Swarmed by Rickshaws

Palace architecture
see all photos »

After yet another overnight train we found ourselves in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. We soon learned that prices here for rooms are much more expensive than in the rest of Rajasthan. After doing the usual frantic search we finally settled on Atithi guest house which set us back 700 rupees per night but was definitely the nicest and best value option.

We spent our first day here doing a walk around the 'Pink City' as its known. The roads here are very busy and the type of narrow lanes we'd become accustomed to in the other parts of Rajasthan didn't exist. To be honest the city wasn't even really pink but instead a sickly bright peach colour. On a positive note there were hundreds of shops selling the famed and very colourful Jaipur textiles. These stores were an assault on the senses and very interesting to take a peek at from the street side as they each had a white sheet on the floor full of local women piled on top of each other trying to outbid one another for the pieces of beautiful fabric. This area also had lots of stores selling all sorts of nuts and spices.

I found myself dashing out in front of traffic to get away

Busy Jaipur street
see all photos »

We took it easier on our second day and tried to keep the walking to a minimum. After being offered a countless number of rickshaws the previous day Gary decided to keep a tally on his hand of every driver who accosted us offering their services. The final score was 82!!! Yes 82 offers within a couple of hours... The drivers would lock us in when we were trying to cross the road and as a result we almost got run over numerous times. One motor bike driver almost knocked me down and actually had to physically push me out of the way to avoid hitting me. Yet again we found ourselves having to threaten these lunatics as a means of protecting ourselves.

Camel outside McDonalds
see all photos »

Adding salt to the wounds we even had a leper complete with decaying hands approach us at a medium strip and when we refused to give her money she tried to put her hands on me which obviously I was not keen on. I found myself dashing out in front of traffic to get away from her. Not a pleasent experience by any means. The combination of wide busy roads, ridiculous rickshaw drivers and beggars everywhere makes this city very difficult to walk around even for short distances.

Whilst here we took the opportunity to visit the famous art deco style Raj Mandir Cinema and watch our first Bollywood film in Hindi. Initially we were concerned that we would be bored with the film as we wouldn't understand it but we soon learnt that these films have such simple underlying themes and that the main lure of them is the brightly coloured saris worn by the woman and the over the top singing and dancing performed throughout. Even though we couldn't understand a word spoken in the film we easily followed the story line and thoroughly enjoyed our first Hindi film called 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi'. Any travellers in Jaipur should venture over to this cinema for an interesting experience.

The Raj Mandir Cinema
see all photos »

On our final day we checked out the famous City Palace. This building was nice but nothing compared to the architecture in Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. The main attraction here is the very detailed armoury on display complete with beautiful elephant carvings in many of the pieces. The textile section was also good as were the two huge silver pots on display - the largest silver objects in the world apparently.

We would say that Jaipur is nice for a day but you should definitely hire a rickshaw to take you to the main sights and steer clear of the streets. Don't plan on spending too long here though as it will drive you insane... Shannyn