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Published: October 13th 2009
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Last weekend we decided to get out of Gurgaon and Dehli, so we arranged for our driver to drive us to Jaopur, a city in the state of Rajasthan. To be able to get a train ticket in this well organized country you have to book several weeks in advance through a not so logical booking system (it may be that we are a bit stupid, however, to us the system is a little bit difficult..). We therefore decided to give our driver Ravi some extra work hours and asked if he could drive us to Jaipur.
Indian highways....are probably not on the list of safe ways to travel (if anyone thought so), however we were not aware that it would be that crazy.
We left Dehli in the evening just before sunset. There are no lights along the indian highway, and the road is dominated by large trucks of various age and quality. If any traffic rules they are not enforced anywhere, and its like participating in a motorcrossrace...(I would think..). Our driver is not the best driver, and we were rather stressed out the whole trip... (which lasted for more than 4 hours..). At one point, our driver stopped
Highway to Jaipur...
Driver disappeared... just next to the highway (still no lights) and ran out of the car to pay "state tax" to the Rajasthan state that we were about to enter. He disappeared and we were left in a car in the darkness with giant trucks passing by only few meters away.
Jaipur!! One of the youngest cities in Rajasthan (established in 1727), the state capital of Rajasthan (neighbourstate to Haryana where we live) and known as the Pink City (!!). The pink city was the original capital and is enclosed by walls which separate it from the more "modern" part of the city. It contains a city palace (which to my disappointment is not pink...) where a part of the royal family (of jaipur) still lives.
We arrived late in the evening, tired, but happy and relieved that we had survived the indian highway (we do not intend to take any more roadtrips while we are here- plane and train will be our choice of transportation for the furture). Our hotel, Shahpura house, was a gorgeous heritage hotel located in a surprisingly quiet neighbourhood and we woke up ready for sightseeing on saturday morning.
At breakfast, I learned that for eggyolk to
be yellow it is a prerequisite that the chicken eats enough corn. This was not the case for the chicken that had made the egg I was planning to eat, it was all white, probably fine, but to strange to eat for breakfast..
We met up with our driver and drove into the chaos of Jaipur traffic (Jaipurs traffic is actually known for its gridlocks..) to find the pink city palace.
On our way to find a decent lunchplace Will got attacked by a cow (it had to happen at some point) while I was taking a picture of him and the cow. We were saved by a man on a bike and I laughed so much that i stepped in some cowshit..
After lunch we did try to do some shopping in the bazars of the pink city, however, it was to much of a hassle and quite overwhelming with hundreds of people throwing things in your face when you pass by their shop.
We returned to hotel in the evening and prepared for Jaipurs nightlife.. Unfortunately we found that there was no such thing as nightlife in Jaipur. One place recommended by our guidebook had a huge covercharge
and we therefore chose to go to another bar (recommended for its wiew, not great nightlife). We were the only people there, together with a gigantic stuffed horselike toy..Lesson learned: Go to the place recommended for good nightlife no matter what the covercharge is.
The following day we left the hotel and drove to Amber city which is just outside Jaipur on the way to Dehli.
The actual Amber fort is located on the top of a hill and you can either walk your way up or ride an elephant!!
We decided to go with the elephant option, which was absolutely fantastic! The elephant Corinna took us all the way up to the fort, exactly like the old kings would have arrived their fort! Meeting Corrina the elephant was for me one of the highlights of our expedition to Jaipur!
Our drive back to Dehli went rather smoothly, however, it was frightening even in daylight.
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Veronika
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colours!
Those Indians sure like their colours! Good to see you get to travel around a bit :)