Namaste dudes,

So the next stop on our tour of north India was Jaipur, known as the pink city because at sunset its terracotta walls glow a goldy pink colour, very girly ;)

We saw a fair few things whilst we were there, on our first night we met a rickshaw driver who helped find us a cheap and nice place to stay, he was probably working on commission but after treking round in circles he had done a better job than we had. He offered to show us the city the following day and so at 10am the next morning we were off to see the sights.

The old town is cool, its walled off and has 8 gates of entry, each gate has a bazaar dedicated to selling one main form of produce, from fruit and veg to kites and fireworks - The fireworks were put with the kites because they are classed as a childrens toy! like I have said before there is no need for ID to buy explosives in India.
The driver took us into the old city and down a back street specialising in bathroom appliances - I was baffled when he pulled over and pointed to one of the stores. I quickly explained that although they were really delightful, neither of us were in market for buying a new fur covered toilet seat or matching curtains. He didnt understand and got out ushering us to follow? in the end he took us to a door which was owned by the india heritage corporation and after a very long climb up god knows how many stairs we found ourselves above the city on top of an old stone tower. The views were ace and reinforced the feeling of the city being jam packed as we could barely see any pavement space even from that high up.

The tuk tuk driver was insane, I cant remember his name but half the time (like my camel) he was barely even watching what he was doing, no space too small, no child too close and most definately no speed limit - we got to our next destination so quickly I felt like Id been catapulted there!

Our next stop was Janta Manta - an observatory built to observe the sun and position of the stars. Thats all good an well but on a day where there is no sun and just hot clouds it wasnt that impressive. It was packed as well with indian tour groups as well as westeners milling around and staring at extremely large stone structures - they all read the little explanitory plackards and then stared some more. I couldnt understand the facination and after a picture under a tree shaped like a mushroom, pretending to be a scorpion for one of me with the stone structure of my star sign and advising Kimberley on how to pull off an effective impression of a buffalo - because she refused to be a cow (shes a taurus), we left in the knowledge that just because something is busy doesnt mean its necessarily good!

Following this we went to a water palace, I presume this name doesnt just come from the fact that its in the middle of a lake but also because the bottom 2 floors are now submerged! There are still people living in it though - I think they just get a boat across and then climb in through an upper window? Another thing which caught my attention was the two trees growing on the roof - neither in a shape as impressive as a mushroom but still impressive in their location!

Our final stop was to see a spiritualist, this was my favourite thing of the day. Im not a believer in people who speak to the dead, auras and such like but after seeing this man I did start to question if my original thoughts were correct.
We went into a jewellery shop owned by the spirit dudes nephew, kim ended up buying a ring whilst we waited for the guy to show up. When he did he took us through to the back and automatically started telling us specific things about us. For example I sat down and he told me I had been ill the night before, this was no big deal but I should be nice to my stomach for 2 days - this was completely correct!
From there he went on to explain most of kimberleys medical history and emotional traumas she had occurred through her life and some problems her family may see in the future - by coincidence kimberley went online later to find that her sister had sent a quick email and confirmed one of the things the spiritualist had said, kim hadnt told her anything yet.

Anyway Im not going to go into specifics about either mine of kims experiences but its needless to say that both of us sceptics on the way in came out amazed and completely confused in our thoughts - he was so precise in his claims and never prompted by either of us! One thing I am sure about is that guy has a gift whether its as a truely believable con man or as a guy that can read you within 30 seconds of meeting you?!

Another cool thing which I did was drive the insane mans tuk tuk! Its just like driving a motorbike with 3 wheels - I got the hang of the gears and clutch pretty quickly and with Kimberley in the back and the driver sat next to me I drove us home. At one point he forgot to tell me we were about to turn a corner and instead just grabbed the handle bars and yanked I was still on the accellerator and so panicked and pushed harder. Kim saw the life flash before her eyes, I screamed and a driver coming the other way around the corner had bring his car to a screatching hault haha. At the end of the day it was the tuk tuk guys fault for not warning me and yet another one of my nine lives gone :)

Our day in Jaipur had been cool, often down to me and kim taking the mick rather than taking anything seriously but it didnt end as well as it had begun.

This just shows the mentality and occurances I have encountered all too often in this country. Me and kim stopped at an offlicence to buy a nice little bottle of gin to drink that night on our roof. We asked the price of the bottle and the seller said 380 rupees, I checked the bottle and the rrp inc tax was 230 rupees? When we questioned it he said tax - of course we explained that the price on the bottle had the tax included?! Thats when he made me so angry, he actually laughed and said "no no no not that tax ... white tax" WHITE TAX! he was charging us 150 rupees more because we were white! It happens all the time, we rarely pay an indian price but to actually admit it to our faces as a plausable explanation?! its so annoying and people like him can ruin the indian experience with their ignorance. Needless to say we both voiced our anger, he then recoiled and offered us the bottle at the real price. Thats when he did something even worse... Kim accepted his price and handed over a 500 note - she looked down for a split second (I was distracted as I was still calling him a racist and telling him is mother would be ashamed? I was angry and it was the only thing I could think of) when kim looked back up the guy had a 100 note in his hand and told her thats what she had given him. Kim gave another 130 and as we went to leave she realised she had been hustled the guy saw her twig and just grinned straight at her. We tried to get her money back but there was no point, we couldnt prove it and he didnt care! Sometimes this country really tries my patience!

So that night we drowned our sorrows in gin and lemonade and after a good slagging off of ignorant racists and the effects this would have on younger generations (we were a little bit tipsy and thought we were the all seeing new ghandis of the world) we went to bed pleased in our understanding out look on life and the fact we werent so closed minded.

Jaipur was neither the best or worst place I have been but I still enjoyed myself a lot!

xxx