Jaipur

Oh what a train journey! 

We knew that we had booked seated class, well there was only 1 class on this train. It felt like something that was used during WW2 in Poland. When we got on board the lights were not working so we got our manual torches and looked for our seat. We found them and we were not sitting near each other, luckily we had the torches because we saw the state of the seats before we sat on them. Wipes out and we cleaned the place down (Aggie would be proud of us). 

 

Next was the barricading of the windows so no light, but ore important no wind could come in (it didn't work). Once we had finished we the lights came on and then arrived the Chai sellers (warmth). The train departed on time and we were looking forward to getting to the Pink City (well out of the cold train at least). A really nice guy sitting next to me gave me part of his newspaper to wedge in the window to stop the wind, and so to sleep. I think i dreamt about a curry or something, When all of a sudden bang.... 

 

No the curry was fine, but we had just ran over a cow. Everyone got off the train to inspect the damage and all you could see were the insides all over the bottom of the train (thank god we were not on the toilet at the time).

Even with the cow killing, we arrived on time at 10ish and a tuk tuk driver drove us to this hotel (nice in the outside, with mughol paintings and little mirrors, but our room it wasn't nice at all, but it was very cheap (300 Rp p n). Had breakfast in there roof garden and went to visit the city.

We walked around the old walled town, which was a giant bazaar (fantastic experience, very little hastle and the colours are what you imagine of India). This market area is divided into   different crafts, so you just find the one that you like. Later we visited the Palace of the Winds (great from the outside, but the inside is not worth the price) and the City Palace (which was not that great, they had lovely photos at the ticket stall of the private residence but you could not see these).The ticket cost 300 rp with a combined entry for Jaigahrt Fort. The most impressive thing about the palace was the 2 large silver urns (the worlds largest according to the Guinness Book of records). We watched the city walls for sunset because this is when you see why its called the Pink city. The wash used on the walls glows pink at sunset, thats if you can see the walls/gates for all the traders. Yes you could see it turning a darker shade of pink, but nothing to write home about! Maybe a few years ago before the neon lights and tuk tuks took over it was beautiful. Now days you are more likely to be impressed by the jewelers, they are everywhere and its like walking into a Tiffany's only bigger.

We had been walking all day and realized that hadn't had any food at all. I was feeling very tired and didn't feel like having any food from streets vendors, had dinner on a restaurant on the MI rd, which turned out to be a little bit posh for our budget, the waiter tried to force us to tip him, but after paying F&B tax and vats we declined his suggestion. The evils he gave us...

The next morning we got up and left the hotel and had breakfast in a cafe (a nice coffee for a change). Were asking after Jaipur tours but we didn't do any in the end.  Took a tuk tuk to go to Jaigarhrt Fort. He drove us up to the Fort and we enjoyed it very much. Great views from there (Amber Fort, defensive walls, Jaipur city...)

On our way back we stopped at Hal Mahal (palace in the middle of a man made lake) and visited Elephant owners place, where we were petting elephants and having pictures taking with them. As it was wedding season in Jaipur the Elephants were all painted up, they looked beautiful but so sad. Then our tuk tuk driver tried to bring us into a warehouse to buy some crap but we refused (that was the catch of the 350rp ride).

After giving us abuse in Hindi he dropped us close to the zoo area and went to see the Albert Hall museum building, after that went to Yo China for some different food (our stomachs were refusing curries by now). Walked back to the hotel and went to a cyber cafe to book tickets for Jodhpur, we wanted to take a train at 2am, but we couldn't book it on the internet so we went to the Station, it was hard to find the reservation office, as indian train station workers tend to be total knobs and don't direct you properly. For that train it was not possible a booking anymore as it had been taken from the system, and ticktets only could be purchased 1hr in advance. No need to say we passed. Book a ticket for next day and a night train to Dehli for the Friday.

Went back to the hotel and had a beer in the roof garden (a big rip off 150 rp for a beer).

At our return to the room tried to have a shower ignoring all the dirt in the bathroom, but the head of the shower fell off and took 5 men and more than 1hr to fix it.

We had a light dinner – as it was almost 11pm (stomach issues!) and went to bed early.

Left the hotel around 10ish and started heading to the Station (got imodium on our way). We bumped into the Canadian guys and they were telling us about their 'tour' with a tuk tuk driver who brought them to a party in a penthouse and then the next day to this celebration with elephants, one of the guys was getting his photo taken behind the elephant and when the flash went off it disorientated the animal so it sat down – on top of him. Luckily it only caught his foot which was very bruised (lesson to be learnt here!). Our train was delayed by more than 3hrs, should have arrived at 11.40 and arrived after 14.30. While waiting for the train we met an English guy that was teaching in Darjeeling and a French couple who had just come from Nepal (turns out they were sitting next to us). Finally the train arrived and off we set for Jodhpur – the Blue city.