Well, Jaipur was an experience. Shall I list the negatives or the positives first? Maybe get the negatives out of the way ...
One can't write about India, it seems, without mentioning the frustrations this country presents to the traveller. I had read about them, expected them, but it still hits you in the face. This was the time we really felt like walking $$ signs. It was dreadful in the tourist places! Visiting the city palace and fort seemed the 'thing' to do in Jaipur, and Anish drove us there and deposited us at the gate of the palace saying he'd meet us at the top in 2 hours.
I knew about the elephants which carried visitors up the steep slope to the top of the hill where the palace is situated. There seems to have been some controversy in the past regarding how well these animals are cared for, and since we had already ridden elephants through the jungle in Thailand we decided not to encourage this activity here. So what happened???? Suddenly, we were assailed on all sides by men loudly shouting "This way for the elephants", and we became hustled along, and before we knew it were sitting together on the very elephant we were not going to ride!! Such is the force and power of these aggressive men at the tourist spots.
I'm told on your second trip to India you are much more prepared for this ...
The harassments didn't stop there, but I won't go into the details, suffice to say that the elephant mahout demanded a 'tip' and slowed the elephant right down until Ray gave him one ... anyway, we saw the Palace quickly and escaped!
But, the very BEST part of Jaipur was the wonderful family we stayed 3 nights with! Anil is the owner of the car/driver company we hired from, and it was his home we stayed at in Jaipur. His wife Asha was a total delight and took me along with her when she went shopping for a new sari - I was blown away by the colours, fabrics and embroidery. She finally chose a green blue silk with peacocks embroidered all along the edges - it looked stunning! I wanted to buy some silk fabric at another store she took me to, and there were lots to choose from, but the colours were far too bright for my taste. Everywhere in Rajasthan the countryside is sandy and barren, brightened only by the vibrant oranges, yellows and reds of the women's saris. Asha insisted I had to take home some Abstain slippers made from camel hide, so I am now the proud owner of brightly hand embroidered slippers! I adore the comfortable shamere kameeze outfits she wore every day - comfy wide pleated pants and long top - so I bought some lovely cotton fabrics and her tailor is making 3 outfits for me (at a cost of $17 total!!) Anil has to drive to Udaipur on Tuesday where we will be staying, so he will deliver them.
Living and eating with the family gave us a window into Indian life far from the tourist haunts we have come to dread. The family are vegetarians and the food Asha prepared was simple but delicious ... I could quite easily give up steak for a steady diet of this!
We were sad to say goodbye to these lovely people yesterday, but Bundi awaited, and we so love this small village ... but more about that later.
To be continued ...
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