The so called Pink city was our last stop in the Rajasthan. We had one day to visit the city and so decided to rent a rickshaw for the whole day to drive us to the biggest attractions.
Crazy Raja was our driver for the day. He told us all about his personal life and sex dreams during the day. The first stop of our trip was the monkey temple - Galta. The temple is located on the top of a hill, overlooking the city, a 10-15 min walk to the top. On the way up we are amused by the hyper active monkeys, that gave rise to the name monkey temple. On top of the hill we have a great view over the city. The temple itself is not that special (or maybe we've seen too many temples already!).
From there we moved to the water palace. We can only observe it from the distance. It's a beautiful palace located in the middle of a stinky lake. We don't know much about it, since it is not mentioned in the guide and Raja also doesn't know much about it. It was now time to visit a silk factory. That's what happens when they make cheap prices for guiding you during the day. They bring you to shops because they get a commission for taking you there and a percentage of the shopping you make. After the visit to the shop we tell him no more shops. I don't think he liked it, but we don't have time to loose and money to spend...
We finally came to the famous city palace. This palace and all the buildings that surround it are built with sandstone(or they're just painted in pink). It's a beautiful complex, the audioguide (included in the ticket) helps you get a global vision of the story of the maharajas. The collection of clothes and rifles presented during the tour and the sports stories could be a bit better and interesting, but it is enough to provide us with some insight of the Jaipur history. A climb to the Iswari Minar Swarga Sal gives us a closer vision of the pink city and surroundings. Our last stop for the day was in front of the impressive Hawa Mahal-Palace which we don't have much time to visit (and according to Raja it's not worth the visit).
It was then time to, once again, put "our home on our backs" and take the train to Delhi.
Jaipur is a nice city, but as any big Indian city it is too crowded and messy. One more day would have allowed us to see things more carefully but it wouldn't have added much to what we saw.
Showing posts with label Rajasthan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rajasthan. Show all posts
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Ajmer & Pushkar
Ajmer
We seem not to learn with mistakes and arrived to Ajmer early in the morning (3.30 am), sleepy and cold. We had nothing to do, and since it's a quite small train station we had to hang around the station with all the homeless and amusing ourselves with the people forcing their entrance into the trains.
When the darkness began to fade away, we headed on towards Ana Sagar, a lake north from the station. The 15 min walk in the cold and the 4 hours wait in the station to start actually doing some sightseeing were compensated by the fantastic scenery that we encountered once we reached the lake. Pink was the colour of the Snake Mountains as the sun rose in the horizon and the reflection of the mountains on the lake created a beautiful atmosphere. Around us there were a few dozens of people exercising, whether by running, doing yoga, meditation or even group laugh therapy.
As the city woke up, we went towards our next objective, which was the Old City and the Dargah,a Muslim pilgrimage site. I bought a hat to cover my head inside and went inside with Joao, while Tiago waited outside keeping an eye on our stuff. We had a guy that spontaneously offered himself to guide us through the temple. Of course in the end his objective was to ask us to make donation to the Trust they run at the temple. And of course our contribution was by far, lower than he wanted, but similar to the one most pilgrims offered. Inside the temple there is the Mausoleum where everyone is pushing each other in order to get as close as possible to it and pray and make the offerings they brought. The definition of sacred place is a bit different from mine, mostly due to the noise they make and the mess around it. I quickly step aside and look around the rest of the complex.
After giving Tiago some time to visit the place himself, we headed towards the ruins of the Adhai-Din-Ka-Jhonpra mosque, which according to the legend was built in two and a half days. Although it is a bit degraded it is still a beautiful monument and a very peaceful place (reminds me of the mosques I visited in Istambul, many years ago). It must have been an impressing place.
After wandering around the centre in the search for the palace of Akbar (without much success) we went to the Red temple (Nasiyano temple) which we had already passed by in the morning on the way to the lake. This time we entered and were simply astonished with what we saw. In front of us there is a huge room with the representation of the Jain Universe in gold. We slowly move around the golden room, trying to get a full image of it through the dirty windows. After that we try to visit the rest of the temple, but they don't allow us, although our objective was just to take a decent picture of the red temple, which is impossible from the street (it's quite a beautiful structure all built in sandstone).
