17th-18th: In the morning, we were up bright and early, eager to get on the road for Rajasthan. Leaving behind the streets of New Delhi, we encountered a small traffic jam before getting on to the major highway.
In the first few minutes, there were very few words exchanged between us and our driver, Santosh. Thankfully, Rhoda is very familiar with Indian culture and showbusiness, and was able to make small talk. That broke the ice. Santosh put on some Indian music to get us in the mood. Although we couldn’t understand the lyrics, the rythm of the songs was enough to wake us up. We did a little dancing inside the car, which amused Santosh very much. And probably those stuck in traffic staring inside our car.
As in any country, driving along the highways, you’ll see many interesting things. On the road, there were a lot of trucks with this charming sign on their tails:
This simply means that if you want to overtake, just blow your horn, and the truck will move to the left side of the road and let you pass. We encountered a lot of these trucks on the road for the rest of the trip. So you can imagine how much our driver took advantage of this sign. Surprisingly, we got used to it and were able to take naps on the long drive.
We arrived in Amber in the afternoon, and one of the first things we saw from afar was the Amber Fort. We were going there the next day, but we just couldn’t resist taking pictures from inside the car. Our driver took pity on us and stopped to let us out. We got down to take some shots and were immediately surrounded by vendors selling everything from postcards, to shirts and even a camel ride. We simply shook our heads and proceeded with the mission at hand.
A few minutes drive later, we entered the famed “Pink City” of Jaipur.
Inside the city, all buildings and stores run on the same color theme. It was chaotic, to say the least. There are lots of shops selling beautiful cloth, pashminas, jewelry! There was some serious shopping done here.
By evening, we’d gotten hungry and asked Santosh to bring us to a local restaurant, preferably one with entertainment. And like spoiled kids, we got our request.
We had dinner at a nice restaurant, tried out the local beer and danced with the locals.
It was a great day, and we were ready to explore some more. The next morning, we headed on to Amber.
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This is a series of posts about my India adventure. Here are the rest:
