Jaipur
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
20
26
Trip End
Ongoing
Jaipur, India
Thursday, October 19, 2006
We had a driver pick us up...this time in one of those old Ambasador Classics...the old car you see in all those old movies.
A really comfortable ride with, this time a nice and sober driver.
First stop the cricket stadium where we met a few other Brits in the long queue that had also high-tailed it down in time for the match.
Not cheap...good seats cost us around 3000ruppes each, about £40... for students there are 200 rupee seats but obviously they had been sold out weeks ago.
This hadn't stopped them coming down in droves though, on the off chance that there were still some more available. Soon it was apparent that tickets weren't the only thing they were interested in and Laetita was getting noticed alot.
The sight of a woman was something of a novetly to the young Indian guys standing around and our first taste of unwanted attention. Nothing heavy happened but being surrounded by a mass of starring blokes makes you feel slightly uncomfortable...friendly enough when you talk to them individually but you couldn't help noticing the look in their eyes...like they hadn't seen a woman in their whole lives!
Luckily there was also a heavy police presence and she was soon excorted out of the queue to the box office and buy the tickets
They were not the only ones interested in us as a novelty and we were also spotted by a National News reporter crew. Our interview didn't quite show us at our best...unfortunately our cricket knowledge isn't very current...I don't think they used that one.
The match was the next day so we had the afternoon to explore the many sights.
There is a royal palace and the fort of course...and then the famous astrological monument built by...a wonderus temple to the sun and stars, whose sundials and charts are accurate to this day.
The view of Jaipur from the fort was spectaclar but unfortunately its obvious beauty has been allowed to fall into disrepair.
The royal palace in contrast is stunningly preserved and a great place to while a way a hot Indian afternoon.
We resisted the temptation to buy souvenirs from the many toursit traps but this didn't stop them trying...sell sell sell, tip tip tip, money money money. From our arrival it was the same story...but a firm no seemed to work well so far.
A good first day... time to catch up on our sleep.
The place we had found to stay was wonderful and compared to Dehli very cheap. The Bayan Tree...lovely rooms in a home like setting, a restaruant, breakfast taken in the garden and a pool.
Really helpful and genuine staff...a relaxing retreat from the bustle outside.
