It should not be this complicated to find an oft used National Geographic spot - Jaipur, India - April 2016

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To continue our Indian journey. After what felt like a whole day and what turned out to be 4-5 hours we finally had our rental car and we were on our way. Nikkie used her "pin" on google to mark the spot to return the rental car. At the time we were really hoping we would find this place again because it was in the back alley of a back alley. Leaving Delhi the roads were 5 to 6 lanes and there was no one on them so it was easy going (why are people scared to drive here?). The plan was INDIA's GOLDEN TRIANGLE which is Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. Once we got outside of Delhi it "narrowed down" to 3 lanes. The road was strewn with big massive trucks - or should I say small to medium sized trucks carrying massive loads that seemed like twice the size of the truck (really was twice the size of the truck). And these trucks were crawling along. Each and every truck had a sign on the back "honk your horn". Til this day I really can't figure out why, but I am assuming it is just because they can't see you with these massive loads. So really we drove the entire way with me honking down the highway each time I felt the need to. A couple times we would pass a big truck and there in front of us was a camel with a wagon going along at a mile an hour in the middle of the highway. What? So this is the dangers that everyone is talking about.

Needless to say, within 90 minutes of leaving Delhi we were hungry. There was nowhere to pull over that looked like a legit restaurant and it did not seem like there were any big towns or cities on the way either so we pulled over at a ROADSIDE STALL (a little shack). Now when I say shack this barely qualified as a shack. A couple wooden poles here and there in the ground with a couple aluminum plates for a wall and a roof. In one corner you have the "kitchen" (it did have a counter in front of it) and then the rest of it had about 5 or 6 plastic tables. We sat down and experienced our first instance of "no English". And when I say no English I really mean like not even "hello". We were handed menus in Hindi and no pictures. Well how can this go wrong? It took a while but we got an order in through many hand gestures. Oh well - the worst that can happen is it is inedible and we move on to the next place (we were the only people there by the way). Ten or fifteen minutes later they came to us with a couple piping hot, freshly made rotis and a yellowish/ orangeish dish (typical curry colors). We dove in - it was temperature hot and definitely had a pretty good kick to it. It was a full vegetarian dish and turned out to be curry with paneer cheese. Now if you know me I will be the first to proclaim that you are crazy to be anything vegetarian, but we were in a country where the majority of the people are vegetarian so I knew this was coming and I was prepared. The kicker was right after they dropped the food off they offered to take Everest (all through hand-gestures). Again what is the worst that can happen here? So we handed him off. Now hygiene wise these guys were not what we are use to in the western world. They probably have not had a bath in many many days, but part of the reason we love travelling is that we know people and cultures are different and in this case it 1) could have been cultural or 2) they most likely don't have the means to take a shower/bath once/ twice a day like we can. They kept Everest busy in the "kitchen" while we ate. At the time we did not know it but I can flat out say that this was the best dish we had on the entire trip. Yeah it had a good kick to it, but it was just flat-out delicious. We sat there and just looked at each other "if this is what we get at a shack what are we in for the rest of the way"?

We finished up and continued our drive - diligently paying attention to the road. The motto for the trip quickly became "Coetzee I don't care if you hit a person - just do not hit a cow". Yes we saw a lot of COWS. Well we did not hit any cows. One section of the road was filled with sugarcane vendors. They had reeds upon reeds of raw sugarcane with an engine-like contraption that extracted the juice. We decided to stop and give it a try. Everest got to sit on the tractor while they extracted the juice. Behind the guy on the other side of the road was a little hut selling shirts. We walked over to take a look. And behind the hut is a family just sitting ranging from a 3 year old to a 90 year-old. Obviously dirt poor, but at the sight of Everest they just lit up (again just a very common theme on this trip). There was no form of communication except hand signals. Everest was passed from one person to the next and pictures were taken. And there we just sat for 10 minutes communicating in ways without really saying anything. It was time to pack-up and hit the road, but what an experience being able to drive through a country like this and experiencing the people. And by the way - the fresh sugarcane juice tasted like s%$t - literally. Oh well.

