Hello from Jaipur

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I have written. I think the last time I had a chance was in Delhi, or maybe not. We are on the move so much I cannot remember.

Anyway, we are here, in Jaipur. Which is in the state of Rajasthan which is west of Delhi a bit.

It is in the desert, it is hot and dry, and there are a lot of camels. There are a lot of cows roaming around too, with the dogs, and beggars. It is not so bad in this town, I don't think. We just got here a little while ago. Had a good lunch, put our bags in the room and here we are typing. We are here for two days, yah.. Since we have started four or so days ago, we have moved on after one night. It is exhausting. We are covering a lot of territory. Getting to and from places by bus, (local), train, jeep, and car, not to mention auto rickshaws, and walking through crowded markets you would not believe. It is all very interesting, and exhausting. I am glad to stay here for two nights.

This evening we are going to go to a four hour long Bollywood film. In the grandest theater in all of India. It we get too sick of it, we will leave. This seems like a pretty nice place. We will do more exploring tomorrow, as it is a "free" half day.

On our way here we stopped at the Amber Palace. We have seen many of them, and they are all pretty impressive. But the same. I think we have seen our last fort. But maybe not.

Last night we actually stayed in a fort that is a hotel now, for Intrepid travelers, and one other tour group only. We had to dress up in local dress, and dance the local dances. The hotel, our room was amazing. Absolutely gorgeous. There was no hot water, so they brought it to us in a bucket, or two. And it was hot, much hotter then the showers have been. It was a good shower. The bed was as hard as a rock. Neither of us slept too well, sometimes we do, and sometimes we don't. We had breakfast over looking the village below, and a bunch of monkeys playing. It was really relaxing. The previous day, after we had arrived, and had lunch, and a bit of a snooze, we walked through the local village. It was very interesting. Hundreds of kids, wanting their pictures taken  and then given 1 rupee. They were following us everywhere, and it becomes quite annoying. They did not pester me too much because I did not have a camera. It was a fun day.

 

The day before that was spent in Bharatpur. That was mosquito city. We opened our bedroom door, and were greeted by many, many mosquitoes, buzzing all over the place, and just waiting to drink our blood. Fortunately, we were on our way out, to a bird sanctuary, so they sprayed our room. The bird sanctuary was very pretty, and relatively quiet. We traveled by bicycle rickshaw. We had a great guide, and saw a few birds. this area has been having a draught for some years now, so the number of birds has decreased drastically. That evening was the first big day of "Dawali a huge festival here. So the owner treated us all to free cocktail after dinner. I tasted tasted the local rum, and whiskey. Both pretty good. That night there were no mosquitoes in our room.

 

The day before that we spent in Agra. The home of the Taj Mahal. That place is hard to describe. It was absolutely stunning. We only got an hour and a half there, and that was not nearly enough time. We could have spent all day there. Everyone in our group was disappointed the small amount of time we were allocated. It was (is) so beautiful, words can't really describe it. The first time we saw it was from the roof top of our hotel, about a mile away, through the haze. And even that was stunning. Then when you see it up close, OMG. I just wanted to sit and look at it, which we did for a while.

It was fun getting into the Taj though. The women stand in one line, the men in another. The men's line was very short, the women's line very long. There was so much pushing and shoving by the women to get a couple of paces ahead that it was insane. After I got pushed twice, I started my own pushing, just to keep the place I had. We were all having to push just to keep our places. It was worth it though, once we got inside.

 

So here we are for two nights. Next stop is Ranthambhore National Park, where we are sure to see some Bengal tigers. Yeah right. Our guide did say though that last time she was here, she saw one, and the time before that too. So who knows, we may.

 

Speaking of our guide. She is not so great. Very hard to understand, does not speak up, and is rather cold. She does not "brief" us though we have asked her to. She is warming up a bit, but she does not compare to Pravin, our Southern India guide. She will not get such a nice tip!

 

It is four fifteen. I am going to the room to do some laundry, and maybe read a bit. We meet at 5:45 for the film, and then dinner.

 

That is all for now....

Namaste.

Susan