Jaipur

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Jaipur, the capital of Indian state of Rajasthan, is forever associated with our first CoachSurfing hosts: Hitesh and Himanshu.

Getting There

We took the express train from New Delhi railway station, across the street from Paharganj, to Jaipur. When we exited the station, I was shocked by the number of people sleeping on the sidewalks wrapped in simple blankets. Our hotel was at a short walking distance from the station. Unfortunately, we were given a room near the reception. The staff loud chatters woke us up many times.

We were supposed to meet our CoachSurfing host the next morning. We arrived late because paying the hotel proved to be difficult. The receptionist had to call his manager: we did not agree on the bill, and we had to battle to pay by card. We both laughed inwardly when they asked us to leave a good review on Booking.com.

After a few attempts, we got a tuktuk with Uber! That was just the beginning of our Jaipur transportation story…

Hitesh and Himanshu

The tuktuk dropped us in front of a café, on the missing sidewalks of a large road. Soon after, two Indian guys wearing black T-shirts and black caps joined us. As they were crossing the street, I was trying to figure out if they were real twins (They are!). I was surprised by the low volume of their voices. In India, people usually speak louder because of the noisy environment, I believe.

The House

When we arrived at their duplex (2-floor building with one apartment on each floor), we were greeted by a young husky who jumped on us to sniff, smell and lick. Actually, he turned blind as a puppy because of a medical error during an injection. The vet made the mistake…

The family moved from Delhi to Jaipur two weeks earlier in the house of the guys’ childhood. They plan to renovate the building and then move to a modern condo elsewhere in Jaipur.

The house was in front of a Hindu temple. Since it was Diwali time, incredibly loud prayers were done in the morning, the din woke us up at 7-8 am. It had nothing to do with the echos of church bells in Zurich, Switzerland, or even calls to prayer in a fervent Muslim country.

On the rooftop of the house, an area large enough to play sport, there was a plastic container used to store water. Underneath the house, there is a bigger water tank supplied by government trucks. A pump brings the water from the underground reservoir to the roof. While we were there, the construction workers connected the house to the city water system and added hot water. The family do not use hot water, it is just for guests! Most Indians take bucket showers: the water is prepared in a big bucket with the lower tap of the shower, then, water is taken from the big bucket with the small bucket and poured over the body. It saves quite a lot of water. Showers usually do not have a separate space in the bathrooms, water goes everywhere. In many places, you need to switch on the heater and wait before you get hot water.

Twins

Hitesh and Himanshu are real twins with an incredible connection, although they are more different than I first thought. They both study finance, wore black every day, each with their distinct styles. They studied in Moscow. They like cold weather very much and had a low tolerance on spicy food. They also share the same instagram account, we can only guess who is answering to our messages x)

The four of us spent 3–4 days together, exploring the city (the brothers rediscovered it after about 20 years of absence), playing video games (Tekken and Fall Guys) and card games (Gabo), eating out and cooking crêpes.

They are incredibly generous. They insisted on paying almost everything for us, like they typically do for their CouchSurfers.

They are accomplished Badminton player (I wish we could have played!) and Rubik’s Cube solvers.

As CouchSurfers veterans, they have hosted dozens of individuals or couples. They told us great stories about it. Sometimes, things go wrong with the guests. But they continue to host because the positive experiences outweigh the bad ones.

We stayed at their parents’ place, where they warmly welcomed us and showed genuine curiosity about our visit, even if it was not the perfect time for them since the house was under renovation.

We were very lucky to match with Hitesh and Himanshu. They actually have dozens of request everyday on Couchsurfing.

They are exceptional hosts. Their thoughtfulness impressed me quite a bit. Their presence and hospitality made our journey incredible and indelible.

Jal Mahal

Jal Mahal (meaning “Water Palace”) is a submerged palace in the middle of a lake. It is closed to visitors. The pathway around the lake shore, which offers a view of Jal Mahal, is a very touristic place. Camel rides are proposed. We even saw elephants in the city, and of course cows.

Then, we had some good mango smoothies. Upon entering the café, it was empty and uncomfortably hot, an employee was dozing on a chair, her head resting on a table. The guy behind the counter immediately turned on the air-conditioning. It seems to be pretty common to turn off the AC when there is no customer.

