Jaipur – 6th March to 9th March

So this blog marks a significant moment within my travels. I’ve now been on the road (and tracks I suppose) for a month and a day. Everyday from today sets a new record for the longest I’ve been away from the UK, and the longest I’ve been away from home. Home here in the collective sense; London, miserable weather, my own bed, friends and family, and of course the cat – you know all the things that make home home.

As such, I thought this would be an appropriate moment to share some stats: 

• Distance east: 8,425km
• Counties visited: 8
• Scams fallen for: 1 (that I know of – typically a taxi)
• How many taxi drivers I trust worldwide: 0
• Beers consumed: remarkably few
• Number of Jordanian Dinar I left Jordan with: exactly 0 (just bragging here really)
• Amount of clean pants in my bag: 1…
• Days I’ve been wearing this shirt: 4 (I think)

Of course, stats are nothing without a bit of analysis… 8,425km represents roughly 21.4% of the way round the world. Continuing this pace my trip will only be 135 days total. So see you all in 100 days I guess! More seriously, now I’ve made it out of Europe and the Middle East (both regions I can travel more easily from home in the future) I do intend on slowing down a fair bit.

Following on from my previous blog, I’m currently on my second train ride through India (heading from Jaipur to Agra). Despite the numerous warnings foreigners couldn’t and shouldn’t book trains themselves, so far these trains have been lovely, easy to navigate and felt very safe. 

The trains here use a wider gauge than the UK which makes them considerably spacious; for example I’m very comfortable using my laptop within the confines of my chair. So with my relative success on the tracks and a solidified confidence, I’m declaring a start to my great Indian railway adventure.

My plans are taking me briefly East (to Agra) then back significantly West (further into the relatively desert-y state of Rajasthan). Following that my options take me either South along the West coast of the Indian peninsula or South East through the centre of India. Once all the way south, hopefully a quick nip to Sri Lanka (if the ferry actually exists). Then heading north up India’s East coast. Either heading to Nepal or flying over Myanmar to Thailand. So exciting times over the next 6 or so weeks.

Moving from the near future to the recent past, I managed to escape Delhi fairly quickly and headed south to Jaipiur (completing two corners of the Golden Triangle – the most common tourist route around India; Delhi, Jaipur, Agra). Jaipur was a previous capital of India and while still busy and chaotic it was much more manageable than Delhi – which given its 3 times smaller in population does make sense. Jaipur is also known as the pink city with a lot of the buildings / palaces being pink (or pinky at least).

However, with a huge amount of sheer dumb luck I arrived in India just in time for the Hindu Holi festival (or the festival of colours). A festival most people plan their trips around. The days of festival celebrates the gods Radha and Krishna, and the (/their) victory of good over evil. The whole city turns out to party, spilling out onto the already chaotic streets. Strangers hailing “Happy Holi!” and smearing your face with dye followed by a hug. People head to various venues to really embrace the colour with music, food, drinks and dancing. Somehow my skin survived the noon-5pm day party in the sun. Although my once white tee-shirt did not. 

Given the festival the hostel was busy and full of people looking to team up for Holi. I joined forces with a largish group entailing of: two Brits (including me, both of us from Surrey), a Dutchman, three Canadians, a Frenchman and an Israeli. All of whom were lovely, especially as you would expect the Canadians. Of course within such a mixed bunch the common language was English – thankfully!

Two of our party were swallowed by the crowds on the way to the party, but thankfully showed up later on. The women in our group ended up posing for near endless photos with locals. All but one person was incredibly respectful, excited and lovely to party with. The one in question’s actions resulted in him taking a hearty slap to the face (I think she should have hit him harder but she’s clearly nicer than me).

But for most of the day we danced to the (at times questionable) music.  Myself and the other Brit periodically found shelter in the shade. All in all it was a lovely day really. Following the festival and some much needed, very late, lunch it was time to shower. Being covered in dye,  from my purple hair to the kaleidoscopic colour of my tee-shirt, face and skin, I knew what needed to be done, and got in the shower fully dressed. Eventually the murky brown water ran clearer and I got most of the dye of me at least!

With my one remaining day in Jaipur I had to choose which of the many must see sites to see. I hailed an Uber moto (where I guy on a bike comes and picks you up). The 30 minute drive cost me ₹80 (80p), dropping me at the Galti Ji temple. This temple was absolutely swarmed with monkeys (a a couple of cows). I arrived at what was clearly their feeding time and someone was walking around distributing a tomato to each monkey. The monkeys clearly knew the drill as it was one of the most organised affairs I’ve seen in India thus far, all sitting still enjoying their tomatoes.

The temple was a playground for the monkeys, launching themselves up, down and across the spires and walls of the temple complex. Occasionally climbing a lamppost to shake and rattle it as much as they could.

The highlight however, was a small family invited me to join them for their packed lunch. Not being one to turn down food I enjoyed this beautiful cauliflower curry with bread, with the mother, her son, and his roommate. The two younger guys spoke English. We chatted and joked – they were some of the most friendly and genuine people I’ve met so far. The mum wasn’t from the city and was very excited to have a foreigner join them, in fact she facetimed sister/friend to show them! Yuwansh’s (the son) passion was wildlife photography, so using his tripod we snapped a photo of us which I’ll include. He also changed a few settings on my phone camera to capture brighter colours – so happy days there too.

After the temple I headed into the city, saw some of the typical city sites, palaces and cool buildings, gates etc, but what really stood out was the Jantar Mantar. Jaipur was founded in 1734 by King Sawai Jai SIngh 2 (hence its name), he also commissioned the construction of the Jantar Mantar, a series of 19 astronomical instruments. These were by no means the first of their kind across the world, I think stonehenge is amongst the earliest (albeit very rudimentary), but these ones take incredibly accurate measurements. A feat achieved through great scale. In particular they have the world’s largest sun-dial capable of telling the time down to 2 seconds.

The smaller instruments measured the coordinates, altitude, azimuth of celestial objects, as well as the length of the day (during the day if that makes sense), predicting eclipses, and many other things I don’t pretend to understand. In my uneducated opinion, more impressive than what they did is the amount of style they did it with.

With that I’ll conclude this entry. I feel like these blogs are getting increasingly long. So I’ll try to keep them a little bit, somewhat, just measurably, ever so slightly more concise. But until then…