Jaipur : The Pink City

We spent our last afternoon in Agra visiting Fatephur Sikri. It is a ghost town about an hour drive from the city.
Akbar, the most famous Mongol emperor, moved his capital here and it was inhabited for about 15 years before water shortages and Akbar's death caused everyone to abandon it...It is a beautiful fort enclosed city, compete with moat ,that is in amazing condition... considering it was left empty in the 1500's.

We had quite the adventure getting there and almost died in 2 head on bus crashes with in 10 minutes of each other. The first one was when our driver was driving in the wrong lane to avoid a cow on the road...just then a bus came around a blind corner causing both vehicles to swerve narrowly missing each other. The second was while on the highway(scarier....oh, did I mention there are no seat belts in the cars?) travelling highway speeds when I looked ahead and saw a huge bus driving towards us in our lane...and then it was like him and our taxi driver were playing a game of chicken seeing who would give first! Me and Sue were staring ahead with shock... eventually they both swerved at the last minute (the bus actually tipped up on 2 wheels it turned so hard) and we missed by a couple inches...it scared the crap out of us. It was close. The traffic here is frightening at best..no traffic laws, each man for himself : but it's generally at lower speeds in the city so accidents wouldn't be too bad but this one was freaky. We're gonna try to stay off the highway unless we're in the bigger vehicle!

Last night we took a train from Agra to Jaiper. It was a 4 hour train ride and also quite the adventure. Train stations in India defy description...I would take a photo but not only would it NOT capture the crushing chaos, I would get trampled or at least get my ass grabbed 10 times if I tried to pull off such a feat and distracted myself from a state of hypervigilence! The train stations are in completely run down buildings...filled beyond any safe capacity with people and livestock and ...name it! It's war in there...fighting for space, fighting to get through with your bags....it sucks the life out of you! Last night we showed up and NO WHERE did it say which of the tracks our train was on... we had no idea where to go and the train was going to leave in 20 minutes. The trains aren't labelled, the tracks aren't really labelled...it's a mess! So I camped out with our bags while Sue attempted to ask some one. There is a Ticket Enquiry room and a loud group of 20 Indian men crowding it out-shouting each other...no line up so much as a match of who can shout the loudest! Sue, thankfully very assertive, shouted her way to the front, slammed the ticket against the glass and demanded directions...only to be directed to another window...who after a similar shouting match directed her back to the first window. Frustrated she came back to find me and we got directions in the end from two of the security officers and a young boy who kindly helped us out. Then the train arrives and we have NO idea where our seats are...again, Sue finds the conductor and he gets someone to take us there...it is truly painful...and completely exhausted us. Thankfully the train was on time and we arrived in Jaiper at 11pm...our pre-arranged driver was there this time and took us to our oasis of a hotel, which we love!!!

Our Beautiful Jaiper hotel "Jas Vilas"

We are now in Jaiper! Jaipur is also known as the Pink City. Jaipur's pink color goes back to the early 1900's when Jaipur city was getting ready to welcome the Prince of Wales and needed a fresh coat of paint. But the contractor's inability to provide any other color except the pink saw Jaipur washed in pink. The city of has beautiful hilltop fortresses, magnificent royal palaces and historic pink-painted sandstone architecture.

Today we had a lazy day. We slept in, had a wonderful breakfast by the pool, spent a few hours this afternoon shopping followed by reading poolside! Tomorrow we are taking a half day sightseeing tour..we feel like being babysat for a bit! Tonight I eagerly await my Indian buffet dinner served by the pool in the courtyard : )