India Day 4: Jaipur

Bob and I woke up pretty early in the Pink City and went straight to the terrace for breakfast, where we gorge on everything they have to offer, made fresh as we ask for them. I polish off plates of this Aloo Gobi thing, mashed cauliflower filling in flatbread, and a few pooris, palm sized round fried flatbreads with air pocket bumps. The pooris are nothing like I've had home, they're lighter, fluffier. Everything tasted great. Everything tastes great when your last meal was 24 hours ago. Stuffed and satisfied we look around and enjoy the haveli designs of our hotel and the obviously more expensive one next door.

We have 2+ days here, so we figured we'd spend the morning looking for banks: we should be able to get our money there. The nearest one is round the corner and already has a line of 10+ waiting outside. So much for being the early bird. Story cut short: we wait our turn, speak to the bank officer and leave empty handed. They can give us INR10,000 for the week and stamp it on our passports, or exchange foreign currency (which we've been swindled off of). Bob is so annoyed he could head home.

We spend the rest of the morning looking for working ATMs. It takes us past a demonstration, magistrate court, spa, quiet shopping mall, expensive restaurants and rows of shuttered ATMs. We're getting a very good lay of the land!

Then, we spot the beginnings of a line forming out of a shapeless mass of figures. We dash across the main road! And line ourselves in a queue behind some 20 persons. We line up at this queue for what seems 2 hours as the afternoon sun beats down on us and I can't get Mad Dogs and Englishmen out of my head.

We speak with the person in front of us, who is obviously taking time off from the office by the looks of his garb, about how the lower classes are suffering due to the situation. The rich can pay by credit, they can afford to go to such places, but the lower classes depend on cash for trade and livelihood. There's an app the government is promoting for cashless transactions of ALL kinds (the bank officer suggested we use it) but how can the man selling vegetables and fruits on a cart afford to set up that kind of infrastructure? His customers can't afford a smartphone. There's a whole demography that's being pushed to the edge by the demonetisation. I get the impression that the people understand it, it's reason but are frustrated by the pressure it's put on their lives. On the train to Agra I read that a man took his life because he just couldn't make ends meet. People depend on cash for the scrap metal trade and there was no cash and no trade for this poor man. He's left 2 children. I can't imagine what their plight is. There's no concept of government welfare here, is there? We talk about Malaysia and Bob explains how it is that he looks Indian but is Malaysian. We show our passports to a few guys around who refuse to believe we are not Indian. And they go "ah, British something something". As we close in on the machine the gentleman we've been chatting with tells us that the boys have been trying to withdraw several rounds of INR2000, and that it has been successful so far. We get a tidy sum with 5 withdrawals between the 2 of us. This is the most secure we've felt since arriving here. This trip has thrown me off my heel a bit, but this conversation I'll bring home with me in my heart.

We tuck in to a late lunch in the obviously more expensive hotel next to ours with an obviously expensive price tag for an obviously delicious meal.

Later in the night, still stuffed, we hop on an auto-rickshaw and see the sights. I need to check off my souvenirs list.