Day 15-18 Delhi-Jaipur 24-27/082012

Setting out from our hotel early we walked the stones throw to new Delhi station to book tickets for what we thought was a regular service. Things are never so simple in India, an hour later we exited the tourist ticket office as it was beginning to congeal with tickets on the earliest train possible which left us 5 hours in Delhi encumbered with our bags. I had also taken the precaution to try my hand at planning ahead and booked trains from Jaipur to Kollam in the south via Udaipur but I wont go too far into that, needless to say that didn’t even go to plan. Our train was departing from old Delhi so that’s where we set our sights for and eventually cut our way through the hubbub to the metro system, which is the most advanced thing other than planes that I have witnessed on my trip thus far. The metro took us swiftly to the old Delhi station where we were hoping to store our bags until our train left however this was not possible so we instead struck out into old Delhi bags and all to find some breakfast. After a cheap and cheerful brunch in a chai house we decided to investigate Delhi's red fort that stood dominating the horizon at the end of the street we had found ourselves on. The fort was impressively imposing however it was not safe from the litter. We were forced to flee our perch beneath a tree in its grounds by an oncoming monsoon shower, which we did not all together avoid. We slowly made our way back to the station between fits of cover and were soon seated on our first sleeper class train, the class I will soon becoming very well acquainted with. Our four companions for the trip to Jaipur were two Indian gentlemen heading to stops past Jaipur and a couple who were alighting in Jaipur as well. Of the couple the Naresh was American with Indian heritage and Isabelle was Canadian, Naresh acted as a translator for the inquisitive locals. The trip was over in a blur of reading, in depth conversation about the litter situation in India and a few other conversations (I think one of the guys wanted to meet me in Udaipur but we will never know). We were greeted at the station by the standard rabble of touts trying to drag you apart to different places to stay. We eventually found somewhere cheap to stay and called it a night.

I took breakfast on the rooftop and discussed what to do with the day with my three companions. Naresh had worked in Jaipur a few months before and managed to organise a cab for the day and we went to some of the major attractions Jaipur had to offer which consisted of a couple of forts, a yard full of astronomy equipment built from stone and a place know as the windy palace. The first fort was pretty impressive and you could imagine how grand it would have been back in its day as it was still grander by far than most building in use in India today. The second fort offered a 280 degree view of Jaipur and enlightened me as to the true extent of the city which I had previously thought to be relatively small, the fort itself was more of a fortified mansion in comparison to the first. The windy palace was much more impressive from the outside but the astronomy yard was pretty interesting. Along the way we had a chance encounter with another couple that Naresh and Isabelle knew and after we had finished seeing the sites they went for dinner together at a fancy restaurant which I forwent. Instead Arthur and I had dinner at the rooftop café before saying our goodbyes as he was going on his own way. I decided to stay on the roof and have a couple of beers that night and it proved to be fairly eventful. First I watched a puppet show and attempted to learn the art myself to no avail. I then shared a few drinks with three guys who were apparently out for birthday drinks, however Raj whose birthday it was was not happy as his horse was ill, the conversation moved on to them trying to get me to go to their party which I cautiously but courteously did not go to. They then tried to convince me to go to a farmhouse on the morrow for breakfast and to fly a kite, which I said maybe to and stalled them for an answer until they had to go, being on my own again I had decided I should probably be on the safe side. Not too long after the two couples returned and we finished the night around a table with a sheesha pipe.

On my second day in Jaipur I decided I would join the two couples to the last sight that we had not had time to do the day before. Before doing so though we went to one of the orphanages that Naresh had been volunteering at to volunteer ourselves. The orphanage was only small with about fifteen kids, was located at the back of an apartment block and consisted of a dorm a corridor and a classroom. We spent an hour or so there playing games that I had not played in a long time with timeless classics as; duck duck goose, charades, sleeping lions and also a few that I had not come across before. The kids were really well behaved but as with any group of kids some were more engaging than others and due to their backgrounds they were all at different stages with their educations. After that we headed to Albert hall which was a museum set within an ornate hall that had been constructed at the same time as Jaipur had been painted 'pink' when king Albert had visited. There were a few good exhibits but I grew bored fairly quickly and sat in the grounds while the others finished their rounds. We took lunch in the pink city within the main bazaar in a fairly fancy restaurant and when we left we were greeted with what seems to be the standard 3/4ish downpour. We got collected from the door instead and head off to the second orphanage stopping off en route to see if we could get cinema tickets at 'the most famous cinema in India' but were met with disappointment there to set off again. We arrived at the orphanage just as the sun was setting. This orphanage was its own building that looked to be still under construction, none the less it was much larger than the first we had been to and the age range of the kids was much greater too. They were timid at first however I soon found myself; being prodded doing the macarena along with other dances. After about half an hour some Henna was introduced to the equation and I was soon being tattooed by a young girl called Pooja who after finishing signed her masterpiece. The others also bore the evidence of the combination of the henna mixed with kids, each with their own distinct style. After the henna ran out the kids went off to bed and we headed back to our various hotels too and the rest of my evening was just relaxing and reading....