With the image of the Taj Mahal still in the head, we leave Agra to enter the most visited region of India, the Rajastan. And the city of entry for us was Jaipur. We will remember this city for the Jeep ride with Mr. Singh and John's crazy ...
Everything came up the day before at dinner, the owner of the hotel invited us to dinner with his family and with an American travelblogger, and there, as he who does not want the thing, the matter was cooked… “tomorrow I take my American Jeep and I I stick a curl around the area. ” Well, hell!
Tip: nothing better to get to know Jaipur than to take a local hand tour 🙂 This one is free (although it is always good to leave a tip).
So the next day at 12 in the morning Mr. Singh was finalizing the details (come on, he was putting the rifle in the front) and when everything was ready we started this makeshift excursion. You have to see the face of the tuctuc drivers when being ahead of a 1945 Jeep ... with a Sikh at the wheel and three blanquitos around ... we feel the freaking kings of the road for a day! We went around all day, we saw walls that stood on the slopes of the mountain, wild peacocks, castles and abandoned fortresses from where the views of the city were magnificent, the Tiger Fort and we even reached the Amber Fort!
The next day we dedicated ourselves to walking, which we needed, so we plunged into the old town entering through one of its several doors. It is the so-called pink city, because of the color of the facades of most of its buildings. Virtually all the streets of the center are arcaded, and they house bazaars of all kinds, although what they sell most are fruit and vegetables, clothes and accessories. At the moment it is not shopping time but we already see that prices are, in many cases, ridiculous.
We arrived at the Palace of the Winds (Hawa Mahal), which we only saw from the building opposite. There a very nice guy "invited" us to climb to the roof, where of course, has his shop. But the views are magnificent. He told us that Sofia Mazagatos had been there for a few years and told us in a perfect Castilian “how silly he is”.
Then we approached the City Palace, with some exhibitions about Rahas's life, weapons, and some interesting courtyards, guarded by curious guts. We continue the visit going up to the Iswari Minar Swarga Sal, a minaret of a lot of meters from where the views of the city are very cool. We were afraid of being many up there (as it happened in the minaret of the Jama Masjid of Delhi) but here there was not even the tato, when we went up and looked at the city from above we realized where they were all ... in the Jantar Mantar , the city observatory. So we decided we wouldn't visit it.
Before returning to the hotel, he gave us time to get ripped off with some lassis, which by the way were very good and to wander around the bazaars a little more. Other things to see and do in Jaipur are the Monkey Temple that Carlitos Viedma advised us or a palace surrounded by water at the exit of the city on the way to Amber, which we saw in passing.
USEFUL INFO
How to get?We came by train from Agra. INR 230 per head in sleeper class. it takes 6 hours and a half, or 12 if it comes late as in our case ...
Where to sleep?We stayed at the Pearl Palace Hotel, thanks to Mr. Singh's hospitality.
Tickets.In the City Palace there is a discount for students of INR 100 per head, so carry a university card, even if you have finished your degree 6 years ago: P. No discount costs INR 300. Climbing the minaret costs 20 INR. The Amber Fort costs 500 INR. We don't enter the rest of the attractions.
General infoFor the lassi we were blown 60 INR, then we saw it less than half in other places. The return tuctuc, from the old city to the hotel cost us 50 INR after negotiating with many, here they almost do not negotiate prices. The tuctuc from the hotel to the train station also cost INR 50.
