India tour 14-30 November 2018

Jaipur Days 12 & 13

Sunday 25th November 2018

Day 12:- Jaipur, located north east of Pushkar by 145klms.

Best sleep so far for Alan – more than 9 hours in bed after an exhausting few days touring! Up at 6.30am and into breakfast by 7.20am after an exploratory walk around the hotel’s estate. Travel case repacked and ready for collection outside room door by 9.00am then a wait in the reception lounge for the bus departure scheduled for 9.30am. This did not happen. There was some dispute between the hotel staff and Father Max that was not resolved until 10.00am. The bus eventually departed Pushkar at 10.20am with no word on the reason for the dispute.

The drive to Jaipur was to take a diversion into a place called Ajmer where the attraction is the Dargah Sharif (Holy Dargah). This entombs the Sufi Saint, Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chisti in a beautiful marble tomb with silver railings and marble scree. Because of the late departure from Pushkar this visit was abandoned.

Later the reason for the dispute was made known to the tour participants. There was a failure by the India tour company to pay the funds for the tour’s stay in the Taj gateway hotel. This resulted in Father Max having to settle the hotel account with his own funds. The amount was reimbursed to Father Max by the India tour company later that morning.

Pushing on, the bus came to the scheduled lunch venue at a spicy Indian restaurant. Alan tried the tomato soup and also a sample of the dish Rod Bensley (the Baptist retired minister) recommended – supposedly not too hot. Lots of yoghurt required to put out the fire from that dish!!

Traffic hazard wandering buffalo Musician outside lunch stop tour group contemplating lunch

Traffic hazard camel rides! Pharmacy stop to replace pills. Decorations outside carpet emporium.

Next stop was a carpet manufacturing outfit. Here the group viewed how the carpet craftsmen performed their artistic creations by hand. Each single thread knotted across a loom, using the finest camel hair, to form a pattern known only to the artist. The hair of the camel used, we are told, can only be shorn once in the camel’s lifetime. Then came the sell as the group were ushered into a large room. Very beautiful examples displayed on the floor in front to of the group. The spiel about how much better is this Indian carpet than the Persian or Turkish variety as these use 2 threads in their construction rather than 1 in the Indian version (supposed to make the Indian one more lush & tightly woven).

Single string weave by craftsman lady trimming near finished item Alan’s choice for a purchase.

Oversize vehicle lane at toll gate large slabs of marble on the move trees in a yellow flower bloom

The Trident hotel in Jaipur was reached by 5.00pm with Alan allocated room 220 at reception only to have to wait again for his room to be cleaned as all other tour members accessed their nominated rooms. Dinner was at 7.00pm with the usual buffet style. It is difficult to choose from the dishes available as one is never sure what is chilli infused or not. Alan tried the tomato soup and one sip was enough. He could not continue with the dining room staff offering a green pea soup as a non-spicy alternative. That was delicious. Impossible to get no chilli dishes – even pasta dish had bits of red chilli in it. Saving grace was the ice-cream available as sweets at the end of the meal!

After dinner the group gathered in Father Max’s room for a communion service which Rod (the Baptist retired minister) took. All went well with the service. Into bed by 10.30pm.