The Pink City

Amber Fort
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I turned up at this hotel without a booking, but luckily they had a room for me and a very nice room as well. I was offered a room with A/C at 1st but turned it down as I was happy as long as there was a fan or cooler or both in the room. It's also slightly cheaper not to have the A/C. (I had no problems with heat, the room was nice and cool and i slept like a baby.)

Anyway after checking in I took a shower, water was cold, but I've gotten used to it now. I unpacked, chilled out for a bit and went to meet Jannu (he has his own website and focuses on providing tours in Dehli, Agra and Rajasthan), the taxi driver that brought me to the hotel. He took me somewhere to eat and we discussed what he could offer as a guide service. I said i would try him out tomorrow for the day and see from there if I am happy with his services. I didn't eat much of my dinner, I ordered a thali - a mixture of dishes with chapattis and rice. I was too tired, so was taken back to my hotel and I soon fell asleep after that.

the City Palace
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Next morning i awoke at 7am even though the alarm was set at 8am, so i switched on the news. I had a nice relaxing morning and took my time getting ready for the day. I had a nice breakfast on the rooftop garden. I still wasn't very hungry so only ate cornflakes and had some tea. Jannu arrived at 9.30 and off we set for a tour of Jaipur. jaipur is known as the Pink City as the majority of it's buildings are pink.

We started at the Hawa Mahal. An example of Rajput artistry, constructed in 1799.This was built to enable ladies of the royal household to watch life and processions of the city as they lived in purdah (the practice of preventing men from seeing women). It is 5 storey's high with lattice style windows for the women to look out without beeing seen.

the City Palace
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Next stop was the City Palace. This is a big complex of various buildings and gardens and housed the royal family. Many parts of the buildings have been turned into museums and all the other parts are closed. Amongst the museums there is an art gallery, showing numerous paintings, sculptures, writings and carpets, a textiles museum, displaying various cloths, an arms and weapons museum and a place storing various vehicles used by royalty. I sepnt ages looking around and took a few fotos of the architecture.

Hawa Mahal
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Across the road from the city Palace is th jantar mantar which is an observatory began by jai Singh II. There are various bizarre shaped items and sculptures. He was trying to tell time with various sun dials and astronomy fascinated jai Singh. i had a quick look round.

The next stop was the Royal Gaitor - various monuments dedicated to the maharnais and maharajas of Jaipur. it was nice as it was just outside the city and it is set amongst a village. A nice peaceful place with lots of carvings of marble and religious god statues.

the City Palace
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Jal Mahal (Water Palace) was the next stop before lunch. It is a palace on the lake. It belongs to the military, but there is talk of converting it into a hotel, just like in Udaipur. We then stopped for lunch and I went back to the hotel to have a rest and get out of the heat.

In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant (Mediterraneo) as I wanted to get away from Indian food. I had some spaghetti and it was the genuine stuff, nothing indian about it. Jannu then took me to Tiger Fort, which is about 8km outside of Jaipur and on top of a small mountain. At the top we could see all of the bright lights of Jaipur below. It's was a great view.

Royal Gaitor
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The next morning Jannu took me to Amber Fort, which is 11 km north of Jaipur and rises from a rocky mountain. This was the ancient capital of Jaipur state. Construction of the fort began in 1592 by a Rajput commander of Akbar's army. It is another huge complex with many secret passages and rooms. When I had gotten to the top, which took me about 15 mins to climb in the sun, I was breathless and had to sit down for a few minutes and drink lots of water. I found it difficult to breathe as well, being quite high up. I spent an hour or so wondering around though. I was glad to be going and getting back to the ground below.

the City Palace
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The next stop was to a carpet making factory. I watched how a carpet was made using a loom, all done by hand. To make a carpet 6" by 4" takes approx 5 months from start to finish entailing 25 processes. I saw how the camel hair is used to build up a carpet with thread and then how it it gets washed and dried and the procsses after drying before being rolled up to sell. The majority of carpets will have a pattern on them, either an animal or some kind of pattern. I was shown some finished products and the man whose factory it was, was trying to sell me some carpets. Like what am I gonna do with a carpet???? I politely declined.

me at Royal Gaitor
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Next door was the textiles making factory, I popped in to see how they put patterns on fabrics. Also I was interested in looknig at some of the fabrics. I was shown some pashminas and was good and only bought on. The guy was trying to sell me 6, but I wasn't interested. I haggled him right down on the price as well as I knew he'd be trying to charge me way too much. He didn't look very happy about it, but accepted my offer, in the end.

Jaipur is famous for it's textiles, carpets and gems. I didn't do any shopping, as I have no room in my backpack, but you can have items shipped home.

the biggest silver vessel in the guiness book of records
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Anyway I went back to the hotel to rest and to sort out where to next. I still wasn't feeling great and finally 'Dehli belly' got me. I drank lots of water and managed to eat some chips, but wasn't hungry at dinnertime, so just had a pepsi. I stayed in the hotel that evening and watched some TV. I found Friends on the cable channel.

The next morning I awoke bright and early, packed, didn't manage to eat much brekkie. I had ordered some museli, but only had a few mouthfuls. I took some immodium and drunk loads of water, I nmade my way to the railway station in a rickshaw and was told there was some sort of strike on today so Jaipur was closed til 11am.

traditional Rajisthani dress
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I managed to book my ticket for Udaipur, but the train is in the evening at 10.25pm. I've booked an overnight sleeper train, so it will be an interesting experience. Had I known this earlier, I would have gone last night. But have to spend the day here unfortunately. I am going to pop into the book shop in Jaipur (if I can) and buy something to read. That will keep me busy.

I got a rickshaw driver to take me to the bookshop and bought a couple of novels and had a walk along the main shopping road. I found McDonalds so went in and got some food. I wasn't particularly looking for McDonalds, but it was great to see something so familiar. I stayed in there for a couple of hours reading after eating. It was air conditioned in there so it was nice to be out of the sun. I eventually left and walked back to the train station. I passed an art gallery on the way and popped in to have a quick look. Most of the pieces were contemporary. They were quite interesting. A lady told me the artist names.

the City Palace - Maharaja transport
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At the train station I bought a bottle of water and found the ladies waiting room and settled down with my book. At 6.30pm I came out to the restaurant to get a bite to eat and have a cuppa. I actually got proper english style tea rather than chai and it was lovely. After dinner I went back to the waiting area and read some more. At 9pm I went to collect my backpack from the locker and just waited for the train. I was too tired to read. The train arrived at 10pm and I climbed a board. I had booked an upper bunk in sleeper class. I used my daypack as a pillow and had my back pack at my feet, but i tied it to securely to the rail of the berth. I had to provide my own bedding. I didn't have any, but wasn't too worried as it was quite warm. I slept in my shalwar kameez and put on a cardigan and just used my dupatta over me as a blanket. I was fine like that and drifted in and out of sleep. Everytime the train would stop at a station you would get people climbing aboard shouting chai or whatever they were selling. The train seemed to spend ages in stations, but then it would get going again and chug a long.