Our first stop in Rajasthan was the capital, Jaipur, which is also probably the most unappealing of all the places we visited in the state. Even by Delhi and Agra's standards the touts there are intense and the traffic, pollution and noise can be a bit overwhelming. Our opinion may have been tainted somewhat by our experience at the train station, where being dropped at the far northern end away from the pre-paid taxi stand we were at the mercy of and were subsequently absolutely beseiged by auto-rickshaw drivers...
Ghandi
The peaceful Hawa Mahal with the busy traffic beyond
With shouting still ringing in our ears... 'everyone will try and rip you off here, you should come with me', '20 rupees straight to your hotel', 'I am not trying to cheat you', 'where you go now', 'that is the pre-paid booth, it is all bullshit anyway', 'that's not the real pre-paid booth', 'where are you going?', 'don't trust anyone in India'... we decided to walk from the station to our hotel
Dwarfism
Epitomising the pinkness - The Hawa Mahal
Anyways, after we started walking we were followed down the street by the most persistant of the auto-rickshaw drivers for a good 500m, again proving that Indians are committed. After a bit too much walking, we eventually found a room, which wasn't too bad, in fact would have been quite good had it not been right next to the boiler and therefore a bit full of smoke for our liking.
Although, after having walked around Jaipur for a while the room, and hotel in particular came to seem more and more appealing. Set around a peaceful grassed courtyard it provided much needed relief from the hectic, busy city beyond. For, despite the fact that we walked a fair way from the train station with our bags on, Jaipur is not a city for walking around. Busy, wide roads, pollution, noise, rubbish and mangy looking animals mean that you spend most of your time trying to survive rather than enjoy the sights!
Some cool observatory angles
Stairway to Heaven?
In fact, the amount of rubbish piled in the streets exceeded anything we've seen elsewhere in India, even Delhi! It was as if there wasn't any rubbish collection system at all. Although this was of course greatly appreciated by the many pigs, cows, goats and dogs feasting on the mess (have we mentioned this point in a previous post :P)...
Most of the sights are contained within the walled old city, the buildings of which are just about all painted an orangy pink colour. Apparently this was done to commemorate the visit of Prince of Wales in 1876, and seems a suitably over the top Indian kind of thing to do! Amongst the sights we checked out was the old observatory which has a number of very cool looking structures for making various astronomical measurements. While these structures obviously have a great deal of historical scientific merit we were more interested in the Dali style photos we could take of them.
Yes, Hobbes has a cow obsession
Jaipur is also renowned for its' shopping and Aimes was definitely in 'jooti' heaven while she was there. Though the tactics of the sales staff can be a little heavy handed at times, a bed set that we weren't particularly keen on dropped from 4,000 to 1,000 rupees in pretty quick time! Though the staff made it quite difficult to leave the shop when we declined to buy at what they considered a good price!
Some of Jaipur's wildlife
More wildlife
We also checked out the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of Wind, which is pretty much the architectural highlight of the city and epitomises the pinkness.
Chai Stand
Gold - Jaisalmer
Alighting from the train from Jaipur provided an extreme contrast, as there is very very little in Jaisalmer, the station is basically deserted, the only people there being those alighting from the train, hotel touts and soldiers. The soldiers are probably one of the more prominent things, as being near to the Pakistan border there is a pretty big military presence. From the train you could see many carriages carrying tanks, while military planes were constantly flying over head. All the stations we passed were full of soldiers and they were pushing in front of us at the ticket queue (the fact they were still carrying their rifles means they didn't get too many complaints).
Jailsalmer's Fort standing above the sandstone city
Sea of sandstone
Not only is the quietness striking, but the scenery is also amazingly different, being in the middle of the Thar Desert it is very barren, a few scrubby thorny bushes, a couple scattered trees, salt bush here and there and that's about it. From the train on the way in you could see small grass thatched huts surrounded by cattle, herds of camels and gazels.
The whole place definitely made for a peaceful change (particularly when compared with Jaipur), very little traffic except for the cows, people hassling you in a much less commited way and definitely not blockading you within their shop.
Mis-match Haveli in the fort
Fort family
Much to our delight we were able to get Vegemite on toast for breakfast from a cafe run by some Aussie expat Indians, particularly as our Vegemite supplies have been running seriously low for some time now! Though it couldn't compete with the all you can eat Gujarati thali for the best meal in town, you could even load up your plate with dishes from other thalis and the waiters were dissappointed when you stopped wanting refills!
