The PInk City

26.09.11

This morning we met our rickshaw driver Khan at 10am ready for our day tour of Jaipur. He drove us through the streets of the Pink City. Which interestingly enough, wasn't originally pink when it was first built (the colour of hospitality in Rajasthan)but only painted pink for the visit of Prince Albert in 1876. The streets of the Pink City were just as dirty as the rest

of the city, with rubbish strewn everywhere, and the buildings dirty. To be honest I was disappointed. The first place Kahn took us was the Isarlat, a tall tower on the edge of the Pink City, which gave great views of the city. We were then taken to the Jantar Mantar, which is a medieval astronomical observatory. It was a fascinating place, with

huge stone structures that looked like something out of Salivador Dali painting. We had a quick squint at the City Palace which is still home to the royal family. We then had a stop off at the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds. It is a beautiful building which is made up of many windows, arranged almost like a beehive, reminding you of insect eyes. We continued

on to Rama Niwas gardens and then it was lunch time.

After lunch we were taken to small printing workshop to see how fabrics were printed and woven traditionally in Rajasthan. The fabrics were stunning, intricately printed, and they were't too pushy about trying to sell us anything! Afterwards it was time to return to our hotel as we wanted to finalise our plans for the rest of the trip. The idea was that we would just make a few phone calls and confirm our tour by taxi of Rajhastan. we had been given costings

for 18 days and it was reasonable and we knew would be much more relaxed and we would see loads more. However when we called to confirm we were told that our driver had cancelled because he thought his English wouldn't be good enough. Anch got in touch with another driver, however he was charging more a km and we had to pay him for a minimum of 250km

a day, which would rocket the price up - so our plans were scuppered. Our hotel thought they could arrange something for us but we had to wait until the next day.

Our day with Anch

25.09.11

We slept until 11am, waking up in time to have breakfast and meet our rickshaw driver who was coming to pick us up at 1pm, however after calling a friend of a friend we had be very kindly hooked up with through a friend of Martin, to help us sort out a taxi tour of rhajistan, we had to cancel our rickshaw trip, as he was free to come meet us at 2pm. So 'Anch' (this is his nickname and we have no idea how to spell it) turned up and took us off in his car. We weren't expecting him to go so far out of his way, but were pleasantly surprised when he drove us around to see some sights, including the Amber Fort, nahargarh 'Tiger' Fort. Both forts were up in the mountains and had amazing views of the city, however were also both run down and 'tatty'. Its a shame they havent been looked after, but the views from them, the ridiculous amount of monkeys 'pottering' around them and the picturesque surroundings made them well worth the visit. We also stopped and Martin had an ice cream and I had a coconut with a straw, by a beautiful fort in the middle of a lake. Anch told us it had been bought by a local Millionaire who was turning it into a resort to woo prospective clients!

We had a turn around back at the Guest House while Anch went to handle something at his work, he then picked us back up and took us for dinner at one of his friend's restaurant where we had our first meat in India! We took the risk as we were assured it was good meat and it was delicious! We had Chicken tikka and chicken Mallai Tikka as well as some Dahl dish and

a garlic naan. We insisted on paying as Anch had driven us all day and bought us a beer earlier, but he assured us not to worry about it, he then went and shook his friends hand, said goodbye and we realised none of us were paying. We then went to see if there were any 'partys' going on but had no joy as it was a Sunday so we bought one more beer from a guy who stands on a corner like and sells beers after the allowed time of 8pm like a dodgy drug dealer, had that and

called it a night.