Jaipur

We almost missed our train from Agra to Jaipur because we had wondered into the upper class waiting area and starting talking with these two young West Bengali kids travelling to the main Golden Triangle and Rajasthani stops. It quickly turned into a magic show with the brighter of the two kids stealthily moving rupee coins above and below a hankerchief to make them seem to disappear and reappear. I did a quick card trick which involved naming and then picking three cards correctly. We also got some other annoying tricks involved such as, for the Australians who might read this, the "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Woop, Johnny, Woop...." club. It drove them crazy. For those of you unaware of it, I will import it back when I come. It will bug the hell out of you.

We ran out to the platform and starting walking in the direction of what we thought was my carriage. We were wrong and had to turn back. All of sudden the train started moving. The doors still swinging open, we quickly jumped on the wrong end and proceeded to make our way up through all the carriages...and classes...through the kitchen to my carriage. Casi, who has bought a general ticket, was sent to the sleeper carriage.

We arrived in Jaipur sometime between midnight and 1:00. Having made a booking at a hostel, we found a rickshaw driver to deliver and dump us off. After waking up the neighbourhood with the autorickshaw's horn, we were let in, checked in and hit the hay for a full night's sleep to make up for the previous night's 3rd class chaotic bazaar on the train.

We woke up, checked out and left our luggage at the hotel. We then hit the sites. Jaipur's old city isn't anything of note, standard busy city with the odd older building worth a digital photo (but maybe not a film photo). We ended up working our way through the backstreets to make it to the city palace and an out of place astrology park next to it: a bunch of concrete staircases in a small park, made to look like sundials - essentially useless, but at least calm. The poverty of children running around dangerous rubble filled streets contrasted heavily with the neatness of the park.

The rest of the city was unimpressive and busy. Really nothing worth seeing.

Eleven kilometres outside the city however is the Amber Fort which is worth seeing. We jumped on a local bus for only 7 rupees. We wondered around the city for several hours and before heading back, wondered down to some Hindu temples in the town of Amber down below.

The first temple was huge, especially given how intricately everything had been carved all the way around and all the way up the outside of the temple. A Hindu priest inside saw us coming, so he turned on the light to brighten up the shrine to Shiva at the back and prepared the red ink. When we approached, he dipped a cotton ear swab in the ink and held it up. Fearful of being rude, we stretched out our necks and presented our foreheads for the ritualistic red dot between the eyes.  Of course, there are no free lunches, we were ask to make a donation. As I said, he saw us coming.

The next Hindu temple was far more modest and in use. A loud bell sounds the entrance of any worshipper, singing ensues, flicking of water over the crowd and touching of fire before hovering the hands over the face. I imagine it has to do with cleansing, but I will read up on it more before I leave hopefully.

We made it back to Jaipur to find out that I had forgotten to give the room key back to the owner of the hotel when we checked out. He was clearly moving towards trying to charge us for the room. I asked if any travellers had come and the room had been needed. It wasn't, so after an initial stink being kicked up, we were allowed to go.

Another autoricksaw and we were off to the train station for a night train to Jodhpur. Casi couldn't upgrade and so slept, literally, with the goats. The journey cost him all of a pound, when I was charged slightly closer to five, to share a cabin area with a nice French couple. The girl freaked out when I told her a mouse was running around under her bed. Though it was true, I had seen a mouse run under her bed, her boyfriend and I still had a little fun messing with her. The latter carriages however, where Casi was, can be described as the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag, when the vacuum cleaner is on. Dust swirls everywhere, goats running around, people jumping on and jumping off while the train is moving - it certainly isn't for the faint hearted. Having done 3rd Class sleeper, I'm happy to avoid the general carriage.

We arrived in Jodhpur at the unholy hour of 5:30.