Following the lake shore, we walked to Kanak Vrindavan Mahal, a walled garden. Hitesh and Himanshu were not impressed. On this unique occasion, I paid the same price as the locals; the low cost of the ticket (30 rupees or 0.33 euro) made the visit actually enjoyable.

Hawa Mahal

We went to the Pink City (the old city) for three consecutive days. The consistent architecture style and the color scheme made quite an impression. Hawa Mahal is on the cover of the Lonely Planet we bought (2022 edition). We kept missing the opening hours for two days you will understand why in the coming section … The third and last day, we managed to get in.

At first, I was a bit skeptical because I thought it was a small building behind the popular facade. It is actually a large palace which primary purpose was to allow royal ladies to watch everyday life and festivals without being seen. Observing the mundane and miserable lives of commoners can be a great remedy. What’s the value of a life of privilege if one fails to acknowledge it?

Transportation

The touristic attractions are inside and north of the Old City. We were staying in the South of the city.

Uber & Tuk tuk

Jaipur’s Uber and tuktuk experience was the worse we had in India.
One time, we managed to book an Uber from the house to Jal Mahal. Other times, we took a tuk-tuk to the metro station, and then the metro to the Old City center. From there, we could rely on tuk-tuks or crowded public buses.

We had one successful ride on Uber. Ola the local app worked a bit better. The cars almost never responded on Uber. Often times, the driver called us and ask for a higher price, or he came and wanted to negotiate a higher price. A driver even started the ride at the slowest speed possible while trying to sell his service for the day. When we declined his offer, he aggressively kicked us out of the car. Since then, Hitesh and Himanshu told us they are staying away from Uber cars in Jaipur!
When we found out that Ola was working better, we also adopted a strategy to wear masks and not talk so they wouldn’t find out we are tourists. Not sure if this was why Ola worked but it did! We were playing the King of silence in the car and only talked trough Instagram. It turned out to be fun moments.

As of Tuk tuk, prices were super high even if we were hiding and only Hitesh and Himanshu were bargaining. We only took it for short distance or when we couldn’t take the public transport.

Public Bus

Tuk-tuks were asking a high price to bring us to Amber Fort. We decided to take the public bus. It was not well indicated on Google Maps; we had to collect some information from local vendors. We had good seats, in the front of the bus near the driver. He was the only one on the bus allowed some space to breathe; we benefitted from that! Before exiting the Old City, the bus stopped a couple of times to add more passengers. Almost every time I thought we could not board more passengers, but we did! I have only experienced this human density in Indian buses. It was really hot in the afternoon. We took a tuk-tuk on the way back from the fort.

Amber Fort

As we saw in the transportation section, getting to Amber Fort with public transportation is a bit uncomfortable. I found Amber Fort (or Amer Fort), the former palace of the kings of Jaipur, more appealing than the current palace. The fort was built on top of a hill; the views of the fort and from the fort are really nice. The heat and the pollution made the climb to the fort a bit difficult. The fort is part of a larger complex with the Jaigarh Fort and fortifications, which reminded me of the Great Wall of China (at the scale of the kingdom of Jaipur). A tunnel connects Amber and Jaigarh forts, so the royal family could escape from their palace to a better stronghold.

We hired a tourist guide for the visit (400 rupees). Two guides came to us, we played a game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who to hire. In retrospect, we should have interviewed them a bit better. The explanations were very bad. He helped us take some pictures. Y and I received significantly more attention from the guide than Hitesh and Himanshi. Is it because we looked like we would tip more? Spoilers, we did not.

City Palace

Jaipur still has a royal family who lives in the Pink City, in the City Palace. Some parts of are open to visitors. The kingdom of Jaipur/Amber was known for its fierce military and has mostly been a vassal state through its history. It had close ties with the Mughal Empire.

The visit includes the clothes’ museum, the armory, the hall of public audience with the throne, and the hall of private audience with the largest big silver vessels (on earth?). Photos are mostly not allowed indoors.

I ran into Marie (handball section, 2012) during the visit. She came to India for a wedding and at that time after a couple of days here she was only eating plain rice.

Albert Hall Museum

Albert Hall is illuminated with changing colors at night. The museum offers a good collection of local and foreign pieces of art. Hitesh and Himanshu were particularly excited about the mummy; the mummy X-ray was pretty interesting. The ivory work collection was impressive.