Day 236-239: Last Days in Jaipur

I can't believe this trip is really almost over! After Nawras left, reality sank in a bit. I started the good old job search, started organizing my things, packed, and watched a lot of good television shows and movies. We didn't leave the house grounds for 4 days! Pretty amazing, actually.

I decided that since I am not spending Christmas in India that I could bring a little Christmas here. What better way to do it than by feeding the Sinha family a good old fashioned Ewing Christmas dinner! Is there turkey? No, not really. Are there marshmallows? No. Are there fried onions? No, but is that going to stop us! Of course not!

We worked with chicken, no marshmallows for my sweet potato casserole (apparently it is already sweet enough - which I think is false. It can never be too sweet. Oh, and this is a side dish. Every American will swear it is until the day they die), and we actually had to fry real onions (gasp! Blasphemy. Who does such things!). It turned out and the family loved it. What is there not to love? This combo is American at it almost finest. Plus, some people might say it's just a bit healthier with a few of those friend/sweet elements missing. I think it's just not as delicious!

Pallavi's mom made an amazing apple pie to top it off. She asked if I liked apple pie. How silly! It's un-American to not like apple pie. There is practically the design of an American flag in that lattice crust if you look hard enough.

We played games and drank this amazing Spanish egg nog meets Bailey's meets spiced liquor. If time here has to end, what a great way to end our time here.

Day 235: Trip to Jaipur Airport

Nawras unfortunately only could take a few days of holiday to come to India before returning back to Dubai for an important presentation. We tried to convince her in many different ways to stay. This persuasion phase is a common Sinha family move. They are very good and really know how to pull your heartstrings. However, it failed.

At 1:30 a.m., we needed to leave to drop Nawras and her hubby off to the airport. Pallavi hasn't drive to the airport by herself in quite some time and the roads have changed significantly. As a result, she doesn't know the way to the airport. Normally, Pallavi's dad would drive, but we didn't feel right about keeping him up so late when he has to get up at 7:00 a.m. We were on our own.

Needless to say, Pallavi's parents wanted to make sure that we got there in one piece. Her dad, feeling responsible for us, pulled out his GPS and taught me how to use it. He even pre-programmed the route to the airport. Her mom also walked her through the verbal/visual directions. All set, ready to go, we got into the car, turned on the GPS, and set off.

We immediately started to ignore the GPS directions in lieu of the verbal/visual directions. Then, once we got to a point where Pallavi no longer recognized the route, we started following the GPS. Maybe what followed next wouldn't have happened had we not missed one of the turns. Next thing we know, we need to turn around. We can't just take a U-turn. Oh no. That would be too easy. Instead the GPS told us to turn left. Pallavi looked at the left and kept going, saying, "no way the GPS could mean that alley." Then it told us to turn left again. By this point, it was 2:00 a.m. The flight was a 4:00 a.m. Most check-in counters close 90 minutes before the departure time. We don't have time to be choosy. We need to just get to the airport! So, we turned left.

We then proceeded to follow some sequence of dirt alleys all the way through the back end of Jaipur. We joked that we were just giving them a last minute tour of Jaipur, since we hadn't really done any touristy things around the town while they were here. At one point we passed a camel parked outside somebody's home. We were so in the middle of nowhere that we had passed where the poor camel men live. Now, of course, it's 2:10 a.m. by this point, and Pallavi is rushing -  driving an SUV, with some speed, over all of the dips in the dirt road. She tried to be careful, but at one point, Nawras joked that she had just broken on of the bones in her body courtesy of one of those dips.

Finally, we make it to a main road and we see the end in the sight. The GPS has a little finish line flag on it. We pull up, ready to turn into the airport. What do we see? A closed military gate. The GPS had brought us to the opposite side of the airfield!

Quickly, Nawras' hubby puts on the GPS on his phone and we re-programme our GPS. It's 2:15 a.m. and we are 20 minutes away from the entry! We speed towards the airport. We got there at 2:27. Phew! We dropped them off without any problem.

So much for a GPS though!