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Published: October 27th 2017
I wake at 6am today so manage to make it to the yoga class which starts at 6.30am next to the swimming pool. As its so early I am the only person taking the class. It is different to the classes I am used to and the teacher comes over and pulls and pushes me further into the positions. She explains all the postures and what they are good for and ends the class with some chanting, very peaceful start to the morning. As I wander back to the room, I hear a man playing the flute under one of the pavilions and realise he is playing for the guests who are eating breakfast on the veranda. What a treat, the hotel really has pulled out all the stops to make the guests feel like royalty.
We head out early this morning as we are heading back to the Amer Fort to see it by day, after breakfast at a very western style cafe, not our intention but it was recommended and it seems many middle class Indian people don’t want to eat Indian food for breakfast. We drive out on the same road as last night but Shenton is
much happier driving during the day, headlights are no longer needed with all on full beam blinding each other equally, that made for a white stick knuckled ride.
The traffic has not relented though, 4 wheels, 3 wheels, 2 wheels, 5 wheels, 6 wheels! Horns screaming, cursing and screeching. Some carrying others, buses full to the rafters, some sitting up high, looking down, the rickshaws and motorbikes, babies holding on tight with mothers holding on even tighter. Carpets, stacked high, chickens keeping low, venders and hawkers weaving and stopping, cows laying impassively, watching dew eyed as all pass by. 2 legs, 3 legs, four legs and even no legs, a man scoots along on a board with wheels, camels, horses, elephants, dogs, all are choking and spluttering, and this great maddening mass does somehow move.
The daytime view is lovely as we pass the palace on the lake and all of the camels and elephants on the road. We manage to take the bike all the way up to the top of the fort avoiding the tourist elephant ride up the hill. The road is chock a block with cars up to the fort and Shenton has to
weave in and out and all the time all the Indian people are staring at us thinking who are these people and why are they on a bike here! Either that or they recognise Shenton as their South Indian movie star. He he!
The fort is spectacular and the view from up here over Jaipur is amazing, I am a bit “forted out” though so we don’t bother with the audio guide but instead we make up what we think the areas were used for and I imagine the “India’s got talent” area where the king was entertained by all the locals with a special talent while Shenton photo bombs some Japanese tourists.
As we are exploring the fort a kind police man says follow me to the top and leads us up some back staircases to reach the very top of the fort. He then says he will take some pictures for us and just as we are thinking what a nice person he is he asks us for some money. I guess we should have realised this. Shenton only has 8 rupees in coins in his pocket and he is not keen on taking that so
he leaves us in peace.
The Amer Fort, is situated in Amber, 11 kilometers from Jaipur, is one of the most famous forts of Rajasthan. Amer, originally, was the capital of the state before Jaipur. It is an old fort, built in 1592 by Raja Man Singh. as the Amer Palace. The Amer Fort was built in red sandstone and marble and the Maotha Lake adds a certain charm to the entire Fort. Though the fort is quite old and may even look so from the outside, it is beautiful on the inside and boasts of various buildings of prominence like the 'Diwan-i-Aam', the 'Sheesh Mahal' and even the 'Sukh Mahal'. The Amer Fort has influences of both Hindu and Muslim architecture. This fort also has the 'Shila Devi' Temple and the 'Ganesh Pol' which is a gate that leads to the private palaces of the kings. The Amer Fort has many pavilions and halls of great interest and other popular attractions. Amer was once known as Dhundar and was ruled by the Kachhwahas from the 11th to the 16th century, until the capital was moved from here to Jaipur. Raja Man Singh built this fort in 1592 AD 
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Going nowhere if you are in a carand Raja Jai Sigh I expanded and renovated it later. While many such old structures have been either destroyed or replaced by other things, this fort has stood against all the tests of time and invasions.
As we are driving back to the city I spot some copperware so we stop and ask the price of the flasks I have been wanting. The people we met in Rishikesh told me the price was around 200-400 rupees so when he says he wants 1050 for a flask I just laugh and walk out the shop. He is following fast behind me reducing the price by the second so that when I reach the door (only a few steps) he is already down to 500. I say I only want to pay 200 but he won’t budge from 350 so we decide to leave it as I remember seeing a few stalls in the town selling the same stuff. The traffic has built up now and we spend about 10 minutes on a roundabout cram packed with cars, bikes, people, buses, cows and everything you could imagine. The fumes are horrendous so we are glad to get out of this
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A new type of motocross place. I spot the shops with the copper so Shenton parks the bike and I go and find the flasks, this time it is exactly the type of flask I am looking for and it is also a bit heavier than the others I have seen, the vender will not budge won’t from what he says is his final price, 440 rupees, these are the ones I want so we get them. As we cross back over to get on the bike we can’t find it. We have only been 10 minutes at the most and the bike has vanished, thankfully we took a picture of the number plate and we walk up and down the main thoroughfare looking for it amongst the multitude of other bikes but its just not there. Some barrow men sitting by the road explain to Shenton, they mostly speak hindi? That as he had parked it badly so the police came and took it away! So now what? The barrow men call over a rickshaw for us and after speaking to the driver, the driver says please get in we are taken away to find it. We pull up at the Prince Albert museum
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That gate is big enough to fit an elephant through and our saviour in the rickshaw tells us it is there with the police and parking people, thank you sir, thank you for your help we repeat. The driver only accepts the normal rate and drives off into the ever building fumes. There is a short explanation that the bike is not ours so we don’t have any papers but as we pay 100 rupees extra on top of the 125 rupee fine we get the bike back without any problem and we quickly scoot off, back to the hotel, to get packed up and ready for our next journey.
We have a beautiful lunch at the hotel and Shenton says it is the best curry he has ever eaten, he then goes off to take the bike back before we catch our train to Sawai Madhopur. We decide to get to the train station early so we can make sure we get the right train. Outside is a board with all the trains on it but we can not see ours. We head inside and this is a very busy station with everyone pushing and shoving to get through the security section. Once inside I see a sign
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Big gate or has Shenton shrunk? for tourist information so head in that direction to find a lovely A/C room with comfy chairs, deserted, no-one inside to help with anything. I see another sign saying “may I help you” and this time there are two official looking Indian ladies in uniform, who help and tell us our train is on platform 5. We head over that way and everyone is looking at us again as we are the only western looking people on the platform, 2 boys ask if they can have their photo taken with me but I cheerfully decline and they move away.
The train arrives on time and we get into the first class AC section I am glad we got these seats as getting on the train in the general section looks like it would be a barrel of laughs. There is a huge surge of people on the platform all clambering and some crazy people even get down on the tracks to get on the train from the other side to try to beat the crowds. No-one seems to stop them though.
Its easy for s to get on as not many people have booked these seats we find
our can no problem but then realise we are actually in two separate cabins as we have the top bunk in cabin B and C. We end up sharing one top bunk as its only a 2 hour trip, we make ourselves comfy and Shenton is snoring like a baby pretty much before we get out of Jaipur.
Arriving at Sawai Madhopur station we can see that this is more in the sticks and it feels a lot calmer already than the madness of Jaipur, though a sense of wildness is immediately evident as wild boar trot along the platform. We get a taxi to our hotel, the Ranthambore National Resort and after some snacks and the bottle of wine Shenton bought at the English Wine Shop in Jaipur we settle into bed as its another early start tomorrow. Next, tiger safari.
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Andy Smith
Good Writing
Nicola you really do write well. Very descriptive and informative and of course this is strengthened with Shenton’s input also ...