Jaipur... tourists... and 'Delhi Belly' finally hits - full force!

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Greetings from Jaipur! The journey back to Delhi airport was as manic and crazy as ever... Trucks, rickshaws, people, cows and buses weaving in and out of each other as usual. 'Honking' and barging their way through towards their final destination. In Delhi, there is no 'right of way' - it's more a case of 'MY way'...

We've learnt quickly not to make eye contact with anyone whilst in the car. Big mistake - the second you do, people will see that as an invitation to beg. We stopped at one set of traffic lights and made eye contact with a very unfortunate looking lady cradling her baby on the side of the road. Immediately, she ran to my side of the window and tapped her knuckles repeatedly, pleading something we couldn't understand. Its an agonising few moments, you feel terrible turning your head away. But there is little else you can do, if you give money, you're only encouraging the problem and making the situation worse. Not to mention you'd then have a flock of beggars suddenly swarming your car...

After a quick and uneventful flight, we arrived in an even hotter climate - Jaipur. The first obvious difference was that everyone on motorcycles here actually wears helmets! This came as such a surprise to us - although the roads appear ever so slightly less chaotic than in Delhi (less ''life threatening' shall we say!) .... It's still pretty much a mentality of 'MY way or no way' ... HONK.

The Homestay we're in is nice, quite different to our accommodation in Delhi. Here we are literally living with a family in their home. So we all eat together at the one table and at the same time etc. Which is nice, you end up understanding a bit more about the culture and Indian life in general - here it's very noticeable it's the 'father' who's in charge. Not that we're particularly surprised by this, as mentioned in earlier blogs - the gender divide is quite apparent. But I stress again, we have been overwhelmed by how hospitable and welcoming the Indian people are. What's also really nice about this home, the family take in supposed "untouchables" and give them a roof over their heads and food, in return they clean and wash etc. There's a lovely man here actually who's deaf and doesn't speak, apparently he just wondered in one day and didn't leave - we've absolutely fallen in love with him. His body language is always so open and so friendly and he smiles ALL the time, so he literally lightens up the room every time he enters. We dread to imagine where he'd be if he wasn't here.

We decided to have a little explore of Jaipur (known as the 'pink city' as the whole towns walls are pink) soon after arriving. The first thing we ventured out to see was The City Palace. I have to say, we were both pretty disappointed: I think the problem is, once you've seen the Taj Mahal, everything else absolutely pales in comparison. It appeared pretty dilapidated and run down, but more than that, the main issue was the tourists :/ coach load after coach load turned up... and because this is a tourist 'hot spot', there are many pushy Indians trying to sell you various objects or items of clothing.... You also get the whole ' ma'am you need guide... You need guide' - you have to be firm and say 'NO' - eugh, hated it

After this, we wanted to avoid any further touristy hot spots... so we travelled quite a way out to see the monkey temple, a temple which is over 200 years old where locals live amongst the monkeys! Now this place was certainly not on the 'hot spots'... For a start we had to travel through quite extreme poor areas to get there, known as the slums. We witnessed children on rubbish dumps sifting through the rubbish looking for food. Starving people laying on the sides of the road. It was probably the most extreme we'd seen yet. The problem is, unlike in the UK, there's no welfare system out here - so if you have any disability for example, you have no way of working and thus no money to eat. It's a sad situation and one you can do nothing about.
The dogs also look noticeably worse here than they did in Delhi. Strangely enough it was seeing one poor dog dying on the roadside, which moved me to tears for the first time since arriving in India. The poor thing just looked so alone... and you're just completely helpless. Maybe that's part of the problem, it's a completely helpless situation here. Once arrived at the temple, in the middle of the hillside, we were pleased to see not one coach in sight. (We did notice in Delhi actually some embarrassingly ignorant tourists who would refuse to take their shoes off or refuse to cover their hair in the temples - so disrespectful.) This temple was ruined and yet beautiful in it's authenticity. Monkeys running around everywhere, one daring little baby monkey actually opened Jen's bag whilst she was taking a picture - cheeky thief!

We met some of the locals, who again were so friendly and, again, wanted pictures taken with us. The main difference at the Monkey temple (compared to the City Palace) was the fact it was more alive and certainly more authentic. For instance, it's used (and lived in) on a daily basis by the locals, cows and goats are wondering about on the roads, there are no beggars hanging around outside targeting tourists, there are no coaches, no 'tour guides', no cafes...
The temple itself is a Hindu temple, the main difference (to the other temples we've visited) is that Hindu's worship many different gods, so there were many different alcoves with the different gods inside. After the monkey temple we wanted to explore more of the local villages/towns. So we asked our driver to drop us off at the local Market place (again, no tourists), the driver politely obliged although this time did say, "local men here, no good. Be very careful. I'll wait here." So we were on our guard more so than usual, but fortunately encountered no problems. We've quickly understood that if you walk confidently and assertively with your head held high, people generally don't tend to bother you. If you walk nervously and showing noticeable vulnerability, it's usually only then people will come over "let me help you." etc.



Fortunately we had no problems, we just walked around in awe - taking in the sheer noise and chaos of the place... We had to hold hands and walk on the road of oncoming traffic - another 'experience' to say the least. We're certainly not quite as quick, nimble and light on our feet as the locals. Its all a bit of an adrenaline rush actually! The locals were actually preparing for a festival, so the whole streets were awash with colour and sound. Music blaring, whistles going off constantly, they were painting the roads an array of different bright colours, elephants were already being marched through the streets - quite spectacular! It made us reflect later on, that there is a much stronger community feel here compared to the UK. They have many festivals where the whole town comes together to celebrate. You know, it's definitely the places where no tourists go, which makes for a much more authentic Indian experience. We both so enjoyed walking through the Market place...

Apologies for the delayed update by the way, all the above covers day 1 in Jaipur. Unfortunately, over the past 48 hours I've been bed ridden and very sick (I clearly spoke too soon ... "no Delhi belly"!) Hmm.. it started off day 1 during the night, I woke up unable to stop shivering, I put more clothes on and tried to sleep but was burning up quite badly. Then the sickness and diarrhoea started... And it literally didn't stop for 24hours! Horrific. I feel much better today thank goodness, sickness has finally stopped although I'm still in bed and pretty dizzy. Fortunately we've been able to change Mother Theresa home and the elephants all for our last day (tomorrow) instead - so cross fingers I'll be able to make it then. Jen's been so lovely looking after me, putting cold flannels on my head trying to keep the temperature down, topping me up with rehydration drinks and checking up on me all the time - thank you 'mother hen' lil Jen 😊 I really don't know how I'd have coped if I'd been on my own. She popped out for a few hours yesterday so she'll write something on here later on. It was a pretty horrific experience and one I certainly don't wish to repeat out here... so I'm going to be overly cautious with absolutely everything I eat from now on.



Love to you all x ...Photo's to follow, just experiencing technical difficulties!

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Comments

[Gem]

Wow!
Hey girls!Glad to hear your both well!Amazing to hear what you guys have been up to!Glad your better Nat,enjoying reading your blogs every day :) xx