Jaipur

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It seemed a shame to leave Agra so soon, although to be honest I'd seen everything I needed to. I suppose I was reluctant to leave that view of the Taj Mahal from the hotel rooftop behind.

I'd been awake all night with food poisoning so I was hoping I'd get some sleep on the train down to Jaipur. There are about seven classes of travel on Indian trains in order of comfort it goes - 2nd Class Unreserved, Sleeper Class, First Class, Chair AC, 3 Tier Air Con, 2 Tier Air Con, and First Class Air Con. Not all seven classes will be present on the same train, usually there will be a mix of about four or five. There isn't much difference in layout in most of the classes, it's more the level of privacy and lack of interruption you pay for rather than huge differences in comfort. Apart from Chair AC, each section of the carriage has layers two or three seats which convert into bunk beds in the evening.

I'd booked a seat in Sleeper Class, where I've come to learn any link between Sleeper Class and actual sleep is purely coincidental. As with my previous trip in Sleeper, a family of about ten got on and squashed into about six seats. This and the fact that the carriage started to fill up with the overspill from the unreserved carriage meant by the late evening the whole carriage full, with people squashed into every available space. Although I had my seat, I'd have had to kick various people out to make use of it as a bunk, and as most passengers seemingly in the some boat, and the fact that I can't speak Hindi, I decided it wasn't worth the effort. To be fair one of the passengers very kindly offered me their bunk, and everyone made a big effort to help tell me when I was at my station in Jaipur.

At some point a young girl of about ten and an elderly woman who I assume was her grandmother got on. They were clearly very poor, and the girl had a crippled foot which caused her obvious pain when she walked. They soon got moved on from seat to seat by the other passengers. On paper this was arguably fair enough as they didn't have tickets or a reservation, but there were clearly plenty of other people doing the same, otherwise the carriage wouldn't have been so overcrowed. In the end they sat on the floor and tried to huddle up to keep warm, but the some of the other passengers wanted them to move again as they were blocking the aisle. It really affected me, and no matter how hard the poor girl's life was, it was going to get ten times harder once her Grandmother passed on. If you are disabled, can't work, and have no family in India, then you are in very real trouble. I couldn't help thinking about it as well as the unsympathetic way most people had treated them over the next day.

The train arrived at Jaipur at about midnight at which point I was dead on my feet. The only empty retiring room they had at the station was their most expensive room but I just had to get some sleep and paid twenty pounds for about seven hours in bed. Believe me it was more than worth it.

In the morning I walked to the Atithi Guesthouse, who luckily had some vacancies, and checked in. It's a really nice friendly place with a good rooftop terrace, big comfy rooms, and the internet.

I'm enjoying Jaipur. It was founded in 1727 by Jai Singh II, the old part of the city being surrounded by Pink walls. Inside the old city the bazaars, also coloured pink, are separated into blocks and grids. Each street is dedicated to a certain type of shop, so you will have a street of fabric shops, a street of book shops, even down to a street of kitchen appliance shops!

Most of the tourist attractions are in the old city. So far I've been to see the Royal Palace, The Govinda Devji (built in 1735 and consisting of many strange buildings and devices to aid the rules with their astrology based predictions for the future), and the Iswari Minar Swag Suli - which is a tower you can climb up and view Jaipurs layout from high above while looking across to the red forts and walls embedded into the distant hillside.

As I was walking from the Govinda Devji a bloke in his early 20s arrived at my side from nowhere:

Man: "Where are you going?"
Me: (keeping walking and trying to ignore him) "Back to my hotel"
Man: (struggling to keep up with me): "Where are you from?"
Me: (marching and looking straight ahead through my sunglasses): "Britain"
Man: (starting to sound a little exasperated) "Can I ask you a question?"
Me: (reluctantly) "OK"
Man: "Why are Westerners so rude?"

At this point I supposed I'd better address this matter, so I stopped to talk to him and took my sunglasses off. I explained that Westerners get suspicious of Indians approaching them on the street, because they soon learn that nine out of ten times they will at some point be asked for money, to come to a shop, or to get in a taxi, or to buy drugs.

I was tempted to explain that Westerners would consider it rude for complete strangers to follow them down the street and without so much as a hello, excuse me or introduction, start firing off a round of personal questions like "where you are going?" and "what you do for a living". A lot of Indians do this. I couldn't find a way of saying it without it sounding like a personal criticism, and just wanted to explain to him why people would be reluctant to talk - so I didn't bother in the end. Besides, the day I rock up in another country and start lecturing the people who live there about manners, I might as well grow a mustache and start reading the Daily Mail.

