Got up at half past five to fine dead black beetles all over. They make a satisfying crunch noise when you stand on them though, so I don’t really mind. Had a cup of tea and a banana in preparation for our tiger-finding mission. Our guide seems very nice, with purpley hennaed hair. As we went out into the forest, I felt infinitely better. There is dew on the grass, mist (not smog) hanging in the dawn air and there is so much foliage. Everything is incredibly green. There are hardly any flowers even – it is all just greenery. As we traveled through the forest we passed through greenery into open spaces with dark, low trees in golden grass, all of which could have been hiding a tiger and I would never have known at all. You can hardly see ten feet never mind an animal that is adept at hiding itself. It was hardly as if we were stealthy anyways: we were in a large jeep making tones of noise. We did see a lot of black-faced monkeys, tiny, fluffy spotted deer and these huge deer quite like red deer at home. There were loads of birds as well, the most exciting of which was the kingfisher, which was an incredible blue colour. There were partridge as well, which reminded me of the painting we have in our hallway back home of the bird on the old wooden wheel. I think it is a partridge…Unfortunately, in all our excursions into the jungle, we saw no tigers. We heard one eating it’s lunch, we had one fifty feet from us having a nap, and we saw one’s fresh tracks in the road going to opposite direction from us. Our driver on the last day, Shakeil, was completely insane and tried his level best to find us a tiger, which meant driving like a complete maniac over rubble and dirt tracks as if they were the smoothest racecourse in the world. I think I damaged my lower back quite a lot at some junctures as we slipped and bounced over rocks at a vast rate of knots down a mountain side. He was ‘a character’. And yet, despite all the excitement, no dice. I didn’t really care – I hadn’t expected to see one, though it would have been brilliant if we had. It was good enough just to be able to get out and go for these drives through the forest and breath in the fresh air and feel the cold of the morning and the wind. A complete escape from the city. I can see why the Gurgaon couple take their chance and come here as often as they can. I would too if I had the money. All the waiters in the resort want me to come back anyways. They found out I could speak a little Hindi and that I study at DU and now I am a local interest. Every one of them when I was alone would open with ‘So you are the girl at DU yes? You speak Hindi?’ It was quite sweet. One took it upon himself to try and teach me a little more conversation, but I failed miserably, as per. It took me a good thirty seconds or so to actually work out what he was saying, and then another thirty seconds to reply, generally with bad grammar. Even the safari guides and drivers got wind of it. one of Shakeil’s opening statements was, ‘So you are in DU…’ and my dad started to laugh. He thought it was hilarious that I had become so popular so fast. I have made a few informal promises to go back one day with my friends, but I somehow doubt that I can seeing as it was a four star hotel and I don’t have that kind of money really. I was disappointed not to see Ranthambore fort though, so maybe I will come back for that. There were troops of pilgrims going up to the temple inside the fort to Lord Ganesha. We found it slightly strange that they happily travel, sometimes in the dark and on foot, through tiger country to get to the temple. That’s devotion for you.
