Pink City Blues

I arrived in Delhi last night after spending two days in Jaipur, the capital of Rajahstan. I was expecting my trip there to be one of the high points of the holiday...I was wrong.

After my twelve hour bus ride which, aside from having to stopping the bus to pee and stepping in shit, went well, I arrived in Jaipur at 5:30am. I grabbed an autorickshaw and paid a cutthroat price of 100 rupees to get my hotel...and that's where it all went wrong.

Hotels have a responsibility, not just as a place to sleep safely, but also to represent the place that youve just arrived in. In most cases they'll actually be your first contact with the people/customs of said place and shouldn't take that lightly.

I was stuck waiting outside in the cold, at 5:30 in the morning alone. For 30 mins. Great first impression.

In fact the ONLY reason I got in at all was another guess had woken early and got the management to let me in. From there things got worse.

Too tired (bus lagged?) to go out that day, I decided to spend the day in. The room that I was given was WAY too cold though; the reason being there was no insulation around the bathroom fan, which allowed the cold air in. Even with three blankets and a heater I was still cold, but at least managed to sleep thru it.

At around 1 I woke up and "enjoyed" a 3 minute hot shower. 3 min because the hot water ran out after that. Almost shaking to death, I got dressed and went to the restaurant for some food. Now in the last place, the food had been great, so I was a bit more adventurous and ordered a cheese curry, naan, and cheese appetizer. I was sick for the rest of the day, and didn't dare touch any other food from the place.

Later in the evening I wanted to be proactive and asked the hotel to book some train tickets to Delhi for me on the 7th. Now, I've had no problems doing this in ANY of the other hotels I've stayed at - most have been more than happy to arrange transport. Not here. After hemming and hawing, they finally tried to do it....and failed. It took an hour.

I still don't know why it took them so long to basically do nothing, but it did. Exasperated, I went to bed.

The next day I went sightseeing. On my own. I didn't trust the hotel to hire a guide/driver for me like I did with the other places I visited, so I decided to forge out on my own. The comedy of errors continues.

To say that Indian streets are laid out chaotically would be unfair to chaos. You might not be aware of it, but in the western world our cities are laid in grid patterns, with the streets being connected in square like patterns. It's a testament to the city first, people later type of development. In India the people were here first, so the cities have had to grow around them. What's resulted from this is a maze like set of roads, where a round turn winds you up in a dead end staring at an angry cow (true story). With no help, and poor direction sense it's no surprise that I got lost.

Not to say being least is a bad thing; it's usually times like this when you stumble onto things the guidebooks miss, and while I didn't find any hidden temples or shifty bazaars, I did get some nice exposure to daily city life. On my misadventure I got to see men doing their daily jobs (a surprising amount of welding), women doing the house chores in wonderfully brilliant saris; it's a strange contrast there, the saris are vibrant reds and beautiful, but the women wearing them are in drab, Impoverished looking places. And animals... So many animals. And not just the cows and street dogs that I'm getting used to: Jaipur has pigs, goats and Monkeys walking the street! The goats were cute,especially with the bleating they do, but let me tell you how surreal it is the first time you see a monkey hanging on telephone wire! "we're not in Kansas anymore toto!"

So after about two hours of being lost, I finally meet up with a pedicab driver who offers to take me to the City Palace, the place I want to go. Of course when I ask for a price I get the worse thing you want to hear, "Up to you,"

"up to you" usually means, "I'm going to ass rape you on the price whitey", and its never a good idea to get into any transport with that sentence hanging in the air. Why? Because no matter what you might think is a fair price, the driver is going to double it. Unfortunateoy, after two hours of walking i was getting tired and annoyed, and so a short bike ride and 200 rupee fare later, I arrived at the city palace.

The palace itself, is still apparently home to the royal family, and because of that a lot of it is sectioned off. You pay the fare, go through a gate, and then your faced with a large courtyard where apparently dignitaries were met. Judging from all the saddles I saw, this seemed like more of a garage, so I went thru the second gate to another courtyard which held an entrance to the throne room to the left, and a small pavilion dead center.

The pavilion was interesting only because it held 2 giant pots that were made of thousands of boiled down silver coins. They were big. Wow. The throne room was alright, but no photography was allowed, which was annoying. I get that you can't take photos of paintings because the flash damages the paint, but why not this room? Reverence? Please, if there was a respect for the station they would have a cafeteria next to the pavillion or be charging admissions. Stupid rule.

