Advertisement
Welcome to Rajasthan
hope you packed sunscreen... Hey everyone,
Its about 8:30 am right now, and we are leaving Jaipur in about half an hour. Our drive to Jaipur was long (traffic moves on the highway at amax of about 80 km/h..usually around 60) but really interesting. The traffic getting out of Delhi in the morning was a site in itself. The four lane each way highway magically turned into 6 lanes (all you have to do is squeeze right?) with motorcycles weaving in and out all over the place. ONce we got out of Delhi we got to see the small towns and villages. The rural India was such a wild contrast to the downtown cities.
What we didn't really expect was to head into the desert! There were tons of camels in along the side of the highway (yet another animal to share traffic with), which was a big surpirse. The other thing that wasn't so surprising was the fact that it was even hotter as we headed into Rajasthan (the region that is directly west of Delhi).
Once we got into Jaipur, which has about the same population as Toronto, we figured the traffic would be a little less hectic than
Want a ride?
Our taxi to the top of Amber Fort in Delhi. Not even close. We decided the cause for the wild traffic was that since there are fewer people on the road, there is simply more room to do crazy things (like steer your bike right infront of our car). The other thing about Jaipur that is a little less than inviting is the constant hassling - no matter where you walk or what you say there will always be at least 3 people trying to get you into their rickshaw or taxi. If you say no to the first guy, the second simply assumes that in the next 3 seconds you have had a complete change of heart and now need a rickshaw more than ever - and what better one than his!
Aside from the afore-mentioned annoyance, Jaipur is amazing. There are tons of old forts and palaces (covered in monkeys) in the surrounding mountains, and the entire old city is painted pink (the colour of hospitality - when the Prince of Wales visited when India was a colony, the maharaja (king) though it would be a great idea to paint the whole city)! We even took an elephant ride up the side of the mountain
to see the Amber Palace.
We did a bit of shopping yesterday, Jaipur's specialties are precious and semi-precious gems (selling for a fraction of the cost as in North America and Europe) as well as textiles. Our driver took us to a cool jewlery store, where we may or may not have gotten some gifts for some of you (but we are not telling) We then stopped off at a textiles store, where Heidi got a Sari, and we both got some clothes so we could fit in a little better (and deal with the heat better aswell). The last indulgence was some Henna for Heidi. A friend of Booji (our driver) came to our hotel room and did Henna on both of Heidi's hands. She did an AMAZING job.
We leave soon (ie now) for Ranthambore National Park, where we hope to see tigers and crocadiles (the list of animals never ends). We will upload pictures when we can find an internet cafe that has USB.
We miss you all very much.
xo
Advertisement
Tot: 0.033s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 18; dbt: 0.0155s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
... full info
Anthony Ruta
non-member comment
GREAT UPDATES......LOVE 'EM!!!!!
Sounds awesome you two. I spoke to a fellow at church this morning who worked for a month in Calcutta. Believe it or not...........it's MUCH worse that Delhi. Keep 'em coming. Love, Dad