Pushkar
Ajmer is not a big city, we could have stayed a bit longer and walk uphill to the fort and get a nice view over the city, but instead we decided to spend our time and money in a bus drive to Pushkar, a sacred site in the Hindu mythology. After a quiet 30 min trip across the snake mountains, we arrived in Pushkar. According to the legend, lord Brahma dropped a lotus flower in the lake Pushkar and Pushkar floated to the surface. We walked towards the lake, and then around it, through hordes of shops selling the same things. We visited some of the ghats, the places where people dive in the lake in order to clear away their sins. Besides this, Pushkar is famous for homing one of the only Brahma temples in the world. I walk up the stairs and go around the temple watching people praying and making offerings to the gods. I don't find it such a special place, but the views over the city are pretty nice (it's a pitty cameras are forbidden inside).
Taking the bus back to Ajmer was quite an adventure. The first one was already full when we arrived. When the next one arrived we saw people throwing their bags inside, entering through the windows, pushing each other to enter the bus in first place. Well I can just say that I was one of the first to enter the bus and couldn't find a place to sit. As I found my place on the back of the bus, I started talking to one of my travel companions. He was an astrophysics teacher (or something similar). The conversation goes from the differences between our cultures, to understanding the meaning of life. Given the circumstances it was actually a quite enjoyable ride, mostly due to his company.
Departure to Jaipur
First thing to do after we got back to Ajmer, was finding a way to get out of there and preferably to Jaipur, the next place on our "race" through Rajasthan. We managed to find a tourist bus for 90 rupees which departed within an hour. Enough time to grab our stuff from the station, buy some food and get on the bus. The bus trip was a nightmare to me... I hate travelling by bus, and I get extremely annoyed when around me there are people making a lot of noise, smoking pot and the driver seems to be more interested with speed than with safety and comfort. The journey took around three hours, plus 45 min that the rickshaw took searching for our hotel. But these 45 min were well worth it. 1000 rupees divided by three, and by far the best place we got in whole trip till now - Hotel Atithi Palace. Cleaner and more comfortable for such a price is impossible in India (and by clean I mean almost like western standards!).
We all felt that Ajmer and Pushkar were a small delusion. Maybe the comments from other people that had been there and recommeded us not to miss them (specially Pushkar) created some false expectations. Ajmer has a few nice places, I liked it better than Pushkar. Pushkar is mostly a place to learn and observe a bit more of the Hindu culture and traditions.
We seem not to learn with mistakes and arrived to Ajmer early in the morning (3.30 am), sleepy and cold. We had nothing to do, and since it's a quite small train station we had to hang around the station with all the homeless and amusing ourselves with the people forcing their entrance into the trains.
When the darkness began to fade away, we headed on towards Ana Sagar, a lake north from the station. The 15 min walk in the cold and the 4 hours wait in the station to start actually doing some sightseeing were compensated by the fantastic scenery that we encountered once we reached the lake. Pink was the colour of the Snake Mountains as the sun rose in the horizon and the reflection of the mountains on the lake created a beautiful atmosphere. Around us there were a few dozens of people exercising, whether by running, doing yoga, meditation or even group laugh therapy.
As the city woke up, we went towards our next objective, which was the Old City and the Dargah,a Muslim pilgrimage site. I bought a hat to cover my head inside and went inside with Joao, while Tiago waited outside keeping an eye on our stuff. We had a guy that spontaneously offered himself to guide us through the temple. Of course in the end his objective was to ask us to make donation to the Trust they run at the temple. And of course our contribution was by far, lower than he wanted, but similar to the one most pilgrims offered. Inside the temple there is the Mausoleum where everyone is pushing each other in order to get as close as possible to it and pray and make the offerings they brought. The definition of sacred place is a bit different from mine, mostly due to the noise they make and the mess around it. I quickly step aside and look around the rest of the complex.
After giving Tiago some time to visit the place himself, we headed towards the ruins of the Adhai-Din-Ka-Jhonpra mosque, which according to the legend was built in two and a half days. Although it is a bit degraded it is still a beautiful monument and a very peaceful place (reminds me of the mosques I visited in Istambul, many years ago). It must have been an impressing place.
After wandering around the centre in the search for the palace of Akbar (without much success) we went to the Red temple (Nasiyano temple) which we had already passed by in the morning on the way to the lake. This time we entered and were simply astonished with what we saw. In front of us there is a huge room with the representation of the Jain Universe in gold. We slowly move around the golden room, trying to get a full image of it through the dirty windows. After that we try to visit the rest of the temple, but they don't allow us, although our objective was just to take a decent picture of the red temple, which is impossible from the street (it's quite a beautiful structure all built in sandstone).
