Day 10 - Monkey Temple - Jaipur

Our final full day here in Jaipur . . .  We decide to head to the Monkey Temple (Galwar Bagh). The temple complex is over 1000 year old . . .  sounds interesting! Mixed reviews on the web, especially with the amount of monkeys swarming the place which Jase was dubious about . . .

Headed off with our trusty driver . . .taking back streets due to the police shutting off so many main roads again . . .total chaos . . even Sanjay was saying “Oh My God” now and then meaning the traffic was worse than normal!!!

It was a good walk/hike up to the top of the hill to see the Hindu temple, . . .we then walked down the other side to where the main temple complex was . . . It was great to stretch the legs and cover some distance in the sun. . . .

It was interesting . . . plenty of wildlife . . Monkeys, Goats, Birds, Squirrels . . as for the pools of water where people bathe etc . . .OMG. No way. It was brown and smelly . . . we even saw a catfish near death at the surface . . . (Note: Add that to the list of “dead things we have seen”).

Once again we are the only tourists in this place.  We suspect we might be a novelty when a young girl walking by stops in her tracks, lines up Jase in her sights and takes a shot of him on her mobile.  We have no idea why and can only suspect she thought Tom Cruise was having an unadvertised visit.

We got back to the car after about 2 hours and stopped in to a few emporiums to see what they had to offer. Both of us got something which was great . . Quality, not Quantity  ..  8-)

the chefs in the Peshwari Restaurant at the hotel ( yummy)

the muso's who play by the pool each night

Chilling in the lounge before dinner

Day 9 - Elephants - Jaipur

We spend the morning packing up our purchases and sending them home by Fedex.  A process that should  have taken 30 minutes at the most, takes the better part of 3 hours.  Finally it is done and we feel relatively confident that our goodies should arrive home at roughly the same time as we do. Lucky Jase had his Leatherman handy to cut up the box as the courier was ill equipped . . . we even used our own bathroom scales to weigh the box! Mmmmm

The rest of the day we have booked into something called ‘Elephantastic’.

 Sanjay drops us at the Elephant Village after some heavy traffic delays due to a political conference in town.  The whole city is in backup, blocked off and just mad.  We finally get through and out to the rural outskirts.

We are met by the owner, a young man with a kind and gentle manner.  We are introduced to our elephant, Burli (or something like that) and we touch, feed and hug her.  She is lovely.  28 years old and 8 months preggers and while we stand with her, we can see the baby moving in her side. 

We are taken for an elephant ride out to an old village.  Hmm, we think barren fields might be a better description, but the peace is wonderful.  All you can hear is the elephants feet shuffle, the occasional grunt or chatter of the mahout  and the occasional rumble of the elephants.  It’s bliss.  Wendy suggests we go buy sleeping bags and come back here for the night. . . another time.  The temperature is perfect, the sound levels are perfect and until they tell us that the holes in the ground are ‘rats’ the idea seemed perfect.

We are given the opportunity to ‘paint’ our Burli, but we both agree we don’t need to do that.  It is a Rajasthan tradition but it doesn’t mean anything to us.  We give Burli a hug goodbye, thank her for letting us spend time with her and head back to the car for our trip back into madness.

Sanjay has been waiting for us, sleeping in the car, with the windows up.  Did we mention it was a warm day?  OMG.  Windows down to be able to breathe and then  more traffic madness ( due to political conference) and then home.  The morning seems so far away and while we have only been out 5 hours, once again, we are ready for a early night. 

She liked me . .leaning in for a nice cuddle

not sure if she liked me or not.. whacked me in the head with her ear several times.

Day 8 - Markets - Jaipur

Yesterday our guide mentioned that the shops don’t open till 11:30am.  So we have a late start and use the morning to do some admin.  We leave the building and Sanjay is waiting outside for “Mr Jansen” so we agree to use him to drop us into town. 