This area is known for the SAMODE HOTELS group which from my understanding is a group that buys up unique properties and convert them to hotels. We started to get close to our hotel for the night - SAMODE PALACE HOTEL. Yes - an old palace converted to a hotel so this would be our first "palace". According to some of the books the SAMODE HOTELS in OCTOBER - APRIL is the best time. Can't tell you why this timeframe, but here we were in April. Once we got off the highway it started to be slow going. We were surrounded by FARMLANDS. We had to drive through a very small town while they were having some sort of fair/ party. The streets got very narrow and at some point we were literally driving through a parade where we were driving into the oncoming parade and came to a standstill. We turned the windows down and people would just reach in to touch Everest. After somehow avoiding cards coming from the other side (even though the street really technically was only wide enough for one car) we eventually made it through the town and drove along barely paved roads running into goats, sheep and one-armed herders. We finally made it to SAMODE and the palace - it was a long day. The parking was in a little dirt lot across from the hotel entrance that looked highly questionable. Normally I would not give this a second thought, but we were after all driving without any insurance. We made the walk and climb (many steps) to check-in. We received our red dot (bindi) and welcome drinks. Everest stole the show again and before we knew it we were upgraded to the suite because apparently they had some scheduling conflict and they just figured we would be more comfortable in the suite with a baby. What a room. One of the nicest we have ever stayed in. At the time probably bigger than our house.

As it got darker we saw that the hotel was almost completely decorated with lights and we soon found out that they were having a wedding there that evening. It pretty much seemed like a fairy tale wedding. We observed the festivities from the side as the groom rode in on his elephant (yes no joke) with the bride standing in a tower waiting for him to show up. The elephant was decorated beautifully and Everest had a chance to ride the elephant, but he was not interested. Dinner was just at the hotel. One of the servers offered to keep Everest busy while we eat. He walked back and forth with him. In and out of the kitchen. At some point Everest grabbed a hold of a wooden hen and our waiter carried him around with this wooden chicken. We could hear him babbling and the chicken being hit against things. He was also drooling like crazy and this guy's shirt was soaked. What an act of kindness. We started with a watermelon salad w/ balsamic and goat cheese (very refreshing after a hot day), another appetizer and Rajastani curry (really good). And very unusual for us we actually went with two deserts - crème brulee (good) and coconut caramel crème pie (good). A really good dinner made even better not having to worry about keeping Everest entertained for an hour. Again thinking back this was probably not the safest thing to do as at times Everest was back in the kitchen outside of our viewpoint. Oh well.

After a good night's rest breakfast was just as delightful as dinner with eggs, fruits, yogurts, savory, breads, juices, etc adorned the dining room. Our server from the previous night was there again and this time he was adamant that we come to his house and visit his family. Yes - this is why we do this. it was a very broken conversation and we were not exactly clear where to meet him or how to get there. Right after breakfast we got a relatively quick tour of the property. This is a palace after all. The DIWAN-I-KHAS HALL (main meeting room) was pretty astonishing in size and decorations. We saw many nooks and crannies and (I have said this so many times) it really truly just amazes me at the level of detail these rooms were completed in. No expense was spared and everything (and I mean every square inch) of these rooms are covered either in tile, painting, writing, or some other form of decoration.

We packed our bags and checked out and no sign of our server. We slowly started to drive and after a couple minutes it was clear that this visit was not going to happen. The town right below the palace was beautiful with old buildings so we drove through slowly again to take it all in. As we were about to exit the town someone stopped us and told us to go back. Again somehow the communication happened, we followed directions and before we knew it we were in front of our server's house. We were invited in and offered tea (chai) immediately. Everest was passed around from family member to family member (what seemed like 3 - 4 generations) and hundreds (what it felt like) of pictures were taken. Also the neighbors and other people of the town started showing up through the door - they kept coming. The tea was delicious and conversations were had for a good hour before we hit the road. What a time and what an experience.

As we left and got back on the highway things started to change quickly. Houses started to spring up and more and more towns before we hit JAIPUR. And now let me tell you. I have driven in many places and countries in the world. Crazy central American countries, the dirt roads through mountains in Swaziland, the crazy logger roads of Malaysia, the the cabbie filled 5th Ave streets of New York City. These places and roads have nothing, and I mean nothing on Jaipur. Jaipur is in a class of its own. I do not think there is really even much of a close second place here. Cars, scooters, tuk-tuks, and bicycles galore, with round-abouts every half mile with 5 or 6 roads spilling from each round-about and everyone fighting to either get in or out of the round-about. You are talking 2 or 3 lanes continuously moving with no traffic light or stop signs regulating any flow. You swerve left to avoid a car crossing in front of you and you immediately have to swerve again to avoid the ELEPHANTS IN THE CITY and then once you avoid the elephant you have to swerve to not hit the CAMELS IN THE CITY or one of the thousands of tuk-tuks or mopeds. And then you start hitting the side streets and the potholes, fruit carts, stores and just overall narrowness of the streets are something I have not experienced.

