Blogs from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 9

My last stop in the state of Rajasthan would be its capital city, Jaipur. Apparently this was India's first planned city and now has a population of about 7 million. Indians call this the pink city due to the colour of stone used for many of the buildings. Much of the city was painted pink in 1876 to welcome the visiting prince of Wales, as pink was considered the colour of hospitality. Bev and myself had a general ticket for the short train journey from Ajmer. There was nowhere to sit, so instead we just remained standing at the end of one of the carriages and looked out at the passing scenery from the open doors. The train made a few stops and then arrived at the junction in Jaipur. Suddenly a massive crush of people ... read more

I began the day by watching the Super Bowl halftime show and part of the second half before heading to breakfast! i then kept thinking all day that it was Sunday. The sightseeing highlight today was a visit to Amber Fort-Palace, another World Heritage Unesco Sight. It was built in the 16th century and included the 12 apartments for the king's 12 wives and a beautiful room with the walls and ceilings covered with tiny intricately carved mirrors. The original idea behind using the mirrors was to reflect the colors in the rugs....which were changed to reflect the moods of the king. We had some time to try our hand at bargaining in a large bazaar. I was intimidated at first but actually had fun playing the game. I bought a punjab after quite a bit ... read more

Our group wondered if leaving the hotel at 5 a.m. Was really necessary when our flight wasn't boarding until 7:50 and it was a Sunday morning so the traffic should be light.....well, first of all there is no such thing as "light traffic" in Delhi and secondly the sirport security really takes a long time. It was a 45 minute flight but took close to 5 hours to get from our hotel in Delhi to our hotel in Jaipur i had pictured Jaipur to be much smaller than Delhi....Well it's all relative since Delhi is a metropolis with a population of 22 million and Jaipur has "only" a population of 2 million. It's the capital of the state of Rajasthan and growing fast as people from rural areas move there for better economic opportunities. The same ... read more

By eight o’clock this morning, I was at New Gate, one of the ancient-looking arched entrances to ‘The Pink City’, Jaipur’s old town. Everything was still asleep, the little signs of life just sweepers moving dust and rubbish from one place to another with their long swishing brooms, an occasional cycle-rickshaw with its pedalling driver cloaked in a blanket or a motorcyclist wearing a bandit mask against the cold. A few bedraggled street dogs wandered aimlessly in search of sustenance, uttering half-hearted barks at the approach of others. It was cool and hazy, a lull before the rising sun brought heat to what would become crowded streets noisy with the constant sounding of horns and lawnmower-engined auto-rickshaws belching fumes into the already polluted air. My new friend Manish arrived a few minutes later, quickly finding ... read more

The taxi to the station in Delhi proved to be the first challenge. Even though Rajesh had told the driver where we were going (and it was a station, after all, not some random house!), he was asking passing taxis and tuk-tuks how to get there at the first junction we came to which did not bode well! This continued the whole trip and though H's magic gadget showed that he was initially going the right way, later he took a wrong turn and we eventually ended up at the other side of the tracks from where the main station entrance is. He and everyone around were insistent we had to get out there but it was not a nice place to walk around with all our stuff and involved walking up huge numbers of stairs ... read more