Town is busy.  The horns never stop, but thankfully the pushy sales people are not so bad here. And certainly not as bad as they were In Delhi.  We wander through the markets and see saris, bracelets, saris, scarves, pashminas, bracelets, copperware, scarves, saris etc.  we try a few side streets and see grocers selling veg off carts, home wares ( kitchen sinks, taps etc.), random things we are still to identify and then  saris, bracelets, saris, scarves, pashminas, bracelets, copperware, scarves, saris etc.    we wander for a while just marvelling at the chaos of it all, and see everything but some souvenier umbrellas that Wendy has seen on the edge of town.  We call Sanjay and he comes and picks us up and takes us to exactly where she saw them yesterday.

Oh, we also went back to the hotel shops tonight and picked up Jase’s birthday pressie.  3 lovely wooden hand carved elephants that he has been eyeing off since he got here.  They are truly truly awesome . . . .

Day 7 - Boxing Day - Jaipur

Early-ish start as we have booked our driver and guide for a full day doing the Amer fort, the floating palace etc . . . massive day.

The guide (Rama) tells us several times that he is Brahmin, is a fully qualified engineer and only does this as a hobby.  We soon come to learn he likes to repeat most things several times and that he does not SHUT UP.  Thankfully he does not talk loud, but he is certainly constant.   The driver (Ram Sing) is a cutie (according to Wendy) and we both agree the guide is dissing him as he is only business class and not Brahmin.  We go off our guide a little.  The day is long and quite warm.  We see a lot.  We hear a lot but after a while it all blends together.  This Prince had this many wives, built this, did that etc.  The forts are amazing and like all other man made wonders , you have to marvel at how they did these things with no machinery.  We take a lot of photos.  We even manage to get them to stop at some shops we like the look of and we also manage to buy quite  few things. Jase gets a beautiful hand made rug and some copper cookware. He's been sussing the rugs out for a while and how they make them. He's very happy with the one he got. Wendy gets her cookware and some saris and bangles. We are loaded up, happy and tired.

Some chill time in the room and then down to the Pashwari restaurant for tea,  yummy.  Another taste sensation and we will be going back again to make the most of their mixed raita.  This restaurant does veg or non veg, but no rice.  We are happy with big wads of butter and garlic naan though!!

Replete and tired we have another early night. Tomorrow is our official shopping day.

Workers in the fields

Mahuts in the fort

Our guide likes to take photos

hmm, India or Afghanistan

The things I get talked into

The floating palace

The Amer Fort...amazing

Palace of the winds...in the main shopping strip

Jase and the snake charmers

Jase and Shiva at Ganesh temple

Tourists in the sun..

Take my pic and run away or pay

Where else could we be but India.

Day 6 - Christmas day - Jaipur

Lazy start to the morning. We have decided to treat ourselves to a day off.  Laze around in bed and open chrissy pressies.  Jase calls his folks and then we just chill for awhile.

We drag ourselves out of bed and have a small breakfast as we are booked into the champagne Xmas lunch at 12.00. 

We decide to do a walk around our local area to check out the lay of the land.  Hmm. We step out to not the best view of an overpass and quite a few people living under it. Not to mention the numerous bodies lying around that may not be alive . . .  We walk around the block and see all sorts of unmentionables.  Wendy is quite disappointed and decided to stay in the hotel for the rest of the day.  Jase is still keen to jump a cab to explore, but it isn't long till lunch so we sit pool side and look at the brochures to work out what we are going to do with our time here.

At 12.00 we rock up to lunch to find the door shut.  Hmmmm, has there been a miss communication or is this another example of 'Indian Time'.  We gingerly open the door and see the staff scurrying around still setting up.  They notice us and ask us to choose a table. Hmmm, which one should we choose.  As we are the only people in the place, the selection is wide.  We choose a comfy booth on the side and after some confusion re the price we have agreed to pay and what we are getting for it, we settle in have glass of wine and toast xmas day in Jaipur. 

