Jaipur - Exciting, loud, frantic - Love it!

Friday, December 30, 2011
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Dec 29 – Jaipur

After stopping at the hospital to have my finger checked and re-dressed we headed to Jaipur . The road was 'good' which means it didn’t have a lot of pot holes etc. but it was still rough going dodging around construction and just navigating the weird, crazy traffic. Supposedly, Indians drive on the left side of the road but at any given time there could be a car, motorcycle, bus or transport truck heading ‘head-on’ at us. Anand, our driver was very good but sitting in the front seat, because I get car sick in the back seat, was often scary.

We arrived in Jaipur right around 1pm and checked into the Pearl Palace which was highly recommended by several guide books, Christy Dobbs, and Trip Advisor. I figured we couldn’t go wrong and we are not disappointed. The Peacock Restaurant on the roof top looks like it was decorated by Gaudi. We had lunch before heading out to see the City Palace and the Observatory. Both well worth seeing.

Dec 30

Today we headed out early for Amber Fort which is a bit outside Jaipur . We had arranged for our rickshaw driver from yesterday to pick us up and he was right on time. The drive up to the fort was chilly but well worth the effort. This is a huge fort with a long walk up to the main entrance. It was very busy today with people lined up to ride elephants up the ramp. We preferred to walk which was an adventure dodging the elephant poop and the elephants themselves. I got swiped by an elephant’s tail – a bit messy and it had some power to it! We wandered around the fort without a guide this time. We have seen enough of them now to know the basic layout and what the various areas are for. This one has a spectacular mirrored courtyard which is absolutely stunning. It is being carefully restored and much of the work is done. We met up with our driver and headed into the old city where he let us off and we wandered the various bazaars for a couple of hours. Jaipur is loud, hectic, and frenetic even but there is something about it we like. It would actually like to have had another day here but, who knew!

Met up with our driver again and stopped at Lassiwala – the oldest and most famous lassi maker in Jaipur. I had my first ‘official’ lassi and it was very good.

We are now back at the ‘Pearl’ catching up on things before dinner and packing for out trip tomorrow to Agra and the Taj Mahal!!

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