On route to Jaipur

---

December 19th, 2010: Jodhpur to Jaipur

Sam Wrote:

Today, was our first messed up day to put it mildly. Though it started beautifully.

We left our hotel in Jodhpur, The Park Plaza at nine in the morning and headed straight to the Umaid Bhavan Palace. This is a massive palace that is how divided into 3 parts. The first part is where the royal family still resides. The second part is a museum and the last part is taken over by the Taj Group where they run a 7 starhotel. We were only able to view the museum and it was well worth the short trip. The palace is relatively new, construction started in the 1930s and it was designed by a British Architect.

We then started on the road to what I thought was Jaipur. I was under the impression that we would be in Jaipur around 2 – 3pm and was quite excited.

Along the way we drove thru a cute village and it being Sunday, the whole community was out doing their shopping. At the edge of the village, I asked our driver to stop the car, Yamini and I went for a walk. Wow! What an amazing photo opportunity. I got great pictures and video of kids playing marbles, people shopping, the vegetable market, etc. All the people except one were very happy to have their picture taken and we had a great time checking the locals out. When we got back to the car, a group of children had surrounded our car and were busy checking out our children. Pretty neat!

When we resumed our journey, it was close to noon and was surprised to hear that the driver was first taking us to the city of Pushkar instead of Jaipur. When I inquired why, I got various answers from him. I think he on his own revised our itinerary and so it as an opportunity to earn some extra money by taking us thru Pushkar.

Pushkar, among other things is famous for its annual Camel Festival. It also has the only temple in the world dedicated to Lord Bramha. As far as I am concerned, it is a dump.

Shortly after noon, the tour organizer contacted our driver to find out our estimated arrival time in Jaipur. When he was informed that we were approx. 100 km from Pushkar, he changed the itinerary and called back saying that a city guide will be waiting for us as we enter the town.

It was 2pm when we entered town and met the guide. We asked him first to take us t a restaurant where the kids could freshen up. The restaurant he took us to was his friends and it too was a dump – an over priced dump. After lunch, we visited the Brahma Temple but there were so many people around and I was not in a hospitable mood, we simply left and resumed our journey to Jaipur – some 3 hours away.

While standing outside the temple we were a target for all sorts of vendors, beggars, etc but one particular incident kind of freaked us out. I felt a tug on my right elbow, when I turned around, a local woman held out a basket inches from me. First I thought it was her way of asking for money, but when she took the top of the basket, up sprang a cobra. Meanwhile, she is pleading for money to buy milk for the snake. That’s it! We are out of here! I have full intention of taking up the itinerary change with the driver.

On the way to Jaipur, we pass thru the city of Ajmer where we get on the National Highway 8 – a six lane toll road which has a center divider. This was by far the craziest ride of our journey. The highway was packed with transport trucks since this is the main north south connection between Chennai – Mumbai – Ahmedabad – Jaipur – Delhi. And in India, there are no traffic rules. Faster moving vehicles were weaving around slower moving ones and almost all the trucks appeared to be over-loaded. In a five minute stretch on the highway, I observed the following: an older woman running across to the center meridian and barely jumping up in time, a small child running from the meridian across 3 lanes of fast moving traffic, a goat herder herding his animals on the shoulder, a camel cart, two vehicles heading in the opposite direction in our lane, us passing over 40 trucks heading in the same direction as us. All this and we are moving at over 100 kph weaving left and right. What a ride.

It was during this that our driver told us that he has been driving a car since he was eight years old. Since the age of 10 he would help his dad drive a truck. Commercial trucks in India generally have 2 drivers, one rests while the other drives since these trucks are on the go 24 hours. Also, apparently anyone can get a valid driver’s license by paying a Rupees 200 bribe if you know the right people. Very reassuring. The driver also informed us that he has spent most of his career driving commercial trucks and tour buses. He usually does not drive smaller vehicles such as ours, a Toyota Innova, which is a small mini van. That explained how he is able to handle this car as if it were a toy. He is a very good driver but an aggressive one.

I was glad when we finally got to our hotel, the Sheraton Rajputana in Jaipur, just after 6pm. There we met the local tour rep and he informed us that our tour guide will pick us up at 8:30am the following morning.

The hotel is a typical 5 star facility and it was busy. We opted to have dinner at the hotel which was okay – nothing special. We were too tired to care anyway.




Yamini Wrote:

We had breakfast and met our driver at 9am. He asked us if we had a chance to visit the Umaid Bhavan Palace. When we told him we had not, he told us we really should take a look at it before we leave. Umaid Bhavan Palace is partially home to the royal family and partially a high end, heritage hotel. I must watch the movie “Zubeida” again as it is about Umaid Bhavan and his wife Zubeida. The current Maharajah lives with his mom, Zubeida, and his family presently in this palace. I am sure glad we did not miss this opportunity to see this palace.

We then headed off on route to Jaipur. We were driving through this vibrant little village called “Pali”. Sam asked if we could walk through it for a few minutes. The kids wanted to stay in the car and wait with the driver as Sam and I headed out for a stroll. Sam was in “photo frenzy”! Now this was what he wanted to see…the real life of the village. We walked into the fruit and vegetable market. There were rows of vendors all selling the same vibrantly coloured produce. It looked beautiful. The vendors were all so cheerful and trying to get our attention, especially with Sam’s camera. They all just loved having their photos taken. We walked out of the market and into the street to see children happily playing in the street. Sam kept telling me not to look so nervous as I walked down the street. I really wasn’t nervous but was a little worried with the kids in the car waiting for us. We headed back and found that Shivani and Tejas were surrounded by the village children trying to get their attention. They were glad to see us. Sam handed all the kids some candy we had in the car and left them smiling.

Next, we headed to an unexpected guided stop at Pushkar. Pushkar is a city famous for it’s Camel Festival during the Oct - Nov. We had read about it before our trip but did not have any intention on stopping there nor was it in our itinerary.

As a guide was waiting for us in Pushkar, we reluctantly decided to stop. We were all hungry so he suggested we go to a nice restaurant. It turned out it must have been a buddy’s joint. It was kind of neat as we had to walk up to a terrace and were seated on cushions on the ground. Shivani got excited to see pizza on the menu, so we all ordered pizza. What a mistake! It was horrid and tasted like rubber. We left loosing our appetite. The guide then escorted us to the village where I truly did feel nervous. I hung onto the kids for dear life as we were hassled by beggars in every direction. The guide, who I didn’t even bother noting his name, led us to a temple. I was sure glad when Sam told him we would pass on entering the temple. In hindsight, perhaps we should have gone in. Apparently, this is one of the few Brahama Temples in the world. This town curls around a holy lake and it is said to have appeared when Brahama dropped a lotus flower.

We just wanted to move onto Jaipur. Leaving Pushkar with an ill taste, we headed on.

We finally arrived in Jaipur after a tiring drive only to find a horrendous traffic jam in the city. It took us forever to get to the hotel. We finally got to our hotel, Sheraton Rajputna. Our Sita representative met us at the hotel and advised us that our guide with meet us at 8:30am (yikes, another early morning) for our Elephant trek to Amber Fort. The children were tired and famished and in really no mood to explore the lovely hotel. We had dinner and called it a night.

Hopefully tomorrow is better.


Tejas Dictated:

On the way from Jodhpur to Jaipur, dad asked the driver to stop the car in a small village. Him and mum then left us in the car while they went to explore. When they left, there were these kids who kept on knocking on the car window. We kind of got a little freaked out. Then an adult approached the car and started sticking his tongue out and drooling at us.

In Pushkar, we ordered pizzas for lunch that were horrible. I could not eat anything and my dad got upset at me for not trying.

---