30/07/2013
Our initial goal was getting from New Delhi to Jaisalmer (a city in the desert that borders with Pakistan), however we were unable to get a direct train ticket, therefore we had to make a stop in Jaipur.
We bought our tickets at the New Delhi train station, at the International Tourism Bureau, which is located on the station’s first floor. It’s important to keep focused and not mind all the several locals hanging around (some pratically live there) that are trying to make any commission they can on selling you any ticket, rickshaw ride, child photo or any other creative service.
Most of the times, they will be friendly and amusing, and it is understandable that they will do what they have to, to survive in the New Delhi chaos and poverty (not only New Delhi for that matter), so they will insist and hang around you for a long time, trying to catch you off guard. :)
At the train for Jaipur we really would like to enhance the quality of the AC2 carriages, with 4 beds per compartment, which albeit not having a western kind of presentation and being a bit more expensive, are surely recommendable for those wanting to avoid a major shock in transport conditions! We thoroughly recommend anyone to use train as the main means of transporation, since it is ideal for longer rides and time really flies on the train. The AC3 carriages also look nice, but you can get a bit crammed up inside, as each compartment (same size as AC2) can take 6 people instead of 4, although they are a bit cheaper. In our case we’ve been trying to get the AC2 whenever we can. If you wish to know more about the best options for tourists travelling in India check Gonçalo Cadilhe’s book “O Mundo é Fácil” (The World is Easy).
During the train trip we had the pleasure of sharing our compartment with 3 indians (actually a man and 2 women; we weren’t sure if they were both his wives actually) all were super nice and very interested and surprised with the size of our luggage, considering the planned lenght of our trip. Each of the women would probably take around 3 suitcases filled with Saaris, Chapatis and Saffron for a mere weekend trip! =)
Around the time we were supposed to arrive at Jaipur (supper time) the indian ladies pulled out a deliciously looking homemade meal, which they were so kind as to share with us. Yum! Delicious indeed!
We arrived at Jaipur around 20h30 of July 30th. As soon as we stepped out of the train, we already had a nice young man ready to render his services. At first we payed him no attention whatsoever, so the guy was trying to get us to talk by asking us all sorts of questions. We were able to pretty much ignore him up to the point where he asked if we were spanish! Excuse us??!?!?
We used the words of the ever wise Castro “por supuesto que si!!” and we asked him “quanto es el tombo de aqui a Surya Villa Hotel?” (how much to get us to the Surya Villa Hotel) =)
He asked for 100 rupees (less than 2€) but after we understood that he actually didn’t know the way to the hotel (he was questioned “Inquisition style” by Diogo Sousa and failed miserably), we then headed to the official rickshaw stand where we met the guy who would our guide in Jaipur – Mr. Raul Rahis! We paid him 85 rupees.
We arrived at the Surya Villa, having had a nice conversation with Raul on the way, but we were too tired to go out again.
We stayed up till 4 am reanalysing our route options in India, because the time to buy our next plane tickets has arrived (Kolkata – Jakarta; Bali-Singapore, Kuala Lumpur – Tokyo) and to buy hem we need to determine which cities to visit and how many days to spend in each.
Up till now from the places we’ve been to, including the capital of India, we have not found streets that aren’t extremely dirty, filled with cows or pigs wandering the streets, sniffing through the trash :
But has so ever well depicted in books, documentaries and travellers’ and locals testimonials, India is a country that sticks on you due to the beauty of its contrasts and we are finding that out for ourselves:
- Palace of The Winds, built in red and pink sand stone (which is why Jaipur is known as the Pink City), shaped as the crown of the hindu God, Krishna. Interesting to notice the 953 palace windows, built to allow the Maharaja’s several wives to peek the streets and everyday life, without being seen, given that on the outside they had to cover their faces all the time.
The city of Jaipur relies on tourism to a great extent and also its manufacturing industry from textiles, to jewelry to tapestry. Our guide, eyeing a commission but we liked the visit, took us to some factories/stores in Mughal Town, where some of these products were being manufactured and sold.
