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Published: December 16th 2008
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Leith's update:
It seems Ben did not get his facts straight about Sheila Dikshit.
She is not the chief minister of Rajasthan. In fact Sheila Dikshit is chief minister of Delhi and associate of Congress (I) party. Thanks and apologies to Ashish who emailed us to let us know. I hope we haven't offended you too much.....
I guess that is why Ben isn't in politics otherwise we'd have Gaffes galore.
Back to the travel story: If you want to catch the train around Rajasthan in particular, you better be bloody organised. Trains are so popular on the Jaisalmer - Jodphur - Jaipur - Delhi route that you have to book at least a couple of days in advance. Some anal retentives that we've met booked all their train travel in Delhi but that means you are limited if you really hate a place and want to leave or the reverse and you want to stay.
What this means for us is that we've had to rely on the bus system which is equally convenient - if not faster. So far we've had 4 nights on buses. We take sleeper buses which means you climb above the
Jantar Masad Observatory
A sundial from 1732. Accurate to within 2 seconds cheaper seats to have a horizontal "bed" to lie on. They are not unlike coffins actually (although there are windows) and the doubles are quite comfortable. The best thing about being up there though is that you aren't subjected to people vomiting or yelling or pinching you and asking for money which, I can tell you, makes for a far more relaxing journey.
Jaipur
Jaipur is known as the Pink city because surprise surprise, the old city is Pink. I would actually call it terracotta but that's being picky. Jaipur is a newer city (being founded in 1700 and something).There is a palace in Jaipur which we went to. It wasn't as impressive as Jaisalmer or Jodphur but the museum was pretty good especially the weapons. There was a huge spiked malice with spikes ooh a good 2.5cm long. Lets just say if it was swung into your face there wouldn't be much left.
The other thing we visited Jaipur for was the Raj Mandir Cinema. Indians will always tell you to go to a Bollywood movie in India and although the story was primarily in Hindi, it didn't disappoint. Actually, there wasn't much of a story...but
the audience provide quite a bit of entertainment too. Everytime a famous person came on screen they hooted loudly.
We were actually pretty lucky because the movie we saw has just come out here. It features the "legendary" Shahrukh Khan who is pretty hot in my opinion , and when we went to get tickets at 9.30 in the morning, there was already a gigantic queue. I have to be honest and say I took advantage of the very short women's queue and had tickets in 5 minutes.
The cinema itself is an opulent place and it was a totally worthwhile experience. You aren't allowed to take photos inside but the ceiling honestly looks like you're in the heavens and the clouds have rolled apart to make way for a giant screen.
I had an excellent lady from Delhi sitting next to me who I chatted to at intermission and then when the serious "i love you" moments came, she translated and told us what they were saying which was very nice of her.
What was quite surprising was that for such a limited storyline, the movie lasted almost 3 hours - and it wasn't boring at all. I
may have to go to another one before we leave.
The second day we basically spent waiting for our bus to Rishikesh. We had a lovely old man cycle us round the city for a while so we could see the major sites. He was an absolute stick and 65 years old but he was determined to show us everything which was pretty cool.
Jaipur is an intensely dusty and polluted city and it was nigh on impossible to walk even 50 metres without having at least 3 cycles and auto rickshaws approaching you. It seems you must be MAD to want to walk anywhere. So we killed time in coffee houses and restaurants and finally got our bus at 10.30pm.
Finally I have a plea to make - would someone please teach Ben how to take photos of people? Every single time he takes a photo of me I have my eyes closed or I'm pulling a Dan face. I know that I do not try to shut my eyes for photos.........
Ben's take on the world:
Well we arrived in Jaipur after another overnight bus journey at about 6am. Because we didn't have our
bearings we had to let a rickshaw driver take us to a hotel which inevitably means you pay a bit more as the hotel will pay the driver a commission. Oh well nothing is for free as they say.
Jaipur is known as the pink city due to the rose coloured wash on the buildings. However, due to the pollution and the fact that it is only whitewashed every now and again means it is more of an orange complexion rather than pink.
Jaipur is Rajasthans largest city with about 3 million people and like any big Indian cities it is an assault on your senses.
Starting with your nose...
As you walk through the bazaars you will be hit with the lovely smell of fresh cut flowers, insense, spices of all kinds and in the next few steps u will pass one of the public urinals and have an incredible burning in your nose from the acidic smell of piss. Reminds me of Piss alley where we first stayed in Delhi, aptly named as the entrance to the alleyway consisted of the only public urinals in the area and such a toxic toxic smell. The smell
Jantar Masad Observatory
A thing that measures where the stars are of piss will often be complemented by an open sewer and there will never be a pile of rotting rubbish too far way. Yummy smells to savour before lunch. Lets not also forget the pollution from all the vehicles, but that smell is chickens fry compared to the rest.
On to the ears...
Tooting and more tooting. All types from clown horns on the buses and trucks, to little bells on the cycle rickshaws. This will be interupted by mean snorting and spitting, and then bells at the temples with nice music.
On the eyes....
Well there is just too much to see. Anything you can think off will be happening in front of your eyes. I have recently learned how cows and dogs pro-create (because I am such an innocent mind). Both in a similar wham bang thank ma'am manner. Also walking down the street is a procession of history and wealth in India. You will have the wealthy middle classes is there semi western or fully western clothing, women is saris, beggars, saadhu's which are the bearded holy men, all types of transport from horse and cart to a Macedes.
Jaipur itself was not too bad really. We went to India's most famous theatre (the Raj Mandir) and watched a bollywood movie. The plot to these movies seems to be pretty much the same in everyone.
Man and woman are arranged to marry and reluctantly accept. At the start they don't know what to do, but then through a series of song and dance extranvaganza's, they fall in love and love happily ever after.
There were a few interesting buildings, a observatory from the 1700's and another Maharaja's palace where there were many pictures about how the Jaipur Polo team was the best in India. Bit confusing since in Jodphur the Maharaja's museum also claimed to be India's best polo team.
Anyway we have now moved onto the peace of Rishikesh in the Himalayan foothills and that is we will write from next and I will attempt to quote as many white album lyrics as possible 😊
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Sanjay
non-member comment
I guess you already know. Never mind