Currency:
Indian Rupee

Highlights:
Sites and sounds of the local bazaars, snake charmer, Water Palace and the vegetarian restaurant Natraj

Our Adventure:

After making our way through the manic traffic of Mumbai we got to the airport and jumped on our 17h30 GoIndia flight headed for Jaipur. Jaipur is the largest city in Rajasthan and was built in the 18th century by Sawai Jai Singh as India's first planned city.

Our flight touched down in the Pink City at around 22h00, and the crew jumped in a taxi and headed for our hotel for the evening, Hotel Arya Naiwas - a beautiful colonial hotel in the heart of Jaipur. It had been a busy day so we all hit the sack in preparation for a big day out and about in Jaipur the next day.

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=386022&id=713415257&l=f1a6eed85a

Jaipur is often called the Pink City in reference to its distinctly coloured buildings, which were originally painted this colour to imitate the red sandstone architecture of Mughal cities. The present earthy red colour originates from the repainting of the buildings undertaken for a visit by the Prince of Wales in 1876.

The next morning we woke up and headed down to breakfast in the colonial gardens of the hotel which was a beautiful setting for breakfast. After the travel crew fueled their bodies with toasted sandwiches (the real deal that we are used to from home - awesome!) and some coffee, we packed up our kit as we had to move to Hotel Jai Niwas, a sister hotel as they were the only hotel that had room for us.

After dumping our bags it was time for our walking tour of Jaipur. Our walk started in the Old Town of Jaipur - which was very run down and soiled with litter - but nonetheless we had a great time waving at the local people, saying hello to the local kids, getting offered everything under the sun from the local shop keepers and chatting with the local labourers and traders. You could get anything you wanted in the Old Town, we even found a commodity and share broker in a run down, dilapidated old building! Superb.

We walked through the Old Town gate and we were greeted with the craziness of the streets of Jaipur. It was shopping day which meant that goods were being transported by camel, goods were being transported by oxen, goods were being transported by anything that moved and the noise from the hooters of the tuk tuks and cars was immense.

From speaking to many of our tuk tuk drivers we discovered that cows are very sacred animals in India and no one eats beef, they are only used for their milk. This does however mean that they have free reign and can be found chilling out in the middle of the manic streets, walking on the sidewalks or scrimmaging through the litter. But whatever they want to do they were allowed to do. It makes for very interesting viewing when cars, tuk tuks, cyclists, you name it are literally dodging the cows in the streets or even us as tourists trying to dodge them on the sidewalks - I almost got head butted by one of them!

Talk about an attack on the senses too - especially smell! The streets of the main road are all lined with the local bazaars which are a brilliant colourful explosion of flowers, fruit, food, spices, materials, jewelry, elephants, ox carts and goats! Walking through the bazaar you can smell the aroma of spices in canvas bags, the fetid smell of animals and open sewers, the sweet waft of tea and the acrid burn of dust and exhaust. The noise is chaotic. The people constantly stared at us due to the fact that we were Westerners (most of them finding my wife's calves extremely sexy - but hey who can blame them) and anything who had something to sell tried to sell it to us. Repeatedly.

Walking through the bazaars we were however greeted with many smiles and one Indian man selling religious stickers insisted that I take one for free. As well as that many people asked us where we were from and upon telling them South Africa we immediately started talking cricket. India is cricket crazy.

We started talking cricket with one of our new Indian friends who started giving us tips on what to see in Jaipur and when we told him that we wanted to go up one of the towers that looks over the city, he told us that it was unfortunately closed but he had a secret spot where we could get great views over Jaipur.

So just like that he walked with us, talking all the way about India and Jaipur and led us to a rooftop away from the hustle and bustle where we had magical views over Jaipur. That is one thing about the Indian people, when they are not trying to sell you something they are extremely friendly and helpful and always want to have a chat and find out all about you. After admiring Jaipur and looking out over the rooftops of the city and up to the hills that surround the city which are lined with forts we said goodbye to our Indian friend, did the obligatory stop passed the jewel shop where they tried to sell us jewels of course, and we headed on.

Next stop on our walking tour was the City Palace, which is an imposing blend of traditional Rajput and Mughal architecture. It is a vast palace complex occupying nearly one seventh of the Pink City.

We walked around the outskirts of the palace and for the first time we watched cobras dance out of their wicker baskets (with the snake charmer even slapping the cobra for having a wayward eye). After having a rather distant photo with the snake charmer and his cobras we wandered around the rest of the City Palace.

We then bumped into one of the tuk tuk drivers who ran his own business which he called "Shyam Happy Tour" and headed out to the Water Palace and Water Dam. The Water Palace is literally a palace built in the middle of the water where Mr. Shyam Happy Tour filled us in on all the history and even served as our personal photographer. It was a beautiful spot where the prince used to entertain his girlfriends - but apparently Kingfisher has now purchased it and plans to turn it into a hotel and restaurants which will be awesome.

That was it for our site seeing for the day and after jumping back on the tuk tuk we did a recon of what we had seen on the streets of Jaipur (nothing will surprise me anymore): litter, pollution, people, urinals, bazaars, old cars, tuk tuks, cyclist, cows, goats, camels and elephants. Brilliant.

Our final stop for the day was to grab a bite to eat and we headed to a restaurant called Natraj which is a Vegetarian restaurant with their catch phrase being: "To tickle the palate of the whole world".

Tickling our palates is exactly what they did and after another fantastic meal we headed back to Hotel Jai Niwas for a very relaxing evening of cards, cokes (it's very difficult to get alcohol here!) and toasted sandwiches as we had a 06h00 train journey to Agra the next day.

You can view our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=386469&id=713415257&l=b67aad1021

Next stop: Agra, India and more specifically the Taj Mahal.

Until next time,
Leise + Lara