Calm after the Storm

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Jaipur

Our train pulled into Jaipur around lunchtime, after being served a feast on board. An Indian breakfast and a constant flow of tea and water! Britain's got some learning to do!
The hotel was only a short walk from the station but we still managed to get hassled A LOT, one guy obviously hasn't been to enough English language lessons to understand either 'no' or 'go away' as he followed us almost to the doorstep!

Vinayak Guesthouse is a lovely clean place with the nicest host you could want, free tea and a paper every morning, he'll do anything if you ask him and he speaks very good English. We felt more welcomed than at any point in our journey thus far. We soon ventured out into Jaipur and was pleasantly surprised.

*FLASHBACK*
whillst in a restaurant in Delhi, we had struck up a conversation with a really nice Indian guy sat next to us. He was giving us loads of advice about places to go, where not to go because of the heat etc. Anyway, he said that Jaipur was no different to Delhi in terms of traffic and people and the noise and chaos all day long. But we were now braced for it having lived in Delhi for 4 eye-opening days..

Jaipur is nothing like Delhi.

The streets away from the city centre are quiet and have friendly people who talk to you because they are curious, not because they want you to buy their chat or dosas. In the town centre it is still manic, but seems somewhat more organised, markets are lined alongside roads rather than wherever there is a space. We get asked all the time for our picture to be taken, which we don't mind at all!
When outside the City Palace, these two 17yr old kids came up to us and said hello and started talking about cricket, and then they just walked with us for ages! Helping Rhian to barter for a bag at a stall, giving us a taste of some street food (it was disgusting but we swallowed it graciously), and haggling with a tuk-tuk driver for us to get back to the hotel. True legends and a shining example to the people of Jaipur.

On Sunday, we planned to walk to the bus stop and ride up to see Amber Fort. halfway there a tuk-tuk driver pulled up alongside us and yelled "Alan Partridge A-HAAA!!". Sold. He spoke better English than us! He offered to take us to a few off-tourist places and then drop us back at the bus stop, for 30 rupees! He took us to an elephant stable, where they are kept before taking tourists up to Amber Fort. i had my environmental activist hat on, but they were kept in excellent conditions, which put us at ease. Elephants are huge by the way, it's hard to appreciate until you're stood underneath one!!
Sheikh then took us to a textiles factory where we got to see how rugs, sheets, bags, scarves, you name it, they made it. They are a supplier to Monsoon and Habitat in this country! we were given the hard sell too, but it felt ok as this is the source, not some dodgy market. He also took us to a gem stone makers yard where 7 or 8 people were carefully cutting stones on diamond discs for use in jewellery. it was all fascinating and the people at both places were very welcoming with chai and lunch happily served to us!

The Amber Fort is a stunning building, 11km outside Jaipur and protecting the whole area from invasion in Medieval times. Ironically it now welcomes being stormed by thousands of tourists every day. The surrounding hillsides are lined with a China-esque wall, majestically built from yellow sandstone and glorious in the afternoon Rajhastani Sun. We spent the whole evening there just taking it easy and posing for loads of photos lol. We stopped at the Water Palace on the way back, a perfectly preserved sandstone palace dropped in the middle of a huge lake like a something out of an Arthurian Legend. The sunset over the lake was pretty special to watch, before we jumped in a tuk tuk and went to Niro's for dinner. A bit of a posh place by Indian standards but we didn't know this before we went in...
Jaipur will live long in our memories, for the welcoming people, the calmness of life and the majesty of it's history.

We hope you're all well and enjoying the heatwave 😉


G&R
x

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Comments

[kim marsh]

glad your both having a great time .today is are last day of sun here its surpose to rain all day tomorrow and you know whats it like in britain once it starts it never stops . both take care and enjoy every trip xxx