The weekend after Dubai, Lael came to visit me! Lael is a dear, dear friend from San Diego. I met her shortly after moving to San Diego when I needed a hairstylist and called our wedding venue to see who they recommended. They were partnered with Lael, so I scheduled an appointment. We were together for 4 hours while she cut, colored, and styled my hair and talked and laughed the whole time. At the end of the appointment I said, “can we be friends?” and she said, “I was just about to ask you the same thing!”
She is an internationally trained and renowned hairstylist but even more cool is that she is an entrepreneur. She owns a small, sustainable business called EcoLux and her manufacturer is in Jaipur, India. When she found out I was moving her, she committed to coming to see me and going to meet her manufacturing team and she actually DID IT! We spent some time in Bengaluru and the next weekend, we flew to Jaipur – the Pink City! That night we went to what I like to call “the Disney of India.” Chokhi Dhani is like a fake village with houses and vendors and food and camel and elephant rides. There was entertainment and history all around, but it was definitely cheesier than we expected given how highly recommended it had come.
I booked a tuktuk tour of the city the next day. Of course, it was rainy but we persevered. Our tuktuk driver was in a hurry and it felt rushed but we saw everything we wanted to see and I bought a ton of handmade pillow covers (because I am a sucker and need pillow covers but I don’t want to pay US prices). Our tuktuk driver dropped us back at the hotel after telling a sexually-crude joke (gross).
The next day we took a tour of the factory where Lael’s products are made. We got to see and try on some amazing jewelry. That night we had a delicious meal (I was still craving veg sushi so the fact that I could order that was enough for me) with the gold and silver guy she works with.
The visit was a good reminder for me of all the things I’ve gotten used to while living here. The things that are, at first, crazy and wild and hard to comprehend, that have become so normal for me. Like the driving and odd “hospitality” and staring. I love India but seeing it through a newcomer’s eyes reminds me of HOW DIFFERENT it really is.
Emily in India 
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