Off to Jaipur ...

A lazy start to our day today as Yash told us we didn't need to meet Rajan until about 9.30 as the only plans for today (according to our itinerary) was to drive from Ranthambhore to Jaipur, which would take about 4 hours, and then dinner in the evening. 

This meant no alarms but we both woke about 7.30 so we headed off to breakfast and said goodbye to the lovely wait staff who had looked after us at The Pugmark. Then we headed back to pack, stopping to say goodbye to the monkeys, to the cat and to Pug before wandering over to check out. 

Rajan was actually waiting for us at about 9.15 so we were able to get on the road a little earlier, which was a good thing because I had to ask him to stop to let me take photos of the elephant we passed! Then we headed on to pick up Yash from the guest house he stayed at whilst we were in Ranthambhore.

The drivers stay at one guest house and the guides stay at another. I'm not sure why that is but they said they get a chance to catch up with their fellow drivers/guides and that their accommodation is lovely.

And then we were off to Jaipur.  The distance was only 150 km but when you travel through the villages you are met with the hustle and bustle of the tuk tuks, tractors, buses, trucks, people walking, goats, dogs and cows.  So negotiating the traffic becomes a return to the horn beeping, lane changing dodgem cars that are the roads of India.

The expressways involve constant stops to travel through "toll plazas" ... again with lots of horn beeping!

We arrived into Jaipur at about 1.00. Rajan and Yash had never been to this hotel before so we spent about 15 minutes driving around some back streets and asking for directions (even though Ian and I were tracking on Google Maps and could have directed them ourselves - but that would have been rude).

Our hotel is actually a small guest house and we have one quarter of a floor to ourselves, with each floor having 4 rooms. We have a bedroom as well as a small lounge which will come in handy tonight at about 3.40am when Ian has to go to work to present to a library board back in Australia!

We stopped for a quick snack (bags of chips are so cheap here) and a coffee for me, before grabbing our friends, our hats, my phone and a power bank, and headed off to explore on our own. Again - who wants to sit around in a hotel room when there is a world out there to explore. Wandering out of the hotel grounds we stopped to admire the fabulous art installations made from scrap metal.

We wandered down to Jawahar Circle - about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. This is a lovely park in the middle of a massive and heavily trafficked roundabout. It is said to be the largest circular park in Asia with an outer circumference of about 1.4km. Getting to the park via the pedestrian crossing meant walking with purpose across the road and hoping that all of the vehicles would move around us ... which thankfully they all did!

The park has a beautiful ornate gate which is the Patrika Gate. It has beautifully painted ceilings and wall panels, arched entry ways, and windows set symmetrically in the towering pillars. The surprising thing about the gate is that it was in fact only constructed in 2016 and yet it looks much older. It is a favourite spot for wedding photography  ... much of which we witnessed today.

We walked around the park, stopping to see the birdlife, the squirrels and even a rat! The gardens were lovely and many locals were taking advantage of the lovely day. We exited the park to check out what we think is the construction of a new marble gate on the circle just where the road from the airport meets it. Whilst parts were shrouded in scaffolding (Ian had a bit of a heart attack seeing the workers on the scaffolding in thongs and no harnesses), it was clearly a magnificent structure. 

Wandering back into the park we headed to the centre to view the musical fountain  ... which wasn't working and looked a bit sad; stopped to take photos with the locals (Ian's hat and my blond hair are a curiosity) before heading back to the Elephant statue, the Rajasthan statue and to watch some wedding photos being taken before saying goodbye to Jawahar Circle.

We then decided to walk up to the World Trade Park via some back streets. Walking back streets is always very interesting. You get to see so many things that are normal life for the locals. The coiled electricity wires, the multitude of roaming dogs, the ornate gates behind which old, sometimes dilapidated buildings stand. You pass the local hairdresser, the piles of rubbish and abandoned cars in an empty lot, the locals who wave, and of course the odd cow or two!

The World Trade Park and the GT Mall are in stark contrast to life on the back streets. The glass towers shine in the light, the interiors white and pristine, the chandeliers and carved impressions in the ceilings, and the brand name stores such as Polo, Ralph Lauren and perfumers where you can blend your own fragrance.

It was surreal to walk through and we didn't stay long as it felt like such a false veneer given the street traders just outside the front doors. To enter you needed to walk through security where we were "wanded" before being waved in.

We stopped for a small late lunch at Burger King (we have been banned from the street food by Yash) before grabbing a tuk tuk to take us back to our hotel. Ian headed off for a quick sleep (remember he needs to get up at 3.00 for an hour long board presentation) before we readied ourselves for dinner.

(Just realised my hat is on backwards!)

Dinner was with Yash tonight at a restaurant called Spice Court. Rajan drove us to the restaurant which is a good thing since we would have had no idea how to get there. Yash ordered the tasting menu and so we enjoyed ... sweet corn soup, tandoori chicken, tandoori paneer, chicken curry, lentil Dahl, korma vegetables,  butter paneer, cumin potatoes and basmati rice.  The food was incredible ... not heavily spiced but filled with flavour.  Dessert was a gulab jamun  (the fried ball similar to a donut soaked in sugar syrup) with vanilla ice cream. 

And so we are back in our hotel room. Ian is all set up for his meeting/presentation and is trying to get some sleep before then. Tomorrow we explore Jaipur!