After a early start (4 am) we were off to Agra Fort station for our only seated train journey so far. We got to Jaipur Junction around 9am, luckily this time the hotel we were going to stay at Krishna Palace provides a free station pickup, so we didn’t have to do our usual negotiating with the many and varied tuk-tuk and rickshaw drivers.
It seemed the biggest city so far that we had been to in India, as we found out on the first afternoon when we walked into the middle of town. Or what we thought was the middle, we figured out later that we had walked right past it. On the surface it did not seem to be the romantic pink city it is sold as. After not having much luck with the sights, attention turned as ever to food. We got a tuk-tuk to the recommended Peacock rooftop restaurant, had a crack at the Tandoori menu and then watched the never-ending supply of Diwali fireworks that everyone still seemed to possess.
The second day with lessons learnt we got a ride down to the city palace by T-T, with Ismail our new best friend. Once the main residence of the Maharaja in these parts, the palace is nowadays (like many in this state) a museum. Not a bad one, you learn about the Majaharaja’s family tree, the additions each generation has made to the palace and the community during their reign. They always seem to have a good weapons/armoury display in these places. After that we went and had a look at Hawa Mahal, built for the Maharaja’s many ladies who could, from 5 storeys up view the goings on in the city without anyone seeing them. He was a bit insecure I think, as he also only used eunuchs to guard the Maharani’s. Apart from a brief excursion up to the Jal Mahal – a small palace in the middle of a lake – on Ismail’s insistence, that was more than enough sightseeing for one day.
The next we decided to take “off” as such, and just spent the day in and around the hotel and train station, sorting out future trains and hotels etc. Also with one eye on Star Sports with the 5th day of test set up to be a cracker, if NZ could knock off the last 5 wickets and have around a chase of 150-200 to win. Sadly the Indian middle and lower order found some resistance and the match ended in a draw. There was an eventful trip to the barbers, which took around 1.5 hrs for a shave and a face pummeled by and what called a massage machine. But looked more like a circular sanding machine. Andy made friends with the barbers young daughter through paper darts and drawing, his older son later arrived and finished off his fathers shaving work. And then proceeded to showed us his dance moves(he was auditing for an national TV dance talent show the next day) after some more tea we finally made it out – it wad a fun way to kill a couple of hours
The last day in Jaipur we spent at the Amber Fort, the biggest draw in these parts. Ismail drove us out of town to the Fort after hounding us on the phone, around 8 am for the last two days. The Fort and the palace inside, is a spectacular to see set on a hill with miles (10) of fortified walls protecting all entrances to it. We hired a guide to show us around, although at one point his attention was drawn towards economics and the speed in which you could make money in India these days. We thought he was going to try and sell us an investment scheme on the side! Luckily he got back to the fort and imparting his knowledge of that to us. Not yet fort-ed out, we wandered up to the Jaigarh Fort a few hundred hot meters above the Amber fort. Its the older one and where the Maharaja would have his troops garrisoned ready to deploy if there was any trouble heading his way. A very good viewing point for the Amber fort and all the way back to Jaipur itself. A quick stop at a clothes factory on the way back to the hotel the only purpose of it? to get Ismail (+919610974817 by the way, if anyone ever requires a tuk-tuk driver in Jaipur) a new shirt for us just showing face. An that was Jaipur, next stop Jaisalmer on 23:57 train that night.
Jaigarh Fort