We had the chance to witness how the unique camel rugs are manufactured as well as silk and wool carpets. The owners of the factory took us on a guided tour to show the whole process, expecting to sell us one of their beautiful, furry rectangles (prices starting from 500 euros upwards…shipping costs aside), alas they were not fortunate on this day…”tight daily budget my friend”, was our response, while drinking a delicious chai. =)
We leave you with a small sample and we accept orders. We ask you do the same as we did with Raul, that is, be aware we have a commission on your purchase, but don’t take it the wrong way ….”tight daily budget, my friends”. Just kidding! =)
- Tapete de Pêlo de Camelo / Camel Rug
- Tapete de Lã de Ovelha / Wool rug
Since we only spent one day in Jaipur and on top of that most of it under heave monsoon rain, we did have the time to visit the farther beautiful forts, but from the 24 hour experience we definitely enjoyed Jaipur and we had a good time, so who knows if we might come back someday to the Pink City.
We had a delicious dinner with our guide, despite a very long, too long conversation that was making us grow impacient about missing our train…”it’s really close my friend. Station only 3 minutes away”. We finally got to the station where we had a nice misunderstanding with Raul concerning the remuneration for his services, but we eventually agreed on the original fixed price!!! A quick two photos and bye bye Raul, we have a train to catch, see you next time.
Around 20 minutes from ending our day we had our last adventure. The “very close” was suddenly “very far” when, at the station’s entrance the departure board showed all the trains departing…except ours scheduled for 23h45, which meant we had approximately 8 minutes to board a train that we had no idea where it was. Imagine yourselves at Campanhã station (Porto-Portugal) in this situation. Ok, it’s tight but no biggie right? Worst case scenario, you would sleep there.
Now picture yourselves at an indian train station, chaotic, with hundreds and hundreds of people around you (the definition of an indian train station), with a hand luggage airport-type control at the entrance, with no idea of which platform to go to. In the next two minutes we were able to find a gentleman that kindly told us to go to platform 4. At this point we were running with our backpacks (needless to say 30 seconds later we were sweating like pigs; always good when you’re about to start a 10-hour train trip), we climbed a flight of stairs to go through a pedestrian bridge that would lead to platforms 2 to 6, but we quickly found out at the top that the stairs that descended to platform 4 were blocked for renovation. So, to summarize, with 5 minutes to go, we could see our train from the bridge, but we had no idea how to get there. We tried going down to platform 5-6 to see if there was an access there, but we saw no way through either. 4 minutes to go. We came back, climbed the bridge again and descended onto platform 3. Diogo jumps onto the train line and Sara is frozen staring at Diogo. 3 minutes to go. Diogo, politely yells at Sara: “Sara, jump onto the line to cross”! Sara, shivering, starts to climb down to the train line. We jumped the metal division separating lines 3 and 4 and, contrary to all the rats around us we climbed from train line 4 the platform 4, leaving them nasty creatures behind. Whewww…now we only have 1 kilometer of train to go (yes, they have rather small short trains in India) in just under 2 minutes. Doable! Side by side we were blazing through the crowd, pushing and knocking passengers and salespeople alike. We had already ran for about 300 meters when we hear a blast followed by some screams from the locals present. The daypack Diogo was carrying with our camera, laptop, passports, wallets, phones and all else that really mattered to us (yeah, we were intelligently carrying them all together) opens and the camera and some laptop cables splash on the platforms floor. With 1 minute to go, we were separated with Sara at the door to one of the carriages and Diogo running towards that carriage after retrieving the fallen items (hopefully all of them but no time to double check) with one hand on the back trying to hold the day pack together since he didn’t have the time to organize the stuff inside and close the daypack. We got in, we made it! Wrong carriage and without a way to go to the right carriage from the inside since there was a luggage carriage in between locked with no access. We ended up talking to some of the passengers and train staff and after one hour of waiting, at the train’s first stop we got out and ran to the correct carriage.
1 o’clock in the morning and we are finally laying in our AC2 berths. Good night and sleep tight.
“Diogo, delicadamente, berra: “SARA SALTA PARA A LINHA”
Dani, the big sis, will kill Diogozinho…u know that, right???????!!!!!!!!!