We left the countryside to go to the capital of Rajasthan: Jaipur. Jaipur is the ‘pink city’ that has the Amber Fort. It was painted pink for the visit of some British royal, and has just stayed that way ever since. I would like to see Jodhpur as well: the ‘blue city’. That is one thing about Rajasthan – everything is colourful. Before we left Ranthmabore we visited a craft house where they were making beaded wall hangings like my yellow one back at the hostel. They are so colourful and strangely intricate and all over the place. We also saw a camel dressed in purple and green ribbons and pompoms. Most cool. Jaipur appears to be a concentration of all these crafts. The city is heavily reliant on tourism I think, as it was a very commercial city, with a lot of beaded textiles, umbrellas, gems and carpets for sale all over the place. We were staying in yet another lovely Hilton hotel, right on the artificial lake. The lake was made to showcase a particular maharajah’s water palace, which is now being made into a restaurant. The food here is superior to Agra though, or perhaps I am just more well-disposed. We are only in Jaipur for 36 hours before we catch a flight to Delhi on the Friday morning. As such, we rushed around from half eight in the morning to half five at night with hardly a breath to spare. First we went to the Amber Fort. It is absolutely massive and painted a kind of butter yellow. The current maharajah still lives in the most modern portion of the fort. Not bad for a defunct monarchy. They are incredibly rich though, as they own a lot of the land around Jaipur and have lots of gem mines. They also command a lot of the proceedings of tourist trade, seeing as they still own the fort and the city palace for themselves. We took an elephant ride up to the fort, which was absolutely amazing. I had so much fun up there. It was a wee bit bumpy and we kept getting sprayed with water from the elephant. The equivalent of an elephant sneezing on you really. Boys ran beside us trying to sell us mock turbans and photos of us on the elephant. One told me I looked like a Bollywood star, which was quite sweet. I was slightly disconcerted though when our elephant driver made like he wouldn’t let us off the elephant if we didn’t give him two hundred rupees tip. Slightly difficult when your parents have all the money and they are on a different elephant at some distance from your own. Also, some of the drivers had metal spikes to drive the elephants with that they had dug into them behind their ears to hide the cuts. I didn’t like that very much at all, and was more than a little disturbed. It reminded me of the horses we saw in Agra: one with a chunk of its flesh hanging off it with barely a scrap of muscle keeping it hanging limply on, and another dead under the rickshaw cart it must have been pulling.
We wandered around the Fort, and I have to say you can see how rich the royals are in Jaipur by the way they preserve their monuments. The Fort and the City Palace both had beautiful mirror work everywhere and 24 carat gold flake ceilings and so on. There were golden paintings as well, and we were shown into a painting workshop where, of course, we had a demonstration that happened to include showing all produce for sale. They were very good artists though, so dad bought a wee painting of some elephants. Went to a vegetable print factory and carpet makers as well. I have realised that if you book a driver they will inevitably take you to as many as these ‘craft demonstrations’ as possible. I imagine they get one heck of a commission if the tourists they lead along buy something. We ended up buying silk pyjamas for ma and pa, and a purple print dress for me, all made to measure. My dress is for someone with a far larger chest than I, however, so I will need to get it altered. We also bought three rugs of pashmina and silk. They are beautiful and a good two grand or so cheaper than they would be in the UK, so a good investment, they are being shipped though, so we will find out in two weeks or so if we have been conned. One of the highlights of the day though was the observatory. It was a kind of park with huge astronomical instruments in it for making all kinds of measurements, from the time to the position of the zodiac. It was a very European looking park actually, in its own way. It was nice to wander around and sit in. Our guide was very informative about it all, but I have forgotten quite a lot of it unfortunately. The instruments were deadly accurate though, despite their age. After the observatory, dad and Euan went back to the hotel. Euan is still feeling a little bit delicate unfortunately. So mum and I hit the shops of course. This city is famed for its attraction for women who like to shop. We went to Bapu Bazaar, an excellent clothing bazaar that had loads of the Rajasthani traditional skirt and blouse outfit, all covered in mirrors and beads. I ended up getting one in blue and pink, with beads, sequins, shells and mirrors all over it. It is totally mad, and I look like I have dressed up for a party in the whole shebang, but in stages I think it’ll be really cool. Hopefully… Also got some silver antique earrings and mum got a silver bracelet. So a good day had by all in the spending stakes. Euan even felt well enough to eat dinner. So we are all returning to rude health. I would have liked to spend longer in this city. It reminds me of the interesting parts of Delhi except with wider streets. The streets are all decorated at the moment as well with purple and red cloth hung over the street lamps and there were fairy lights. Alongside all the stalls selling flower garlands and fireworks and the pink painted buildings, it was a very colourful and welcoming looking city. Tomorrow we must get up early once more for our flight to Delhi. I am glad of the flight – it means we don’t have to spend 6 hours on a train and instead more time in the Lalit’s pool!
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