It’s closer to 1 o’clock now and still we are the only people in a restaurant that would clearly seat 300 people.  There are about 20 staff and we are certainly being given a lot of service and attention.  As we head up to the buffet, another family arrives and then one more.  There is food as far as the eye can see including roast chicken and gravy, which is my favorite thing of the day.  Jase notices in front of the chicken is a huge pile of mashed potatoes, and asks to be served some,  this creates another drama and after a while we are advised some will be brought to our table.  The chef/ chicken carver seems to be quite new and we don’t think he has ever held a carving knife in his hand. The ‘chunk’ of meat we are served is completely hacked to pieces, but the flavor was lovely. We hate to think how much of the chicken was wasted . 

We relax in the restaurant till 3:30pm and then head outside to sit by the pool.  Jase is antsy and wants an adventure so jumps a cab to head off to the local supermarket.  Off course he ends up at a local craft emporium and comes back with a lovely vase.  The biggest find of the day though is Sanjay, his driver, who becomes our bested bud over the next few days.  At $2 an hour he is way cheaper than the guide we booked from the hotel, and in hindsight has as much if not more knowledge.

It was a great pleasant relaxing Christmas Day!

Santa made it to Jaipur...yay

300 seats all for us

Full of Xmas spirit and a bit too much mashed potato

Merry Xmas

Day 5 - Travel to Jaipur

The trip takes approximately  5 – 6 hours in the car. The first 4 pass quickly enough but the last 2 DRAG.  Probably because we don’t understand any of the road signs and we cannot determine how far there is still to go.

When we start this morning at 7:30am it is about 6 degrees and there is a heavy mist enveloping the city.  We (or more importantly the driver) can only see  few meters in front us.  Every one drives with their hazard lights on (If they have any) . Total craziness . . . . 

It was very misty in the car it took us a few attempts to get the driver to see that the A/C button will help increase his vision . . . let alone ours . . we were very tense sitting in a car with misted up windows!! We think he sees that as a magic button from now on . . Spread the word driver!!!

Trucks, motor bikes, autos you name it, weave around us, between us, at us.  The driver takes it all in his stride and just keeps tootling along.  His English is not great, but he knows how to drive and he knows where the hazard lights and the brakes are, so really, what more could we ask for. 

The mist remains heavy till well after lunch.  We stop into a roadside café and gift shop about 3 hours in.  There is nothing of note there expect a toilet of some description and some over priced toilet paper(which you have to barter for) and some nick nacks. 
We are not even game enough  to try the coffee which is basically some possibly boiled water and a jar of Nescafé.  We have also decided that India is the place where all the chips in the world come to die.  Everything we see on the shelves ranges from 2 months to 2 years out of date. 

The scenery changes after lunch and becomes a lot more rural..  we are still being passed by a lot of large and heavily decorated trucks, but now we are also passing Camels pulling cards and occasionally slowing down to divert around cows of various sizes and shapes.  There is also the occasional pod of a hundred or so monkeys which sit around the place. 

We finally reach the outskirts of Jaipur (which we soon realize looks very similar to the inner city Jaipur) with the main difference being the amount of people and the increasing traffic.  Our driver takes us past the major sites, up a look out (now we are passing Elephants in the street) and points out some points of interest.  He also drives us through the main market (twice) and it is about this time we realize he has NFI  about where the hotel is.  We pull over and ask for some directions and one block (about 20 minutes later) we are there.  We joke to each other that we are never leaving the hotel!  The last hour has been quite challenging including seeing what we are fairly sure was a dead body lying on a traffic island not too far from our front door.  

As we leave the car and head through the security gates to enter the building, the liveried guard trumpets our arrival and bows. Literally trumpets that is.  A huge horn that bellows, followed by a bow and a wish of Merry Christmas.  Our check in is slowed by finding out they have put us in a room with two single beds.  Once that is sorted and we are upgraded to the royal suite , we settle in comfortably. 

 Actually we  are still in the room.  We settled in so comfortably, I am yet to leave the room.  The room is double glazed and for the first time  since leaving my house , we are in silence.  Its amazing and wonderful.

the scenic road as we leave Delhi early morning

Mixing it up with the big boys on the road

Check Point Charlie between Hariana and Rajistan

I think the first thing all Indians learn is 'Horn Please'

Monkeys at a RoadSide stop

Rural India

Come on driver, we can fit through that, we have every other time.

hey this place might not be too bad.

