After Agra, we headed north to Jaipur, our last stop of the GoldenTriangle. Jaipur is about 250 km west of Agra. It should take about a little over 4 hour drive on highway, we thought. But, our driver did not use the highway. Instead he used the poor condition backroads with lots of pot holes, bumpy roads through small towns that seemed to go on forever. His excuse was some protest march going on and highway was blocked. We think he wanted to drive through local towns in order to get CNG for his gas tank as he did spend a lot of time trying to get to the stations that carried the CNG gas. Also, this might be his first trip to Jaipur from Agra. He did not have GPS or know how to use one. We offered him the GPS on our phone but he declined. He was defintely a hot head. Many times he yelled at people to get out of his way. We did not feel safe when he did that. He tried to be nice to us only when he requested us to tip him $100!. In the meantime, we kept our fingers crossed that his old klunker of a car did not break down and we did not suffer whiplash when we got to our destination. It took us over 8 hours to get to Jaipur that day. We were so glad to make it to the hotel safely even though we lost at least a half day of sightseeing.
After having such a good and professional driver in Sri Lanka, we experienced the opposite with the driver we had in India. We were disappointed but it was too late to ask for a different driver and car...
JAIPUR/THE PINK CITY
Jaipur is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It's also known as the Pink City from the dominant color of its buildings around the walled gate and the central market. The Pink City along with Amber Fort are two UNESCO World Heritage sites that put Jaipur on the list of popular city to visit in the Golden Triangle.
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Sign at a CNG gas station
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Cows coming home from a day of hard working
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And horses, goats, camels too...
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Camels taking a break by the roadway
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Man Sagar Lake : an artificial lake in the middle of the city. Raja Man Singh, a ruler of Amer constructed his "water palace" (Jal Mahal Palace) on the lake.Amer Fort :
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View of Amer Fort from across the road
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Outside wall
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Inside the main courtyard
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The main courtyard
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At Ganesh gate, entrance to private palaces
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The steps at Ganesh gate
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Sila Devi Temple gate
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Dila Devi temple wall
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The garden
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Hawa Mahal /The "Palace of Winds": is one of the well known buildings in the Pink City. It was built with red and pink sandstone. Other buildings within the walled historic center are painted a terracotta "pink" color. The Pink City is indeed the most colorful city in India at the tourists' first glimpse of the city.
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Street view of Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds)
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We came back to Delhi to conclude our Indian visit. It was an amazing trip to see the Golden Triangle and its famous tourist attractions. We spent our last night in Delhi at the same hotel we stayed when we first arrived. We left for Dubai the next day.
