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The road to Rajasthan
Jaipur, India |
Jaipur, India
Day 3 in India. The good news is I’m no longer Cashless in Delhi, The bad news is, I’m now Cashless in Jaipur.
India Gate
We had an early departure from New Delhi this morning. We loaded onto a large coach at least twice the size necessary for our small group, but apparently a smaller bus wasn’t available. The big coach is comfy to spread out in, but it’s not the most convenient form of transport on India’s narrow, chaotic roads.
On the way out of New Delhi, we stopped off briefly at the India Gate, a WWI memorial arch, for a photo op. We also passed by the Presidential Palace. It was very smoggy once again, so the photos have an eerie mist to them. But that’s okay. It gives them some atmosphere.
The Road to Rajasthan
From there, we hit the road. The good news with the whole cash crisis is that tolls on the roads have been temporarily suspended (since nobody has cash to pay them), so between that and it being a Saturday, traffic was relatively light. We made good time, stopping off along the way at a couple of rest stop restaurants, and even a McDonald’s. My usual rule while travelling about Mickey D’s is simple: Don’t. But I do like to see the different menus, especially in India.
The highway driving wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d been led to expect. Traffic mostly flowed and mostly stayed in a lane… somewhat. We did see cows on the side of the road quite a bit. The rumours are true: cows are everywhere in India. Except on the McDonald’s menu, of course.
#StillNoMoney, Day 3
We arrived in Jaipur in mid afternoon, and immediately set out on a mission to find money. We were told that we should have no problem doing this, as most of the ATMs in the country were back online. But the Indian habit of telling you what they think you want to hear rather than what you actually need to know was in full force here. The problem was, they had very little cash in them. Because of the long queues, they were running out of money much faster than they could be filled. Most of them were out of money, so we went around from one to the next trying to find one with cash.
Finally, we joined a queue that didn’t seem too long… except that by the time our group got close to the front, the machine was out of cash again. Go figure. We tried a couple more places, but it was clear that it wasn’t happening today. So much for that.
The Pink City
Jaipur is pink. As in, all the buildings are pink. The gates are pink. The facades are pink. It’s quite pretty, actually. New Delhi — the parts we saw of it — isn’t the most attractive of cities. But Jaipur has a certain charm to it. We could feel it right away, even amidst the chaos.
The capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur is an imperial city known for its unique architecture, forts, palaces and gemstones. So far, it’s much prettier and more charming than New Delhi, and perhaps slightly less chaotic, though that might simply be because it’s a weekend.
We checked into our hotel — a beautiful old heritage building with courtyards, archways, wall art, and elephants in the lobby — and set down our bags before heading back into town to explore. The hotel is a bit outside of the gates, and therefore a peaceful oasis removed from the chaos. You can actually hear the birds chirping at the hotel. Not so in the city; it’s the usual Indian backdrop of honking horns, shouting, swerving, motorbikes, cows, people, people everywhere. India is truly travel with all five senses.
Without cash, we were a bit limited as to what we could actually do. We couldn’t sample the street food, browse at the market stalls, see a Bollywood movie, or even get a tuk-tuk to take us further into town. Instead, we spent about an hour dodging bikes, cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, cows and people, and trying not to get run over by any of the above. It was a close call on more than one occasion.
Between all that, we managed to see vendors selling flower garlands, a temple, fruit and spice vendors, and the pink city all lit up by night. It may be chaotic, but it’s a very pretty chaos.
Back to the hotel for dinner, which was good, if a bit slow, and then abusing the hotel WiFi for some blogging and such.
Tomorrow: Forts, places and (maybe, dare I hope) some cash at last? Stay tuned!