Monkeys, camels and elephants! Oh my!

Our train ride to Jaipur went quickly as we made new friends with Joban and his family. Joban is from Amritsar but lives in none other than Calgary! We watched a Canadian Bollywood style film with Rob Lowe called Breakaway on Joban's laptop and laughed with his family, who didn't speak much English. When we arrived we said goodbye and got in touch with our Guesthouse who had free pick up. A short car ride later we arrived at an old mansion looking house. We checked in and were informed about some day trips we could book.....the hotel was charging over 500 rupees more than the rickshaw driver so we took a short walk down the road to call him. We didn't get through and that was fate because we later learned we could get to all the stops by local bus! We ate a delicious meal in the rooftop restaurant of our Guesthouse and turned in early. The next morning we took a rickshaw to the centre of Jaipur. What I learned about Jaipur was that it has gas power, rickshaw power, horsepower, cow power, camel power, elephant power, and even people power. On the street you can see all types of vehicles being pulled or driven by all types of animals, and people! The streets are a busy colorful place. Our first stop was the City Palace. It was an expensive entry fee but was a beautiful old palace, though not as well kept as some I've seen. The decorations in one courtyard were so beautiful. The four doorways each having a different theme....my favourite was the peacock door. So pretty. Afterwards we wandered in and out of shops looking at clothes and trinkets. If you are white in India you are thought to have a lot of money, and why wouldn't you want to buy from each vendor and own each trinket available?!? As we wandered we met a man who told us about a woman's cooperative where you can get clothes made. He also told us about a gem factory across the street where you can see the gems being cut. We saw huge chunks of amethyst being filed down to smaller pieces. We were welcomed into the showcase where we were shown all types of Jewellery and stones. My new favourite is the Indian ruby. It's so beautiful, a fuschia coloured stone! But the prices were still a little steep for me!

The next day we took a city bus to Amber Fort. I wasn't sure what to expect but after a steep climb and some stairs we found a large empty courtyard. After much discussion we decided to pay the high entry fees. And it was worth it. Each time we stepped into a new section of the fort we were met with something beautiful. A red marble room, a room of white and silver, intricately detailed windows, and hand painted frescoes. The fort even had a Turkish bath, of which I'm a huge fan!
We watched elephants go by and passed many many salesmen before escaping back to the local bus. Next stop, the centre of town and Hawa Mahal, the Palace of Winds. Built originally for the ladies of the royal household so they could watch life happening on the streets. It's described as a "fairytale, pink sandstone, delicately honeycombed hive" which is five stories tall. It would be quite something if not for the scaffolding covering its entire front! We took another bus to Galta, the monkey temple. We were dropped off in the middle of a busy intersection with an arm thrown up by the driver to indicate location. We walked that way and almost immediately after crossing the street stumbled upon a monkey. Alex thought it would be a good idea to share her snack and soon she had 3 intimidating monkeys coming towards her. She threw down her bag and ran! I guess that's why we don't feed wild animals! We walked up a steep hill and I thought we'd found the monkey temple. It was an ugly old building, but so was the one in Hampi. We asked, to be sure, and were told to keep following the path. We walked down a hill and discovered a beautiful temple complex with a waterfall.....and no monkeys. We'd left them all at the top of the hill! We rested for a few minutes in front of a small pond area. Just long enough to see two women and a boy start bathing in this temple water.....it was time to go. As we walked out it seemed like we were walking down an abandoned old street from long ago. As soon as we left the temple we found rickshaw drivers hounding us for fare. We settled on a price and shared with 2 other travellers. We'd had quite a day and were glad to be back at the Guesthouse.

The next morning was checkout and when we got our bill it was substantially more than we'd anticipated. It turns out they'd charged us 12.5% tax on our room and our food. We found, in an email of our booking, a statement in tiny print about the tax but I argued about the food. At the back of the menu it stated there might be a VATT charge but not that there was for sure and not what the amount was. The man kept saying if we went to a 5 star restaurant we'd pay this....I explained he wasn't a restaurant except to his guests and after 1 month in India I'd had yet to pay any tax.  They took this off the bill and we paid. Afterwards they would have nothing to do with us. They wouldn't help us with train tickets and we were shown the toilet in a construction zone. Needless to say they need to grow up! We took the bus to Jal Mahal, the Water Palace. It's on the way to the Amber Fort and is built in the middle of a lake. We took some pictures, found a camel and were headed back to our Guesthouse to prepare for our train journey. We got to the station and right at the entrance was Joban and his family! We waited with them and they taught us about Seikh culture. We were in the same car again, though in a different section. The train that night was freezing. I could not warm up. In the morning, Joban and and his cousin Prabh found out and brought me a blanket. They also brought us tea at 3 different stations and kept checking to make sure we were OK. At one part they sat with us and kept us company. We areso lucky to have met such a generous and caring family.