As for Hobbes cow obsession, it was satisfied as usual with cows having their usual dominant presence. Although they seemed to be more part of the family here than anywhere else, particularly those peering though doorways into houses to watch TV, and lining up outside doorways in the morning to be fed! However for the first time we had a couple of cranky looking ones try to use their horns on us...
what?
The town of Jaisalmer is dominated by it's fort which is quite stunning, rising out of the desert like a giant sandcastle. Inside the fort is a thriving (if little touristy) micro-town with shops, temples and 25% of the towns population living within the walls. The fort is relatively small, you can walk around it in 20 minutes, which makes it perfect to wander about the small laneways and get lost. The buildings are mainly of the finely detailed haveli variety, their facades covered in intricate carvings, and often combining a variety of different styles reflecting the stages of construction.
After wandering around the fort for a while we ran into a big protest march (apparently about high taxes) just outside. The protest was a little more colourful than usual as all the participants (being men of course) were wearing the brightly coloured turbans which are everywhere throughout Rajasthan.
Outside the fort
Turbaned protest
After spending a day wandering around the fort and its surrounds, we embarked on a 3 day camel safari into the surrounding desert. True to form for India, our group was full of Aussies (7 out of 11 people), which still amazes us considering we didn't encounter another Aussie the whole time we were in China??
We'll believe it when we see it!
Anyways, the camels were surprisingly comfortable to ride (when they were walking anyways), though this probably had a lot to do with the way they were saddled - loaded up with all the bedding for the night... It also helped that we only rode for one or two hours at a time, with regular stops to see desert villages (which have been corrupted by too many tourists) and for the comprehensive meals.
The first lunch was spent under the shade of a lone tree in the middle of the nothingness, really beautiful stuff, all the more so because of the simple yet tasty and plentiful food provided. After this we spent some moretime walking and stopping at desert villages with beautiful Rajasthani women in mud brick houses, wearing traditional dress with armfuls of bangles, and little kids running around everywhere.
Desert dwellers
'Raam' in search of some lady camels
As night came on we made it to some dunes (the desert is more scrubby than big dunes) which looked amazing in the light of sunset. This is where we were to spend the night lying on the sand under the stars... though being the desert it got a bit cold at night, particularly when you slid off the blankets and woke up with your feet in the icy sand!
You would think you wouldn't have to worry about people trying to sell you things out in the middle of the desert, but it seems this was another example of our naivity. No sooner had we stopped for the night than a young boy from a village somewhere out in the desert rode up with bags of beer and Pepsi to sell. Unlike most other sales propositions we have recieved, this one was very welcome!
True desert dweller
Camel train
A slight concern was had when we awoke in the morning to find that Aimes' camel had gone... apparently he had broken his rope and wandered off in search of some lady camel action. Kaka (one of our guides) had to walk for 5km to find him (how he located him in the baren landscape we still don't know, they recon they followed his foot prints?). On returning with him, Kaka proudly stated that he found evidence that 'Raam' got lucky 4 times in the night...
Being mating season all the male camels were a bit frisky, the dominant male of the group (which was about 50% bigger and walked 50% faster than all the others) continually made a disgusting elephant seal-esque grunting, tongue wagging performance for the ladies.
Aimes showing how it's done
On the second day the people doing the 1 and 2 day trips left to go their seperate ways leaving just us and plus two fellow Aussies, Brownwyn and Michelle. So it was 4 camels, plus one very angry training camel that one of the guides had only bought a few weeks prior. Being only a small group the guides decided to continue their breaking-in process with him, something he wasn't very happy about... running in all directions, screaming and shouting, banging into the other camels, his neck swinging around like a snake trying to take bites out of anything within reach. How the riders stayed on him we don't know, especially when his owner, Daniel, decided to ride him bareback with just his legs wrapped around his stomach?
The best part about doing the 3 day trek was definitely the fact that we then had two opportunities to sleep under the stars in the sand dunes. Sitting around a small fire drinking some Baileys as our guides sang Rajasthani songs was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
Our best night's accomodation in a while
We said previously that the camels aren't that uncomfortable to ride, it should be noted that this definitely does not apply to when they decide to run. The ungainly gait of the camel leads to a lot of bouncing, making it difficult to try and stay on when you are trying to protect a camera and steer at the same time, and resulted in some sore bodies when we were finished. Fortunately this doesn't happen often and we spent most of our time trying to get them to go rather than eat as the guides left us somewhat to our own devices.
Part of the reason we were left to our own devices was the fact that one of our guides spent most of the trip turning a rice sack into a length of rope. First breaking it down into plastic thread, then continually spinning it with a rock as he walked. For his 3 days effort he got himself about a metre of rope!
