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Published: January 25th 2012
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Christmas Day. Spent in the car. Almost all day. But it couldn't be avoided. We had 16 days in India and making the most of it meant being in the car on Christmas Day. But we didn't see any dead animals. Or people. So that's positive. We had breakfast at Cafe Edelweiss and were on the road by 9AM. We didn't see Hardev yesterday, so it was good to see him again this morning.
We were on our way to Jaipur and it was a long drive, but we stopped at Chittorgarh, Rajasthan's largest fort (100Rs) on the way there. We felt like we had seen enough forts, honestly, but Hardev said it was the biggest and we knew he wanted us to feel like we got the most out of our trip, so stopped without complaint. Chittorgarh covers a lot of ground and part of it is just ruins, but it is so big that Hardev drove us to the most important sites, where zealous merchants, often no more than 10 years old, holding trinkets fight for attention. Much of life in India seems to involve fighting for attention. This fort is still a working fort in a way.
Chittorgarh
Largest fort in Rajasthan People still live inside and have formed communities, but we didn't see any crops being raised on the vast land we drove through, but we did see some livestock. The areas where people live and the areas outside the monuments where merchants set up their goods were filthy. In all of India that we've seen so far, waste disposal seems non-existent. We've seen people sweeping it into piles but the piles are not disposed of. They are left to be blown by the wind back into the streets it seems. This touristic fort was no different.
Poor Hardev. I know he wanted us to enjoy the fort, but we had such a long drive today and we were tired and just wanted to get to Jaipur, so after about 4 monuments within the fort, we said we were ready to go. We felt we really got our $2 worth from the fort. It's worth seeing, definitely. But we'd seen so many forts and had such a long drive today that we felt we couldn't really appreciate it.
On the road again we only stopped one more time and that was at a Coffee Day Cafe. These are in
many Indian cities that we visited, but this was our first time to try one. Coffee Day is India's version of the modern day western cafe and they have done an excellent job with it. The furniture is clean and modern and comfortable, they've created a relaxing atmosphere where you don't feel rushed, and most importantly, the coffee is really good! They have a huge selection of coffee drinks and teas and snacks. We were impressed and visited a few more of these in other cities.
We finally arrived in Jaipur around 7:30PM and Hardev had no problem finding our hotel, H R Palace, after asking for directions only one time. It was renovated about two years ago and was really nice, especially since we only paid about $25 a night for two people. Our room was huge and had a sitting area and a big, clean bathroom. We were too tired to venture out for dinner, so we ate at the hotel and had an excellent Christmas dinner. I definitely recommend the restaurant. After dinner we sent some emails (free internet) and went to bed.
When we were driving into Jaipur, we saw lots of rubbish bins
that said, 'Green Jaipur. Clean Jaipur.' One can only hope, but I have my doubts that this campaign has really taken off yet...
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