Ok, I'm stopping my flow of the way to tell you what happened today.
I've arrived to Jaipur yesterday
morning. It's the capital city of Rajasthan state, pink colors, lots of
markets, lots of jewelry, lots of traffic, mess everywhere.
We have been warned, about the drivers and merchants that try to rip you
off, and that you should take care and bargain for everything, drop their
proposed price to 25-30%. All of that didn't prepare for what happened J We got off the bus
(night bus, slept for about 2-3 hours of the 12 hours' drive) and since we he
heard it's very hard to find many guesthouses in the same place, I already knew
where I want to go.
I met some new friends on the night bus and we all rented a rickshaw to
the hotel. Of course we were tired, so he took more money than needed, but we
only wanted to leave our stuff somewhere and we did. We took a room at Heiwa
Inn for the night, left our stuff and went for a little tour of the city.
Again, we took a rickshaw to town, and left it at the City Palace. From there
we went for a walk around the city. We saw the Hawa Mahal, it used to be
the women's palace – or more precisely, it's the name of the wall of windows
where the women of the royal family could watch street activities without being
seen - and then went to breakfast.
After breakfast my friends decided to walk to the market, and I went
back home by foot. On the way, lots of rickshaw drivers stopped me, trying to
start a conversation to get me to ride with them. I ignored most of them, but
one driver caught my attention and we started talking. He told me he is a
musician, and driving is only his way of getting away from boredom, while he
waits for the next festival or gig. He's playing in different places in the
world, and in India. We continue talking and he shows me pictures of him in Paris,
France, of gigs in the streets of Paris, and of festivals he's been to.
When we ended talking, he still hasn't offered a ride or tour in town,
but he did ask me if I like beer, because he wants to invite me to his house,
play some music with me and have a beer. Of course I said yes, but tomorrow,
because now I have to sleep. So he gave me his number to talk later, and
offered me a ride to the hotel. I figured it will happen, and actually my
battery went empty, so I couldn't use maps.me to find to the hotel, so I joined
him for the ride. When we arrived the hotel, I took out a bill of 100 rupees,
and he was surprised to get it. He took after I argue with him, and that is
only, as he said, to make me feel comfortable.
After a few hours of sleep, dinner in the Peacock
restaurant – very elegant restaurant, not so expensive like I expected – we
talked on WhatsApp and arranged to meet in the morning, to have a tour of the
city, again, Raj (the driver) only wanted to invite me to his house in the
evening, but I offered to have the tour. In the morning I have decided to move
to another guesthouse, because my friends left for Delhi, and I found a place
with shared dorms. The place is called Hathroi Palace and it's very
nice, much more travelers friendly. Anyway I met a new friend, Chemi, on the
guest house's rooftop restaurant and invited him to join the tour with me.
Chemi and I met Raj outside the guesthouse and we started the tour. Raj
decided the tour will go from Amer Fort, to the elephant village and from there
we'll see. On the way we stopped to drink Lassi, the Indian yoghurt drink, on Lassi
Walla. Very good lassi, you drink it out of a clay cup that you dispose
afterwards. I guess it's more ecological than using plastic cups, just seem
like a waste of work, no?
Raj dropped us on the outskirts of the fort, and we decided to meet in
an hour. The fort is very amazing. Every time I see something this big that was
built so long ago (about 1500 AC) I'm amazed how they done it. All these
details and overwhelming size… Note that
the fort, and other places in Jaipur have a student discount, so take your
student's card.
 |
| Amer fort |
Next place was the elephants' village. It's where they treat the
domestic elephants of this region. You can all sorts of activities with the
elephants, like riding, feeding, petting and some bizarre like painting the
elephant. The whole show of the people was that they are part of a cooperative
that treats the animals, and takes care of them, and that the money is used
only for that and not for commercial use. On the other hand, I didn't really
understand what is the use of that and why can't the animals just leave in a
nature. I don't think that drawing on the animals is a very good treatment of
them.
We decided not to do anything there, but sit there and watch the
elephants on their rest. It's was very interesting experience, very relaxing.
We had some pictures and after some more talking with the guys there we decided
to give them some money. The Jaipuri people know very much how to make you feel
bad for them and give them your money. I don't really like that feeling, and
unfortunately, I regret coming there.
We left and went on our way to lunch. On our way we stopped on a
promenade along a big lake. In the middle of the lake sits a big palace,
without any way from the land into it. This is the water temple, Jal Mahal. This used to be a palace for some king, but
today it's empty and you can only take picture of it and it's not open for
visitors. Very beautiful and the promenade is nice too.
From there we went to lunch in a local restaurant. Very tasty, I don't
know the name, and without Raj we wouldn't find it anyway. We took us to some
jewelry factory to see how they work. It's a very dirty complex, where people
live and work at the same time. Like in every other work place, children are
walking around, the sewage running free. And at the second floor is a very
elegant, rich, western store selling jewelry.
This was the last stop of the tour, and from there we went to Raj's
place. We bought some beers on the way and stopped by a very dirty, big and
poor building complex. When Raj told me about himself, and invited me to his
house I expected some apartment building, something a bit western, I don't
know. But this was the poor quarters of the city. A maze of buildings, every
house is built on another. Very interesting to see, and an experience I never
expected to have.
We entered the maze, everyone welcoming us, asking for our name, and
waving. All the children running behind us, very excited to see strangers. We
enter a small apartment, no doors, no windows, big TV. On the top floor we met
Raj's wife and children, cooking dinner on a small fire place. We sat in a
room, and Raj turned on the light by connecting two wires to each other,
nothing safe :)
Anyway, the point of this post was to introduce you to Raj, that you
know there's at-least one rickshaw driver that is very nice and trustworthy in
Jaipur. Also to those of you who know some interesting festivals that Raj maybe
able to play in, it will be a lot of help to him if you can it arrange for him.
I promised him to open him a Facebook page so he can post his videos and
pictures.
This is his contact information and you're more than welcome to contact
him if you need. I will update this when we have a Facebook page ready.
whatsapp: +919829969237
mail: narenderbhatt2001@yahoo.com
Tomorrow I meet him to buy some train tickets, and maybe come for a meal
at his place, he's cooking :) Oh, when the day ended, each of us gave him 1000
rupees, he didn't want to take them, although I'm more than sure he could take
much more. He's worth it.
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