17/03/2010

We were again suppose to get up early today to go see the Amber (Amer) Fort before heading off to pushkar, we both slept in a little and didn’t leave the hotel till 11.30.

We took a cycle rickshaw after breakfast then a bus to get there not costing too much. The fort was very impressive a 12 km run of wall surrounding a small village 450 years old that use to be the old Jaipur.

Last night when trying to put some of my panoramic views together from what I took yesterday I found that all of my images were blurred considerably, this is probably from having opened my camera several times to fix it. I tried repairing it again by cleaning the sensor but after the pictures I took today I had just mad it worse… I have a few ideas to try before I may have to buy another camera ‘with all the money I have’ eh! But I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can fix the problem.

We made it back to Jaipur to pick up our luggage at just after 3 when they charge Rs50, they tried to charge us this for being literally minutes past the hour because the rickshaw driver we hired got lost and took us on a bit of a random tour through all the back alleys of Jaipur. I had a go at them saying that I would not recommend their hotel to other travelers and eventually I got the money.

We got to the bus station and quickly were herded onto a bus to Ajmer taking 2.5 hours, we then boarded another bus to Pushka where I met a friendly local who after 5 minutes of conversation suggested a guest house that he owned, something tells me it wasn’t a coincidence that he sat next to me…

Anyways, his hotel was cheap clean and seemed safe enough and for 75 rupees each a good price too.

Emer and I headed out for dinner soon after arriving and because I spotted a place offering all you can eat veg food for 50 rupees in the guide book so we headed for that. Along the way down the main street a festival had started with Indians dancing and beating drums with makeshift colourful floats, the people here seemed much friendlier than Jaipur and every other place I had been to in India because there were no rickshaws and seemed to be no touts, just genuinely friendly people.

The food at the all you can eat was good and although being a little more expensive than suggested in the guide book I still took full advantage by filling my plate to the extreme and going back for seconds then thirds and even fourths… then returning for the deserts on two occasions. By expensive I mean just under $2 or a little over the price of a roll of toilet paper here… which at this point im thinking the overall price of eating that much food with the expense of toilet paper for tomorrow will surpass my normal daily food budget, and was it worth it, hell yeah! Obviously I was stuffed almost unable to move and after going for a bit of a wonder to see a little more of the town we headed back to the hotel although we did get a little lost in the narrow streets along the way.