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Published: November 25th 2008
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It all started with a much delayed train from Agra, after finally leaving Agra we managed to arrive at Jaipur only two hours late. Fortunately the auto-rickshaw guy from the hotel was waiting to collect me because even at 1am the touts and the scammers are out and about. If you ever feel that no-one loves you come to India cause everyone wants to know where you're from, what's your name, where are you going so they can build up a profile on you to help convince you that you should get in their auto-rickshaw. Talk about persistent little buggers. Although part of the "free" transfer to the hotel is so that the auto-rickshaw guy can convince you that he'll give you the best price for a half day or full day tour the next day. It takes a bit of convincing that you won't need him, although they're quick, mention that you are flying out in a couple of days and they offer to take you to the airport.
Fortunately the hotel Pearl Palace is an oasis in the middle of the chaos, and it's just what was needed. It's been nice just to hang around, relax and listen
to everyone's different variation of the Indian cough that they've managed to pick up while in India, it must be all the "fresh" air. At least the food from the restaurant by the rooftop terrace at the hotel is just superb. It's just the place to kick back at night to relax and watch the fireworks from. It must be the wedding season as wherever you go there's a wedding procession and at night there's enough fireworks going off from dusk to midnight for me to claim this part of the trip as a tax deduction. Although from my casual observations the Chinese make better fireworks than the Indians, not all that much variation to the effects or colours here at all.
One way to throw off the auto-rickshaw dudes is to reply in another language like French or German, unfortunately this plan falls over when the auto-rickshaw driver has a better command of the other language than you do (which somehow isn't really a challenge). But I only got foiled a couple of times. The other way to confuse them is to walk everywhere, they don't really get why you'll walk a kilometre down the road rather than
pay the equivalent of 50c to go with them. Although after feasting a little too much on all the good Indian food walking has added benefits for the waistline. But it's all fun and entertainment, especially when you end up haggling over 20c with the auto-rickshaw driver. At least by walking you get to take in the sites of the back streets of the market area and where the locals hang, plus there's less beggars in the back streets. There seems to be more persistent beggars around Jaipur as well. Including the little girl who when I kept ignoring her starting pinching me on the arm to get my attention, still no reaction she wondered off to annoy someone else.
Being a little too relaxed here has meant that I decided to forgo one of the must sees around Jaipur. The Amber Fort is written up in the guide book as the highlight of the area, but having the chance to kick back and relax has won out, after all it's a holiday. Oh well it's not going anywhere and I did manage to fit in a few of the main sites so why rush around everywhere. Besides the
journey to the next destination involves catching a plane at a time when there should be an airport curfew.
The thing that I didn't realise when booking the flight was that this is how the Indian workers get to their new jobs in the Middle East. Arriving at the airport this became apparent with an endless line of Indians lined up at checkin with a varied assortment of baggage that mostly consisted of sacks tied in many different permeations. Once on-board you start to realise that maybe not everyone has been on a plane before and the poor flight attendants seemed to have their work cut out for them. Things like turn off the mobile, seat upright for takeoff, do up your seatbelt for about 50% of those on-board. Then as soon as the plane touched down all you could hear was the unbuckling of seatbelts and people turning on mobiles. Then as we're taxiing everyones getting out of their seats and moving towards the door. Talk about a novel experience.
Next stop the home of everyone's favourite cut of suit, Iran.
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