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Met our driver, Kheim "the king" Singh, outside Inviccta travel, Paharganj at 8am and started off on our journey to Jaipur which, we were reliably informed, was 275km. It took us ages to get out of Delhi as the traffic was well, just Indian! Finally arrived in Jaipur about 5 hours later where Kheim took us to see his friend who had a baby elephant. It was very cute but Dean and I were upset by it as it was chained up and clearly in distress and its eyes were wide open and it was rocking from side to side. We gave it some chipati but to be honest we were keen to get away.
After some lunch we were taken to Galta temple which is the Hanuman (monkey god) temple. As we walked through the gates, a holy man approached us and took us to his shrine to Hanuman. He talked us through the items inside and then gave us a blessing, rubbing flower oil on our hands, handing us bracelets and then tapped us both over the head 3 times each. He then asked for a 'donation' so we put 50 rs in his box and went to walk out. "no, 100" he demaded. Er, no! We told him it was all we had but then he complained that the note was ripped so we picked it up and went to leave but this time he wanted it! Jeez!! According to Dean he wasn't a holy man but a thief- kind of agree with that one! There were some awesome views from around the temple overlooking jaipur but the monkeys were a bit scary- especially when they started fighting over territory! eek! Dean early had a heartattack when one started screaming next to us. Hehe.
That night we ate on the rooftop restaurant at the hotel and got talking to some very drunk people from Kazakstan (yekshamesh) who were full to the brim with russian vodka, needless to say they were in bed by 8!
Met our guide for the day. He told us he was called Moon, his real name Chand but apparently that's too hard for British people to remember- er ye ok :S En route to Amber fort we pulled over at a temple where Moon got out and collected garlands to place around our necks. After a quick stop to photograph the Palace of the Winds, we arrived at Amber Fort. This is where we took an elephant ride to the top, again great views. When we arrived the elephant actually nearly broke my foot by ramming us into a wall- that would've been really crap! The fort was very imrpressive and Moon gave us a very good tour but it was slightly annoying that every time we wanted to move on we had to wait for him to finish chatting to his mates.
Kheim took us to eat in a very authentic and cheap restaurant where the locals were obviously intrigued to see white people eating there! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Jaipur searching for internet but soon gave up and instead went tof find somewhere to get henna opn my hands. That night Kheim invited us onto the rooftop to drink rum with him and his friend- it's ok mums and dads, we only had 2 and we saw him open the bottle. His friend was a little worse for wear but very funny!
Next morning we drove to Ranthambhoire National Park where in the afternoon we went to see the fort which was incredibly old and again monkeys were a plenty! Kheim warned us not to go onto the balconies as "whoosh", they could fall at any moment! Eeeek! Our safari was the next morning and so we had an early start. Our expectations of seeing tigers were very low and all we saw for ages were deer and birds. But then, o yes, we actually saw a tiger and her 2 cubs, something which is apparently quite rare as the drivers were very excited and the staff at our hotel were quite shocked! We spent ages just peering at them through our cameras as the were quite a distance away. Well worth the visit!
We drove to Agra after opur safari. It was a VERY long drive, set off at 11.30, arrived at 7pm. Visioted the Taj the next morning and this time I managed to avoid throwing up everywhere! Score! There is no way of describing how beautiful the Taj is as it is so much more impressive in real life. We managed to escape curry at lunchtime and although I am ashamed to admit it, we went to pizza hut and it was just so good. Agra fort was next on the cards and it was packed, I think the busiest monument that we have seen. Was like a maze and we got lost trying to find our way out!
Kheim put us on our train to Amritsar at 4.30pm but not after alot of commotion about us not being sat together. All worked out ok and after the packed carriage had thinned out, the skih family in our berth took us under their wing and pulled down the beds for us and later on made sure we knew when we were at Amritsar. They even offered us some ot\f the curry and chipatis they had crought with them for the journey but we plitely declined- now was not the time for Delhi belly! Dean got a bit nervous in the night when a muslim gentleman put his prayer mat down in our berth and began to worship whilst sobbing. Waking up to find this was slightly disorientating. Inthe middle of the night a group of policemen boarded our train and started random searches of people which was slightly un-nerving but everything was ok.
Off to the Golden Temple tomorrow. Hope you are all ok. Pictures tomorrow I promise! Someone else waiting to use comp so can't right now!
Em and Dean
xxx
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