The Long Road to Jaipur (and Even Longer One Back)

Jaipur, as one of the places on the so called Golden Triangle, was always going to be one of our first destinations in India. Otherwise known as The Pink City, Jaipur is a tourist hotspot with a number of forts and palaces for foreign and local tourists alike to enjoy. Compared to Delhi, Jaipur is a pollution free zone, while the warmth of Rajasthan sun and the cloudless skies made a change from the overbearing smog that we have become accustomed to.  It is easy to see why Jaipur is such an attractive destination for those living in the capital.

Getting to Jaipur, however, had not been so easy. At the start of the week I thought I had booked the train tickets. It was Thursday before I found out that I was mistaken. The train booking system accepts your reservation even if the trains are full and puts you on a waiting list. As I did not understand the system I assumed that we were fully booked, but actually our place on the train was dependent on several cancellations. Cue a stressful day at work trying to find alternative methods of transport. There was an earlier train with availability, but that depended on everyone getting their employers to agree for them to leave early which might have been possible with one or two, but was unrealistic with all five of us. So instead we opted to take the bus. 

After the stress of organising new transport the journey to Jaipur was reasonably stress free, especially compared to what we would have to endure later on in our trip. The next morning we arranged taxi for Rs.1600 between the five of us (less than £20) to take us round the sights of Jaipur for the day. The first stop was Amber Fort, which is 11km outside Jaipur, but we thought it was worth going out and working our way back in. Constructed in 1592, the fort is elaborately decorated with carvings, precious stones and mirrors. I’m not convinced that the expensive interior would have added to the defensive capability of the fort and so can only assume that the fort was more a display of power, than a practical structure to prevent attacks. The fort is vast, with corridors and passageways that seemingly go on for ever. It was discussed that it would be a great place to play hide and seek, but I fear that it would take several hours to find anyone hiding.

We took the taxi down the hill from Amber Fort to the Jal Mahal. This is otherwise known as the ‘water palace’, as it is positioned in the middle of a lake. It was built in the mid-18^th century, but exact details about its construction or original purpose are unclear. We could not go inside, but viewed it from the shore of the lake. They seemed to be filming a movie there and it was quite crowded with people trying to see what was going on. We did not stay long, but managed to get a few touristy pictures of the palace without people in the way.

From the Jal Mahal we travelled to the centre of Jaipur and the City Palace. The palace was finished in 1732 and reflects a combination of Mughal and European styles. There were a number of different sections to the palace, with rooms dedicated to the history of Jaipur. After this we took the taxi on to the Albert Hall Museum. This is a grand building and Rudyard Kipling once described the museum as being on par with the best museums he had seen in Calcutta. Perhaps the most interesting items in the museum were the Hindu statues which, considering some of them were over a 1000 years old, were in remarkable condition.

On Sunday morning we visited the bazars. Jaipur is famous for shopping and a large percentage of souvenirs sold throughout India originally come from. I think the owner of the shop saw us coming and between us we contributed heavily to his profits for the week. Even I bought a couple of shirts for Rs.600, which just shows how good a salesman he was.

After the shopping we visited the world heritage site of Jantar Mantar. This is an 18^th century astronomical observatory features a number of ginormous instruments built because the only other instruments available at the time had been too small to take accurate measurements. It was 30 degrees outside and the area was very exposed, so we did not stay long. After this we visited Hawa Mantar, otherwise known as the Palace of the Winds. This was built in 1799, a little later than the other sites in the Pink City. The impressive entrance was rather ruined by the scaffolding as they were clearly doing refurbishments. Inside you could walk to the top and there was a great view of the surrounding area, including the astronomical instruments of Jantar Mantar.

In Jaipur we stayed at the Hotel Banipark which had good reviews on Hostel Bookers. Millie had agreed with them beforehand that they would put an extra bed in the rooms so that we would not have to share. When we arrived we found that had happened with one room, but not the other two. Fortunately I was in the room with separate beds, but it was not exactly ideal for the girls who had to share. It has also been advertised that breakfast was included, but they told us it was extra only after we had eaten it. We refused to pay and they eventually agreed, but it was a bit cheeky of them to try. Overall the hotel was ok and they did pick us up from the coach station, but I do not think it deserved the good reviews it had been getting.

The journey back to Delhi was a nightmare. The bus was supposed to leave at 5pm, but did not arrive until 5.50pm. That was annoying, but not too bad. We then hit the overnight traffic from Jaipur to Delhi. There were 40 minute spells when we were only moving a few hundred metres. We had been supposed to get in 9.30pm. We ended up getting to the half way stop at 10.30pm. I fell asleep on the bus and was shocked to wake at 1am to find we were still a very long way from Delhi. We eventually got into the bus station in North Delhi at 3.30am, but then had to get a taxi back to Jasola. We ended up getting back to the hotel at 4.30am and so I had little more than 2 hours sleep before I had to get up for work in the morning.