Leaving Jaipur…

I ordered a 5am wake-up call (because I had turned off my almost dead phone – which is also my alarm clock – by that point) and it cleverly rang all the way in the bathroom. Twice. Annoying, but it worked so I can’t complain.

The pre-dawn streets were quiet as we walked toward the train station. The block before we reached it, though, the streets turned into utter crowded chaos and I wondered where everyone had suddenly come from. Crossing traffic half-asleep was kind of nerve-wracking; autos, taxis, bikes, and people everywhere moved all around us. It was a little intimidating in fact, but we reached the train station without incident and found our platform no problem.

The Double Decker to Delhi

Well, no problem until we realized two stops down that we incorrectly read our text-messaged train ticket (that I had forwarded to Chris). It read “C10U 96 C10U 97, C10U 98”. What it meant was Carriage 10, upper level, seats 96, 97, and 98. We were in Carraige 1, though, as the 0 in the tiny SMS was ambiguous. (When we eventually walked back nine cars to Carriage 10 – and asked the couple guys who had sat there to move – we recognized a couple other passengers who had made the same mistake.) The seats were nice, but tight. And we had to pay for breakfast this time.

But for the most part, the ride back (which ended at a different station than we started, weirdly) went smoothly.

So, Jaipur thoughts…

I loved Jaipur, especially the city center. It looked pleasant and wanderable. I saw plenty of sidewalks (a lack of sidewalks is one of my biggest complaints about walking around Indian cities), the streets were in a consistent grid full of the Pink, and it is just cute. The unique forts in the hills outside the city were a bonus. As Pete was saying, “It’s like everywhere that’s not Noida is pretty.” I would definitely like to go back and revisit.

I am surprised the population is more than the Denver metro area; it feels like a much smaller city. Notably, the movie Most Exotic Marigold Hotel was set and filmed here, though I was not particularly reminded of it as we criss-crossed the city. I was nervous before I came that the beggars and touts would be plentiful and aggressive because this is a very popular tourist destination. However, there were not many beggars compared to Delhi, I thought. The number of people who desperately wanted to be our guide was somewhat astonishing, but they were super friendly of course, even though they tried to convince us that there was stuff we could not see without one, which did not seem to be the case. We declined their services, mostly because we didn’t want to go to a tourist shop afterward.

Something funny I noticed is the new sales tactic at intersections. Up until now, I’ve seen people selling towels, flowers, cleaning windshields, and straight-up begging, hoping to make a rupee at the red light. But now, when the cars are stopped, they *hold a shade up to the car window* to relieve you from the heat of the sun and then ask for money. So clever! They are probably doing the same thing in Delhi, but as our taxi route has no red lights (busy 4-way intersections, yes, red lights, no) I haven’t witnessed intersection commerce in a while.

Animal Roundup

We saw so many different kinds of animals here, I started keeping a list.

• Cows and calves (naturally)
• Horses
• Goats (especially at the forts; above photo was on our way down from Nahargarh)
• Pigs (we spotted groups of them just a couple times from the car)
• Elephants (we saw more than one Tourist Elephant, all painted and decorated, walking up the streets of the Old City.)
• Camels (several places offered tourist camel rides)
• Dogs (but not nearly as many as we see in Delhi)
• Cats!
• Monkeys (naturally)
• Lizard (a cousin of Guido was hanging at Jaigarh Fort)
• Frog (at the Chokhi Dhani outdoor restaurant)

When we were planning this trip, we had a thought to try to see Ranthambore National Park where, if you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of a tiger. But the smaller vehicles were already booked for the weekend and getting out there – another few hours from Jaipur – would have been hectic. I’m ambivalent about animal safaris. It’s cool to see the big predators out in their natural habitat, but not so cool I want to go really out of my way to see them. I was game for it (pun intended) mostly because I like doing different things occasionally, when I’m not feeling lazy.

Doors

Without intending to (at first anyway) I started taking pictures of various doors I saw in Jaipur. Not sure why I kept up with the theme, probably unconsciously using an idea from a magazine or art show I saw once, but I figured I’d post them anyway.

Break on through to the other side…

And with that, two points of the Golden Triangle are down. Probably saving the third (Agra where the Taj Mahal is) until I have visitors.