Some familiar faces...
Now nearly two weeks in, and we can already notice we've been bumping into people a number of times on a similar path to us. Always nice to catch up with people and learn a few things from their trip - you can always think you've prepared as well as you can, but there's something you won't have thought of.
Our train here was pretty similar to the first. The AC was nice and made a difference, but other than that our first class seater was much the same. Stuart was also disappointed he wasn't given any biscuits or water this time. It's all downhill from train number one.
We've been lucky that both trains have left, and arrived, on time. We arrived to our hostel via tuk-tuk, and we could straight away notice Jaipur is a lot livelier (and...nicer) than Agra, so excitement built from the off. We got to Moustache Jaipur, and again opted for a private room - far better than last room (which had no windows) - this is a bright, spacious room, well worth it. The hostel seems really nice too, so would recommend it.
After checking in and getting settled by about 8p.m., we had already made plans for that evening so had to get up and go to meet some familiar faces from Ireland! Lisa & Conor are a couple we've known for nearly the 7+ years we've been together, first meeting over dinner at the Pharmacy ball held each year for our class (myself & Lisa went to college together!) - so thought why not meet up over dinner again. We went for a decent veggie meal at The Tattoo Cafe, the view of Hawa Mahal across the road being a nice touch.
Of course, we decided after a drink would go down nicely, so we made our way to Hawk View, a rooftop bar where the drinks worked out a lot cheaper than we've been used to, and made for a great night catching up on each other's plans. Hopefully we'll cross paths again in a few months time!
Our first full day in Jaipur led to breakfast and a bit of planning in our now favourite small coffee chain Blue Tokai (look at that coffee art):
Which culminated in us hopping on our longest tuk-tuk journey yet (~40 mins) to Amer Fort, one of the major tourist sites in Jaipur. Stu mastered his selfie skills here, as you can see:
We then decided to catch the sunset at Nahargar Fort, another historical site that has some great viewpoints to take in another Indian sunset, though not before we got our photos taken to feature on another blog - only four posts in and we're already superstars of the blogging world, it seems:
We were feeling pretty tired at this point - all this tourist-ing catches up on you. A lovely dinner at Peacock Rooftop Restaurant, and dessert (and Sudoku) around the corner at Nibs Chocolate Cafe (pictured) finished off our evening. I think the initial holiday buzz is starting to wear off a little, and the realisation that we have to take it handy some days for health/sanity/budgetary reasons is becoming more and more clear by the day. Thankfully India is very, very cheap, so we're still under budget - but to keep this going for the year plan we have, changes will have to be made, especially in the more expensive countries. We got our first load of laundry done too! Look at us, being adults.
Our last full day was a bit more chilled, Dani wanted to get a pedicure and Stu was happy enough to float around the "posh" area of C-Scheme in Jaipur. An afternoon visit to one of the famous markets (Johari bazaar), and we were happy enough to finish up our time in Jaipur. Onwards to our first overnight train, a 17 hour marathon to Mumbai, and hopefully seeing another familiar face!
Big love, Dani & Stu.
Currently Listening to:
Now nearly two weeks in, and we can already notice we've been bumping into people a number of times on a similar path to us. Always nice to catch up with people and learn a few things from their trip - you can always think you've prepared as well as you can, but there's something you won't have thought of.
Our train here was pretty similar to the first. The AC was nice and made a difference, but other than that our first class seater was much the same. Stuart was also disappointed he wasn't given any biscuits or water this time. It's all downhill from train number one.
We've been lucky that both trains have left, and arrived, on time. We arrived to our hostel via tuk-tuk, and we could straight away notice Jaipur is a lot livelier (and...nicer) than Agra, so excitement built from the off. We got to Moustache Jaipur, and again opted for a private room - far better than last room (which had no windows) - this is a bright, spacious room, well worth it. The hostel seems really nice too, so would recommend it.
After checking in and getting settled by about 8p.m., we had already made plans for that evening so had to get up and go to meet some familiar faces from Ireland! Lisa & Conor are a couple we've known for nearly the 7+ years we've been together, first meeting over dinner at the Pharmacy ball held each year for our class (myself & Lisa went to college together!) - so thought why not meet up over dinner again. We went for a decent veggie meal at The Tattoo Cafe, the view of Hawa Mahal across the road being a nice touch.
Of course, we decided after a drink would go down nicely, so we made our way to Hawk View, a rooftop bar where the drinks worked out a lot cheaper than we've been used to, and made for a great night catching up on each other's plans. Hopefully we'll cross paths again in a few months time!
Our first full day in Jaipur led to breakfast and a bit of planning in our now favourite small coffee chain Blue Tokai (look at that coffee art):
Which culminated in us hopping on our longest tuk-tuk journey yet (~40 mins) to Amer Fort, one of the major tourist sites in Jaipur. Stu mastered his selfie skills here, as you can see:
We then decided to catch the sunset at Nahargar Fort, another historical site that has some great viewpoints to take in another Indian sunset, though not before we got our photos taken to feature on another blog - only four posts in and we're already superstars of the blogging world, it seems:
Our last full day was a bit more chilled, Dani wanted to get a pedicure and Stu was happy enough to float around the "posh" area of C-Scheme in Jaipur. An afternoon visit to one of the famous markets (Johari bazaar), and we were happy enough to finish up our time in Jaipur. Onwards to our first overnight train, a 17 hour marathon to Mumbai, and hopefully seeing another familiar face!
Big love, Dani & Stu.
Currently Listening to:
Yiz are looking good guys. Cant wait for Mubai!
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