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Hawa Mahal
Jaipur's most distinctive landmark "Namaste, Ab Kaise/Kaisee Haing"
(Hello, how are you?)
So we arrived in Jaipur, one of the locations of India's 'Golden Triangle' ha that's a joke this place is a dump!!! and to top it off there's not really much culture here at all, it's all big jewellery shops and traffic conjested streets.
Nic - That's a little harsh, but it's fair to say that such an iconic place on the India tourist circuit really wasn't what we expected. We got off to a bad start, trapsing around trying to find somewhere to stay, thinking that they'd be in abundance....sadly they weren't and we were quite frazzled by the time we found somewhere.
As we headed out to explore "The Pink City" we were looking forward to seeing some beautiful city walls and buildings. Maybe our expectations are now too high as we've been so lucky to see many outstanding things so far in our trip, but when we got to the city walls and one of the main city gates to find it painted salmon pink with crudely painted detailing in cream, we were most disappointed! (apparantly it had been restored a few years ago, but this has
made it look very "Mickey Mouse"!
During our 3 days here we explored a little more and did find a hint of the old city shining through, the palace and some of the old buildings are nice, but we did look forward to leaving! There wasn't an awful lot to fill 3 days so (unfortunately for Dan!) we ended up shopping and I eventually picked out a new suit (my other made to measure one ripped through heavy backpack wear and tear!) and that was about the highlight of this place for me! (and made it all even worse for Dan - He HATES shopping!!)
The city was completely back to normal after all the bombs the previous week and if we hadn't heard the news we would never have guessed that such horrendous events had happened here.....we did see some shrapnel holes in a wall at one of the sights, but thought it best not to take photos!
The one good thing about coming to a city, away from the smaller religious areas we've been in recently, is the return of meat!!!......We've been living on veggies for almost......(Dad's dont be disgusted with us...)....2 weeks! And poor
old Dan had started to wither, so our first evening meal here consisted of a mega tandoori meat platter. Not quite content, the second night we returned to order a whole tandoori chicken which Dan devoured like the 'Tazmanian Devil' in a whirlwind of sauce, saliva and meat and it was gone within seconds!!! I think he's nearly back up to full strength again now!
Dan - alot of hassel around these parts, as we've been here for so long to shrug them off we now say (phonetic spelling)
"Mai India Ki-hoo Jai Yey dek-he yay acha tourist Rahena dijay gareeb Indian akela"
(My country is India, go find some real tourists and Leave us poor Indians alone)!!!
Does the job but gains us indian friends as they love Hindi speakers.
Got a funny story to tell you, the other day we needed to sort out some train tickets so we arrived early before the reservation office opened to a massive crowd waiting at the doors (the trains are very popular here so reservations are crucial. The doors were due to open at 8.00am and its first come first served only limited tickets availible. I thought sh*t
i've got my backpack on (25kg) plus my day pack containing water (5 kgs) I knew as soon as the doors opened it was going to be a violent stampead (been in many indian que's and so learnt many lessons from the experts themselves). Anyway as soon as the doors opened I shouted 'Challo' (let's go) I steam rolled through them all, throwing Indians out my way as I charged across the hall to the window. What indians do here is they splatt themselves up hard enough against the windows so nobody can scrape them off to push in front, they mow through the crowds pushing old grannies and the decrepit aside and trampling on the small. It's not a time for manners and even the women get in on the action clawing at each other to get to the front of the "Ladies que" (Which is actually a shorter que that pushes in infront of the men!). Anyway got to the front......bosh.
So thank god we're off to Agra home of the Taj. Cant wait!
Stay tuned..............
Dan & Nic
xxxxx
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culture -get me out
ah man sounds like its nast y there amazin after youve been in natural places of poverty to indutrialised cities with poverty the difference! yeah the buildings actually look like florida!! was sayin ur lingo to the indian mans they were craking up! gwan dan an nic heavin thru the train lol i feel u on the chicken dan im a meat eater peace