Old beauty and awesome views

Saturday, October 15, 2016
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
We arrived in Jaipur after an uneventful (thankfully) decent 5hr bus trip.
The GH has a cosy and alternative rooftop restaurant .
The food was delicious too,as was the cold beer (surprisingly 4x the price of Cape Town)
A friend of a friend organised us a private taxi to take us sight seeing early the next day.
A German couple from the GH joined us, to cut costs.
Confusion ruled yet again.
It turned out that he was given a confused version of what we wanted to see, and after 2 hours, many phone calls, misinterpreted messages,we realised he couldnt speak English, was just nodding his head and saying yes, yes, we asked to be taken back to our GH.
Saw some camels along the way, even a small one, which was so cute,had escaped his tethering and was bounding all over the place.
Had breakfast, got a tuk tuk, who took us past a hand printing workshop, and the inevitable factory shop, where we were given a show of bed spread covers, really lovely items, but too costly, and heavy to travel with.
Went to the Amber and Jaigarh Forts.
They are quite amazing ,and huge.
We had to go through a subterranean tunnel, and then up a road for 2 kms to get to Jaigarh Fort.
Well worth the huge effort ,and steep climb .
The views over Amber Fort, and the town in the area ,were astounding.
When we entered Jaigarh Fort, a chap in what looked like a guard uniform,attached himself to us, and even tho I clearly let him know that we didnt need a guide, and were not going to pay him anything,he was quite determined to escort us.
We got some interesting info, and many a loud burp next to us, for some reason he was quite gassy, and totally unaware that this wasnt polite behaviour.
I had to have a laugh about it later.
At the end of the tour he was most disappointed that we wouldnt pay him,even tho we explained this to him at the start.
Lots of monkeys on the way down.
Then our tuk tuk driver was so friendly that he had to touch our legs, eew, what a creep.
And we had thought he was a decent, polite, guy.
To save kms he took us thro the back alley ways of the small towns on the way back ( instead of the normal smooth sailing main road) which were solidly congested with cows,people, tuk tuks, bikes,potholes,etc.
Total chaos!
I dont know where his mind space was,or even if he had one.
The following day we were fetched from our GH, and returned there, and taken to an Ayurvedic place.
Had a relatively decent massage, to tweak out our jolted spines from the previous days tuk tuk drive.
Then we relaxed till 8pm, and then took an overnight bus to Jaisalmer.



Comments

2025-02-10

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank