jaipur

this will be quick because everything closes early here including this internet place.
we arrived in jaipur this afternoon. delhi was absolute madness, and i could not wait to leave. it was crowded, smelly, filthy, and thoroughly overwhelming.
i do not quite know what to make of india just yet. it is a very intense place. i can definately see the attraction that meditation would hold here--the desire to reject the intensity and brutality of everyday life and to focus inward. tonight emerson and i went out for a beer at this strange little bar. i was the only women there--in a room filled with about 40 men, it was quite unsettling... when we were in delhi we would go out at night for walks, like maybe 10pm--because that was the only time it wasn't too unbearably claustrophobic, anyway the only creatures out would be backpackers, beggars, dogs, cows, and men sometimes holding hands, sometimes with their arms around one another... it's strange, all of the women disappear at sundown. and i am stared at wherever i go. scams abound--as we well enough expected. we have hired a car to ferry us around rajasthan--because it seemed like it would be less of a headache--albeit much more expensive than the train. our driver seems like a nice enough guy, he's older, he practices yoga, but even he is trying to get extra money out of us. it's strange, i feel this visceral urge to resist almost everything that is going on around me. i am not swept away by the beauty because there is so much that is slightly horrifying to the senses. the smell of human waste, animal waste is omnipresent. there are so many people and animals crowded into small spaces. it is very intense.
tomorrow we will go and see the sights. jaipur is indeed a very beautiful city--everything within the walls of the old city is painted pink. i will have more to say tomorrow.
peace.