Jodhpur

Eggs.

Dudes.

The Blue City.

At the end of my stay at Mehrangarh Fort, as I looked out from the ramparts over the city, two super nice, super genuine young Indians began talking to me. One was named Sachin, as in Sachin Tendulkar, they pointed out. So I tried to explain that I was Keane, like Robbie or Roy Keane. They nodded, but I’m not sure they knew who Robbie or Roy Keane were. You could tell they weren't trying to sell me anything because they said goodbye at one point and only started talking to me again because I said hi to them when I saw them on my way out after I’d been to the bathroom.

We walked down the hill together, trying to make the most of a broken English conversation. They were B.Ed. students. They giggled when we talked about girlfriends. You could tell, just from their look, that they were super nice, super genuine guys. Refreshing, really.

But when we got to the clock tower area, we got pulled aside by "Tourist Assistance Police" who thought these two kids might be trying to pull something on me. They were surprised, and seemed to give honest answers, which the police seemed to believe but nevertheless shooed them off while lecturing me inside a little booth about being careful of strangers. By the time I got out of the little booth, my newest friends were nowhere to be seen.

Score another tourist assisted for the Rajasthan Tourist Assistance Police.