have very much to do, just the cards and drawing and colouring-in. I can do really cool writing. Mummy only had 3 of the (alphabet) cards, and I had the rest cos I knew all the sounds of those ones.
I think we should go in, cos I think it’s going to rain again. Others, do you want to hear my blog? Have you sorted it out, others?
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