Grey Days in the Pink City - Jaipur

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We were really tired and down when we set off from towards Jaipur. The early mornings at Bharatpur had taken their toll, combined with feeling low about the state of the planet and to top it all Robin was suffering the effects of a dodgy samosa. Still we loaded up and set off anticipating the benefits of some cycling for our bodies and states of mind, unfortunately these never materialised. The road was being “four-laned” and so road works dogged us the entire way to Jaipur. The surface was rough and bumpy; every other vehicle seemed to have a claxon which was tuned in to destroy each individual note left in our hearing. Buses screamed towards us no matter which side of the mess of road works we attempted to cycle on, roaring towards us even when we were in the dust at the roadside. The people we passed on the roadside provided no positive encouragement either, only crazed shouts which soon became very annoying and tiring. Constant vigilance and alertness left us drained by lunch time and whilst waiting for our rice Robin fell asleep sitting at the table.

We roused ourselves to push on only 30km more but found no hotel in this town, so with ever more sinking hearts pushed the 25km more to Dausa for a hotel. Eventually after having to cycle 8km in the dark (thankfully along the newly built carriageway with no other traffic) and having found the last available room in the town, we collapsed.

The day had been tough and we found ourselves finally cocooned in a grotty hotel with a water heating system that electrified all the taps, but which had a friendly manager. However it was only after we had eventually eaten a decent amount at local prices that I realised that the management was not totally dodgy and felt suitably ashamed at being a bad tourist; automatically too suspicious of being ripped off. Our experiences since Agra had been making us very defensive and the more tired we were the grumpier we got and the harder everything seemed to become. Even on the road the passers by were aggressive and there was always the constant plea and squeal for baksheesh, it had ground us down.

After a good night's sleep (despite the thunder of passing trains which shook the entire hotel) we set off on the now much shorter ride into Jaipur. Another hot day, more mad traffic, more clouds of dust to clog our eyes, noses and throats, and more crazy people along the side of the road and on motorbikes. For the first time on this journey we were beginning to wonder what the point of it all was. We arrived with surprising ease into Jaipur, however, and booked into an overpriced hotel, hoping it would be popular with other travellers. For once we had been able to find our way into an Indian city with ease and I liked the novelty of the grid system streets of Jaipur, a "masterpiece of mediaeval architecture" our guidebook informed us.

It was Christmas Eve and we had made it just in time. Sadly the hotel was trying to move upmarket and distance itself from the very backpacker lifeblood it had built its name and reputation on, and so the communal atmosphere we had hoped for was rather lacking. After asking directions to the nearest church only to find it locked, we headed straight for the liquor store and had a good night drinking and chatting to some Italians in the next room. They were great guys and were it not for meeting them our Christmas would have been pretty dull, so thank you Nicolo and ‘Damien’.

We could not help but think back to last Christmas in Beirut, the great group of people we had to share it with, and the enthusiasm and hope that seemed to be present in Beirut and Lebanon at that time. Reflecting on what has happened there in the year that has passed did little to cheer our moods. And so we woke on Christmas morning to turn on the radio and learn yet another war had started with the US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. Merry Christmas World.

We enjoyed several days doing absolutely nothing and spent a lot of time in the hotel garden and on the roof, the only chilled out places we could find in Jaipur. Most of the other guests were long-term travellers to India and had been coming here every winter for years. We were anxious to get some good tips from all these people who confess to love India. We thought we were in the right place, we met many long-termers but they all admitted that India on a bike is tough. It seems there are loads of really nice places to go but they are all so very, very far apart and the problem for us was that the roads in-between were hard, the scenery monotonous and there’s just so many people.

Previously, when the area that we have been in has not been that inspiring we have still been able to jolly ourselves up and at least one of us has been able to see the brighter side and keep happy. In the past this was always helped by the cycling being enjoyable , but in India the fact that you have to be so constantly alert on the bike means that the cycling (outside the mountains anyway) is not enjoyable. Also we have always had some distant place to aim for in the past; when the cycling was tough in the deserts of Iran and Pakistan we would imagine reaching the Indus, crossing to India, seeing the Taj Mahal etc.

