Day 7 - Monkeys!

I am officially the only tourist in the history of tourism to come to Agra and not visit the Taj Mahal. With a solid plan of being at the door at 5.30am (the alleged opening time), getting in and out in three quarters of an hour, back to the hotel and onto the train station for our 7.05am train, things started going south when it became obvious they did not actually open until the official sunrise time, which in this case was 5.49am. Further delays then occurred when they decided tripods were a severe security risk and did not let us through without storing them in a locker, which would have probably delayed us by an extra half hour or so, as nothing in India seems to take less than that. For this reason, and as I had had enough of the whole ordeal by this point, I took Ben’s backpack and waited outside while he got his Taj fix. It was only as I entertained myself taking bad pictures of monkeys that I realised I would be back in a couple of weeks with my sister, so I was extra glad to have taken the bullet on this occasion.

I would love to tell you all about the train to Jaipur but, as I was slept straight through it, all I know is that it was more than an hour late and that we got off at the wrong station. Apparently Gandhinagar Jaipur and Jaipur are drastically different locations and, as it turns out, the French couple on the berth next to ours was not clued up enough to deserve our trust, so following their lead was a mistake. In the end we worked out we were at least in the right city and a twenty-minute rickshaw ride away from our hotel. This was a pleasant surprise - on one hand it is clean and pretty funky; on the other it has been voted as the most romantic hotel in India, which Ben and I obviously value dearly. Ironically, I must say I have only encountered couples that seem consistently either pissed off or just indifferent to each other. I guess that is the kind of couple that books a room at “the most romantic hotel in India” in an effort to relight the flame, not two dudes backpacking across Rajasthan. I guess I should not be the one judging here.

Jaipur is delightful. By far the tidiest place we have seen in India (although Varanasi set a fairly low bar in this regard), with pleasant architecture and the feel of a small city that happens to have four million inhabitants (roughly two Lisbons). Due to our late arrival and the need to replenish our stomachs before doing anything else, we did not get to see much of the city. We did get the opportunity to get lost trying to find the Hawa Mahal, spending half an hour walking around what looked like a playground before eventually running into the beautiful façade of the Palace of the Winds, built to allow the royal ladies to observe the street life without being seen by the plebs.

From then our very friendly tuk tuk driver took us to the Monkey Temple, but unfortunately also pointed us in the direction of a gentleman who called himself a “guide” and essentially annoyed us for the duration of our stay there in exchange for an unspecified amount of money. It was especially ironic that the driver apologised for his English (which was impeccable), while our self-proclaimed “guide” was so hard to understand that a randomer who happened to be standing next to us felt compelled to provide us with simultaneous translation during a particularly challenging explanation.

Fortunately this place was so incredible even he could not ruin it for us, so we happily spent over an hour hanging out with with monkeys (over five thousand, as our “guide” repeated about twelve times) and goats while looking at the sunset over the whole of Jaipur, laid out at our feet. Probably my favourite place in India so far.

Suggesting that it may be a small World after all, the Peacock Rooftop (our hotel restaurant) had been recommended by a friend who was here recently, so we decided to give it a go. It was as funky as the rest of the hotel and the food was great, but the couples who do not look like they are enjoying each other’s company were still an integral part of the experience. I wish them all the best, and may Jaipur turn their relationships around forever.

Cheers,
João