Ramada Jaipur

... a map behind me. I was petrified to be honest. All the kids' eyes were on me and they sat in silence no doubt confused by this foreigner. They all introduced themselves and told me their names. I caused much laughter when i attempted to pronounce their names back. The children are really sweet and eager to learn. At playtime they constantly wanted to grab my attention with "Sir ...

Hello everybody This entry is going to be quite short due to the fact that we have done nothing but travel and lie in bed for the last four days! We left Colombo quite smoothly, and didn't get hassled whilst walking through the city with our backpacks on which was a relief. I am pleased to say that Andrew has bought some new shirts to replace the ex-white ones that I made him throw away. Seriously, the not-so-clean laundry man even looked at ...

... and some people had to jump off, while others abandoned their packages on the platform. This was our first real experience of the crush of humanity that is India. We arrived in Jaipur the morning of March 9th. We visited the City Palace and the Hawa Mahal (palace of winds, large screens set up for ladies to look out on the streets). Jaipur is known as the Pink City, and the old part is beautiful, but chaotic. The ...

... His outfit was HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEE. It was slow going, but a after a restorative cup of chai and a plate of vegetable pakoras, we headed across the street to the Observatory - which was fabulous. We broke our usual rule and took a guide, and we are very glad that we did. There were sundials and astronomy instruments aplenty, built in the 18th Century, some of which are accurate to within 2 seconds. Ali then took us to the Gaitor ...

So, it turns out that the nick-name of Rajasthans capital is only half deserved. Only some of the buildings are actually painted, and they are really much more of an orange color than pink. All of that aside, the 'Pink City' was an interesting place to visit, although unfortunatly, still on the package tour route. As usual, I made some good friends, and didn't spend too much ...

... Jaipur city, which included a view of "water palace". I stopped by to have a look but you arent allowed access to it. Basically the local Maharaja (big polo buddies with Prince Charles apparently!), still uses it for entertaining. The rickshaw driver told me that it is an eighteen storey building, only to of which are above ground (or should I say water). Not really sure wether to believe him - it sounds like local legend to me! Apparently the maharaja has 9 ...

... and architecture, his verbal knowledge as we walked around consisted of "this is Mughal architecture", "this is British architecture", "16th century" "17th century". and with his voice being so soft and low, it was quite difficult being accompanied by him. Later on, when we left and were back in the car he came out with a gem of information about Jaipur. Passing through the City he uttered to us "this...is pink walls here. Whole City is Pink". REALLY? Well blow me down ...

... We thought there might be lots of tourist buses, but it was mostly local families. We got in line behind the nicest people from Oregon. Debbie and Leonard were our new best friends instantly. Leonard was working in Delhi for Applied Materials. He had been here since September and was going to be here another 6 months or so. This was Debbie's second visit to see him. They made the random night so much more complete. We shared ...

... his team would turn carpets around to show how they played in the light. We had vowed not to buy anything, but, darnit, they were such nice guys, and the tea was good, and, you know, "cooperative" is such a feel-good term, and.... Let's just say that we hope something will be arriving in the mail around the time we get back home, and that it will look good on the floor of our entryway. We'd had more itinerary planned for the day, but instead devoted the rest ...

... remains of an old 11th century fort, but the various buildings added circa 1621-67, are what constitute its magnificent centrepiece. Everywhere you looked, there was some impressive marble work or decorative building.. it was stunning. There's so much to see and do in Jaipur. So much of India has stunning buidings, and history. It is an incredible country, and will take more than one visit for me to fully appreciate or understand even a spec of it!