Palaces, Camels and Lots of Tourists

Trip Start Jan 31, 2005
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Trip End Mar 30, 2006


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Wednesday, November 9, 2005

From Amritsar, we took a long train ride down south to the city of Jaipur, in the state of Rajastan. After weeks of being in areas of India that didn't really seem much like India (Leh and Dharamsala), we were on our way into the heart Northern India craziness - adding the hassles that accompany the most touristy parts of the country to the standard challenges of operating in a society that functions so differently than that to which we are accustomed. The train ride was a little indicative of what was to come in the following weeks. Surprisingly (given the prevalence of rail travel in India) it was only our second train trip in two months of traveling. For the first trip (with Adam and Beth up to Delhi) we picked a class of travel that was pretty comfortable. However, that class is also fairly expensive, so, for this trip to Jaipur, we downgraded to the lowest level class that still gives you a sleeping berth. It couldn't have been more different than our first trip - people constantly getting on and off, overbooking during the day (Allison had two people sit down on her feet as she was waking up in the morning), way more vendors and beggars passing through at all hours... And we made the mistake of selecting two berths that are much shorter than average and, most importantly, much shorter than us. Not a very comfortable trip.

The trip will also be remembered for the hour during which Allison thought Jeff had gotten left behind at a station along the way, where he had gotten off to buy snacks. 01 - Jeff at Amber Fort, Jaipur
01 - Jeff at Amber Fort, Jaipur
 The trains and platforms are very long, so it is pretty normal to get pretty far away from your coach when searching for food. So, when Jeff wasn't back in the coach within 10 or so minutes after the train left the station and started picking up speed, Allison wasn't too concerned - he was probably just walking through 10 or more coaches to get back to ours. But then when a half hour passed and then 45 minutes... That didn't look good. As an hour approached, Allison became pretty convinced she was going to arrive in Jaipur alone, just as the train stopped at another station. What a surprise when Jeff was suddenly standing outside of Allison's window. Turns out he had gotten stuck in a section in the back of the train that hadn't connected to our section...

So, both of us arrived in Jaipur, ready to take on one of the most famous and visited parts of India: Rajastan, the home of the Maharajas. We spent a few days in Jaipur itself, walking around its charming, fortified older section and visiting a number of local tourist sites including an old palace for the local maharaja's concubines, two big forts on hillsides and an amazing old observatory (basically, a series of huge sundials that calculate with impressive accuracy everything from time to latitude/longitute to the exact location of various stars in the sky).

From Jaipur, we traveled west to the little town of Pushkar to spend a few days at its famous annual camel festival. The town of Pushkar is pretty quaint - winding narrow streets and old buildings all centered around a beautiful lake that is one of Hinduism's holiest sites. 02 - Allison and Her Musical Friend
02 - Allison and Her Musical Friend
 However, the general tranquility of the town is all but lost during the camel festival when a couple hundred thousand visitors fill the streets for a week. The result was fun, but wearing. Considering its size and importance (to tourism in India), the camel festival itself was not as well organized as we expected, with many of the fun events on the schedule (camel races, fireworks) being cancelled - but, in the festival's defense, some of the cancellations were due to a former Indian president dying. In addition, the huge influx of tourists (many, many being of the more monied package-tour sort) meant a disproportionate presence of people looking to cash in... Leaving the hotel room meant tolerating constant offers for camel rides, requests for money from beggars, supposed priests trying to lure you down to the lake to take part in a blessing ceremony (after which money would be demanded) and the standard calling from shopkeepers to visit their stores. In addition, all sorts of people and things were made available for photographs - the catch (of course) being that the photographs aren't free - rural Indians in traditional "gypsy" dress ("Mistah, you want picture of gypsy girl?"), deformed cows (extra legs coming out of their midsection - is it the water?), Hindu holy men, random kids looking to make some spare change... The flip-side, though, was the fun of being in Pushkar to witness the big event. The best parts were seeing the extremely traditional rural Indians bargaining over the sale of camels and horses and watching traditional Indian sports (women racing with water jugs on their heads and such).

From Pushkar we traveled further west to the town of Jodphur, basically to see what is reputed to be one the most impressive forts in India. 03 - Amber Fort Exterior
03 - Amber Fort Exterior
 It didn't let us down and we ended up liking the city a lot. We felt like we needed to rush on to our next destination, but regretted it a little, as it seemed like it would have been a good place to have spent a few more days. But... instead we got on an overnight bus to the city of Udaipur, another transportation story to remember. Rajastan has a unique overnight bus option that was advertised as a "sleeper bus" - sleep all night and roll into your destination refreshed. We read we would be getting some sort of fully horizontal berth to sleep in, which sounded pretty nice. It ended up being comical. We had berths 1 and 2, which we assumed meant we'd each have a spot for ourselves, but it turned out that the sleeping berths were compartments above normal seats, built into the ceiling, that were about 6 feet long and 3 feet wide, more or less. Not bad for one person, but it turned out each compartment was supposed to hold two people. So, the two of us and all of our stuff spent a squished 7 or 8 hours to Udaipur. But at least we know each other - lots of people were assigned their little box with a random stranger.

We spent four or five nights in Udaipur, which we also enjoyed greatly. Although the touristy hassles of Rajastan were starting to wear us down (people everywhere trying to sell us things, weird charges at local attractions (the classic Indian one being an extra $3 to $5 to use your camera), rickshaw drivers wanting ridiculous fares...), the city is really beautiful. It was built by a royal family around some pretty lakes, one of which has a white palace in the middle, as if floating in the water (actually, the local claim to fame is that that palace was used in the filming of the movie Octopussy, which is shown nightly by just about every restaurant in town). Another pretty palace overlooks the lake, and there are additional palaces and forts on nearby hilltops. Definitely one of the prettiest spots we visited in India.

From Udaipur we traveled to one last spot in Rajastan, this time a bit off of the more beaten tourist path. We took a pretty comical all-day bus ride through the Rajastan countryside to the town of Bundi. It had similar Rajastani attractions - an old palace and fort on the hillside, women in beautiful, colorful saris from head to toe, a fortified town wall - but not as many tourists, so it had a much more genuine friendliness. Everywhere we went, people (especially kids) shouted hello and wanted to shake our hands. We also stayed in a guesthouse run by some of the nicest people we met in India and regretted that we decided to stay only three days. But our time in India was running out and we needed to move on...

We'll try to fill you all in on more soon.
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