So we were lucky enough to find another good price at SAMODE HAVELI. To find it was another story. After a good 40 minutes of trying to identify streets (first question usually was "is it a street" and secondly "do you think we'll be able to fit through"), fighting traffic , avoiding carts, and trying to not hit people we finally found it and like clock-work Everest was taken and carried around and held and passed around. It was probably around lunch time so we checked in and got to our room and immediately got ready for our next adventure. Sunscreen on, water packed and Everest in the front of me in his Uppababy and off we were in a tuk-tuk. It definitely is nice being able to just sit back and take in all the crazy driving. The old city is surrounded by a beautiful wall and at the points where they had to build the roads through the wall it definitely becomes a bottleneck since there is generally only 1 lane out.

Our destination was the GALTAJI TEMPLE COMPLEX (MONKEY TEMPLE). If you watch Discovery Channel like we did back in the days, you would remember that whenever there are episodes about monkeys it inevitably showed monkeys jumping off a temple into a pool. It was always cool to see that and think how amazing it would be to see that. Well here we were in Jaipur so this was really our only activity while we did our stop over. The tuk-tuk driver dropped us off at the bottom of a large hill/ mountain. He said he would wait for us which to me indicated that this will be a brisk walk up and back down. Slowly we started the climb in 100+ degree weather. On the way up you see several little "offering" buildings with monkeys just hanging out with more food than what they know what to do with. I guess it is ok to feed them, but we really did not have any food with us so feeding them was not really an options for us. The monkey is considered sacred so they are well taken care of. We got to the top of the mountain and took a little side trail to the building we were eyeing the entire time from the bottom - it was quite the hike. The building had some incredible views of this crazy city, but no temple and definitely no swimming pool. We tried to ask around but no one could help us (lack of English). When we got to the top we had to walk along this ridge for about a quarter mile to get to the building we were at. We diligently followed the ridge back and and saw that it was a long hike down the other side. We kept looking around and was ready to turn back around because there was no sign of any temple with pools and monkeys. And just as we were about to head back someone told us that the temple is all the way at the bottom on the other side. Nikkie and I looked at each other shaking our heads. That was a long climb down with a 25 pound baby strapped to me in this stupid hot weather. It also meant we would have to climb all the way down, climb back up all the way and then climb down again on the other side. Well this is why we were here so we strapped up and went for it. We slowly made it down the mountain (down the other side it definitely was more of a mountain and not a hill).

Well to make a long, hot, sweaty story short - we made it. We found a couple western tourists on the way down and their questions were 1) you brought an infant to India and 2) you hiked this with an infant in 100 plus degree weather? Yes and yes. We found the temple with the pool and monkey after monkey after monkey all around us. To be honest it was actually a little nerve-wracking with these little guys running and jumping all over the place. They were definitely a little more on the aggressive side. If it was just Nikkie and I we definitely would have been totally fine, but I definitely was a little more cautious since we had the little one. I guess aggressive is not really the right word - more curious - very, very curious. It was fun just standing there watching them being rambunctious. In and out they go. Jump in, swim around, get out and chase a couple other friends, climb up the wall, jump in again and repeat. It was also a welcome break standing in the shade getting some relieve from the heat. The crazy part as we stood there was that there was a big temple complex right below us and everyone was coming in there through an entrance. And that is when we realized - there are two ways to get to this temple - a long way for the tuk-tuk driver and a short walk for us or a short drive for the tuk-tuk driver and a loooonnngggg walk for us. Obviously our driver decided that the long walk for us was much better than the long drive for him.

We saw a couple more foreigners down there and again the only comment was "you bought a 5-month old to India?" Oh well. We started the long journey back up the hill. And oh my was it a long hill. The only thing that probably prevented us from completely collapsing on the spot was the fact that most of the climb was in the shade. Along the way we met so many locals and each and every one of them wanted a picture with Everest so it made for a really long climb, but I won't lie the breaks were very welcoming. We finally made it back to the top and the walk down the other side was not terrible. We got to the bottom and there was our driver still waiting. I wanted to say a couple choice words to him but I was too tired so I just sat back.

