Jaipur - the pink city - was as hassle-filled as we had heard. The place itself was gorgeous but dear god, we couldn't move a foot without being hassled by street kids, touts, shop owners, rickshaw drivers and dodgy dudes wanting to be guides.
On our first day there (we stayed 3 days and 2 nights), we made use of the auto-rickshaw boys who worked so diligently to pick us up at the train station, and got them to wait outside our guest house (the lovely Atithi Guest House) as we checked in and had lunch, so they could take us around the city. They were young - only 20, both of them, and the driver, "John" was a particular madman on the roads - but we quickly realised that all his tricky manoeuvring and hair-breadth turns were the only way to survive the insane traffic of this city. Worse than Delhi's. It was great fun. And their attempts to take us to places we didn't go were so utterly transparent they were laughable. No, we don't want to do any shopping! We are just photographers! They finally got the message and stopped trying to take us to their good friends shop... no buy, OK, madam, just look OK!
Jaipur was beautiful, but the best part of that city was 11 km's out of town. Amber Fort. So very very very beautiful. We were both deeply impressed, and being there in the late afternoon made it even more special. The people we encountered were happy, friendly and genuinely welcoming, and the place resonated with history more so than anything I have ever seen before. We both would have been quite content to sit there for hours if it hadn't been for our impatient rickshaw drivers waiting for us below.
I had my first round of travellers tummy the next day which sucked but it didn't last long and the third day we were able to run around in the morning before our local bus to Pushkar - 4 and a half hours away through the winding village roads on the Rajasthani plains. Awesome. Herds of goats and their tall, dignified, handsome turban-bound herders; herds of camels; strolling nomads in the middle of nowhere; chatty villagers anxious for us to photograph the little scrubby lake that had appeared with the monsoon; food sellers at the major stops hawking tea, sweet corn and samosa's.... a great trip but hell, we were happy to reach our destination. Those local buses are action packed, hot and smelly.
Pushkar welcomed us with open arms. But more on that soon...
Today is actually the end of week two and I've been too busy with photo's to write much. I'm hoping that today I will find an elusive broadband connection (I have heard rumours!) and have burned all my photos and text files to disc so I can upload them to the net, since I can't seem to connect my computer anywhere in Rajasthan. I've been quite sick with travellers diarrhea, as has Ryosuke. It's slowed down our pace quite spectacularly but that's probably a good thing. We are back in Jodhpur, and tonight plan to take an overnight sleeper bus to Udaipur. Ryosuke flies out in about a week now, but I have about another 5 days in Delhi to myself. I'll probably upload a batch more then.