Liam scared the life out of me lastnight by sleepwalking. He was pulling all the covers off the bed; that coupled with a strange environment with a very very high ceiling made me shout out in fright. I really am going to have to tie him to the bed to stop him from wandering off in odd places or make him tape a map around his leg ant night.
Breakfast was ok, apart from the young man with the sitar came to play near us as soon as he saw us. I was great last night, a little early for it today and he's a little out of tune too! Last night we sat outside, drank some kingfisher beer and ate food at a nice candle lit table. We were naughty and had fries and chicken nuggets to go with our curry and naan. A man and a small boy set up a puppet show and asked us to go over. It was quite funny, but the reason for doing it was to get us to buy a puppet from him and they get so sour when you say no! We tipped him as he had tried for us, and made our get away.
After breakfast we met our new guide. We travelled through the streets of Jaipur, it's all 'pink' from where they painted the city for the arrival of (forgive me if this is wrong) king of Wales in 1800's. It's faded now but you can see how wonderful it would have looked. People were cleaning up the streets from last nights festival, again there were all manner of animals all over the place such as dogs monkeys pigs horses sheep goats cows camels elephants.
We went to amber fort and got to go up the long winding path on a big painted Asian elephant. The views were wonderful and after the initial joltiness of the ride we got used to it and it was really good fun.
At the very top we went up to a small temple with all marble stone carved into lovely patterns. We were painted with a red dot our foreheads and offered a small token sweet. We then went up to view the old palace, it was amazing. The architecture and designs were amazing. Some of it was damaged from when the king white washed all of the walls when a neighbouring king was visiting to hide his wealth so he didn't take over. We saw the living space for all of his wives, their maid servants and his concubines and walked up to the top to see the view.
After that we went to see how they colour their materials. I had a go with using the wooden block to print the design of an elephant on some cotton. They use dyes from all natural sources like spice, herbs and rocks. We sat for a while with the guide who told us abou this daughters arranged marriage and how the tradition works. He speaks good English and also French.
We then went to the Albert hall, which was built especially for when the king of Wales went to visit, and was built to be a museum/gallery. It was mostly Indian artwork and pottery etc, some other items from other cultures as well including a mummy and statues dating forms round 400ad
We then went to see the 'most prestigious' jewellery store in India where we saw how they made the jewellery by hand from the stones and metal. We managed to escape without buying anything, the cheapest ring being nearly £30 we decided to pass despite the high quality.
We then went for lunch, we went through some side streets and to this derelict space, however you go through an arch and a restaurant was all set up out in the open. We sat and had our curry next to the big pillars with people playing music as we ate. I had a go at making a roti with one of the cooks, he showed me how and it looked really easy but I couldn't do it!
We then went to look around the bazaars, which was brilliant because you just get to see the various types of stalls and all the people around, smell the smells (some good, some bad!). The interesting thing about India is the contrast between the newer stuff and the older stuff that's hundreds of years old. Paintings on the stone, the carvings, the old buildings. We even went to the end of one street and it was the old house of a what would have been rich person just abandoned but still there, with an old 1920s or something car just sitting there untouched. There are so many things just left for nature to work on it, buildings and buildings just unused or half fallen down with people living in them. The guide took us to his favourite sweet shop, he told us his father and fathers father also loved it and the people working there are all descendants from the first person to set it up. They were ok, one was a saffron flavour which was odd but ok, the other had chocolate in so was a bit better!
We then went to the hotel, and we tried sitting outside for a while with books etc but call us spoil sports, but the man saw us and straight away came over to play and sing....and it was awful! It just goes on and on and on and on, and sounds a little bit like a cat being killed after about 10 minutes. The other lady outside was also finding listening to it difficult! We ended up going back into our room which is fine because it's a wonderful old posh thing. We're sat watching films on the tv before nipping back out for a beer later.
Travel day again tomorrow :)
Me: 3 bites
Liam: 8
