WHERE THE WIND TAKE US: Delhi to Jaipur (The Pink City)

Goodbye from India,

We have reached the end of our twenty days in the world's second most populated country. We are jumping on a plane and heading to Thailand where we plan on doing a little bit of everything from city to beach and perhaps some trekking to replace what we missed in India. When we left Manali, we went back to New Delhi for two days before boarding a nine hour bus to Jaipur. Jaipur is only about 160 miles away from Delhi. If my calculations are correct, we averaged just under eighteen miles per hour (stops included). Usain Bolt could have ran there faster than that at a moderate pace although he probably lacks the endurance for that distance. Anyway, we took a city bus instead of the typical fancier tourist busses. We were put in a compartment (sleeper) for two people on the upper level of the bus. It was not the most comfortable of rides, but it was an interesting experience. You just have to make sure to shift every now and again to avoid getting bed sores. Along the way, we decided to take pictures of Delhi to show everyone what condition many of the cities' inhabitants live in. We wish that somebody or organization with a lot of money and time could devote some attention to India to take care of the amount of poverty that currently exists.

First, our cubby hole for nine hours

Now for the pictures. These are peoples' homes and its this way often throughout Delhi and much of India

Two rickshaws thrown in for artistic purposes

This is from Jaipur on the first day we arrived- pigs eating the trash on the side of the road. We got off of the beating path on this day and saw people and animals living in very unsuitable conditions. In Delhi, we saw dogs eating their own feces. This is due to the sad truth that there is not enough food for the people let alone the animals.

On to Jaipur- We saw many beautiful places in this city, but it still has the same problems as other destinations we visited in India; poverty, begging, scamming, pollution. Jaipur is basically divided into two areas, pink city (inside the gates) and the more modern part (outside the gates) Each part is completely different from the other. We stayed right on the border between them, which was nice for exploring.

Day 1- Visit to the pink city and Jal Mahal (the water palace)

Jal Mahal- this palace was beautiful. It was built right in the middle of the water. While we were there, we had a lot of people coming up to us trying to sell us things and trying to get money from us. We have become pretty accustomed to this for the last few weeks, and we want to help everyone so it is hard to know how to react. However, we had a new scam that we hadn't seen yet. We were seated on a bench enjoying our view when two kids with a knife walked up to another kid right in front of us. They said something in Hindi to the other boy and waved their knife at him. The boy handed over what he had in his pocket. We asked the kid, "Are you ok? Did those boys take somethings from you?". "Yes," he replied before asking us for money to replace what had been taken from him. Fortunately for us, we have been around the block for a while now and have seen quite a lot on our journey. We said to the kid, "Those are your friends aren't they?" He no longer spoke English. We later saw them playing together. We were glad that the boys hadn't really taken anything from him and that he wasn't hurt in any way, but its hard to know what is real and what is not at times.

On our walk around the area

The pink city

Hawa Mahal

Day 2- visit to the Amber Palace. We were told by several people that this was the gem of Jaipur and we were not let down. Visitors have the option of taking elephants up to the main gate. We arrived early in the morning which is the best time for tourists to visit the grounds. Foreigners must pay a 200 rupie ($4) fee while natives go for free.

Amber Palace

From the inside

The hall of mirrors

Views from the palace

When we exited the building, we saw these two gentlemen playing some tunes so we decided to snap a photo. Of course they invited us over for a closer view and perhaps a tip at the end. As we got closer, we noticed he had something in a basket.