09/10/2018 - 17/10/2018
So after our overwhelming first few days in India where on many an occasion I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or scream at the surrounding pandemonium we took a 6 hour train ride from Agra to the northern culturally rich Indian state of Rajasthan. This time we were smart and opted for a 2nd class ticket which offered air conditioning, a commodity in India which if not available really makes your ability to function pretty tough! While thinking about Rajasthan and what this region has to offer, the word 'colourful' I feel is probably the most appropriate adjective (and I LOVE a bit of colour.). You also cannot write about Rajasthan and in fact all of India without describing it as completely chaotic and in fact just totally indescribable, but hey this post isn't going to write itself so I will try my best once again!
The dressing pattern of choice for men and woman all over Rajasthan seem to outshine the colours of the rainbow. Men with upturned moustaches sporting attractive orange and red coloured turbans and woman draped in beautifully ornate sari's and mountains of glistening gold jewellery.
The colours also seem to transcend onto the buildings of the cities of Jaipur and Jodhpur which are, aptly called the pink and blue city due to the painted colours of their buildings. Each city boasts beautiful and magnificent forts and palaces which are testament to the opulence of their ancient rulers. As we moved across Rajasthan the fascinating architecture and rich culture really weaved magic on us both and even allowed us (most of the time!) to look past the grittiness of every street corner and the constant beeping of traffic horns which I'm surprised hasn't left us both with insufferable tinnitus. There was a slight consolation in Jaipur for me where I was happy to learn that it's the law that every street vendor must have a bin placed outside their shop (Not that every person had the sense to use it, but hey, it's a start!) and the streets were quite noticeably cleaner as a result. If they could also figure out how to clean up the cow shit everywhere too that would also be awesome!
The City of Jaipur
Jaipur is the capital city of Rajasthan meaning 'the city of victory' and most commonly known to us tourists as 'the pink city' due to the colour of the building facades (It's actually more of a terracotta colour but hey, whose looking!) Even though Jaipur is a busy capital it still seems to retain it's old age charm which we had the pleasure of experiencing as we took a 5 hour cultural walking tour through the cities vibrant streets. Our brilliant guide Kumar showed us the hidden sights and flavours of the city where we didn't feel pressured into buying anything as we had an Indian local by our side which was quite a refreshing experience. He introduced us some delicious street food (a scary idea of trying in India if you want to avoid getting Delhi Belly!) like Aloo Tikki and a yoghurt drink called Lassi which was quickly to become our favourite drink staple in India. A great bonus was that we didn't end up on the toilet for days after so we also learned from the tour that Indian street food isn't that scary to try if you know the good places to go and the good places to go are usually the most dingy completely lacking in any sort of glamour or flickering romantic candles like the ones usually portrayed as the best restaurants on trip advisor! He also brought us to some local artistrians like jewellery makers, marble statue makers, sweet makers and most memorable for us, a clay pot maker who let us attempt to make our own clay pots which of course didn't turn out as gracefully but the attempt was all in good spirits. It was a really enjoyable tour through the flamboyant streets of Jaipur despite the ordeal of crossing the roads while hoping the tuk tuks went around rather than through us and I really feel it gave us a local insight into the real beating heart of the vibrant city.
The next day we spent some time with a few fellow travellers from our hostel and paid a visit to the cities star attractions such as the red and pink palace Hawa Mahal, the sprawling ancient royal residence of Amer fort and the monkey temple where large families of monkies scamper along the zig zagged walls and where within the space of 5 minutes we saw a miniature cow (which I never realised was actually a thing but in India it most certainly is!), a snake charmer, a cow with a foetus hanging from her backside which had apparently been there for days (yes I know...GROSS and the sad part was that none of the locals seemed at all phased by it only me who worried about the poor cow for days after!) and I got jumped on my back by a money who assumed I was going to take her baby just because I kneeled down slightly to have a closer look at it. Monkeys are cute, especially the babies but I learned that they are actually kind of scary and not to look them directly in the eyes, they really they don't like that!
On our way back to the hostel one of our tuk tuk's (amusingly also referred to by locals as Indian helicopters, I learned in Jaipur) they happened to run out of petrol because, you know...looking at your petrol gauge is SO much effort but instead of pulling over to the side of the road, the other tuk tuk driver that was ferrying our group around for the day stuck his foot out while driving and proceeded to push the other tuk tuk with his foot along the road until we had reached our hostel. This is India guys...and in India we have learned very quickly that anything really is possible!! Frustrated swarms of cars, buses and tuk tuks pounded their horns as they passed us by but not scorning our drivers for carrying out a dangerous manoeuvre I feel on a busy road but rather for the fact that we were slowing up their seemingly very important journeys.
The City of Pushkar
We made our way from the delightfully colourful city of Jaipur to the small and thankfully somewhat quieter (In India I have learned that nowhere is actually really that quiet!) Hindu pilgrimage town of Pushkar to spend one night. The town curls around a holy lake and also has one of the world’s few Brahma temples where Indians come from all parts to worship. There are a vast number bathing ghats and holy Hindu temples and thus the town often seemed to hums with prayers, chanting and the sound of drums along the lake banks. We weren't quite too sure on the appropriate way to handle ourselves at the ghats it being an extremely holy place and us, not so much but we quickly found out after men shouted at us demanding we take our shoes off and leave them away from the steps. So with no shoes we walked the hot ground of the ghats which were a muddle of people carrying out their Hindu prayer rituals, bathing in the waters of the lake seemingly cleansing themselves from their passed sins and of course plenty of bird and cow poo to meander our way through.
