I showed up at the train station a little before 6am to catch my 6am train only to find out that it was delayed for 5 hours (I was of course only told of the delay in 30min increments). While I was waiting I started chatting with a couple from Australia (Kerri and Jeff) who were on a 2-3month tour of Tibet, Nepal, and now India. After hours of waiting and a few more hours on the train we finally rolled into Jaipur in the early afternoon and I tagged along with them to the Paradise Inn, we dropped our bags and headed back out. Jaipur, the 'Pink City', turned out to be much larger and busier than I had expected. As we wandered through the crazy traffic, toward the pink walls of the city, we came across the immediately recognizable golden arches (yes, McDonald's) and all being quite hungry decided to go in to see what the Indian branch had to offer. I settled on the 'McChicken Maharaja Mac', which looked like the BigMac but tasted nothing like it...the chicken patty was spiced and they changed the special sauce! A big disappointment.
After much wandering and misdirection we finally found and made our way into the P'ink City', a pretty amazing area of just street after street of different shops, similar to the Turkish 'grand bazaar' but on a much larger scale, with different areas for different products (jewelery, textiles, housewares, etc). Karri was on the hunt for some silver jewelery so we found that area and she 'put her bargaining hat on' and went to town. She is a great bargainer and it was incredibly entertaining and educational to watch her work. After she cleaned up and secured a couple of pieces we all made our way to the 'Hotel Om Tower' with its rotating, rooftop restaurant and enjoyed some tasty indian food as we gazed down at Jaipur moving around below (hint...it all pretty much looks the same from up there).
I had been planning on staying in Jaipur for a couple of days, but upon seeing how much of a big, busy, polluted city it was I decided to press on to Pushkar with Kerri and Jeff after just one day.
Photos: Jaipur
After much wandering and misdirection we finally found and made our way into the P'ink City', a pretty amazing area of just street after street of different shops, similar to the Turkish 'grand bazaar' but on a much larger scale, with different areas for different products (jewelery, textiles, housewares, etc). Karri was on the hunt for some silver jewelery so we found that area and she 'put her bargaining hat on' and went to town. She is a great bargainer and it was incredibly entertaining and educational to watch her work. After she cleaned up and secured a couple of pieces we all made our way to the 'Hotel Om Tower' with its rotating, rooftop restaurant and enjoyed some tasty indian food as we gazed down at Jaipur moving around below (hint...it all pretty much looks the same from up there).
I had been planning on staying in Jaipur for a couple of days, but upon seeing how much of a big, busy, polluted city it was I decided to press on to Pushkar with Kerri and Jeff after just one day.
Photos: Jaipur
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