Teve que ser Nelinha! Mas fica descansada, olhámos para os dois lados antes de atravessar. E só vimos mesmo os ratos! ;)
ok, entao ag quero um post c baratas, pode ser?daquelas à “rei escorpião”. Mas só se as virem por aí, ao longe :P
Por supuesto carinoooo! Queremos mais :)
Pa tu teres uma noção, a primeira pergunta de um indiano para nós é: “Spain, Spain?” e só a segunda é que é: “Wanna look? No need to buy, just look!” (e depois tentam levar-te para o quarto privado “where all the action goes on”). Geralmente ficamo-nos pelo chá, ou então como hoje, o Diogo usou a app “Fake-A-Call” para o Harry. Um amigo que supostamente foi parado pela polícia em Udaipur e nós para o ajudar tivemos que sair imediatamente da salinha. Pena foi que ainda não nos tinham dado o chá. Teremos mais oportunidades for sure…tipo daqui a meia-hora quando formos para a nossa cooking class! Yummy! Chamuças no bucho!!Guaranteed!!
gostei TANTO dessa ideia das cooking classes, mandem-me fotos disso e n se eskeçam de aprender a fazer sobremesas :P
Detalhamos tudo no próximo post, prometemos! Vais ficar deliciada! :)
TOP! e adoro as fotos! e obrigada pelas informações, estou quase a marcar a minha viagem para ir ter convosco à India! Muitos parabéns e que continue tudo a correr bem! Sara já podes dizer aos teus netos que atravessaste uma linha de comboio na India ;)
Rach, sweetie!! Estamos a contar ficar por cá até dia 17, por isso parecia-me muito boa ideia apareceres por cá para fazeres o teu próprio retiro espiritual, na nossa companhia claro! :) Quanto às histórias para contar aos netos, acredita que as do próximo post vão ser ainda melhores!!! Stay tuned! :)
esse post tem d sair rápido, para as pessoas perceberem as imagens k ando a colocar nas pegadas do fb !
é bom que me prometam que n saltam mais linhas, quero sms escrita (WeChat) com essa confirmação!!!
Gostei de ver a pintinha vermelha na testa:) Que aventura:) A minha grande dúvida tem sido(tal como as indianas, lol): o que é que vai para vestir na mochila?:)
hehe melhor mesmo só o caminho repleto de macacos e porcos que percorremos para nos pintarem a testa! :)
tens toda a razão Di, quero muito fazer o post sobre “o que levar”, mas ainda não o comecei.
vou tentar escrevê-lo até segunda :)
vai espreitando o blog sempre que puderes e dá notícias :)
Beijinho para todos :)
Só fã assidua:) a tua mana aconselhou-me uma aplicação na net, que sempre que vocês escrevem algo eu recebo:D
=)=) nice!! adoro imaginar-te a ler os posts…faz-me lembrar dos tempos de faculdade, quando eu ia para o teu quarto enquanto lias Harry…priceless!!
Sabes que fotos vi no outro dia?:) Aquela em que uma dizia um nome e as duas faziam a careta:D:D
Aaaaaaaaaah maravilha!! Já histórias para gravar na memória! :) São o melhor que se leva.
Mas olhem que ratos na linha é para meninos!! Eu dormi com um por baixo da almofada em San Pedro de Atacama pá!!
Postem mais vezes pá que a malta por cá já não aguenta o refresh!!
Tavarezz!!
Fair enough! Mas e 4 baratas a sairem de um rolo de papel higiénico, supostamente selado, a menos de 10 cm dos teus genitais? E esta, hein?
Ficamos à espera do rating.
Beijinhos para os 3 mosqueteiros!! :)
P.S. Gostamos particularmente da opinião da Clara relativamente à privatização da CP. =)
Hehehehehehe não está mal, não está mal. Mas lembrai-vos que eu dormia com formigas e ocasionalmente algumas baratas na Argélia! Só não dormi com a ratazana porque, apesar dela ter subido os degraus, não lhe abrimos a porta. Mas esse, de 0 a 10 já é prai um 8!!
A opinião da Clara ficará por muitos e bons anos enraizada nos estofos da primeira classe daquele Alfa!!
gosh!tou a adorar a vossa aventura ,escrevam… escrevam… ao ler parece que estou aí ao vosso lado :-)))) beijinhosssssss
prepara-te pas aventuras com escaravelhos :P aí sim, n vais kerer “estar” lá :P ahahahah
Rainaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Happy BDAY my lovely, lovely cousin!! :)
Tens mesmo que dar uma olhadela ao blog…especialmente HOJE!! :)
Como está a minha deliciosa sobrinha? :)
Beijinho enorme para ela e para os papás e avós babados!!