To be fair the man agreed with me, and said he just wanted to talk. Feeling slightly bad, I talked to him for about five minutes and explained I was looking for Iswari Minar Swag Suli, why he kindly walked me to. I said it was nice to meet him and shook his hand. He replied he might see me later. "Not likely" I thought.

I paid the entrance fee and went to the top of the tower, taking photos of the streets and hills below as well as the family who wanted me to take a few snaps of them with my camera, which I happily did.

I made my way downstairs and went looking for an auto-rickshaw. While I was looking round the man from before, who must have been waiting for me came up and started chatting away again. He invited me to a party with his friends in the evening, and although he didn't say anything, looked slightly offended when I said no thanks. At this point an autorickshaw pulled up so I made my excuses and hopped in, leaving him looking slightly bewildered on the pavement.

Jaipur is famed for being an old city with its pink buildings and architecture, but ironically it's the most modern city I've visited so far. In the evening I went for a meal at the Om Tower, which has a revolving rooftop restaurant with a panoramic view of Jaipur and the surrounding hills. The whole meal of a starter, main course, and drink cost about eight pounds. Who needs the London Gerkin with it's exclusive members only club rooftop restaurant!

This morning I checked out the City Museum also called the Albert Hall, which is in the New City. I paid for an audio headset guide and in between shaking the occasional hand or posing for photos, got cracking with the exhibits. There was some interesting musical instruments, weapons, paintings, textiles, clothes, and pretty much everything relating to Jaipur.

I took five minutes to sit out by the stairs. After two minutes two students pulled up to the railings on a motorbike and asked me to come over and talk to them. Bearing in mind the slight twinge of guilt remaining from the previous day I made an effort to be nice, and chatted away to them for five minutes. One of them then said they couldn't stay parked at the roundabout, and would I mind coming over to meet them by the front gate? as they wanted to talk to me about England. I made some excuse about not having finished with the museum yet, but it was nice to have met them and goodbye. That didn't cut it, they replied they would wait for me by the roadside and we could talk later. I politely told them not to bother, said goodbye again, shook their hands, and went back into the museum.

From experience I could well believe that they would be prepared to wait half an hour for me, so when I'd finished I tried to sneak out the back of the building and managed to bump right into them. They asked me again to talk about England, as one of the student's girlfriend had been there and he was thinking of visiting too. They asked me to come have tea with them at a stall, and having reached the point where I would have to either give in, or be incredibly rude, I jumped onto the back of the motorbike and the three of us went for tea.

I spent the next half hour talking about life in the UK, which was actually an ok way to spend some time, before finally making my excuses. At this point the one who's girlfriend had visited Devon decided he wanted to go for a beer with me this evening. I tried as politely as I could several times to say I wasn't interested, but he was having none of it. I even tried saying I wasn't feeling well so I wasn't up for going out for beers, but he replied he'd drink beer and I could drink water! He asked if I would at least take his mobile number, and then grabbed my phone and insisted on inputting it into my phone for me. Finally, he then rang his phone with mine just to make sure the number was correct. Despite the fact I'd said I wanted to be in my own company (something that will cause my current and ex housemates reading this to pinch themselves) he said he'd text me this evening and we'd go out. I told him I'd contact him if I changed my mind. I'm not confident here that they will leave me alone, so I'll be switching my phone off soon.

Having finally escaped I decided to walk back to the Old City and looked around the rows of bazaars selling clothes. It made me glad I hadn't brought a bigger backpack or I'd have spent a fortune on myself. It also made me sad I hadn't brought a bigger backpack as there was loads of stuff I'd have liked to have bought people as presents. I spent about ninety pounds on presents for people last month in Darjeeling and had it posted by air mail, as land mail can take six months and is prone to theft. Unfortunately it looks like despite getting a receipt and watching my parcel get labeled and stamped, it's also disapeared into thin air. So from now on I'm going to buy all my presents at the end of my holiday, so I hope the people I'm buying for like Keralan goods as that's all that will be on offer

Tomorrow I think I'm going to watch a Bollywood film in the big cinema complex. The nice taxi driver man who accosts me every time I step out of the hotel wants me to "give me one more chance" after I pointed out to him this morning that I'd found out he'd completely overcharged me the day earlier - and let him take me to Amber Fort. But I've seen enough buildings recently so think I'll give it a miss and take a walk to the cinema.

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Photos

Elephant at Royal Palace
Possibly more realistic than the surreal elephants in Carnaby Street!

Guards
Obviously everyone dresses like this

The biggest silver pot in the world
One of two. Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II filled them with Ganges water and took them to Britain in order to keep himself pure at the coronation of Edward VII in 1901.

One of four elaborate doorways to courtyard
All four door are painted in fine detail. This one with peacocks.