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We left Delhi early for Jaipur. We'd bought tickets from the 'foreign tourist' reservation office (recommended as just about everywhere rips you off otherwise) so the tickets were first class (by our standards!) We got a meal, lots of tea, free water and even a newspaper to read (in english!) so we were very content for 5 hours!
We're finding that hotels recommended in the guide book seem to have prices at least two times higher than listed, so finding accommodation for the price we want is becoming a bit of a chore! Rickshaw drivers also want you to go to their friend's hotel (where they will get commission) and it's pretty hard going to constantly decline offers of different accommodation then offers of city tours etc for the next day. Walking seems to be the way forward, and we found somewhere eventually (hot work in the midday sun with backpacks!) and settled in. Realising it was sunday and the reservation office was closed at the train station, we decided to do that in the morning and set off to visit a few temples on a hill, nicknamed the 'Monkey Palace' because of the hundreds of monkeys settled there! It was quite a site watching them all play, probably more interesting than the buildings themselves. Being a Sunday, all the locals were also out and we walked down to find the makeshift swimming (or bathing, we couldnt work it out) pools full with locals!
The walk home was a little less enjoyable! We got a bit lost trying to find our way out of the 'Pink City' and ended up down the back streets, where apparently no other tourists venture (or at least not that day!) Incessant staring is the norm here (rather unnerving at the best of times) and here it was more apparent than ever! To make matters worse, we were then followed by an ever-growing hoard of young boys who were rude (to say the least) and eventually started throwing stones at us! When one hit me I got quite angry and turned to chase them away, at which they completely scattered! I think the locals are pretty strict, especially women, so the kids think they can get away with anything with tourists. It left a bit of a sour taste in our mouths for the rest of the day and we decided not to venture out for dinner, but to eat on the rooftop of the hotel. The food was great here, but some kids had decided it was a good place to hold a puppet show for the tourists, and it seemed we couldnt really get away with tipping for annoyingly loud music and hassling we really didn't want during our meal!
On our second day in Jaipur we booked train tickets to Agra for the following day, then tried to post some of the souveniers that have been weighing us down via DHL...unsuccessfuly! For 2Kg they wanted around 150quid! We, along with an Irish family in front of us, actually thought it was a joke, but apparently that's the rate there. We then visited the Pink City monuments properly, re-fuelling on Lassi's (a sweet yoghurt drink - super nice!) along the way. We also found a supermarket near our hotel, which was a bit of a god-send for reasonably priced water (Without hassle buying it), shampoo and crisps! I'd developed a pretty rough cold by this point (after only just recovering from the tonsilitus) so dinner was close by at a recommended rooftop restuarant. The view was great, food was ok, but service was super slow! Even getting the bill took Ollie walking out of the door as if to make a run for it!
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