Move over Crunchie...the honeycomb palace is here!

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We got to Agra Fort train station very early to arrive in plenty of time to get our 6:15am train to the city of Jaipur south of Agra. The train platform was littered with Indians sleeping wrapped in blankets looking like they had been there for many hours, which is not unusual for an Indian train station so we thought nothing of this. However, the train was first delayed for one hour, then two hours, then three hours until - at last - six hours later the train finally arrived.

In that time two other foreigners and ourselves seemed to be the entertainment for most of the people waiting in the station. We were only sitting on a bench freezing cold but the Indians stared at us as if they were watching a tv show...waiting for something exciting to happen we think. Somehow we made up an hour on the journey there and when we arrived at the station which we thought was Jaipur (there are no signs on the stations so you have to guess if it’s the right one!) and Neil feeling tired, asked an elderly English woman if it was the right station, she replied ‘yes, this is Jaipur and you are 5 hours late’ as if it was somehow our fault. Hey, this is India and we were reminded of this when we were the only foreigners to leave the station and were immediately surrounded by around 50 rickshaw drivers trying to scam us into paying too much for a ride to a nearby hotel. Donna did her usual swinging of the rucksack technique to give her some personal space (which is often invaded in India) and because Donna felt very tired she did a school teacher yell at them which only seemed to encourage them more to hassle her for the ride.

Of course having finally found a reasonably priced rickshaw, on the way to the hotel we were bombarded with offers for sightseeing tours and friends who had cheaper hotels than where we were headed. We found a nice hotel on our own for 850 rupees (£12)...not great value but we have had much worse. Somehow when walking along a random street in Jaipur to find a restaurant, we randomly met our two friends from England, Stacey and Ross. We did know they were in India at the same time as us but didn’t know they were in Jaipur in the same area, in the same street and at the same time as us...what a strange co-incidence!! Stacey introduced Donna to the Cadbury’s chocolate éclairs sweets for 1 rupee a go, now she is addicted...thanks Stacey! You can get these éclairs all over India and it kind of feels right to munch on these whilst having a nice pot of masala chai. For those who don’t know a chocolate éclair sweet is chewy caramel toffee with a Cadbury’s chocolate filling, mmmm!

The old pink walled city of Jaipur was worth a look, painted pink relatively recently to give a warmer welcome to visitors. Inside the walls there was a city palace which we thought was overpriced and so just looked at it from a distance and some other historical bits and bobs but we mostly just walked along the streets observing people and the wares being sold. We often find this more interesting than the history of cities themselves. We did go into the Hawas Mahal - which is a palace which housed the Maharaja’s women and was built of several different layers with various peep holes to allow the ladies to look down on the street life below. The palace is often nicknamed the Honeycomb Palace because of this architectural design.

A noticeable bad point for this city was the number of beggars in the street who would follow us for up to one kilometre trying to trip us up to get attention, grab our clothes and try to shout/intimidate us into giving them money. These beggars are seen all over India and they claim the money was for food, however when Neil gave a handful of pea pods to some of the street children begging they threw them down on the floor in disgust, so obviously food isn’t good enough for them. We saw other foreigners giving money to beggars, not just in Jaipur but in other parts of India, and often the beggars would buy alcohol and cigarettes with the money. Furthermore some of these beggars are not your average living off the street kind of poor people. They are often just Indians walking about doing their business and when they see a foreigner they put out their hand for money almost instinctively with the expectation that money will be given to them. For example Donna would queue up to buy tickets for a ferry and the lady in front of her in the queue would turn around and start asking Donna for money, even though she had just arrived in an expensive taxi and we with our backpackers budget had walked the 2kms to the ticket office.

This concluded our brief visit (thanks to our delayed train) to Jaipur. Our next train journey was to take us to Udaipur. So far, despite the lengthy train delay and annoying beggars we are still enjoying the sights sounds and smells (well most of the smells) of India.

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Photos

Sari shopping
Very colourful and a lot of wheeling and dealing going on

Neil doing his best pose in Hawa Mahal
...he thinks he looks like James Bond in this one (rolling eyes)

Gate to the old city
painted pink to welcome visitors

Outside the honeycomb palace
really called the Hawa Mahal...see the multiple levels.

Street life in Jaipur
does your street have a camel?

View from window
Peekaboo..the 'ladies' here would peek through these windows onto the streetlife below

Comments

[amitluvtoepxplore]

True Blogger
In the past couple of days I had read u r blogs, they are simply amazing. U guys are true traveller. U write a blog in a such a way that as if u r narrating a story or a fairy tale. Keep the good work going and enjoy ur journey.