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Published: August 18th 2012
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Today was another very early start. We had a train booked at 6am from Delhi to Jaipur. It was another lovely air con train with comfy seats and plenty of free food, so we were happy when we arrived in Jaipur. We thought the hotel was very close to the station so ignored about 20 offers of a rickshaw ride. One particular driver tried and tried and tried to convince us it was too far to walk but we were suspicious. After walking a while we realised it was further than we'd thought and just jumped in the nearest rickshaw. When we got to the hotel the same man from earlier was waiting outside and he looked very disappointed in us. We felt bad and said sorry and he gave us his card.
The hotel was nice and cheap and we moved to a slightly better room with a little balcony for an extra 50 rupees (60p), not that there was much of a view. We went out for a walk and realised we were pretty far from everything. Although we'd later find that "everything" wasn't that good anyway. We had a long walk and talked to a few nice
people who wanted us to take us on a rickshaw ride or look in their shop or listen to them play music. We just said no and kept walking, and at least they were friendly. We came across a little cinema and wanted to get tickets to watch Batman but all the films were in Hindi. Next door was a McDonalds, so we ate there and walked back. That evening we sat on the rooftop of the hotel and had a drink and relaxed. We were very tired after a few busy days of travelling and we got an early night.
The next day we did a little tour in a rickshaw with a friend of the man we'd let down the day before. He was called Ali and at first he reminded us of Ali from Srinagar and we were wary but he turned out to be quite nice. He took us to the Amber Fort, just outside Jaipur. It was a really impressive place and there were lots of elephants there. We didn't ride on an elephant because we felt a bit sorry for them but most of the riders didn't seem to hit them too hard.
We talk lots of pictures here and at the next stop, the Water Palace, where some school kids asked for photos with us (on our camera - they didn't have one with them). Then we had the inevitable stop at a shop, although it was actually quite good. They showed us how they made some of the prints and bed covers and stuff and they didn't pressure us too much into buying anything. Although Nikki didn't need much pressure and bought some bed covers. The driver dropped us in the old city - the pink city apparently. It isn't very pink at all. The palace seemed nice and the walls looked ok but it wasn't that impressive really. We found a little restaurant in there though and had an amazing curry for pennies. The restaurant was on a rooftop above shops and monkeys were jumping round everywhere, so the owner decided to let of some ridiculously loud fireworks right near us to scare them away. It almost scared us away. That evening we relaxed at the hotel rooftop again and sorted our train to Udaipur for the next night.
The next day we were ready to leave Jaipur, we'd
had an ok time there but weren't too impressed with it and were looking forward to moving on. We had all day to wait for the train and so decided to find a cinema and watch Batman while we had some time. The men at the hotel told us it'd cost only 50 rupees but when we told the rickshaw drivers this they were falling around laughing. One man said "Go back and ask them 'Are you stupid?'". We ended up getting it for 100 anyway and to be fair it was quite far away. We got our tickets for the film and some food and drinks (both very cheap compared to home) and sat down. The film was good but would have been better if a load of kids in the more expensive seats behind us hadn't been talking and laughing and walking about all the way through. They were so rude.
That night we headed to the station for 9:30pm ready for our train at 10:30pm , only to find it was now due at 11:50pm. So we waited. We were annoyed, but not as annoyed as we were when it got delayed further and further. We
eventually got on the train at 1:15am and were so tired. We were very impressed with the train though, the beds were good sizes and fairly comfy and they provided fresh sheets and pillows. And there was air con! We went to sleep almost straight away and slept until 10 minutes before our stop at Udaipur around 8am the next day.
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