Day 4 - Red Fort - Delhi

Up early and off to the fort.  We are on the road by 9am.  The city is white today and we are enveloped in thick mist as we leave the building.  It is the coolest morning we have had so far.   The roads are very quiet and our guide explains, Sundays are quiet on the roads.  The driver does not seem to know where or how to use the window demister and we both bite our tongues to refrain from showing him how to use them.  We drive slowly forward looking out of a small clear space in the windscreen which intermittently smogs over as the driver raised and lowers the front windows. Hmmm. 

We arrive safely and only then does the guide inform us that the Fort is only 20 % open to the public as the rest is closed off as a working military college,  hmm, something the tour booking person neglected to mention when taking our monies. (A bit like the forgetting to mention that Connaught place was crap and full of shysters when he booked our driver to that as well.)

Be sure you clear security OK Wendy!!!

Tour through the fort . . .

 

 

 We ask our guide general questions about Delhi , about the things we are seeing on the way and find that he is not as knowledgeable as we would like.  He is even a bit remiss on knowledge about the fort. 

And if you get through Security you have this Bunker in front.
Some serious Hardware and not easily seen oncoming.

 

 

We head from the Fort to a near by Mosque.  (Jama Masjid) Apparently the largest outside of Mecca if you believe the guide.  Going by the numbers of buses stuck in the lane way and the 1000 of people we pass in the ally to find it, he might be right this time.  It’s free to get in, but its 100 rupee for the special dress you have to wear, 100 rupee for the hat and 200 for the special paper jiffies you need to put on your feed. You need to leave your shoes at the door (with no security or guarantee of ever seeing them again). Neither of us got good vibes from this place . . .

Tough Travel . . . .

 

 

 

 

We walk up to the entrance and are glared at by all and sundry and decide we really don’t need to see any more.  The architecture is quite amazing but very similar to the fort we have just been through so we give it a miss.

As usual, the guide recommends we stop at another Craft Cottage Industry on the way home.  We see some things we might like to come back for, so we keep their card just in case, but hopefully we might find other stuff on the rest of our travels. Jase is keen to let them know we are on a time limit and no matter how many times we mention it the Salesman insists on showing us how they make the ‘hand knotted’ rugs. He tells us the history of the ‘hand knotted’ rugs and offers us tea and bickies etc. while bringing out a selection of the ‘hand knotted’ rugs to view.

We cannot explain how ‘slow’ this man managed to talk, how sleazy he was.  or how many times he managed to use the term ‘hand knotted’ in any one given sentence.  To summarize, it was painful, and if it takes anywhere near  as long to make a ‘hand knotted’ rug as it does to hear about them, then they are probably worth the thousands of dollars they are asking for them.

We finish up about 2pm and head back to our local café strip near home.  It’s amazing what you get used to in such a short space of time.

 

Day 3 - Market - Delhi

Today we thought we needed to take it easy a bit and not look for things of interest but instead let them come to us. As such, we decided to go to a popular market named Dilli Haat. It’s an enclosed market with some security around it so all you needed to be concerned about is being hassled by stall holders to buy their products etc . . . whilst the radar is always operating and you are aware of pickpockets etc. . . . it was good to have some space around us whilst looking around, meaning the radar was not at such a heightened level!! We bought some nice things . . . great quality and good prices. The colors of the garments and fabrics are awesome!!! Such a pleasure to the eye!! Below are some pics from the experience . . .

Main Straight

Under the Big Top

Under the Top again

Bags, Bags . . More Bags!

In the late afternoon we went out to the pool and got some sun whilst catching up on stuff via the PCs. We then went inside to the bar and parked ourselves on a nice bench to enjoy Happy Hour! 8-)

Awesome Christmas Decorations here also!!  Pity about the endless Xmas Carols though.

Merry Xmas from Jase and Shaz.