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Published: December 14th 2011
Coming from a town like Jodhpur we expected much the same in Jaipur; we soon found that this was not a town, but a city of over 4 million. However, our hotel, the Madhuban, an old colonial looking building, seemed nice, if a little impersonal.
We soon found a very friendly tuk tuk driver, ‘Super Salim’ and next morning he took us to the City Palace with no arguments about the fare. The Palace, which appears to be the highlight of Jaipur, was a bit of a disappointment, but had some interesting rooms. As usual we had the usual delight of being asked to be on photos, even Michelle has now started to agree, it makes the people so happy.
When we finally left we met the first real hassle that we have found in India. Not just the requests for us to buy but having puppets pushed in your face and being grabbed by your arm by beggars. More like Morocco than what we had become used to in Mumbai and Jodhpur. This seems the norm for central Jaipur and more like what we expected in Delhi; it continued during the day and into the evening.
Wednesday saw us go to see the giant Amber Fort about 11 kilometres from Jaipur. Again, we had the services of Super Salim; this time with his old English design Austin Ambassador car. The fort is larger than the one in Jodhpur and the steps up to it were a challenge. We resisted the ride up by elephant, as walking is good for you!
Inside we came upon the Glass Palace – truly amazing. The whole thing covered in tiny mirrored tiles; our photos do not do justice to the dazzling reflections. This Palace is one of the most beautiful buildings we have ever seen. The rest of the fort was much as we had seen before but with (of all things) well preserved ancient toilets and baths. Finally, we left through, of course, the gift shop, but this one lasted for at least a 10 minutes walk.
Super Salim was waiting for us and took us back via a village populated by ‘the Untouchables’. No, do not think of British gypsy camps, this is a totally different level. Here, also, there are many pigs roaming in the rubbish. “See they sell pork here” said Salim pointing
out a sort of pork butchers. Then we realised the Untouchables eat pork whilst almost all of the rest of the country do not. After we left the Untouchables village no more pigs were to be seen.
We are starting to weary of not finding any nice restaurants in Jaipur or maybe in India. We knew we would tire of eating Indian food each night but most of it is tasteless and of poor standard. Maybe it is because most Indians appear not to eat out. However, on our last night we ate at a perfect, but relatively very expensive, Italian restaurant called Little Italy, so our taste buds have returned to normal ready for more curries in Agra.
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