Health and Happiness: May 2013

I kept a journal during my travels and am going to transcribe those entries here.

We woke up early to catch the Ajmer Shatabdi at 6am, Delhi Station, to Jaipur. Even at that time there was so much liveliness and activity in the station. Once again we headed to the 1 AC executive chair coach compartments, which were mostly filled by foreigners and well-to-do Indians. They were quite comfortable (but by no means considered "executive" by Western standards) and we were served lunch, coffee, tea, snacks, water bottles and newspapers (all included in the ticket). With my ipod on and earphones in, I hardly noticed the 4+ hours fly by.

Passing by a Rajasthani village

The views of Rajasthan consisted of mostly desert with some greenery here and there. We also saw some villagers, men and women going about their daily business, and it looked like straight out of the movies. There were four young Spanish backpackers seated in front of me, and they thought I was Indian and asked me about Jaipur. I told them it was my first time there and my American accent helped to back that up. It was interesting to me how the Indians could tell right away I was a foreigner while the foreigners thought I was Indian.

As usual, there were beggars outside of the station and our rickshaw driver (sent by the hotel to pick us up, with our names written on a piece of paper) told us that school is free and giving out money only encourages children to beg. It was still painful to see a woman and child hound as all the way to the rickshaw and keep at it until the rickshaw pulled away. We made it to the Sundar Palace Hotel within 10 minutes and I have to say, it is a GREAT hotel! It's beautiful, well-kept, with wonderful staff and spacious rooms. I couldn't have been happier with my selection! We also hired a taxi through the hotel and our driver, named Moinuddin, was pleasant, professional and actually great company!

A common area inside of our "sundar" hotel. I met a nice British lady here.

Our first stop was the magnificent Amber Fort and we had to go through the old city to get there, as well as through lots of traffic and some narrow back alleys. On the way, there were so many interesting views that I could have spent the whole day in the car! Every city, anywhere in the world, really has a personality of its own. The views were especially spectacular as we got closer to the fort, which was the palace of the Rajasthani princess Jodhaabai's brother, Mann Singh. It was huge and well preserved and thankfully there were no aggressive hawks here, although our driver advised us to say no to everyone who asked us to hire them as a tour guide.

Passing through Old City traffic

Amber Fort

Inside of Amber Fort

Splendor graces every corner!

View of the city

Mirrors

Being a typical tourist :)

Western-style coffee shop inside of the fort

Afterwards, Moin took us to a textile factory when we told him we wanted to do some shopping. I had a feeling it was one of those things I had read about in guide books: driver takes you to a place, gets commission off of it, and you feel pressured to buy stuff. However, I was actually fine with it. I forgot the name of the place, but the guy there showed us how block prints were made, which was pretty cool, and I got to keep the elephant print. We did cut him off (which might have been rude, but time was limited!) and asked to see the merchandise. After lots of haggling, I walked away with seven beautiful pillow covers at 100 INR each.

We also stopped at the breathtaking Jal Mahal.

Jal Mahal - The Water Palace

The not-so-sublime surroundings of the Jal Mahal

For the evening, we booked Moin to take us to Chokhi Dhani. My mom complained from the beginning: the entire place is set up like a traditional Rajasthani village, so it was darker than she would have liked (the vibe was that of a night-time fair). She was also none too pleased with having to take her shoes off and sitting crossed leg at the dining area. I, however, did enjoy it - it was quite an authentic experience! Foreigners were few and far, the vast majority were Indian tourists there to have a good time in Jaipur. Going with the fair-like atmosphere, there were areas with live singing, dancing, puppet shows, elephant rides, bonfires and more.