Day 2 - Jaipur

There are kites everywhere – whether entangled en-masse on high tension electricity lines or flying gracefully in the wind. We could spot kids flying them them everywhere – from the lawns of Jantar Mantar, to the serene settings of the Palace Café and on the medians of busy thoroughfares. One of the kites even found their way to the baggage claim conveyor belt at the airport. These are remnants of the recently concluded kite festival.

The place wakes up very late. At 8:00 in the morning, there was hardly a soul on the streets. But by 9:00, the huge tourist buses had started massing around the majestic flat-façade of the Hawa Mahal. Full-fledged restaurants are next to non-existent in the old quarter of the city. Throughout the day, we had to satisfy our stomach with hot samosas (thanks to the small – but shady – chat joints) and the cold kulfis sold in front of Jantar Mantar. Thanks to the (not-so-much-overpriced) restaurant – Palace Café – inside the immensely beautiful City Palace. I sent a boastful SMS to my colleagues that I was dining inside the palace. The day passed off peacefully, with the biggest adventure yet to come.

Dinner at Choki Dhani was still 20-25 kilometers away. We haggled with an autorickshaw driver, who demanded 500 rupees for the following reason:
1. To and fro it will take 50-odd kilometers
2. The place opens at 7:00 and closes at 11:00. Who the hell would drop you back at midnight?
3. The entry fee was 300 Rs.

We finally agreed for 350 Rupees.

350 bucks for nothing! - For as it turned out the traffic jam started just about 2 kilometers before the place. The whole of North India seemed to have decided to dine there. It took us an hour to cover those 2 kilometers. Once we reached there, it was difficult to see where the queue started. Probably a thousand or more people were banging on the doors, which had closed by that time. Someone said, there was no way to get in. We tried to squeeze our way through once the stampede started. But finally common sense prevailed and we decided to get back.

The less said about the rickshaw, the better. I was already starting to hate those big autos. It kept bouncing on even the smallest crack on the road. The driver though, was very cheerful. On the way to Choki Dhani he kept pointing out all the important landmarks in Jaipur. On the way back however, he decided to take an alternate route to avoid the traffic jam. He was driving at the maximum speed possible for his rickshaw, in the process overtaking BMWs and Honda Civics (“can’t you drive faster?” asked a guy rolling down the windows of his Honda). At every junction or roundabout, he stopped to ask the way back to Jaipur. He even gave a lift to a shady-looking character and his little girl. It was 10:00 PM when we reached our destination.

I was already having a headache. I hadn’t had a cup of coffee for more than 36 hours!

Pic(k) of the Day:
Breather...