Relaxing in Jaipur

Indoor Pool at the Rambagh Palace

Outdoor Pool

Today was a low-key day. The Jaipur Literary Festival starts tomorrow. Cathy is a little under the weather and we didn’t have a lot of todo’s so we decided to take it easy.

We planned to continue our quest to see if we could exchange somehow our worthless 1000 rupee notes for real money. We planned to go across the street from the Rumbagh Palace to The Reserve Bank of India, the only bank in India that that can exchange the now worthless money. We tried The RBI in Delhi and we turned away. We told the manager of the Rambaugh Palace our plans this morning and he said he would assist. Late in the day, he told us there would be no problem and we could go tomorrow with one of his associates and exchange the rupees. I don’t expect it to happen, but it has become a quest for us. It isn’t even about the money anymore; it is about interacting with intractable Indian bureaucracy. It is sort of a game, but it would be nice if we eventually got our cash.

We did some minor shopping and decided to return to the hotel to rest. I discovered the Palace’s Pools (there are two a magnificent indoor pool and adjacent outdoor pool). We read by the pool then Cathy had her hair done while I had a massage.

Late in the day we went to The Jaipur Literary Festival site, where they were busy completing the venue. There were hundreds of workers. Over 250,000 will attend this 5 day event. We watched the dancers practicing for tomorrows opening ceremonies.

                            Click the Video to watch

We went to the book store which sells books by the authors who will be in attendance. Because of the lack of cash currently in India, and the transition to a cashless society, the Festival decided to be entirely cashless. You can load up your badge with money secured from a credit card, or paying them cash (do you get that? You pay in cash to load up an electronic record so you don’t have to pay in cash – seems very convoluted). It is extremely cumbersome and I can’t believe this system is going to work. I anticipating being very bemused this week watching what happens. In addition if you put more money into the Electronic Payment system then you spend at the Festival, you don’t get the residual back.

The Oberoi Hotel invited all three of us to be their guests for dinner. I am sure they would like us to stay there on our next trip and thought this might entice us to stay there rather than at the Rambagh Palace. As we joked with Vijay with are of the “Taj”-caste. The Oberoi is way out of town. I don't understand why anyone would want to stay in a remote location like that. However it was nice to be treated to dinner and the food was good.

Tomorrow the Festival begins.