Blogs from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 4

I’ve been a little tardy at keeping up to date with this, so much has been happening! So the trip to Jaipur started with a 5am wake up call in Delhi. The trains that I need to get either seem to leave super early or arrive super late. Preferring to leave in darkness rather than arrive in darkness, I take the early ones. I therefore upped and began walking down the lanes towards the station being pretty sure that someone would come along in a rickshaw. Soon enough a rickshaw bike pulled up and pedalled me and my heavy backpack to the station. I’d read so much online about Delhi station and none of it was reassuring. Everyone wrote about too many platforms; information signs that don’t match platforms and having to pay a porter or ... read more

Der Ausblick bei Sonnenaufgang aus unserem Zimmer in Udaipur auf den Pichola - See und die Paläste war wirklich ganz bezaubernd. Wir besichtigten am Morgen den Stadtpalast mit schönen Innenhöfen und vielen architektonischen Schönheiten. Ein Teil des riesigen Komplexes (über 4 Jhdt. entstanden) wird immer noch von der Königsfamilie bewohnt. Ein Palast in einem anderen See (mit 3 Stöcken unterhalb der Wasseroberfläche) kann nicht besichtigt oder genutzt werden, da nicht geklärt ist, wem er eigentlich gehört... Auf der (langen) Autofahrt nach Jodhpur besichtigten wir den Jain-Tempel in Ranakpur: wirklich grossartige Architektur. Diese Religion entstand ungefährt gleichzeitig wie der Buddhismus und hat viele Anhänger auf der ganzen Welt. Am nächsten Morgen in Jodhpur schauten wir das uneinnehmbare Fort Meherangar (mit Palast) auf einem Hügel an: die Mauern wurden direkt aus dem Felsen geha... read more

Woolly says – The traffic never rests in this country and Sunday is no exception. My ears were hurting by the time we arrived at our first pink extravagander of the day, namely the City Palace. Formerly the seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur, the head of the Kachwaha Rajput clan. It was built between 1729 and 1732, initially by Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, he planned and built the outer walls, and later additions were made by successive rulers continuing up to the 20th century. Having paid for our tickets which wouldn’t include the palace interior, very pricey and not in our budget, we wandered into the first courtyard. The walls almost looked as they though were a stage set and didn’t really look pink, more of a dusky peach colour. The ... read more

Another brilliant day and blue sky sunny too. Perfect daytime temperature at about 24 degrees for sightseeing but the evening temperature could do with being a couple of degrees higher as need to wear a jacket against the evening chill and have not really come equipped for that. We were up and out bright and early for our trip to the Amber (Amer to the locals) Fort which is 11 km out of town. We booked a hotel taxi, same as previous day and in fact hadn't even paid him yet for yesterday as he didn't seem to care about when he got his money. Hard to tell where end of Jaipur is as it's quite a big sprawl, but when we spotted a camel being walked down the road we thought perhaps we were into ... read more

Had this trip planned for months. Nothing better to beat the January blues than the knowledge that in early February we will be replacing dull, wintry England for warm and exciting India. A little worried the night before we left as forecast was for snow in the early hours, both at home and the airport. Yes it did snow. At least 1mm. It didn't stop us, just made us walk up the path more carefully with the suitcases to Jeremy's waiting car, as he drove us to the airport. This blog entry covers 2 days, Tuesday and Wednesday as when you don't have a sleep between the two it's very hard to say what day was which. Our Emirates flight from Manchester to Dubai was delayed by an hour while they de-iced the wings but we ... read more