ANA AND ANDY, JAIPUR, INDIA. 23rd DEC 2013

Jaipur

Jaipur-y Ana :)

Jaipur train

We left Sawai Madhopur on a late train back to Jaipur and were back to Jaipur in time to be met by the complimentary pickup offered by the Hotel Pearl Palace (yes, Palace).  Initially we couldn’t find the auto-rickshaw person with my name so we borrowed a phone off a local who then tried to press Andy for cash - all the best with that!

Hotel was ace, best we’d stayed in to-date and was a good base to explore Jaipur and it’s surroundings for a few days.  After a long day we retired to our room with immaculate toilet facilities and slept ready for the first proper day in Jaipur.

Pink City

We headed out on foot to the Pink City - the old part of town.  When we arrived we were a little underwhelmed due to the poor maintenance of this historic part of town.  Busy busy with lots of hassle, hustle and bustle but we made it! 

On route to the city palace we were stopped by a guy who suggested that we went to the top of the local Krishna temple to get a view of the city, which we did.  It was a peaceful spot and we were shown around by Ravi, we then headed back into the city to find the palace.

Looked around the city palace and listened to the informative audio guide, which kept directing us to shops!  The palace area is in poor state but there are some beautiful parts to admire.  Following this we headed into the Hawa Mahal - the palace of the winds (insert own curry jokes here). Again this was a little underwhelmin inside but spectacular on the outside.  From the outside we met a guy who claimed to own the Hawa Mahal and was going to sell it to us for 1 million rupees!!  Good deal we thought, so we stumped up the cash and bought it… NOT :)

Photos of the Palace in the 'Pink City' and the Hawa Mahal:

Back to the hotel via a pit stop in a walking shop to find Andy some dubbin for his boots (which he is insistent that he will find in India…).  Good meal at the Peacock rooftop restaurant which happens to be at the top of the Pearl Palace (yes Palace) so hurrah for us.  Andy broke his meat fast here and had lal maas, aka lamb curry or literally, red meat. Good news is that he didn’t die or have his guts fall out so another hurrah for me.

We met an older couple this evening who were on their second or third trip to India and were planning on searching for the sun over the xmas season.

Amber Fort

The next day took us all the way out to the Amber Fort, with our hired auto-rickshaw driver to get us there and back - Yousef.

Amber Fort was massive!! The biggest by far and was surrounded by city walls that stretched for miles, as far as the eye could see.  For a pit stop we went into Cafe Coffee Day - local version of Starbucks.  We met a nice group of Architecture students from Gujurat and had our drinks with them.  We also had to negotiate the cost of the coffee and managed to get down from 300INR to 170INR even though the prices were on the menu! Morons.

We explored the fort and then left the grounds to explore the city walls!  Long hike up to the top all for a great view over the town, and it was certainly worth it, with Andy leading the way (so there to all of you who think I give him a hard time!!).  Once we’d been in, about and around we then ventured into the basement and realised we were walking beneath a sea of bats!  So didn’t stay in there for too long, but enough to scare a couple of Indian lads by pointing them out :)

Amber fort Pics...:

The Amber fort - like a bond villan hideaway....

This guy is carrying a bin full of poppadoms on his head...hmmmm

On the way back we stopped off at the Water Palace to take some snaps.  It’s in the middle of a lake with no boat access so not much to see, but apparently there are 5 floors below water and these are being turned into some sort of restaurant.

Jal Mahal - most of is underwater, so they say, but you cant go in to check....

Yousef drove us through the ‘back way’ home and took us through some pretty impoverished places and told us in a bit more local detail about the caste system, namely about the ‘untouchables’ who seem to be pretty much doing all the jobs that others see below them.  Such a shame that it almost reminds me a bit of home that people have that perception about what someone does for a living.  I wonder where we would fall in the caste system, I’d like to think we are part of the warrior caste, but something tells me different :)

Cooking class - finally!

We took part in a cooking class with chef Lokesh, a pretty interesting guy who has been a chef all over the world and spent many years in Dubai and Bahrain chefing for the Royal Family!  He guided us and two others (Jeremy and Angie from USA) around a full Indian menu.  Including;

Aloo Tikki, Paneer Butter Masala, Chicken Korma, Channa Masala (chickpeas), Roti, Gulab Jamun and some side dishes to follow!  We all took part and it was good fun and a great insight into Indian cusine and actually how easy it is! Emilie - I now know how easy yours and Andy’s CDWM menu was!! No wonder we had to make Mr P dress up in paper garments to prolong the evening ;)

Chef Lokesh (on the right) and Ana rolling some Gulab Jamun mixture

Once cooked, we all sat down to dinner with Chef Lokesh who also provided us with a beer or two and some fruity goodness for me.  Jeremy and Angie were travelling around lots too and gave us an insight into Nepal…  Not long now!

Train

Then time to leave Jaipur and our train was pretty late, left around 11.30pm so we got our heads down and enjoyed the train sleep :)  A long journey again but was entertained at the station by a group of young lads who claimed to be dancers and one looked a little like Michael Jackson in a  little red leather jacket - he was chuffed when I told him that.

Next Stop Udaipur...