Rajasthan - Jaipur Day 3

We hired the same taxi driver again for the day and started off by going to Nahargarh Fort. This fort sits high on the hill overlooking Jaipur and the Lake Palace in one direction and Amber Palace the opposite direction. The fort boasts the worlds' largest cannon on wheels. There is not much to see, although it is peaceful and nice to walk around and enoy the vistas.

One thing we have noticed at all these palaces, forts and Hawal Mahal is the lack of guard railing, or very short guard rails in some areas. All it would take is a curious kid or an adult to stumble in some spots and over they would go - bye, bye.

There is much more to see in Jaipur, but with so little time and kids we have to pace ourselves. That afternoon we were off to the train station. We were glad to say goodbye to our Jaipur hotel and a little unsure of what we would find in Jodhpur, our next stop.

Got to the train station at 3:30pm. We reserved our train travel on makemytrip.com and printed tickets out at home - very easy and efficient. Unfortunately we can't say the same for the trains. The train to Jodhpur was 1 1/2 hours late. The Jaipur train station is surprisingly clean. We found a bench to sit on and were immediately surrounded by locals wanting to know where we come from, where are we going, the children's ages and grade levels etc.

The trains are quite comfortable, depending what class you are in of course. We were in 3rd class A/C which is an open compartment with six people. Comfortable enough and cool in the evening so A/C is not required. The kids like to go up to the top bunks. Two Indian guys joined us as well as three others on the end bunks.

The Indian people are extremely social and talk and eat the whole time. They talk to each other and to us. When the Chai Man came around they offered to buy us chai and when we say "No thank you" they bought  it for us anyway. It is hot and delicious and served in little clay cups which we are suppossed to throw out onto the tracks afterwards. Apparently this is environmentally friendly, rather than washing dishes or throwing out paper or plastic cups.

When they find out Michael works for a cellphone company everyone gets their phone out, proud to show him they all have they same brand. They compare phones and features and we are surprised that during the whole train trip cell phone reception is excellent.

We arrive in Jodhpur at 11:00pm and are greeted by "the boys" of Kuchaman Haveli (our hotel) as soon as we get off the train. They take our bags and within 20 minutes we are at the hotel. It seems a little cleaner than the last but very basic.

We went up to the rooftop restaurant for a quick bite to eat. The view of the city was beautiful but the food was terrible. Craig and I both ordered minestone soup and what we got made our stomach turn - it was green and the consistency of the yolk of a sunny-side-up egg. I still cringe when I think about it and needless to say we didn't touch it.

We are on the ground floor right next to the reception and it is very noisy from "the boys" socializing inside and people outside and when one dog starts barking, it seems to set off every dog in Jodhpur. We must have been tired from travelling, I don't know how we fell asleep with all the noise but we did, and we slept until 10:00am - the best sleep in a long time.

Rajasthan - Jaipur Day 2

The next day we took an auto rickshaw to Hawa Mahal. Hawa Mahal used to be a palace right in the center of Jaipur. And there it is, right on a busy street in the old town. It was built for the ladies of the palace to sit and watch daily life. The entire front of the building has windows intricately carved with many small openings, allowing the ladies to view the outside world without being seen themselves.

Even if the royal ladies did go out in public, which I am assuming was rare, they would cover their heads to remain unseen. Many women in Rajasthan still follow this custom and walk outside with their sari scarves over their heads. Many cover their face as well.

The kids love the audio guide so we did that again. I really enjoyed Hawa Mahal with the guide - it is mostly open courtyard upon open courtyard but again the intricately carved windows are unique.There is some  beautiful stained glass work and the architecture is so interesting, as well as the history.

In the afternoon we walked around the old city where there is one bazaar after another. There is organization within the chaos and each bazaar has its own theme: jewellery, leather making, kitchenware and so on. Our favorite was the sari bazaar. Row after row of narrow alleyways with shop after shop selling sari material.

Ladies sit and drink chai while shopkeepers unravel the nine meter long material. The ladies shake their heads and fingers and prompt the shopkeeper to bring out more and more until the floor is covered with material and hopefully after much bargaining a decision is made. We came across a proud family watching their daughter try on traditional red wedding sari's.

Back out to the main street, huge crowds of Muslims were gathering. The streets were closed to traffic and people were sitting on the sides of the street and crowded onto balconies and rooftops. Many people waved and smiled at us but the crowds started to remind Alanna of the Dasara crowds and she got quite agitated, wanting to go back to the hotel.

It's strange how the crowds seem to change people and we all got a little jittery as people would surround us and stare and sure enough someone tried to pickpocket Michael (to no avail). We never did find out what the celebration was as we grabbed a couple bicycle rickshaws and took the kids back to the hotel.

After dinner Michael and I went back to the outskirts of the walled city where there were still a lot of people but we ventured down some less crowded backstreets and enjoyed people watching. There are a lot more animals in the streets here it seems - a lot of cows and goats. This guy was trying to park his bike in a narrow spot to make a delivery:

Rajasthan - Part 1 Jaipur

We spent two weeks in Rajasthan from Dec. 26th - Jan. 9th. We visited Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur. Weather-wise this is a good time to go as it is "winter." It is warm in the day, t-shirt weather, and a little cooler in the evening, requiring a sweater or shawl. The drawback of course is all the tourists, Indian and Western. We aren't used to seeing many tourists in Bangalore so it was a bit of a shock to see so many - and worse, to feel like one.

Flew into Jaipur at 11:00pm and got a prepaid taxi to Naila Bagh Palace (our hotel). Within ten minutes driving along the street we saw a camel and an elephant walking alongside the road. Arrived at the hotel and went straight to the room. Don't be fooled by the term "palace." This place was the palace home to the Rajput family in the 1800's and apparently they decided to keep the original dust from back then too.

The place has character and nice grounds. It has potential if they would clean and maintain it. As it is, it is overpriced and we weren't happy with the room or the minimal breakfast.

Once we got over that we hired a taxi for the next day at 1000 Rp ($22Can) and visited the Amber Palace. The Palace is situated on a hill 20-30 minutes outside Jaipur. Normally one can take an elephant up the ramparts to Amber but there are so many tourists at Christmas that they can't accommodate the workload. So we hiked up the ramparts and up the steep steps to the palace.

Amber is much larger than I thought it would be. It is a beautiful building of sandstone and marble arches. There are rooms full of incredible glass inlay, delicate marble carvings and paintings. So many rooms to see and the audio guide was interesting - all in all we were there about three hours.

On the way back into town we stopped at the lake for a view of the Lake Palace at sunset. Very pretty with a big walkway along the lake with foodstalls and lots of people milling about.

Took the kids back to the room and Michael and I went out for a walk. The local people are extremely friendly and love it when I take their photo. In fact, when they see my camera they often ask me to take their photo. Grabbed some samosas off a street vendor and called it a night.