Day 9 - Jaipur

Arrived early morning (about 1am) and managed to find our first pre-paid rickshaw. The hostel looked just like the website had described it and was really grand and decorative.  Our room was much cleaner than the last one and had a TV, hot water on request and comfy pillows that didn't feel like sleeping on bricks. My duvet looked a bit blood-stained but I guess you can't have everything. We slept quite well and got up about 10ish.

Just outside the room, on the little balcony, we met Jamie and Pernilla, a couple who were in India to get lots of shirts made so that they could sell them at markets and festivals around Europe. They spent 6 months of every year living in Goa, teaching yoga and being involved in various business ventures, and the rest of the time traveling around and putting their 'fingers in many pies'. It was fascinating to speak to them and imagine what there life is like.

At breakfast, in the roof-top restaurant, we met Ed and Piper, an American father and daughter who were travelling India together. Piper lives in China and so was really helpful giving us lots of tips on where to go and how to get around in China. She has also been trekking in Nepal and so had a few handy ideas for there too.

We kept a lookout for the tuktuk driver who had taken us to the hostel and wanted to show us around but he didn't show so we got Tuk Tuk tour arranged through hostel. This turned out to be one of those great feats of providence that really shows another side to India - though our driver, Saldar.


First, he took us to Mineret where we were shown to the top by a lovely old man who pointed out the sights in the panaramic view of the city. He took lots of pictures of us in positions that he told us to get into and they were corny but cool.

Jantar Mantar

Then he took us to Jantar Mantar observatory (after a quick trip to retrieve Matt's lost hat), where there were some gigantic instruments for measuring various astrological events and which help determine various events on the Hindu calendar. 

After, we went to Hawa Mahal (the wind palace). Again, another beautiful building and we climbed up narrow sets of stairs to see where the harem would sit our of view to watch events in the courtyard, but it was full of people  and a bit of a crush to wander round.

Every place we went, Saldar tried to explain to us a bit of history and background and he was very patient and knowledgeable. We also picked up bits of information about him, his family and what kind of person he was, and found ourselves liking him more and more throughout the day.

One thing that always strikes me about India is that people seem to think that you only want the best. The restaurant that Saldar intially took us to for lunch served lots of cuisines from different countries and was about 8 times over our budget. We did go in and look at the menu but soon bailed. Instead we picked up some fruit (which along with fresh, plain veg and salad is sorely missed)  and Matt was refused service at an Indian food stall where we could see some tasty looking things being freshly cooked.

Water Palace

 By htis time, Saldar had a better idea of what we enjoyed and could afford so we spent  a great afternoon experiencing the more beautiful and unusual things. We saw the Water Palace, a summer home of the maharaja which is plonked straight in the middle of a lake and looks  like it's sinking. We absolutely loved the burial  Temple of the local Maharaja family, where there were three increasingly grand sections and which was so peaceful and stunning inside. We were also astounded at the Rama and Sita temple, which was almost hidden from view but was decorated with thousands of tiny mirrors and intricate pictures. The women in the temple encouraged us to take pictures and shouted at the man decorating the idol to uncover it properly so that we had a better view. When we got outside, Saldar was eating some street food and we asked if we could join him. We each had a tiny plate of potato fritter with chick peas, onions and sauce which was so spicy that Matt looked like he was going to melt but was absolutely delicious.

Rama and Sita Temple

On way back got taken to textiles factory-shop where they showed us how block-printing was done. It was quite interesting but we weren't really interested in buying anything, though we luckily weren't pressured too much. Later, we also foolishly agreed to go to a jewellery factory-shop. We wanted to help Saldar make the commission but we really hate the high pressure situation - especially when there's nothing we want to buy so we asked Saldar not to take us to any more shops.

Saldar

As we arrived back at the hostel, we saw Sebastian getting out of a Tuk Tuk. Coincidentally it turned out that he was in the hostel next door. We had coffee with him and he decided that he'd like to join us in Bikaner to see the rat temple so we spent quite a long time trying to look at rearringing his plans so he didn't have to cancel too much, but we couldn't make it work. This was a real shame because we were also thinking about a camel safari and he would have been great to go with.

After a long day I had a massive head-ache so I left the boys and climbed in bed with a paracetamol and the room service menu. Some mushroom soup later I was feeling much better so we ordered more food and layed in bed watching Top Gear - it felt like such a luxury.