Back outside the third gate takes you into the last courtyard with three areas to see: a textile museum( clothes the royalty wore), a demonstration workshop, or as I like to call them " try before you have to buys", and an armory.

The textile museum was boring to me, just because I don't find clothes that interesting. I'm sure afficandoes would love it...I'm just thankful it was ceramics. *yawn*

I opted not to go to the workshop just because I had no desire to be pressured to buy something that day, and ANY time you see the word workshop you WILL be pressured to buy!

The armory wad probably the most interesting, and the collection of weapons was huge. For me the most interesting thing were the guns. The Maharaj was a fan of them apparently and put them on everything: swords, hatchets, punch daggers...it was a gunblade fans wet dream!

From there the tour was finished! And the next stop was Jantar Mantar - the kings observatory, directly across the street. I went in and was impressed by how beautiful it was. Across the very green laws were huge sculptures that actually turned out to be giant instruments for studying astronomy. There was an audio guide for 150 rupees that I passed up, which I really shouldn't have. The information on the exhibits was very math heavy, and not having a head for that, i didn't understand a lot. I think the audio guide could have cleared things up more. It was distill a relaxing place, and a nice respite from all the noise of the city.

The final destination for the day was the attraction that most people come to Jaipur to see, Hawa Mahal - the Pink City. If your direction poor like me, you're going to have some problems finding the place, but its really simple. From Jantar just follow the road all the way up and towards the miranet in the distance. Go through the gate and turn left. Follow the road until you see the sign for the place. Youve gone too far if you come to the roundabout.

I went too far the first time. On the plus side I got a nice picture of the honey combed front that way!

The name itself is a bit misleading. It's not so much the link city as the pink building, with brownish buildings beside it. It was built for the royal ladies as a way for them to watch the comings and goings if city life in peace. The lower levels are a bit sparse and boring, with two Bowen courtyards in them. One with an empty fountain that needed a good cleaning.

On the left you can find the sloped entrance that leads five stories up to the top of site, with each story having its own level you can stop off at. The entire structure is empty, save for a concession stand at the bottom, so once you've seen one floor, you've seen them at. The top is interesting in that it's where all the honeycombs are, and is really just a photo opt for yourself, nothing more. Crowds make the place slightly dangerous, too, as people jostle to get by you for their photos.

I took a few of the building + some monkeys across the way and left. Slightly disappointed by what I'd seen.

After that, I wad done with the sightseeing. I'd seen the big three, and after the bad morning, had had enough.

I made my way to MI street, a street of shops, for some lunch at Mickey Ds (maharajah Mac!) and then finished the day with a trip to lassiwala - the oldest lassi shop in town. Lassi would be the equivalent of a yoghurt milkshake- thick and very sweet, they provide a nice contrast to the spiciness of curry. The lassis at this shop come in jumbo sizes of plain, banana, and mango.i got the plain, which was served in a giant clay cup, and was surprised by how tasty it was. This place easily makes the best lassi I've had in India so far. Price is good too, being 35 rupees for one (about .75 cents).

From there I took another pedicab back to the hotel and tried again to book my train ticket. It's ironic that while their wifi was good, their cable connection sucked, and the computer was horribly virus ridden.

Giving up on the train, I asked them to book a bus ticket for me and was told, " Sure, the bus station is down the road. Just walk about five mins and you'll be there." customer service is not this hotels string suit.

Yes, I get that I sound lazy not wanting to walk the 5 mins and take care of things myself, but I'm on holiday and was hoping for a bit of hotel convienece. In fact, the other hotels I stayed in which were 4x cheaper than one, readily did all this menial stuff for me. To me that's why it's a holiday: so I don't have to do this crap myself.

Frustrated after that, I went and booked an early ticket - I wanted out of Dodge as soon as possible. Went back to my room, and watch some stuff on the iPad until it wad time for bed.

The next day I was up and ready to go. Boarded my bus with a package of Masala Magic chips (tres spici!), and did the 7 hour ride to Delhi. Got here at 9 lady night, checked into my hotel and... Wonderful! Everything the Laxmi wasn't, this place was! Great service and a great nights sleep have improved my spirits as Im now in my next hotel waiting until tomorrow, when the second half of my trip begins!

Next up: Delhi tours!