Pushkar
Ajmer is not a big city, we could have stayed a bit longer and walk uphill to the fort and get a nice view over the city, but instead we decided to spend our time and money in a bus drive to Pushkar, a sacred site in the Hindu mythology. After a quiet 30 min trip across the snake mountains, we arrived in Pushkar. According to the legend, lord Brahma dropped a lotus flower in the lake Pushkar and Pushkar floated to the surface. We walked towards the lake, and then around it, through hordes of shops selling the same things. We visited some of the ghats, the places where people dive in the lake in order to clear away their sins. Besides this, Pushkar is famous for homing one of the only Brahma temples in the world. I walk up the stairs and go around the temple watching people praying and making offerings to the gods. I don't find it such a special place, but the views over the city are pretty nice (it's a pitty cameras are forbidden inside).
Taking the bus back to Ajmer was quite an adventure. The first one was already full when we arrived. When the next one arrived we saw people throwing their bags inside, entering through the windows, pushing each other to enter the bus in first place. Well I can just say that I was one of the first to enter the bus and couldn't find a place to sit. As I found my place on the back of the bus, I started talking to one of my travel companions. He was an astrophysics teacher (or something similar). The conversation goes from the differences between our cultures, to understanding the meaning of life. Given the circumstances it was actually a quite enjoyable ride, mostly due to his company.
Departure to Jaipur
First thing to do after we got back to Ajmer, was finding a way to get out of there and preferably to Jaipur, the next place on our "race" through Rajasthan. We managed to find a tourist bus for 90 rupees which departed within an hour. Enough time to grab our stuff from the station, buy some food and get on the bus. The bus trip was a nightmare to me... I hate travelling by bus, and I get extremely annoyed when around me there are people making a lot of noise, smoking pot and the driver seems to be more interested with speed than with safety and comfort. The journey took around three hours, plus 45 min that the rickshaw took searching for our hotel. But these 45 min were well worth it. 1000 rupees divided by three, and by far the best place we got in whole trip till now - Hotel Atithi Palace. Cleaner and more comfortable for such a price is impossible in India (and by clean I mean almost like western standards!).
We all felt that Ajmer and Pushkar were a small delusion. Maybe the comments from other people that had been there and recommeded us not to miss them (specially Pushkar) created some false expectations. Ajmer has a few nice places, I liked it better than Pushkar. Pushkar is mostly a place to learn and observe a bit more of the Hindu culture and traditions.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Udaipur
The trip from Goa to Udaipur was another nightmare. All the trains were fully booked, so we had to try the buses again. We decided to try sleeper class from Goa to Mumbai. A huge mistake... Two people per tier, we were given a tier at the back of the bus, which on the one hand gave us more space, but on the other hand made us roll around and jump with every curve or road-bump the bus came across (and they're many, trust me...). After 12h where we experienced extreme heat, extreme cold, cigarette smoke, etc we arrived in Mumbai... First and only thing to do was buying a ticket to Udaipur. After 21h in a semi-sleeper bus, we finally arrived in Udaipur, completely exhausted and just walked towards the city centre searching for the hotel we had booked the day before.
Udaipur and a new member in the group
We stayed at The Lake View GuestHouse very close to the impressive Jagdish temple. The first thing to do was to climb all the way up to the roof top restaurant, which offered us an amazing view over the lake, the temple, the city palace and have something to eat.
In the afternoon and after a power nap a short journey exploring the city we met Joao. He had arrived the previous day in India and is going to work here for a couple of months, but before that, he decided to travel with us and have some company exploring this country.
The first group sightseeing experience was watching the sunset from the Monsoon Palace. A long journey in a rickshaw awaited us. The machine was too old, we were three plus the driver and... it felt like it was faster to climb on foot than on the rickshaw... Half-way the rickshaw had to stop in order to rest the engine. There was a lot of smoke coming out of it already. The driver tried to make it seem like all the rickshaws had to stop there but it really felt like his vehicle would explode if it didn't stop. When we finally arrived on top (some minutes after all the other vehicles that passed us on the way up) we could at last enjoy the beautiful view over the lake and the city. This vision just left me more eager to explore the city. As for the sun set, well, there was a cloud that almost ruined it, but in the end it cleared a little bit and we enjoyed another beautiful sunset...