That evening we took the lazy mans way up to the viewing point over the city via a cable car and relaxed for the evening as the sun set through the hazy clouds and scurries of monkeys that have made it their home. This time I stayed well clear of those monkeys after my brief episode in Jaipur but enjoyed the playful manoeuvres of the babies as they whirled without fear through the highs of the trees.
The City of Jodhpur
Our Rajasthan adventure continued onto the city of Jodhpur, a rhapsody in blue and a magnificent architectural spectacle despite once again the India staple of chaotically crowded and noisy streets but we were learning to kind of overlook that not so nice side of India. Around the base of Mehrangarh’s fort the old city is a jumble of blue cubes stretching out from the 10km-long, 16th-century city wall. Let me tell you that the Blue city really is blue and its tremendously appealing to the eye! We took an early morning walking tour which at the beginning wasn't so great as our guide slept through his alarm and left us waiting for about 30 minutes so I joked with him (I of course was being deadly serious!) that it better be a good tour and in fact it turned out to be a very pleasant few hours learning about the city, its culture and the delicious rice breakfast (yes, they eat rice for breakfast here!) we had in a local woman's home all the while playing dress up with some turbans she had lying around. Our guide felt bad I think for keeping us waiting in the morning so offered to bring us back to the house where we had breakfast that morning to go to the rooftop and watch the sunset unfold against the backdrop of the huge city fort and blue sea of houses (Oh, and by the way the houses are painted blue apparently to keep them cool from inside against the scorching heat!).
The next day we couldn't leave Jodhpur without paying a visit to one of the biggest and most impressive forts in India, the Mehrangarh's fort which holds a stern look on the city below, being 410 feet above the city and enclosed by imposing thick walls. The local guards at the fort must have taken us for idiots as they do most tourists when they tried to make us buy a ticket to enter the fort but we knew that this ticket was only required to enter the museum. We sternly argued with them over this, me lying and saying I had been here before so knew the workings of the fort and eventually they reluctantly let us through with all the locals who of course were never asked to buy a ticket. In India you see you got to be tough, direct and stand your ground or otherwise you will of course be taken for a fool! Once we got through the barrage of lies and scams from the guards we enjoyed some time roaming the walls of the fort and even managed to find a quiet place to enjoy the views of the city once more. We also paid a visit to the Maa Chamunda temple within the walls of the fort, separated into two lines, one for men and one for women we trotted on our own down to the temple amongst the hundreds of local pilgrims to have a noisy at more of their Hindu praying rituals. We queued up to have a look and once we reached the top where the blessings were taking place we awkwardly stepped aside and quickly removed ourselves as we were just kind of getting in the way. There was no shortage of people wanting selfies with us however on the way back.
The City of Udaipur
Our final destination of our colourful and of chaotic tour of Rajasthan was to the city of Udaipur, set around a serious of artificial lakes and known for its lavish royal residences. This was to be our favourite stop in Rajasthan due to its scenery, serenity (yes it actually was pretty quiet.. around the banks of the lakes at least!) and the fact it has one of the most established animal aid centres in the state which we had the pleasure of visiting. Here they rescue and treat street dogs and cows (of which there are hundreds!) and heal them of their misfortunes. Many are released and many stay on site for the remainder of their lives. They also rescue puppies, take in abandoned and wounded donkeys goats and even turtles! We took a tour of the compound and spent the next few hours giving some of the unfortunate dogs, donkeys and goats some well deserved belly rubs and cuddles. Mnay of the dogs had been left paralysed from car accidents and could only move around on their two front legs. The sad part of the whole experience was that these animals are the lucky ones and the fact that humans are the real predators of this world. I left feeling both happy that these animals are getting the help they need but also sad that animals can be left in such dire conditions by us. None the less this organisation called animal aid do great work for the animals of Udaipur. If only other states of India would take notice!
A few of our other favourite things we did in Udaipur was a two hour miniature painting class, the paintings are small in Udaipur but they are big on detail. I gave my best attempt and was pretty pleased with the outcome of my miniature blue elephant with only a little help from the real artist of the studio who turned my fat elephant drawing into one of masculine grandeur. We also took in a traditional dance show full of traditional Indian dance and puppetry but the real show stopper was the 70 year old woman who balanced 11 terracotta bowls on her head all the while stepping on shards of glass (like, it was really impressive!)
Also, randomly as we were walking the banks of the lake enjoying the peaceful surroundings we were asked by a young guy sitting in his tuk tuk to be extras in a video advertisement with the reward of payment afterwards (too good to be true??). From past experience we weren't sure if it was some sort of weird Indian scam that Paul hadn't come across on the internet yet (he knows all the scams!) but we could see he had already rounded up two other unsuspecting tourists so we obliged and were brought to the rooftop of a fancy hotel (we were way underdressed in out sweaty tops and shorts) for our acting debut. After lots of waiting around and awkward looks at each other as to what the hell was going on they finally got under way shooting their video (apparently for jet airways!). Ok, so it was pretty pointless us being there as the camera I don't think once was on us and probably for the better as we all looked terrible in comparison to the beautiful Indian girl who was the real star of the show. But hey, we were, as promised given 1000 rupees for our pointless presence in the advertisement. The most money we will have earned for ourselves probably all year!
Rajasthan was by far (so far!), the most interesting part of India we have visited, it's both full of unique colourful culture, beautifully unusual architecture which both combine forming a daily landscape of ancient traditions, deep religious beliefs, artistic practices and of course a lot of beeping of tuk tuk horns and cow poo thrown in for good measure!
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