Jaipur

We departed early from Bharatpur and headed towards Jaipur, my last stop with the group before I headed off on my own! We stopped at a few more temples and ruins along the way, but I think by now most of us lacked too much interest! When you have seen one sand palace you have seen then all!

Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and is known as the pink city. When prince Elbert visited the Majarah told everyone they had to paint there buildings pink! So far I haven't seen any pink just the usual grey concrete!

We arrived late afternoon so the planned palace tour was put off for the day and we chilled out at the hotel until later that night when we went to watch a Bollywood movie.

The raj mandir theatre is apparently on of the largest and best in the country. Its a very old building but the inside is very well decorated with amazing lights. It's certainly a different experience than at home!
The movie is of course in Hindi so we all had to concentrate really hard on what was going on. Every so often you would suddenly have the customary Indian music and dancing along with the audience shouting and cheering whenever the characters looked like they would kiss.

The movie had an interval half way through and every time a character was seen smoking a massive message would come along the bottom of the screen saying "warning smoking is injurious to health". Overall the film was ok, the fighting scenes made us laugh and the sheer craziness of the audience really gets everyone going! A worth while Indian experience!

The next morning we headed to the famous "Amber fort" which was impressive, it sits at the top of a mountain with impressive towers and even an artificial lake at the bottom! You could ride elephants to the top but we decided to be responsible travellers and walk in the mid day sun!

That afternoon we visited a fabric shop as all the girls wanted to buy presents! Us 3 guys sat and ate samosas with chai for over an hour to let the girls pick out everything from scarfs to bed sheets!

We were taken to the city palace for an audio guided tour but most of us left after 10 minutes, deciding instead to take a Tuk Tuk down to McDonald's for a change of food but I really messed it up! Being in India and the main religion is Hindu, you can't find any burgers made of beef!! So no Big Macs! The choice was either chicken or vegetable burgers. No one could speak English so I just pointed at something on the menu but i had chosen an "Mcaloo tikka burger" essential it was just curry source with potato in a burger. Not really what I was after!! I ordered a chicken burger after which wasn't to bad! Nothing is ever simple in India!!

Later that night we had all agreed to go for a cooking lesson with a nice family at there home.

I definitely picked up some great tips and will try to make a few bits when I go home! The food was excellent and we all had a great night! Once again proving that some of the best experiences are the ones when you interact with the local people.

The house we took the lesson at was very large and clearly the owners had a lot of money. The husband had been a civil engineer and his father was also an engineer for air India for many years so we had a lot to talk about.
They had a daughter studying engineering at Delhi university, one of the best in India! She is only 22 but he told me that in a years time she would get married, but first they had to find her a husband as she would have an arranged marriage!

Arranged marriages are still very important in India and the process of picking who to marry is a big one!
The family's would tell everyone that they are looking for a husband and then they would decide to meet a few family's who could be suitable and in the same "Cask"(class) system as them. If both family's approve then the couple finally get to meet and later get married!

As strange as it seems to western people, the system seems to work! They have a much lower divorce rate than the west and from the people I have met they seem happy although I would imagine that the family's put a lot of pressure on the couple to make it work!

After the cooking lessons we all took Tuk Tuks back to the hotel where we had a bit of a party as it was my last night with the group!

We partied until 5am, but everyone in the hotel certainly knew that already! Some very angry people the next morning!!!