Back to town, we booked the train tickets to Ajmer for the next day and had a surprise waiting for us from our rickshaw driver. To compensate for the lack of a radio he offered to sing. I'm not going to discuss his singing qualities, but it was a quite enjoyable journey we had before we paid him and left for dinner.
007 - Octopussy
The hotel roof top restaurant offered us a beautiful view over the city and the lake palaces. In addition, we had to watch the 007 - Octupussy, that was recorded in one of the lake Palace-hotels. We later realised that almost (if not all) all bars and restaurants show the movie between 7-9 pm 7 days per week!
City Palace and lake Pichola
The beautiful and huge complex of the city Palace was our first destination the next day. We spent the whole morning going around the palace and visiting the museum (which is not that special, but from where one gets great views over the lake and its palaces). After that we took the boat cruise around the lake until it dropped us at the Jagmandir island, where we wandered around the gardens and just relaxed before the boat took us back to the city.
There was not much left to see after that. We got lost in the narrow streets of the old city, shared the streets with cows, pigs, dogs and goats when we were trying to find some gardens that we never found until we finally decided to relax in a terrace before having dinner and getting our bags from the hotel and catch the night train to Ajmer.
The restaurant we had planned to have dinner on was closed so it was by chance that we ended up in Maxim rooftop restaurant. Besides the food, which was great (one of the best restaurants we went to in India for sure) we had a pretty good time with Elia, a basc girl who was travelling around India on her own.
Udaipur is quite an enjoyable city. I really enjoyed my stay there. It was a pity it was so short because there were some other things around the city that would have been worthwhile exploring.
Udaipur and a new member in the group
We stayed at The Lake View GuestHouse very close to the impressive Jagdish temple. The first thing to do was to climb all the way up to the roof top restaurant, which offered us an amazing view over the lake, the temple, the city palace and have something to eat.
In the afternoon and after a power nap a short journey exploring the city we met Joao. He had arrived the previous day in India and is going to work here for a couple of months, but before that, he decided to travel with us and have some company exploring this country.
The first group sightseeing experience was watching the sunset from the Monsoon Palace. A long journey in a rickshaw awaited us. The machine was too old, we were three plus the driver and... it felt like it was faster to climb on foot than on the rickshaw... Half-way the rickshaw had to stop in order to rest the engine. There was a lot of smoke coming out of it already. The driver tried to make it seem like all the rickshaws had to stop there but it really felt like his vehicle would explode if it didn't stop. When we finally arrived on top (some minutes after all the other vehicles that passed us on the way up) we could at last enjoy the beautiful view over the lake and the city. This vision just left me more eager to explore the city. As for the sun set, well, there was a cloud that almost ruined it, but in the end it cleared a little bit and we enjoyed another beautiful sunset...
Back to town, we booked the train tickets to Ajmer for the next day and had a surprise waiting for us from our rickshaw driver. To compensate for the lack of a radio he offered to sing. I'm not going to discuss his singing qualities, but it was a quite enjoyable journey we had before we paid him and left for dinner.
007 - Octopussy
The hotel roof top restaurant offered us a beautiful view over the city and the lake palaces. In addition, we had to watch the 007 - Octupussy, that was recorded in one of the lake Palace-hotels. We later realised that almost (if not all) all bars and restaurants show the movie between 7-9 pm 7 days per week!
City Palace and lake Pichola
The beautiful and huge complex of the city Palace was our first destination the next day. We spent the whole morning going around the palace and visiting the museum (which is not that special, but from where one gets great views over the lake and its palaces). After that we took the boat cruise around the lake until it dropped us at the Jagmandir island, where we wandered around the gardens and just relaxed before the boat took us back to the city.
There was not much left to see after that. We got lost in the narrow streets of the old city, shared the streets with cows, pigs, dogs and goats when we were trying to find some gardens that we never found until we finally decided to relax in a terrace before having dinner and getting our bags from the hotel and catch the night train to Ajmer.
The restaurant we had planned to have dinner on was closed so it was by chance that we ended up in Maxim rooftop restaurant. Besides the food, which was great (one of the best restaurants we went to in India for sure) we had a pretty good time with Elia, a basc girl who was travelling around India on her own.
Udaipur is quite an enjoyable city. I really enjoyed my stay there. It was a pity it was so short because there were some other things around the city that would have been worthwhile exploring.
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