8th of June, 2023.
Hitchhiking in India: Manali to Jaipur.
The walk back to Manali, and to outside of Manali is a long one. And I take the wrong way. Well, it is not the wrong way per se, but not the best option to get to Rajasthan. It takes me a lot of time to get there, and after, I still wait for a long time, by the road, until somebody finally tells me that. The person is a very nice young man, who was just renting a motorbike nearby with his friends and decided to help me. When the whole process is finished, he takes me in the rented motorbike (a big and fast one) all the way back to Manali, from where I can continue on the right direction towards Jaipur.
It takes some time until someone finally stops. Again, three friends travelling on holidays. Many of my lifts in India were by either three or four friends travelling together. I guess that if I had followed almost everybody’s advice, and not get into cars with one or more men, I would’ve been stuck for a long time, in many different places. Laugh.
Suraj, Deepak, and Nitin are all teachers; tourism teacher. They are not going all the way to Jaipur per se, but they say they can help me for a while and later on we will think of something. They are not simply teachers; they are very good teachers. We keep talking about what we think it means to be a teacher, and they tell me also about their projects in their school and their care about the students. They show me photos of some of these school projects, and how they notice what a good impact it has on the students. That’s awesome!
We stop for chai in a place with a very nice view, where we make a short video, more like an interview, where I answer some questions. They want to show it to their students. You can watch on Youtube, the link is at the end of the post. A little further, they also by some really nice and traditional chocolates. Yummy!
We arrive very late in Ambala, from where Deepak will board a train; Nitin and Suraj will drive a little longer to their homes: Pathreri and Nahan. My plan was to spend the night here, at the train station, and tomorrow morning carry on by hitchhiking. But the guys insist so much in getting me a train ticket to Jaipur, saying that they will be happier knowing that I am safe and will arrive in Jaipur tomorrow morning, that I decide to accept. We say our goodbyes and I board my train right after.
I have no recollections of this train trip. It’s a shame because I am sure I must have met some nice people too, as always, but the lack of notes gives me no other choice but oblivion.
Once in Jaipur, I get directions to my next volunteer work. Yep, I have decided to go to a small permaculture farm, outside Jaipur, instead of volunteering with the photographer Anshul. It just feels more like me, you know? I know it will be hard work and now with the high temperatures it will be difficult, but I am happy with my decision.
First, I hitchhike inside Jaipur in order to get outside Jaipur. Laugh. Then, I hitchhike again, but only towards the next big city, because the farm is about 50 km from Jaipur. And I get there quite soon.
10 Years Around the World 