Mr & Mrs Wanderlust : The not so pink City...Jaipur

Transport

We took the night bus from Dehli to Jaipur, it only took around 5-6 hours and we arrived around 6am. The guys from the hostel in Dehli had told us that the Jaipur hostel was opposite the train station so we set off on a long walk there only to realise we had walked past the hostel to get there! We followed the dubious directions from the booking email instead which ended up in us walking in circles. Thankfully exhausted we finally found it at around 8am using google maps! We were lucky to get there and be able to have breakfast on the roof and relax while we waited to check in.

Accommodation

So we stayed at Delhi's sister hostel in Jaipur so it was also called Moustache hostel. It is newer than the Delhi hostel and it offers great facilities. Its about 200rs a night cheaper for a bed in a mixed dorm and we actually got 25% off the first night for having previously stayed in their Delhi place. (the normal price is 400 INR a night)

Day 1

Feeling pretty tired from our long journey we decided to head out for a wander, have a look at the numerous gates in the city and work our way to the old town.

Enroute we searched for Lassiwala a famous lassie shop thats been around for over 6 years and offers traditional lassies served in terracotta cups.

Once we reached the gates we realised that the city is certainly not pink..more of an amber/burnt orange colour. But apparently when the city got its name, pink seemed the closest colour when they translated it from Hindi to English.

While wandering the old town we were amazed at the hustle and bustle. Everybody in a hurry to get somewhere and the horn beeping seemed even more extreme than Delhi! We then visited the city palace, and looked at some of the buildings inside, it was 400 INR to get in and this included our entry into Jargarh fort the following day. the palace was a little underwhelming, as we had seen a few palaces by now, which were easier to find, cheaper to get in, and had similar if not better artefacts/exhibitions on show.

That evening, we fancied a hearty meal, and went for a Thali at 'Thali house', which was around a 10 minute walk from the hostel. It was delicious, and unlimited, and we used it to good effect, nobody was hungry.

Day 2

The hostel was offering yoga classes in the park at 8am so we thought we would give it a go. It wasn't great, the class moved very slowly, and the class should've finished at 9, but was actually closer to 10 am. lucky it was cheap at 150 INR each. Then was a trip to Jargarh fort, to use the other half of our ticket from the city palace. We had to get dropped at amber fort and hike up the steep road to the fort at the top of the hill. This fort was very defensively minded, and was not designed to be as beautiful as the amber fort halfway up the hill. It was designed as security for the amber fort. it did however house the largest cannon on wheels, as well as having stunning views on the fort below. after the long hike down we took our tuk tuk back to the hostel it cost 450 INR for there and back including a stop at the lake palace, which is not open for visitors, but you can stop and view it from the side of the lake.

We were back in time for a trip to the Dushara festival in Jaipur, that had been arranged by our hostel. they arranged a member of staff from the hostel to come witht he group (around 20 ppl) and transport to and from the festival site. They charged 80 INR per person for transport and entry to the festival was free, we had a lot of street food from the festival and it was very tasty, after some fireworks and a large fire, to burn the pair of evil god brothers (50ft tall towers made of paper and balsa wood) we were ushered out the festival with everybody else, lots of pushing and shoving (Indians struggle with orderly queueing) and Abi even said she felt like her bum had been groped a few times and wasn't the only female to notice this! we were out and in the autorickshaws on the way back to the hostel.

Day 3

We woke up a little late and had breakfast and chatted with a man from Las Vegas we met in the Delhi hostel but who was now in Jaipur. He had been travelling a long time and had lots of information and interesting stories to tell us. We finished breakfast and were on our way to visit the Jaipur Jantar Mantar. This is an area dedicated to Astronomy and Astrology, and housed the largest sundial clock in the world. It was interesting and we paid for a guide to explain this as some of it was a little above our heads at first, but we got there in the end. We had another Lassi from Lassi Wala, then walked halfway across Jaipur to a restaurant we had heard about. It was south Indian food, so we had Idly (fermented rice in a round cake served with a vegetable curry sauce) and a giant masala dosa (a flat rice flour pancake, with potato curry inside).

By the time we were back at the hostel we had walked a really long way, so there was not a lot left to do but crash out and rest before our train the following day.