Jaipur

Just got done with Jaipur. It's called the "pink city" because the majority of the buildings are painted pink by tradition (actually more of a salmon color). I missed a couple of the city highlights there because I didn't manage my time very well. Because I worked out in the morning I got a bit of a late start on the day. I first went to the large fort in Amber in the hills overlooking the city, which was definitely the highlight, sights-wise. After that I came back to the city and I headed out for lunch and to see the sites. Realizing I was low on cash, I blew 45 minutes looking for an ATM. After that I spent another 40 minutes or so looking for the restaurant I was searching out. It was well worth the time investment, though. It was this atmospheric little mom-and-pop hole in the wall on the city wall, and it had fantastic food. The garlic naan there was phenomenal, and the house specialty, a paneer curry with a yellow-brown sauce with vegetables, was absolutely fantastic. I also met a couple interesting fellow travelers there, an older American woman that has been teaching in an international school in Paris for the past 40 years, and a young guy from New Zealand. This stretched out my late lunch even more, though, so by the time I started walking around the city and seeing sights, everything was closed. However, I'm not particularly bent out of shape about it, as I was able to get the feel for the city and saw the fort, which I think is probably the most interesting part.

Since it was a weekend evening, later that night I caught up with the guy from New Zealand with the intent of meeting some nice charming young ladies out. We went to a restaurant which we were told had a nice bar and may have a good scene, but it was dead. After that we sought out a night club we thought someone had recommended. I say "thought" because there obviously was some kind of misunderstanding, when we arrived at the place we saw that it was not in fact a night club, but a cricket club. It was closed, and definitely had neither tasty cocktails nor charming company. After that we went to plan C, which was to check out a lounge located in a fancy hotel in a former palace. Rooms there started at $350/night and ran up well into the thousands, so drinks were likely going to be pretty pricey, but I was more than willing to cough up some cash for a little decent nightlife at this point. So we catch up tuk-tuk up there (we couldn't find any taxis), wanting to get dropped off a couple hunderd yards from the entrance as we thought the staff there wouldn't look very kindly upon a couple young, single guys showing up in a golf cart. Unfortunately, the tuk-tuk driver didn't speak any English, so he rolled us right up to the front gate of the resort for our grand ghetto-style entrance. Somewhat embarrassed, I get out of the car, walk up, and ask if the lounge is still open. Of course, I'm told that it's not. I'm not sure if that was actually case or if they just didn't want us mixing with the clientele that was paying $800/night for a room, but I guess it really didn't make any difference. Out of options at this point, I pack up and head back to the hotel for some shut-eye so I can get ready before heading to Pushkar tomorrow.