Big Blue Travel

Jaipur - The Pink City.

Our first look into Jaipur was through one of the 7 magnificent city gates into the old town. Jaipur is known as the pink city and you can see why, all of the big buildings and structures made with the red sand stone and painted with the excess to give a pink hue across the city.

Sticking with the colour theme we head to the Amber Fort, a huge fort built for the King and his family, including his 12 wives and their families. The fort has the most beautiful and intricate rooms I have ever seen, my favourite being the mirror room. It is exactly what it says on the tin, the walls fully decorated with mirrors different shapes and sizes in the same state today as when it was built all those many years ago.

Getting to the fort nowadays you can either walk or get a jeep, the roads are cobbled and much smaller leading to the fort so buses can only get you so far. They are also still offering your journey to the fort on elephants. The environmentalists are trying desperately hard to ensure animal abuse is to be cut down and are working to get all the elephants as close to their natural environment as possible so a plea from us, do not take the elephants to the fort, they were not born to do this and should be treated with respect, they are not taxis for tourist.

Jaipur is famous for its precious stones and semi-precious stones, if you’ve set out for something special, Jaipur is the place to ensure you get the best of the best.

From Jaipur onto Bijaipur a smaller town about 4 hours from Jaipur we stayed in an old 17^th century castle, very ‘marigold hotel-esque’ in its look. An old castle now turned into a hotel for tour groups. Bijaipur is much more out in the country and takes us away from all the smog, so so beautiful, with the locals so happy to see you. A simple wave and a hello is all the children are wanting! The local people spend most of their days either at school or on the farms and then selling the crops they grow on their local stalls. Spending most of their time out in the field on their tractors means that they want them to feel like home, you can see this by the amount of decoration they put on their machinery, I’ve never taken so many pictures of tractors!

The Venice of India.

Udaipur is home to several beautiful lakes and is named the Venice of India, and you can see why, the beautifully intricate bridges that climb over the lakes and rooftop restaurants and bars on the lake. It truly is picturesque. I highly recommend heading to a rooftop restaurant for sunset! Quite a picture.

If you were to use the lunar calendar we would currently be in the year 2075. Every full moon in Udaipur home-made natural candles are released onto the lakes and wishes are sent out into the open. Naturally this has now become very touristy but its still lovely to go down and see the lights floating off into the distance.

Looking to follow the tourist route? Head to the city Palace, tourists from all over the world visit here to see where the beautiful palace where the 74^th generation of royals still live today. They have opened a large part of the palace to the public and closed off part for themselves to live. At one end of the palace is also a now very high end hotel. The views of the lakes for the top of the palace is spectacular. You can ‘rent a guide’ or rent a head set for your way round the palace, I would always suggest a local guide for more of a personal feel.

Holy Cow!

Some more culture and history for you. All over the buildings and temples in India are many types of animals but in particular the Elephant, The Horse and the Camel. Elephant for Luck, Horse for Strength and Camel for Love. Although not many paintings of them, India is not short of Cows, although I knew cows were sacred in India I wasn’t sure why. Cows in India only produce 4/5litres of milk twice a day, whereas in the UK they produce almost double. Milk, curd, cheese and butter are part of the staple diet in India therefore very precious to the locals. You’ll notice as you walk around lots of ‘land mines’, (cow dung) the locals dry them and use them for insulation in the homes as it keeps in the warmth for winter and keeps it nice and cool in the summer months. Cow dung also keeps the mosquitoes away! When a cow dies naturally the leather is taken and sold for shoes and bags and the meat left for the animals. Cows in India are very smart, they’ll sit in the middle of the roads as its much cooler for them but also knowing that they wont get hit by oncoming traffic as a hefty fine is given if you were to hit one and if you were to hit and cow and it died you’d spend a few nights behind bars!

Next we endure a 16 hour overnight train…. I’ll let you know how we get on in my next post.

Stay safe, speak soon!