Friday, 6 February 2009
Up early and into a tuk tuk to the bus departure point. There was a hotel and restaurant (of sorts) next to it, so we had a light breakfast before catching the “deluxe” bus to Jaipur which was comfy and wasn’t full, so there were seats for all and nobody sitting on the floor or roof. There were a few other tourists, but mainly Indians. The journey was bumpy because they are extending or widening the roads, so the bus had to keep swerving to whichever lanes were open, although if they reduced the manic speeds to something bearable, we would constantly think we were going to fall over.
The landscape is predominantly rural with lots of green crops in the ground. We stopped for a short break before boarding the final leg, arriving into Jaipur only slightly late.
We got a tuk tuk to our hotel after saying he knew exactly where it was and would we like to book him as a guide. Getting into the hotel, we find he has dropped us at the wrong one, so we used the free hotel shuttle tuk-tuk (kind of like a giant golf-cart) to the other hotel – the guy was never going to get us as clients if he has a worse sense of direction than us.
Our hotel is very nice with all the mod-cons, including hair dryer, restaurant, bar, swimming pool etc. After quickly dropping off our bags we got a map from reception and directions to Chandpol to visit the markets. Unfortunately the hotel may be nice, but the reception staff just lack any form of focus, way too busy on their mobiles or talking to their friends who also seem to have taken up residence in the hotel lobby.
On reaching Chandpol we walked up through the street looking at all the lovely vegetables and spices for sale, stopping along the way to have a freshly cooked samosa which was delicious. We walked past mountains of spices and very fresh vegetables and piles of garlic cloves, all set up on the ground along the roadside, at one of the stalls there was even a huge monkey helping himself to some snowpeas – gross I hate monkeys (along with cockroaches, rabid dogs or anything else that may bite).
We walked back down the other side of the street, buying some anklets and bracelets and then decided to try and find the silver area so of course ventured down the totally wrong street, whereas a guy offered to give us directions and of course then offered to take us to a jewellery wholesaler. Luckily I have Kathy here to do all the big shopping and take the hard sell off me, so after a while I headed back to the hotel as I had a cracking headache and was starving and had just seen enough jewellery for one day (never thought I would say that). Kathy did some purchases and then the guy offered to tell Kathy her fortune, so she finally got back to the hotel hours later all stressed about getting back as the tuk tuk driver didn’t know the way and took her to the wrong hotel again – but after a shower, clean clothes and her hair dried with the hair dryer life was better.