Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Jaipur "la ville rose"
Our experience in Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan, was a bit of a whirlwind. We arrived in Jaipur at 4am to a surprisingly busy train station. We met a couple called Rosie and Jim at Agra train station who were heading to Jaipur and to the same guesthouse as us so we made our way there together. The guesthouse owner was not best pleased at being woken up at 4.30am but we got rooms and were just grateful to be getting some sleep.
We hadn't been able to sleep on the journey since we didn't know when our train would arrive (the trains are always about an hour or two behind schedule) so we ended up sleeping in until the afternoon. When we were finally ready to go out into the city our first stop was the beautiful Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) in the old city. This is a landmark in Jaipur and was constructed with the aim of enabling the ladies of the royal household to watch the everyday life and royal processions of the city.
All the main sights in Jaipur close at about 4.30pm so Hawa Mahal was the only thing we really saw. After that we spent a couple of hours just walking around the pink city. Jaipur was colour washed pink to create an impression of red sandstone buildings of mughal cities. There are some very picturesque buildings in Jaipur and lots and lots of different shopping bazaars. The owner of our guesthouse told us before we went out that if we wanted to enjoy Jaipur we shouldn't buy anything because everything sold to tourists is counterfeit! As all the restaurants we'd passed looked pretty unappealing we decided to go to an Italian restaurant called "Little Italy" for dinner. After finding a rickshaw that would take us there for a reasonable price we walked in and it was unbelievably posh which we hadn't anticipated. We sat down wondering whether we could afford anything but it was still quite reasonably priced (by UK standards anyway). The whole meal cost just under £20 in total but it was well worth it since we'd had amazing pizzas and desserts.
Overall I really liked Jaipur but it is quite chaotic and overwhelming. I wasn't too keen to hang around when there was still so much of Rajasthan to see so we left the next day.
Bundi
Bundi is a beautiful little city in Rajasthan. We decided to come here because we'd read that it was quiet, peaceful, picturesque, and off the beaten track! Rudyard Kipling spent some time in Bundi back in the day and wrote part of Kim whilst staying at a small palace by the lake.
To keep this brief, I'll just say that Bundi is spectacular! There's an old, crumbling palace high up on the hillside which is overrun by macaques and the surrounding fort was great for rambling around in. We paid a guide to show us around who turned out to be a really nice chap. He told that his name was "Jacks" like "Jacks Parrow from Pirates of the Caribbean". Me being me I told him straight away that it was "Jack Sparrow" and that there was no such name as Jacks! Poor lad.
Pushkar
Lassis (not bang lassis so don't worry Uncle Felix and Aunty G)
Camels
Sadhus
Brahmin temple
Pushkar was a great little place to chill out in and we ended up staying there for far longer than we intended to. The highlight of our stay would have to be camel racing in the desert. I was nearly bucked off my camel who was called "Caca".
Udaipur
Everyone comes here to see the magical palace on the lake and we were no exception. Udaipur is a very romantic and picturesque city. It was Chris' birthday while we were here so we decided to stay in a really nice hotel for a few days - Mahendra Prakesh - quite upmarket but had a lovely rustic feel to it, and it came complete with a swimming pool! Perfect. Unfortunately I went against Aunty Susie's advice of sticking to vegetarian in North India and got very ill from some tandoori chicken. It made for an uncomfortable bus journey back to Mumbai and I was still throwing up when I got back to England. I am impressed that I lasted almost 8 weeks without getting ill though.
So that concludes my Indian adventure. It was a great experience and I look forward to my next trip to India!
- comments