A sneaky weekend trip to Jaipur

12 April - 14 April 2019

It's 10 o'clock on a Friday night, and the hostel owners asks:

Hostel owner: "Do you want to go to Jaipur?

Me:                 "Sure, when?

Hostel owner: "At 12", he calmly replies.

Me:                  "Huh?" Ok, well I am on holiday.  I think, why not, seeing we leaving so late, must be close. 

Me:                  "How many kilometres?

Hostel owner: "Only about 300", he mentions calmly.

Me:                  "Chilled, we'll be there in less than 3 hours"

Hostel owner: "Lol (he did not say lol, he laughed, because he is a person), should take between 5-6 hours. 

Me:                  "Oh, gosh, well I better get packing then."

There is a bit of dramatic paraphrasing there, but it pretty much went like that.  Kinda.

There I was, driving with a person I had known for less than 48 hours, in the middle of the night, with three other people, going across the country.  Moo would not be happy.  Also, for some context, during the day I asked another person who worked at the hostel why people drive so badly in Delhi.  He explained that most people buy their licenses.  He bought his for 1000 rupees (that's less than R250).

What? Your rooms aren't ready.
It's 5:30am.  Pfft, hostels.

At the back of the car, we all decided to go to sleep, as - we thought - if we were in an accident, at least we would die in a state of calm (granted, he was not a bad driver, Indian roads and driving are just a different beast).  We arrived at our hostel at 5:30am.  Surprisingly, our rooms would only be ready at 1pm.  Consequently, we slept on the couches. 

Breakfast at lunch time.  

After getting up, checking in, having a shower, finding our bearings, we headed out late Saturday afternoon to start seeing Jaipur.  On stepping out and seeing Jaipur, I knew I had made the right call.  Jaipur, nicknamed the pink city, because of the pink local rock used in the architecture (see my blogs are also informative) has some amazing places to see.  Hawa Mahal and City Palace are beautiful.  

View from one of the windows

Entrance to Hawa Mahal

To the central meeting place
of City Palace

Walls of Hawa Mahal

From the central meeting
place of City Palace 

Staring competition at
City Palace

However beautiful the city is in the day, they light up the buildings at night.  We had dinner across the road from Hawa Mahal at a restaurant called the view (or something like that).  A really great setting.

The night ended with a few drinks, one of the girls breaking off her engagement and then having a complete break down, panic attack, and needed to go to hospital, but its not such an interesting story.  Cue night 2 of going to sleep at 5:30am.

Day 2 started very much like day one.  Slept in, and after everyone getting their ducks in a row, we headed out late Sunday afternoon to start finish seeing Jaipur.  The Amber Fort puts the other forts to shame.  Properly magnificent.  Our tour leader / hostel owner also took us to the Royal Gaitor Tumbas.  Tombs of many of the maharajas who ruled Jaipur.  I think another gem off the tourist trail, we were the only people there - save for the Indian couple doing a photo shoot there.

Marble pillars in the minor meeting hall
of Amber fort

Outside view of the minor meeting hall,
Amber Fort

Not sure what this is,
but that's me inside it

Doorways of Amber Fort

Garden outside the mirror hall,
Amber Fort

Mosiacs in the Mirror Hall,
Amber Fort

Exit Gate, Amber Fort

Royal Gaitor Tumbas

Royal Gaitor Tumbas

Royal Gaitor Tumbas

Royal Gaitor Tumbas

Day turned to night and it was time to head home (at about 10pm).  Not a problem, we were due to arrive early (by our standards), by about 3am.  Hindsight is always 20/20, but we really should have not let the girl who had a breakdown the night before drive.  Also, and I'm being nice here, she was a crap driver.  Anyway, we got what we deserved.  She veered off the road, popped two tyres and bent both left tyre rims.  Shmuck.

It's ok, it's just the front tyre

Oh, no, wait.  The shmuck bust
the back one too.

Our hero / tour leader / hostel owner sorted out the problem.  Luckily we had come to a halt across the road (I say road, this was a highway) from a "mechanic" place/effort.  This guy changed the front tyre with the spare.  Bashed the rims back into place, and we were on our way.  We arrived in Delhi after 5am, and got to sleep for the third night in a row after 5:30.  However, I was alive, had an amazing time with a group of now good friends (except the mental breakdown / tyre bursting lady - she wasn't cool anymore), and experienced an amazing city.  You should definitely check it out.  Maybe take a bus though.