The Pink City – Jaipur

Jaipur got its name ‘The Pink City’ when the city was painted pink for the visit of Prince Albert in 1876. The old part of the city is surrounded by a large pink wall with huge gates. Looking down on Jaipur is a hilltop fort called ‘Nahagarh Fort’.

My first experience of Indian trains was fine. After telling people I was travelling sleeper class (slum class as some people like to call it) I had heard horror stories of 72 capacity carriages having more like 200 in them and foreigners being robbed but the 5 hour train journey from Delhi to Jaipur went without a hitch albeit a little uncomfortable.

Jaipur is a world away from Delhi. People are more relaxed and there are very few touts – compared to Delhi that is. There are many things to see in Jaipur and in my 3 days here I have managed to visit most of them. My favourite being the Jal Mahal, a palace that sits in the centre of Man Sagar Lake. Unfortunately you cannot go inside it but its magical to look at.

Tomorrow I am catching the 4 hour mid day train to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal

The monkeys that live outside my hotel window.

View from Amber Palace of the garden and lake below

Amber Palace to the right and Jaigarh Fort on the left.

Jal Mahal on Man Sagar Lake.

One of the many gates into old Jaipur.

Jaipur City Palace.

Me and my new friend Punam who works at my hotel.

Jaipur Albert Hall. Also made for the visit of Prince Albert.

Evening stroll down Mirza Ismail Road.

Hawa Mahal

The big cannon of Jaigarh Fort

The view from Jaigarh Fort of the Amber Palace

Another view from Jaigarh Fort.

The garden inside Jaigarh Fort.

Inside Nahargarh Fort.

View from Nahargarh Fort of ‘The Pink City’ looking kind of blue.

First Days – Delhi

This post is a little late as I have had no proper internet.

Delhi is big and manic.

I arrived in Delhi around 5am and travelled the half hour or so to Connaught place in the center of the city. The streets were empty apart from a few stray dogs and a handful of people going around there early morning business.

After wondering the streets for abit I met a young student who I ended up having a coffee with in Mc Donalds while he told me a little about Delhi and where my hotel was. He also warned me not to go to that area before 10am as there are no guards around and if i was robbed, no on would help me. It ended up taking me 4 hours to find my hotel.

I visited the Red Fort in the afternoon and walked the paan stained streets back to my hotel, leaving me with massive blisters that pretty much left me bed bound for the next couple of days.

On my last evening in Delhi I took a walk back down to Connaught Place and realized what the two or three people had meant when they told me Paharganj- the area my hotel was in- was a slum district. Paharganj must have around 1,000 hotels spread among tiny labyrinth like passage ways. The streets are full of touts beggars and rubbish.

The man in the tourist information office (the legitimate one not one of the 100 fakes spread across the city) warned me that there was a dengue fever out break in Paharganj. I seem to have survived it though.

Next stop Jaipur.

Sorry no photos but I promised to get some in Jaipur.

Eve

Tomorrow is the day I have been planning for for over a year now. The last 8 months have passed in a blink of an eye but I feel as ready as I will ever be.

At 10.50am tomorrow I will be catching a flight from Gatwick to Delhi, with a 3 hour stop over in Istanbul.

The last few days have been far from a brilliant start as I have been ill in bed with a cold and then I snapped my little finger nail in half. Hopefully however this will be the last of my bad luck. I don’t feel nervous yet, I don’t think its sunk in or will sink in until the plane doors open and the heat hits me. Its 35 degrees in Delhi at the moment with a low of 22. I cant say I’m going to miss this cold rainy weather or the British winter.

I must apologies in advance for my spelling and grammar. English was never my forte, so if at times this is hard to read I’m sorry. Hopefully I will able to make it up to you by posting some beautiful pictures.

Feel free to stay in touch my email address is kaisergurung@gmail.com and my skype is kailashnekoff

This is a terrible photo taken on my phone as all my cameras are in the photo.