Agra-Jaipur

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Left Agra early hours of the 18th Aug on a train at 05h10! i know most of you will be suprised at my early morning starts, but hey one has to do what one has to do! especially here in India where everyone is up at the crack of dawn. My timetable has slightly changed. 4.5hr train journey was ok, appart from burps and farts flying around and people eating their curried breakfast next to me so early in the morning, but the ac cabin in 2nd class was enough to keep me going till we arrived in Jaipur.

Hit Jaipur and was taken to a small guesthouse by our drivers. Room was clean although basic. It had all we needed and most importantly it had a lovely fluorescent star covered ceiling which we found out that night when we put the lights out! Took me back to my childhood! Apart from that walls were hand painted in haveli style, as in the ancient homes back in the 15th and 16th century.
It's amazing how you have to pleed for several toilet rolls of paper as they would not normally provide them. I just cannot get used to the indian ways in that sense! sorry, not for jules!

Anyway, we have now spent 3 full days in Jaipur, one too many than planned but hey things got delayed, and so time flew by. We visited the old city palace and strolled the hectic, filthy streets of the pink city, that is the bazaar area within the old pink city walls. Can't begin to tell you how much hassle we got. Everyone seems to know who we are, where we come from and what we are doing from one minute to the other. Its like the jaipur mafia are after us and everyone wants to sell us something and grab our pennies. We are not up for that. We watched a lovely puppet show one night made from traditionally hand crafted puppets and listened to 3 guys singing and playing indian instruments which was nice as live music for entertainment. It took my mind off the millions of beasts flying around at night and mostly landing on my skin and eating me alive.

The smells in the streets are awful, the dirt everywhere is hidious and the amount of people and traffic in the streets is enough to send anyone bonkers! then on top add the sellers who want to convince you of buying a load of crap, then they completely mess with your head and exhaust you by the end of the day.

So saying that we are now heading off to catch our bus to head into the desert, as we were meant to do 24hrs ago. We will hopefully spend Diana's last 4 days in Mandawa and the surrounding Shekhawati villages and have a go on a camel. Probably only something i will do once in my life. Hope it doesn't leave our backsides too sore, or our tummies too sick cause we are repulsed by the filth and dampness of everything including bed sheets, toels etc. Oh how i wish for some luxury at this point and i still have 3 weeks to go in India. So once back from the desert going to plan the next stops in Rajasthan before heading up to the north and trekking in the clean mountain air, rather than trying to cope with filthy poluted cities until the end of this part of the trip.
Things i also look forward to at this point is a proper haircut, facial, manicure, pedicure, clean bed and sheets, proper bathroom and seeing my other lovely friend Manon in Singapore!...

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