Jaipur

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  Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Monday, September 22, 2008

....we travelled bumping along a motoway as it was being built, through lush hills,and the occasional sand dune dotted with small trees, the transport infrastrucure of this part if the country seems to be being modernised, we've been travelling between fairly major cities in Rajastan, and generally the traffic is light. This raised 'motorway' is the first i've  seen in India and shows the beginnings of development (atleast interms of infrastructure) in the transport sector. We eventually cameto the end of the under-construction motorway, we knew this because it essentially ran into a mountain, then we had the precarious task of driving down from it back to the roads below. Nothing ever stops in India, and deffinitely not when safety can be compromised for speed.

We arrived at Jaipur, the largest city in Rajastan, and saw another huge fort and ramifications looming ahead of us. As we got out of the car around 3 beggers of different socio-demographics swarm us notioning to their desert wind weathered mouths for food, the types of begger are, the street urcin child, the lady (usually drapped in some vibrant sari which makes you feel less bad for no giving), insane men wearing very little and the disabled. I may talk about beggers matter-of-factly but I think this is how you have to look at the situation. There are many, many broken lives in India, many, many outcasts and many, many terrible stories of calamatous lives. The problems run deep, deep into the cultural fabric of India, and theres no hidding our western shame when we ignore a begger.

My philosophy is that the worlds poorest have to be helped from the bottom up, and that starts with kids and with education. If everyone in the western world sponsored who could afford it (99.999%) a child through education that would not've otherwise recieved, it the world's problems would be reduced markedly. As this is what I feel, this is what I do, sponsoring kids through plan international (www.plan-international.org/ 12 quid a month). 

Anyway, our hotel had a great view of the fort from the rooftop, and sitting there as the sunset and the kites flew over the fort, you can distance yourself from the putrid filth and smells that are Indian streets. This particular fort is very well defended, being almost entirely surrounded by hills and walls around the hills, but isn't quite as impressive as the enitrly formidable fort seen at Jophur.

We knew we'd entered the 'golden triangle' that is the tourist trap of Agra, Jaipur and Delhi, as we got hasled constantly to buy this and that, over here 'no' has an entirely different meaning, apparantly it means "Goodness! how wonderfully impressive you little Taj Mahal snow globe with flashing light is you have there, please continue to try and sell it to me for a sum 1000x its worth". 

The girls get more attention than I do, but then they bring it on themselves.

We stayed in Jaipur for 2 nights, mostly shopping and relaxing, the driver taking us to ridiculously elaborate, expensive, empty and sterile tourist malls to collect his dropping us off fee, we walk around trying not to feel too "backpacker in an executive suit".

We then took the trip to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, which we paid around 10 quid to see, whilst ignoring the touts and guides all wanting our attention, a particularly sticky guide was the subject of Sarah's "If you attempt to be my guide one more time i'll kill you" eyes. He didn't bother much with us after that.

The Taj Mahal itself is impressive, though not very impressive, it does work well with any weather, the perfect backdrop, but i've seen it now, taken the photo, and I don't think i'll be coming back to see it again. Worth a little look though.

Said goodbye to Emmy and Sarah, as they continued to Thailand (after stopping at some missionaries with wierd accents) and also said bye to the driver, which required the tip giving. I hate the tip culture, it can spoil relationships very easily, how do you know what a good tip is? They're already getting paid..... Our way is much better. Dunno if the driver liked or didint like his tip, at one point I thought he was goingto demand more, although this might've been mis-coimmunication.

I stopped off at my delapidated hotel, and stood in my empty little delapidated hotel room and wanted to go home. But now i'm off to Raithsdffdf (can't remember the name) in the mountains in the northish of India, and get my first taste of Indian 2nd class train travel tomorrow. I'll be sure to let you know the hilarious situations I get myself into there.

- Jonny

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