For so long getting to India had been our aim and purpose, now we were here and trying to remember what it was that had motivated us to cycle this far. We just weren’t enjoying it and had no ‘next destination’ to look forward to. In fact trying to plan any onward, overland cycle route out of India just made things more depressing as we began to learn that the Indian sub-continent is one big dead end for cyclists. We had thought we would be able to cycle from Nepal into Tibet, on into China and then from there to South East Asia or Japan, but as we researched this more and more we discovered that it is really impossible to cycle from Nepal to Tibet. Also the chances of getting boats from India direct to South East Asia didn’t look too promising either. Robin began to regret ever coming to India, wishing we had taken different routes through Central Asia.

With no obvious exit point from India to aim for, this left us even more perplexed about where to go and what to do. Instead of being happy at the world of possibilities that is India, we could only see the darker side and be overwhelmed by it all. We weren’t enjoying ourselves where we were, we weren’t enjoying the cycling, but we couldn’t figure out a better plan either and so hung around for days doing nothing, endlessly discussing possible routes until we even got fed up with this.

We did have a few good days in Jaipur wandering around the old city, which is actually quite new by Indian standards, though old enough to have been built according to some kind of plan. Most of the buildings are painted pink which gives Jaipur the title of the ‘Pink City’, however the buildings themselves are not particularly extravagant. We couldn’t be bothered joining the crowds of tourists piling out of their luxury a/c taxis and buses to visit the palaces, but we did admire the outside of the Hawa Mahal for free, and visit the amazing Royal Observatory, which boasts the largest sundial in the world. This was a pretty impressive place actually and clambering around on the enormous marble and stone astronomical instruments cheered us up lots.

On Hogmanay we climbed up to Tiger Fort, an old Rajput fort on the hilltop above the old city, from where we got a proper sense of the size of Jaipur. Buildings extended forever in all directions and we watched the last sunset of 2006 disappear well above the horizon into a cloud of air pollution (but it made a pretty orange glow). It was the end of our first full year on the road, and for the first time we were thinking about whether we even wanted to continue, if it was even possible. Fortunately we had some company from Pohangina Pete from NZ whose positive outlook on life and travel helped to lift us out of our gloom. We got back to the hotel loaded with another consignment from the booze shop and found a campfire in the garden and a party to join. At midnight 2007 was welcomed by an hour long display of fireworks from all over the city - completely unorganised in true Indian fashion.

All in all though Jaipur was not that relaxing, and the city was pricey. Most other long-time foreigners seemed to be involved in the gem business, but otherwise had nothing good to say about the city. The rickshaw drivers were particularly fierce, and Robin was actually ran over/into by three different vehicles just whilst trying to walk around town. In one such encounter he responded angrily to being deliberately rammed by a van and smashed its windscreen with his bare fists in retaliation. This was a particular low-point of our stay in Jaipur. We were in definite need of some nature to soothe our city and traffic frayed souls.

In the end we spent 2 weeks in Jaipur trying to figure out where we should go, and trying to feel motivated again by our trip. Eventually we decided to sack off Rajasthan (or Trajasthan as we had begun calling it), we could not deal with any more really aggressive tourist touts, and we set off eastwards towards Ranthambore National Park and Madhya Pradesh.

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Photos

The Hawa Mahal, Jaipur
The 'palace of the winds', built so that the women of the court could see out without being seen themsleves.

Comments

[Mimi]

It is good to hear from you!
Hi Erika and Robin, I was thrilled to receive the notice today of your current journal posting until I saw that it was from 2 months ago and then read that you were so demoralized. I know India, particularly the tourist areas, is gruelling! And then add to that the terrible traffic that must be endured whilst on cycles!! I sincerely hope that you are now somewhere more enjoyable. Thank you for the post. I am always looking forward to the next one particularly now that I do not know where you went from India. Cheers, Mimi

[Bryn Jones]

mono
I HAVE A MONO!!!!!! :L

[Lauren Reston]

:/
As if thats a sun dail lol. WOOOW

[Kosh]

The largest sundial of the world is located in Zaragoza (Spain)
Although the Jaipur astronomical compound is probably the best, most attractive and a very old site, the largest sundial of the world is located at Zaragoza (Spain) and it even holds the corresponding Guinness World Record for the largest Sundial.