Back at the hotel it was still probably a hundred degrees even though it was late afternoon. After that walk the only thing we wanted to do was be in the pool. It was a welcome relief to play around in the cool water and seeing our little guy splash around. We really did not eat anything since breakfast that morning so we ordered a couple drinks (mojito and alcoholic chai drink - it was delicious) and shared a BLT (really good actually and yes after eating so may curry dishes you need to just have something familiar). I guess this is what normal people do on vacations.

Our day was not done yet as I heard Jaipur has an incredible outdoor market and we were still shopping for wedding clothes. So we got ready quickly and headed into town, but quickly found out that the market was not open on Sundays (really - the one day we are here). Definitely a huge disappointment for especially me since I love this stuff and this is where I can eat the good stuff. We headed back with the same tuk-tuk driver and got dressed for dinner at the restaurant on the property. If I have not mentioned this yet - the tuk-tuks are super cheap to take. Even earlier in the day when we were climbing up and down mountains the driver was waiting for us (who knows if he really was waiting), but regardless the fee was something like $5. Everest was pretty spent after a long day in the sun and the pool so he fell asleep pretty quickly so we just laid him down on 2 chairs and were able to have a another quiet dinner without a toddler to worry about. It was a pretty quick dinner though because we were absolutely spent after the day we had. We again ordered some good local curry with basmati rice with pomegranates for a good meal (even though I would have loved market food). So so came to an end another couple days of this incredible journey.

Good - the hotels are top-notch and really nice and you are more than taken care of for next to nothing price wise
- yes coming in everybody was saying that we are beyond crazy to drive in this country. The roads themselves are in great shape and really, besides the odd elephant or camel in the middle of the highway, it really was not that much different than most other countries (this opinion only applies to highway driving however)
- living out your best National Geographic life by being able to be at the monkey temple was just a really cool experience for us. A little underwhelming at the end of the day, but still an incredible experience for us

Bad - not going to lie, but the poverty was not good to see and was definitely eye-opening to see and experience just how poor people are
- driving in Jaipur is not for the faint of heart. You do need a sense of adventure to drive in this city

Advice - Most anywhere you go you are always cautioned not to feed the animals. Here the monkey is considered sacred so it is definitely ok feeding them
- TAKE WATER WHEREVER YOU GO
- we generally spend very little time at our hotels. In this case though if you are lucky enough to stay at any of these hotels I would recommend taking your time and taking it all in
- even during just the couple days described above we just had such an incredible time seeing everything and experiencing everything that is not big city. I can never stress enough and/or encourage people enough to get out of the big cities and see what the country looks like outside of the big city.

A whirl-wind of a couple days and definitely loved driving and experiencing this country. We checked off 3 things including Samode Hotels and India's Golden Triangle. So we finally get moving again on the count - 336 down and 5,445 to go.

Til next time from the truly, absolutely, hands-down, no contest, don't care what you say craziest driving city in the world

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Photos

Samode Palace Hotel
Can you tell we are happy to be in this country

Delhi
Yes this is literally how we marked the car rental place

Delhi
This is the side-ally of the side-ally we had to go down to get to the car rental place

Delhi
I mean what is the big deal about driving here?

Golden Triangle
A very common site on the road

Road side restaurant
Hands down best meal on the trip - and we had some good ones

Road side restaurant
Welcome to the way we do food little man

Road side restaurant
Taking care of our little man while we eat

Golden Triangle
A lot of times this is the site and then you have to watch out for the camels and elephants in the road

Golden Triangle
Hanging out on the side of the road while waiting for our sugarcane juice

Golden Triangle
As you can see we were fighting the parade going against traffic

Golden Triangle
More slow downs on the way to our hotel

Golden Triangle
Just watching his goats

Golden Triangle
Getting close to our hotel and giving him some breathing room

Golden Triangle
Watch out

Samode
Beautiful old buildings in this city

Samode Palace Hotel
Now this is what the entrance to a palace should look like

Samode Palace Hotel
Getting our bindis

Samode Palace Hotel
A truly fairytale wedding

Samode Palace Hotel
A view down across the gardens where the groom entered with his elephant

Samode Palace Hotel
What are you people doing to me

Comments

[Home and Away]

You are true adventurers...
renting a car in India! I agree with you that getting off the beaten path is the best way to see a country. Indians in the villages are so friendly!