Down the ol' watering hole
The highlight of the last days riding was stopping at the dam which is obviously the local meeting place. After having spent two days wandering around the desert seeing very few people, the dam was a mass of life and colour as people from all walks of life came down to water their camels and cattle. Among them was the local postman, who for some reason gets around the nothingness on foot, though the fact that he offered to share his opium with us gave us sme idea of how it does it...
The local postman and Kaka
At each break the camels were hobbled and allowed to roam where they like in search of food. After our final lunch Kaka took Hobbes to help try and find the camels, which despite neing hobbled managed to walk about a kilometre away. Anyways, on the way to find the camels they passed an old lady herding sheep who obviously asked who Hobbes was. Going by Kaka's actions he said something along the lines of "he's a westerner who pays us money to lead them around in circles in the middle of the desert for a few days", which she of course found extremely funny!
The boys
On finding the camels, Hobbes somehow found himself riding on the back of his camel bareback behind Kaka (no alcohol was involved). The camel was just sitting down, the call of "get on" was made and next thing Hobbes was clinging on for his life by the very shot hair of the camels back. Camels have VERY prominent spine which is extremely uncomfortable and is surely a very effective contraceptive... Nearly falling off the back as his grip on the short hair gradually slipped, Hobbes decided to get off and walk to last 100m as Kaka rode off at double speed bouncing up and down on the hard spine as if it wasn't there.
A commercial sadhu baba - get blessed for just 50 rupees
Though this wasn't quite as adventurous as the other girls who had a go on the training camel, wild, crazed, erratic thrashings and all...
Perhaps need some typeset advice?
At the end of the last days riding we were met by a jeep which was to take us back to town. In a nice touch we stopped at a spot on the way back to town where there was a great sunset view of the town and the fort standing guard.
So we made it back in one peice and after a shower and some good pasta for dinner we felt almost revived and were ready to take on another Indian bus bound for Jodhpur.
Old skool
Blue - Jodhpur
Arriving in Jodhpur was definitely a 'welcome back to India' moment. Having been lulled into a false sense of security by the quiet and relaxed nature of Jaisalmer, it took about 10 seconds from alighting the bus to quickly be brought back to reality! That said, Jodhpur is not an overly manic town (it has nothing on Jaipur in this count), it just has a lot more traffic and noise than the relatively empty Jaisalmer.
Blueness
Thali & Thumbs Up
Jodhpur is a pretty spectacular town to look at, dominated by a massive fort perched a top a cliff in the middle of the town, with a majority of the buildings painted the bright indigo blue of the Brahmins. The Mehrangh Fort really is a dominant feature, standing high on top of a cliff, it's tall walls seeming an extension of these faces raising high into the sky.
An aspiring Tendulkar
Again dispelling the feeling that everyone in India is trying to sell you something, we receieved some excellent advice for a days tour of the city from our guesthouse and headed off quite early. First stop was the Jaswant Thada, a magnificent white marble tomb located on the ridge behind the fort and affording stunning views in the early morning light. Somewhat Taj like, but of a totally different architectural style (as the Mughals never succeeded in conquering Rajasthan) the building made a very nice starting point.
Service with a smile
From here we walked along the ridge to the fort itself, with the magnificent blue city spread out on each side. The Mehrangh Fort is a very imposing structure, with substantial walls and a series of heavy gates marking the entrances. Apparently the gates have never been breached in combat (despite many attempts) and seeing them up close you can understand why! In fact you can even still see the cannon ball marks where attempts were made.
Breakfast with a view
The most impressive thing about the Fort was the audio tour, which is everything you don't expect - informative, comprehensive and interesting! Apparently the Maharajah of Jodhpur was impressed with audio tours he experienced travelling in Europe and insisted on having one for his Fort! The Fort has primarily been turned into a museum and contains a number of interesting exhibits including weaponry, artworks, palanquins and regal tents. The quality of the displays alludes to the effort which had been made in the curation of the Fort, something which you definitely don't come to expect.
Hobbes attempts one too many cow photos
From the Fort we walked down into the heart of the 'bluest' part of the city, which as with all Indian cities was a hive of activity. In direct contrast of the calm and quiet tourist world of the fort, the blue old town was full of people buying and selling, playing cricket and staring.
Aimes audio touring
Finally we ended up at the Clocktower Market, which made the Blue part of town seem extremely sleepy by comparison. The market was typically busy and crowded and noisy. Speakers blaring sales pitches from the 2 Rupee shops, fruit baking in the hot sun and persistant sales people ensuring you that you really did want to buy their spices!
Don't you hate reformed smokers!!
From Jodhpur it was on to the less colourful, but no less beautiful lakeside town of Udaipur.
