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23rd October
Pre-drinks yesterday, dad and I where given Himalaya Party Smart, herbal tablets which sound pretty dodgy but apparently counteract the side effects of consuming alcohol so you wake up nice and refreshed and hangover free. They totally worked! Well they did for me anyway, dad not so much....
We caught the 13:30 train from New Delhi station (which is massive!) to Jaipur and settled into some lovely window seats for the 5½ hour journey. As it was a sleeper carriage, it wasn't long before I got myself comfortable on the top bunk and promptly fell asleep with my iPod playing - I slept all the way there and dad apparently found it quite difficult to wake me! The train was certainly more comfortable than I remembered; perhaps I'm just getting better at this travelling malarkey! We arrived in Jaipur at 7pm so it was already dark (I keep arriving at places in the evening which makes it really difficult to get any bearings of where I am) but within an hour I was already missing Delhi. The hotel (Atithi Guest House, Jaipur, Lonely Planet recommended) moved us to a more expensive room with a lousy excuse; we had to fill out ridiculous forms that are apparently 'for the government' (like I believe that!) and just wandering through Jaipur on the way to dinner we were accosted by rip-off rickshaw drivers, a boy on a bike tried to run me over and then laughed and a souvenir seller holding £2's worth of twenty pence pieces got rather vexed when I refused to trade rupees for them. I did explain that I'm in India for 6 months so why on earth would I want a load of English change but that didn't seem to stop him from getting cross. We did have a lovely dinner at Niro's (also Lonely Planet recommended) but admittedly it was our second choice. We went to Copper Chimney first but left immediately when we realised they didn't serve alcohol. I'm having a week off to be honest (after Delhi!) but dad fancied a beer so we moved on. I've seen enough of Jaipur to give a verdict yet so tomorrow is another day!
24th October
After speaking to a couple of the other residents of the Atithi Guest House, it became apparent that the 'we're sorry, another guest failed to vacate your room, therefore we're putting you in a more expensive one' is a scam they're pulling on everybody. Usually I would have gone completely mental but I'm trying a new approach of just accepting that it can be this way in India sometimes and that in the grand scheme of things it's probably not worth getting stressed about. In other news, I got my first mosquito bite since arriving 5 days ago - not the most exciting news granted but since they usually eat me alive on arrival I'd say I'm doing pretty well!
We set off with Ali, our rickshaw driver from the previous night, to the Pink City. Admittedly it's more terracotta red than pink but it's named the Pink City nonetheless! The festival of Diwali starts on Wednesday so preparations for the festivities are in full swing and decorations are going up all over India, Jaipur is no exception to this. Nets of gold and silver tinsel are being hoisted over the streets, platforms are being built, lights are appearing everywhere and fireworks are already going off in the evenings. We decided to follow the Lonely Planet's walking guide of the Pink City (much to the dismay of our driver), our first stop being Hawa Mahal - Jaipur's most distinctive landmark. An extraordinary, fairy tale, pink sandstone honeycombed hive that rises a dizzying five storeys. It was built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799 to enable ladies of the royal household to watch life and processions of the city without being seen by the outside world. We climbed the stairwell of a building on the opposite side of the road to get a better view. Getting to this point was more difficult than it sounds as we had to cross the road to get to it and just like in Delhi, crossing the road here is like playing Frogger (remember that game?) - even back in the day I never did enjoy getting squished! Eventually (after crossing the road of death again) we made our way inside the Hawa Mahal itself. Beautiful stonework, awesome turrets everywhere, all in all a pretty cool place, despite us 'foreigners' having to pay six times the price of an Indian tourist to get in (and I'm not exaggerating!). I'd love to see what would happen if Buckingham Palace had the same policy, having a sign outside reading: 'BRITS: Entrance £5. FOREIGNERS: Entrance £30'. I swear all hell would break loose! Once inside we came across an actual functioning water feature - the first I've seen on my travels so far. Even the pools in the Taj Mahal grounds were empty! Standing in the spray of that fountain was so refreshing in the RIDICULOUS heat today. Dad doesn't seem to feel it but I literally had a heat rash by the end of the day. It really made me look forward to arriving in Goa in November as well, I literally cannot wait to just throw myself into the sea as soon as I get there J A square spiralling staircase takes you up to each of the floors - the details and views just keep getting better the higher you go. A great start to the day.
Next on the walking tour was the City Palace which is at the heart of the Pink City. The royal family still occupies part of the palace but a large section of it has been allocated for visitors. We saw various things as we wanted around the palace: the royal textile collections, an armoury (more weapons than you can shake a stick at!) and the world's largest crafted silver objects (see Guinness Book of Records). The urns stand at 1.5m high with a capacity of 8182 litres. Apparently the Maharaja did not trust the water in the west and as a rule, liked to take Ganges water with him in these urns whenever he travelled. There is also the 'Peacock Courtyard', a courtyard adorned with four superbly painted doorways representing the four seasons. These were incredibly beautiful - I took photos so you can see what I'm talking about!
The third stop was Janter Mantar, a large enclosure housing eighteen huge stone astronomical measuring devices constructed between 1728 and 1734 at the behest of Jai Singh who invented many of them himself. The most impressive of all the devices in the 27m high sundial, the Samrat Yantra, which can calculate the time accurately to within two seconds.
Back in the rickshaw and heading to Tiger Fort. At this point we noticed that the whole back shelf of the rickshaw was actually speakers - we were officially in a party rickshaw. We only planned to go to the restaurant as the fort was closing within forty minutes of our arrival but we were ignored, told that we must buy tickets and enter the fort immediately. A whistle-stop tour of the Fort followed (a highlight being seeing an absolutely MASSIVE monkey) which actually turned out to be quite interesting. The original paintwork is still evident in some places and the stonework, like so many other places we've visited so far in India, is simply stunning. We were eventually kicked out and made our way along to the restaurant on the cliff top overlooking Jaipur. Luckily for us, there was hardly anyone there, resulting in us getting our own mini 'turret' (so to speak) to enjoy a spectacular view of Jaipur. The 50 rupee entry fee included a drink and we arrived just after sunset so we were able to watch as the city came to life after dark. Getting the rickshaw back down the mountain in the dark was certainly an experience (albeit a pretty bumpy/terrifying one!) but Ali is a fantastic driver so he managed it all reasonably well. Dinner at The Peacock rooftop restaurant followed (shortly after (and more importantly Baskin Robbins for dessert - honestly it's my FAVOURITE thing and they're allover India) and home for an early(ish) night as we're up at 6:30am tomorrow to go to the Amber Fort and the Jaigarh Fort.
I've definitely seen more of what Jaipur and Rajasthan have to offer today but I still prefer Delhi to Jaipur by a landslide at the moment. Like Delhi, Jaipur is teaming with people (come to think of it, like most of India really!) but Jaipur seems a lot more hostile - beggars kept grabbing me by the arm (all women incidentally), another tried to snatch a bottle of coke from my hand, a beggar woman even tried to give me her baby asking her to 'take it' which has never happened before. There is rubbish EVERYWHERE and compared to Delhi (where walking down the street was something I'd happily do alone) here I'm slightly terrified. Everything - the people, the traffic, even the sales technique - is just a little more aggressive and I'm not quite settled into India enough to be a hard ass negotiator who shakes off beggars and expects everyone to be a scam artist..... My optimism is still ever present, hopefully India won't disappoint!
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