Visiting a local family in Jaipur

On our day tour around Jaipur, we met SG, a local tuk tuk driver that had been in the business for over two decades. SG was polite, quite good at English and he obviously knew his way around the city.

When he’d been driving us around for a few hours, we asked him if he knew a decent place to get a henna tattoo. Pernille and I had wanted to get our hands painted ever since we saw the “welcome to India” sign at the airport. And that’s when SG asked us to come home with him for dinner, as his wife (and I quote) was the best henna painter at his village.

This post contains referral links for products I love. Adventurous Miriam earns a small commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase through my links. I appreciate your support ♡ Learn more

Table of Contents

TRADITIONAL DINNER WITH AN INDIAN FAMILY

Although we didn’t know him that well, and that he could have dodgy intentions, we followed our intuition and accepted his dinner proposal. I’ve always wanted to try a traditional dinner with an Indian family.

Their village was a few miles outside of Jaipur. It was rather small, all houses were built of tin, and the outdoor light came from fire barrels. GS’s family consisted of four: him, his wife and their two sons. They lived in a small 12 square meter house with one bed, which was also used as dinner table and sofa.

VISITING A TUK TUK DRIVER AND HIS FAMILY

Mrs. tuk tuk was sitting in the doorway making naan bread when we arrived. She was very shy and knew no words in English, so all our communication went through GS or via sign language. Her hospitality and friendliness, however, needed no translation, and we were welcomed with open arms.

She explained to us that her boys were learning English in school, and she showed us pictures from her wedding. GS told how their marriage had been arranged, and how they had learned to live together. It was all truly exciting to hear about something so far from your own life and reality.

GETTING A TRADITIONAL INDIAN HENNA DESIGN

When dinner was served, I practically died and went to food heaven! Not only because I appreciate a home cooked meal, but everything was made with such great care. I tried to lure the recipe out of GS, but he didn’t seem much interested in chatting about food ingredients.

After dinner, we got our hands painted with henna the Indian way. It was a great ending to a lovely evening with a tuk tuk driver and his family.