North India - Day 6 & 7: Jaipur

(This post is long over due so I can’t remember much details)
The drive from Jodhpur to Jaipur took a very, very long time. We checked in to Hotel Madhuban at 4pm. This hotel is owned by and used to be home to some descendents of ancient rulers of Patan in Rajasthan. The hotel is decorated with fine antique furniture and elaborate royalty costumes and silverware in display cases. It has an outdoor restaurant area and even comes with a pool, which we didn’t use but attempted to.

Madhuban Hotel living room

Madhuban Hotel swimming pool

We visited the Jaipur City Palace but were not too impressed. I think all in all, we spent about 20 minutes in the palace. Since we were in the car for pretty much the whole day, we wanted to walk to our next destination. The surrounding streets and market by the palace were a bit um, filthy. If Delhi perpetually stank of pee, Jaipur perpetually stank of dung. I was playing with my D40 when I noticed some boys running towards me. They were running because a cow was chasing them, which means the cow was heading straight at me. I of course freaked out and ran with them. When I thought it was safe to stop, I turned around and of course the whole street was laughing, including the three Malaysians traveling with me.

City Palace

Snake charmer in the palace

Street animals

Next morning, we checked-out from the hotel and went straight to Amber Fort. I thought I had seen enough forts by then but this fort was quite stunning. You are not allowed to drive up to the fort, so there was a bit of hike. Alternatively, you could pay for an elephant ride. Oh, and you know how I got chased by a cow at the market, well Merv got chased by a donkey at the fort.

Amber Fort

We took the wrong turn and went on the elephant path.

This elephant is peeing

Underage performers at the fort

View from Amber Fort

On our way to Agra, we stopped by Fetehpur Sikri. We didn't make it into Sikri but did Fetehpur.

Inside of Amber Fort.

Some beautiful motifs on the walls.


A garden in the fort.

More Jaipur pictures

Hampi

TRAIN RIDE
Merv and I took an overnight train to Hospet - 1st class sleeper with A/C and had a room that we shared with 2 other men. Since we never got too friendly and didn’t find out their names, I’ll call them Man A and Man B. Man A had an ipod but didn’t know how to control the volume so I showed him. To return his gratitude, Man A offered us half of his tomato rice, which was quite tasty but way too spicy. I slept quite well despite train motion but Merv woke me up at 6:40am because he saw a many people squatting on the adjacent train tracks doing #2 . Man B woke up as well and was instantly very chatty but Merv and I were too stoned and could only provide single-word responses. When we finally arrived at 8am, we were rudely pushed aside by brown uniformed bodyguards to make way for some governmental VIP, who turned out to be no other than chatty Man B. We missed our chance of rubbing shoulders.

1st class sleeper and brown uniformed bodyguard.

Stoned.

ANAGUNDI
In Hospet, we met up with Prem (the Frienemy), who introduced us to his coworker Bel and we all took a big auto rickshaw to quiet riverbank, where you can take a coracle across the river to Anegundi. Obviously, these rides are meant for locals because we don’t speak Kannada so we have to pay Rs10, instead of Rs5. See this bridge? It’s not connected and has been in the exact same state for the past 8 years. Apparently, some locals are against completing this bridge to avoid big trucks from having easy access to Anegundi villages and damaging the natural environ and heritage. Anyway, the interesting fact about these coracles; there are usually 2-3 paddlers to a coracle and one of said it could fit up to 40 adults or 10 adults with 3 motorcycles.


It's like time has stopped here and there’s really no rush for to do anything but live. Life from this side of the river seems so simple and candid; I almost forgot that on the other side of the river, or the world, an era is ending.


KISHKINDA
We checked into Kishkinda Cottage and met the owner, Shama, who happens to also run the Kishkinda Trust. The non-profit organization is dedicated to the conservation of Anegundi heritage. Shama has a certain flair and emits a nurturing-vibe, which makes sense why the villagers call her “amma”. Her niece took us around town to look at some craft workshops that she helped set up and manage.

Village ladies learning how to stitch with a view of paddy field.

Village ladies making bags with banana leaf fiber.

NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS
Her niece also suggested we take a tour to go up to the no-name hills to look at some Neolithic settlements. Next morning at 7am, our driver cum tour guide and his two assistants drove about 45mins from the cottage to get to the foothills. At first glance, we were slightly apprehensive realizing there is no path and wearing the wrong shoes. After about 1.5 hours of thorn-scratches (note to self: wear long pants when hiking), constant slipping off big rocks (note also: Vans slip-ons not ideal for hiking) and numerous times of getting lost we finally reached here…

Settlement


Neolithic graves.



Merv and Prem were bitchy and sarcastic from the hike and heat but both were like me, astonished by the sight. I was surprised how this area hasn’t been guarded off and restored and to my amazement, still in tact. Even though I tried hard looking for "souvenirs", all I found was some shells. Wait a minute, what are shells doing on the hilltop? Apparently, up on these hills is where land used to be, so these shells I found could be ...5000 year-old fossils?

HAMPI
People I know who visited Hampi covers Hampi in two days but since we spent a chunk of this weekend in Anegundi, we pretty much scurried through these sights like a marathon runner. The architecture of the Hampi ruins reminded me so much of the ruins I saw in Greece, it made me wonder who copied whom? Hampi is really peaceful and beautiful, check out my flickr album for more pics.


Baby Ganesha

Communal dining table

Ginormous Ganesha

Linga

Aqueduct

Stone chariot in Vitthala Temple

Monolithic granite musical pillars in Vitthala Temple

Elephant Stables

FUNNY
After an 11-hour train ride, we reached Bangalore at 6:30am and Prem got a call from Bel. How sweet is that? A check-in call once you reach your destination. When Prem got into work, Bel explained that someone had saw on the local Hampi news that three engineers had drowned , one of them from Chennai (Prem always claims he’s from Chennai but dude is born and raised in New Jersey) and Bel was convinced that it was the three of us. There were no cell phone reception on our overnight train from Hampi to Bangalore, so he couldn’t reach Prem. Bel even called my office and found my cell number but it was my U.S. number, which doesn’t work locally so he was freaking out. Poor Bel must’ve had a long sleepless night and it’s unfortunate the 3 engineers died but we thought the whole situation was quite funny.

More Hampi Pics

Kerala

JC, a coworker and I took four forms of transportation within six hours; a cab to the Bangalore airport at 4am, a plane that departed at 5:55am to Kochin, an hour bus ride from Fort Kochin to Vaikom and a 5-hour boat ride that took us on Kerala backwaters tour.

When we reached Kochin airport, we were tired, hungry and in desperate need of coffee but the cab ride took so long, by the time we met Merv at his home stay, the travel bus was already waiting, so no chance to grab a shot of masala chai. Merv arranged the tour that includes hotel pick-up and drop, lunch and 2 boat rides.


Little-boat ride along the backwaters through villages and a spice tour.




Water here is used for transportation, cleaning and cooking.




Big boat ride.


Big-boat took us to a small island, where we had lunch served on banana leaves.


The 2 hours big-boat ride got a bit boring and plus the heavy Indian lunch, it was the perfect opportunity to take a nap.


Sunset at Chinese Fisherman Nets.


These colorful fans were hand-made.


Khatakali performance. I enjoyed this a little more than I thought I would. The animated and colorful costumes with exaggerated expressions, actions and make-up reminded me of a silent version of Chinese Opera.


ANNOYANCE.

We stayed at Orion Homestay in Fort Kochin. Mervyn thought we got cheated because we paid Rs1600 for a tiny room in this home stay but one of us had to sleep on a very uncomfortable mattress on the floor. The owner overcharged us Rs100 thinking we won’t double-check the bill (which we later left as a tip), charged us for breakfast (which they mentioned on arrival was free) and made us pay Rs40 for a roll of toilet paper.

Fort Kochin is another tourist-infested state so auto-rickshaw drivers get commission if they bring a new customer or foreigner to any hotels/home stays, souvenir or handicraft emporium (Merv: “… or tourist trap. When they see us foreigners, it’s like seeing money walking in”). After a few minutes of haggling, we decided to go along with the auto-rickshaw driver’s proposal of Fort Cochin tour + 3 emporiums (look only, no need to buy) + free t-shirt = Rs20.

At the end of the “tour”, auto-rickshaw driver was annoyingly persistent about going to 2 more emporiums. Since this wasn’t part of the agreement, JC yelled at him and he dropped us back without another word but left us with a content grin probably because he made enough commission to throw todi parties for a week. Oh, and we never got our free t-shirt.


Snake-y auto-rickshaw driver

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