A week in India

Email to family and friends
December 29, 2009

Well after a week here, I think our body clocks have finally adjusted to this place, if our brains haven't quite. Delhi was simply a shock to both Joan and
me.  All the reading, travel docs and good advice from experienced friends can't prepare you for your first stroll through Old Delhi.  There is unrelenting pressure on your old brain to process the constant racket, overpowering smells, and the ancient crumbling lanes, packed tight with human, animal, and machine, all competing for every inch of space.  The whole city seems in a state of either terminal decay or half hearted rebuilding, and you can't really tell one from the other.                                          

                                          Lamp shade detail

We traveled six hours southwest by bus to Jaipur two days ago and have found some respite from the craziness of the streets and the second rate hotels in a beautiful little heritage hotel ($65.00 Cd) in a quiet (relatively) and leafy (relatively) suburb of Jaipur. (pop 2.5 million). Our optimism restored, we will depart for Udapuir on a 10 hour overnight sleeper bus tomorrow night and enjoy this oasis for another day.
                 

Today we hired a taxi and took a five hour tour of the 16th, 17th century Mogul forts at Amer about 10 kms out of the city. (Taxi and driver $12 Cd, admissions $6 with guide). These massive Maharajah palaces, perched on mountain ridges above the city, rival any of the man made spectacles we have seen anywhere in our travels. It is also the first place we have really seen foreign tourists in any number and the forts were crowded with them. Many tourists fly in just to see the historical sites. Not many foreigners to be seen on the streets around town though.Yes, the food is fabulous! The people are friendly and helpful, except for the touts, and I am still too pissed off to tell you the worst of those stories. Later. Anyway, none have got the better of us yet and they are simply an annoyance.

A major challenge now is to understand how to locate a reliable supply of beer. Alcohol is under tight government control. It is not available 7-11 equivalents or small shops as elsewhere in SE Asia. I saw one government liquor store on Christmas Day. Closed for the holiday! This hotel forbids any alcohol on the premises. Oh well, I am generally up to a challenge like this.

The Amber Fort

                                                                                                                                                                      

* Click on photos to enlarge
* More photos at  http://s617.photobucket.com/home/gjmcknzie