Jaipur

Another superb train journey from Agra to Jaipur. It took about 3.5 hours and whilst on board they fed us with a 4 course meal which was included in the price of the ticket which was only £8 each!
This time we went 'CC' class which is an a/c reclining chair with table. It was very comfortable. The rickshaw touts at Jaipur are reputed to be the worst in India and they sure lived up to their reputation when we departed the train and  they started on us as soon as our feet touched the platform surrounding us like bees around honey. You have to keep a cool head and don't go with any off them as they add commission to your fare for their own pocket. A bit like a finders fee. What we do is usually walk to the main road and flag one down a get a more realistic price which this time turned out to be less than 50p to our hotel.
  The hotel was a bit disappointing as it was rated really well online but in the flesh did not look anything like the photos online at Agoda.com. Then they started giving us loads of crap on check -in about us not having a booking, wanting to see our E-Visas and just making it generally hard for us to get a room. This was the point where Kathy stepped in and told them they were not immigration officials but a hotel and our entry requirements were nothing to do with them. This seemed to unlock the situation pretty quickly and we obtained a room which was painted entirely in pink and I hate pink so did not like it much. Breakfast was weird as well as you phone it down to reception and they bring it to your room. I don't know what it is about all the hotels we stay in as we never get what we order at breakfast. It's pot luck as to what is going to show up but it's like playing roulette and can be a lot of fun laughing at their crazy variations/omissions/substitutions.
 Now Jaipur is the 3rd point on the 'golden triangle' which makes it sound so romantic, along with New Delhi and Agra. I have to admit these 3 cities have been the most polluted and dirty, noisy,crowded, stressful places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting in all my years travelling and I can't understand why people would want to spend any time here at all. This is not a romantic place! Don't come here for a relaxing break as it is full on turbo style life in your face. In fact it will rub your face in it until you submit. . It makes you realise how lucky we are to live in England. On the plus side the days fly by as there is NEVER a dull moment. There is always someone trying to hustle you or be your best mate or give you misleading info about you objectives. It's a minefield.
     On the first day we ventured into the old pink city to do the palaces etc, but had to find a bank which turned into another adventure as most do not accept international cards. After a hot chase around town we found one but were exhausted in the heat (it's 37c today) so retired to a place called Tattoo Cafe which had a roof top area and air-con which mellowed us out. There was some French dude waiting to be tattooed as we were eating and you should have seen the set up there. It was not hygienic at all and Kath and I reckon the French guy was going to get a free gift with his tattoo in the form of hepatitis or worse. Would you get a Tattoo done in a cafe in England? Some travellers just get so engrossed in the culture I think their common sense stays in their rucksack or am I just being cynical because I'm old? We left there and went to the Hawa Mahal (the wind palace) which is one of Jaipur's most iconic structures and it turned into a pleasant couple of hours dossing around the palace and photo bombing other peoples selfies.

The wind palace was not built to do farts in.

 We again started to flag in the heat and had good intentions to see some more sights but we could tell by the way everybody was sitting on benches chilling out under the trees that this was our vocation also and so no more sites got our patronage and we eventually took our hearts in our mouths and took another white knuckle rickshaw ride back to the hotel.

This man tried to add a shiny dome to the Amber Fort.

   Next day we wanted to visit the Amber Fort which was 11km out of town and we did not want to get a bus so tried an App that we had downloaded on the phone but had no success with in Delhi. This time it worked to our amazement (you expect the worse in India) and we arrived at the fort for the princely sum of £1.80 in an air-con car. The fort was a 10 minute walk up the hill from the entrance gate in the blistering sun even though it was only 8.30 in the morning. We could have of got an elephant to take us up but heard reports of the elephants not being treated well and officially the Indian government had banned them from transporting tourists to the summit although this seemed to have no effect on the amount of custom today as the elephants were flat out to cope with the demand from the arriving tour groups. Inside the fort we dallied around the palaces and the maze of walkways that criss cross the fort and were entertained by a troupe of Langurs who were tumbling about and being generally naughty to our amusement. At one point, Daz waved a banana we were saving for lunch at a large Langur monkey sitting on a ledge above us causing it to suddenly spring to life, swinging down to come see us! We panicked and went to hide in a small room in an alcove and after a few minutes of quiet we thought it was safe to emerge only to find the monkey sitting patiently in the doorway for his banana! Well he didn't get it (we did feel bad!) and we carefully sloped past with the help of a passing guard leaving the poor monkey confused and probably very disappointed.

" I hope I don't get piles sitting on this cold wall"

 After a few hours in this massive structure we walked back down to the road to get transport back to town. We used our OLA App again and a driver showed up promptly but this is when the games started. We got the impression that the drivers do not like picking up tourist on this App as they are priced for Indians so you get a great deal on rides. This driver then cancelled our booking as we got in the car and started giving us mega aggro about the journey. He asked us to get out.....we refused......he got stopped by the police.....he left the car.......he came back and started the aggro again....he did not want to take us but would not explain to us why he cancelled our booking. We again refused to budge so he drove off but his driving was erratic. He pulled over after a couple of miles and enrolled a couple of other drivers to try and get us removed from the car. But the other drivers did not back him when they realised we were being honest with our intentions. Anyway it all got a bit tense and heated and the stalemate was only resolved when one of the other drivers offered to take us for the agreed fare back to our hotel. Well he drove like a nutter but got us back in one piece so we tipped him for his services. Exhausted again from all this aggro we retreated back to the room to recoup. (oh, how I hate that bright pink room). Having had enough of this dump of a city and to save our sanity we caught another train the next day that would take us to our next destination - Pushkar.

The Bruce Forsyth tribute pose for the Raj was not received well.