A quick send off from Khimsar

Thursday, 6 November 2014, Khimsar and Khichan

The day started well enough for Pati and BeeBee. They awoke in their beautiful room in the Hotel Khimsar Fort and went to the dining hall for breakfast. Pati gave a longing look at the crystal clear swimming pool and hoped there would be time to swim at the next stop. They returned to their room, put out the "Do Not Disturb Sign," and began to pack. Just as they were finishing, the doorbell rang. Pati answered and a liveried hotel worker said "Would you like room service now?"  Pati said "No thank you, we will be leaving this morning." At that, the hotel worker entered and proceeded to ransack the linens and check the minibar. He looked at their luggage. Pati was already carrying the camera bag, but BeeBee's green tote was still sitting on the floor, as she was putting her shoes on. He grabbed that, but she said she would carry that. He sat it on the coffee table and instructed Pati "You carry too." He grabbed the suitcases and started to herd them to the door. At this point, BeeBee, knowing full well that she had packed everything and left nothing behind, said "Wait. I have to check something" and started off for the bathroom, with the hotel guy following closely behind. She glanced to the left, then the right, in the bathroom, then said "o.k." and returned to the sitting area. The hotel worker marched them to the departure point, looked at Pati and said "You driver not here." Pati didn't expect to see the driver since he hadn't planned to leave quite so soon. But, it was a nice day and after a few minutes the driver came and they were on their way.

The drive took about three hours passing through nondescript scenery and impoverished villages. At one point, the driver asked Pati if he would like to stop and take a picture of one of the traditional huts people lived in. Pati said yes - he always says yes to the driver and BeeBee. As he was taking the picture, five children came to greet him with their mother. They didn't speak English but, as far as Pati could tell, they were NOT asking him for money (a traditional child's greeting is to stick out his or her hand and say "money"). Pati was shocked by their behavior! He called back for BeeBee to bring writing pens to give to the children (all the guide books say Indian children love pens so Pati and BeeBee brought some for situations just like this).

Later, the driver said "We are coming to see birds in this place tomorrow, would you like to see it now?" Pati said "yes." It actually turned out that the driver had no idea where the bird sanctuary was and was just trying to find it before the tomorrow morning visit. After finding it,  they saw about 100 cranes in the distance (Pati sure hopes there are more upon their next visit). A boy about 10 years old came to Pati, said something in Ragisthani, and flapped his arms. Pati nodded politely and the boy then chased off about half the birds Pati and BeeBee were looking at. He then looked at Pati and said "Give me 100 rupees." Pati only gave him 50 rupees. For 100 rupees, Pati would have scared the birds off by himself. The boy clearly was not satisfied and followed them to the car: "Give me chok-lit" he said.   Pati and BeeBee got back in the car for the 15 minute drive to the hotel. They thought that when they got there things would be better. Boy, were they wrong! But that is the next story.