The heat built up as our five-hour bus ride from Delhi took us toward the searing Thar Desert. Then, after clocking up 260 km heading south on the national highway, buildings began to grow as we approached Jaipur, capital of the state of Rajasthan. Our journey may have been equivalent to traveling between Tokyo and Nagoya on the Tomei Expressway, but in the vastness of India -- some nine times the size of Japan -- it was merely a quick hop between neighboring state capitals.
Long known as the "Pink City," from the color of the earth that built the walls, palaces, castles and other buildings in its old quarter, Jaipur is a popular tourist spot. However, though I was excited at the prospect of visiting a place with such a fantastical nickname, I wasn't actually there this September to do the sights. Instead, I was on a journalistic mission to observe how international development assistance was put into practice in this developing country.
Which isn't, of course, to say that the amazing experience of being in India passed me by entirely.