Finding a room

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Hotels don’t have fixed rates for their rooms and increase the price if they know you need a place to stay. Try not to arrive too late at night. They will use their chance to charge you double the price. Finding a room in Jaipur at 10pm seemed difficult for us as many hotels were full. In one of them -a paradise for backpackers as our guidebook assured- we were asked for 1200 rupees for a room, which on the next day was only 250 rupees worth.

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Transport in cities

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Try to catch metropolitan buses to travel around in cities. You will save money (5-10 rupees for a ticket) and pollute less than if you were travelling by rickshaw (up to 100 rupees for the same journey and clouds of black smoke behind you). Furthermore, it is a good experience to interact with locals.
A rickshaw driver asked us 200 rupees for a ride to Amber Fort, which is about 10 km north of Jaipur. We found out there was a metropolitan bus going there for just 7 Rupees. It is a good idea to always enquire the local people (not the rickshaw drivers since they will want to get your money).

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Jaipur surroundings

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There is much more to see around Jaipur than in the city itself, just few kilometers away you can find several forts, palaces, cenotaphs and temples. Rickshaw-wallahs and tour operators offer one day tours to all of these attractions for a high price and entrance fees are not included in the package. Instead, we found out that we could catch a local bus for 5-10 rupees to any of the locations and the only inconvenience was to wait for the buses to come.

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Jaipur

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We got to Jaipur after six hours sitting in a bus and found a crappy hotel outside the walled city, which was the only cheap option that we could find arriving at night. Jaipur is Rajasthan’s capital and the state’s most polluted and hassle-loaded city. It’s also known as the pink city because the city walls and main buildings were painted in dusty pink to welcome Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, on his visit in 1876 and remained pink since then.

There are several places to visit in Jaipur: the main bazaars in the old city (encircled by the wall), the City Palace, the Hawa Mahal (a pink sandstone five-storey building constructed to enable ladies of the royal household to watch the life and processions of the city through its pierced screen windows) or the Jantar Mantar (an observatory begun by the Maharaja Jai Singh II). We didn’t like much the city’s sightseeing but enjoyed the best lassi (typical indian yogurt drink) ever in a place called The Lassiwallah, on MI Road.

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Rajasthan

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Our next move was heading towards Rajastan region, India’s most colourful state. From rolling sand dunes to serene hills, grandiose forts and palaces or exuberant fairs and festivals. The region is packed with wonderful towns and cities: the pink chaotic city of Jaipur, sky-blue Jodhpur, the pearl white lake town of Udaipur or Jaisalmer, a golden sandcastle. It is definitely a region to wonder around for a while and we are very excited about it.

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Don’t waste your time on the road

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India is a huge country and even small distances take long to be covered (100 km could take you around 3 hours on a train). If you are travelling for a short period of time, try to concentrate in one region rather than spend your holidays on a train or bus. We once met a spanish couple who were trying to visit some of the Indian highlights in just 2 weeks. They seemed to be exhausted after a 5 days full program through Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Kolkata…

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Fathepur Sikri

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Fathepur Sikri is a magnificent fortified ghost city just 40 km away from Agra. It was built with the purpose to be the new capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571, during the reign of Emperor Akbar, and it was abandoned just 15 years later (after Akbar death) because the city is built in an area that suffered from water shortages, so its palaces, mosque and the rest of the buildings were unused very soon. The compound is one of the Unesco’s World Heritage sites and is worth to visit it in a day trip from Agra. There are also a couple of hotel resorts (not low budget, though), bazaars, restaurants and a small village at the foot of the walled city. Is possible to stay there, although we think is better to stay in Agra, get a local bus for a few rupees and visit the ruins in half a day. It is highly recommendable to climb up the Hiran Minar on the North side of the city and enjoy the great views of the palaces and surroundings. It is possible to wander around the ruins and outside the main buildings for free, whereas if you plan to enter to the palaces be prepared to pay again 10 times more than indian citizens.

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Be aware of touts

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Be aware of touts or rickshaw-wallahs offering surprisingly cheap or free services. They only want to get a commission by taking you to a friend’s hotel or shop. After arriving in Agra by bus, we had to catch a rickshaw to the hotel area where we wanted to stay, as it was too early to find a local bus. The driver diverted the way to different hotels which weren’t on the route, just trying to drop us there and get a commission, which would increase the price of our room. Tell the driver to drop you off a bit further of the hotel or shop where you want to go and then continue by foot. Take extra care that they don’t follow you, as they normally do to make sure they get some extra money.

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Agra Fort

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Another highlight is Agra Fort, a monument built as a military citadel by the great mughal emperor Akbar. The red sandstone fort and palace is considered the biggest in India and we can assure that it is bigger than Delhi’s one. The fort was built primarily as a military structure, but Shah Jahan upgraded it to a palace, and later it became his gilded prison for 8 years after his son Aurangzeb seized power in 1658. The funny story is that Agra’s Fort has extraordinary views of the Taj Mahal and this, we guess, should have contributed to increase Shah Jahan’s madness remembering his beloved wife while he was imprisoned.

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Visiting the Taj Mahal through the back door

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We decided not to enter to the Taj Mahal’s inner compound and to spend the 15 euros entrance fee for foreigners (for indian citizens is just 0.3 euro!!!) in travel expenses and therefore extend the length of our trip. Instead of going inside the monument, we decided to have a much more interesting and educative walk to the other side of the Yamuna river, just on the back of the Taj Mahal. It was great to admire the building in complete tranquillity, interacting with locals and with no tourist around us. We can’t compare it with the actual experience of seeing the monument at close range, although we can assure that an independent traveller like us will enjoy much more this rewarding walk.

The way follows the Yamuna river up to the first railway bridge, crossing to the other side of the river. It seems that very little number of tourists do this walk (everyone prefer to catch an otto or taxi rather than walk for an hour), since locals keep staring at us as if we were a cinema screen, like in the german expression “guecke ich wie ein Kino?”. The closer we get to the back side of the Taj, the poorest and less visited the area is. The friendliness and kindness of the people is overwhelming. After a while kidding and playing with children, we got to the view point where it’s possible to admire the Taj Mahal to its best. Anyway, for those wishing to enter to the Taj Mahal here is a tip: the South gate is normally not very busy and the access is faster than the East and West gates, where cueing can be longer than 1 hour!!!.

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