.Not the greatest night's sleep for fear of not being awake for the Jaipur stop at 6 a.m. As we pulled into the station we gave friendly knock on the door of the French teachers who were still in bed. Merde! Our cabin companion failed to wake up for our departure. Outside the station it was pitch black but we found our lift and arrived at the hotel far too early for anything to be sorted. Eventually we were invited to have brekker - an interesting smorgasbord of potatoes, tomatos and rice. At least there was toast and tea. The hotel actually looks quite attractive and we get our room at 8.30 am. so have chance for a catch up snooze.
This afternoon we went for a walk in the neighbourhood, a concept alien to the myriad tuk-tuk drivers and cycle rickshaw wallahs. One was so amazed that he cycled alongside chatting for at least quarter of an hour before he realised we were serious. We sussed out a venue for supper and an evening tour of the city for tomorrow, before jumping on a tuk-tuk into the Pink City. As it is Sunday some shops and stalls are closed but there were still plenty of optimists who thought that we might wish to part with money. What we really needed was a hat band repairer and some batteries. Eventually we found ourselves invited into a gallery by a man who promised to mend D's hatband. It's amazing how they do it - we did buy a couple of small things BUT they did fix the hatband. Everybody happy. Sated with the hedonistic thrill of shopping we hopped a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. It became obvious that he hadn't a clue where to go and eventually we were passed over to another tuk-tuk who relieved our original driver of a portion of his fare but did get us back to the hotel.
For our evening meal (in fact our only meal beside breakfast)we headed for the Peacock restaurant at the Pearl Palace Hotel. This gets consistently excellent ratings for both food and accommodation, but was fully booked when we applied in November. The rooftop restaurant was busy and we had to share a table with a French Canadian couple who were old India hands. We also saw the French teachers who thanked us for waking them up this morning. The food took a fair while to arrive but when it did it was very good, as was the Kingfisher. Towards the end of our meal there was a spectacular thunderstorm which forced everybody off the open air section of the roof into the covered where we were sitting. As we left the restaurant there was a tuk-tuk waiting outside. The driver knew exactly where we were going and how much we had paid on the way to the restaurant. We must be tipping too well.
.Not the greatest night's sleep for fear of not being awake for the Jaipur stop at 6 a.m. As we pulled into the station we gave friendly knock on the door of the French teachers who were still in bed. Merde! Our cabin companion failed to wake up for our departure. Outside the station it was pitch black but we found our lift and arrived at the hotel far too early for anything to be sorted. Eventually we were invited to have brekker - an interesting smorgasbord of potatoes, tomatos and rice. At least there was toast and tea. The hotel actually looks quite attractive and we get our room at 8.30 am. so have chance for a catch up snooze.
This afternoon we went for a walk in the neighbourhood, a concept alien to the myriad tuk-tuk drivers and cycle rickshaw wallahs. One was so amazed that he cycled alongside chatting for at least quarter of an hour before he realised we were serious. We sussed out a venue for supper and an evening tour of the city for tomorrow, before jumping on a tuk-tuk into the Pink City. As it is Sunday some shops and stalls are closed but there were still plenty of optimists who thought that we might wish to part with money. What we really needed was a hat band repairer and some batteries. Eventually we found ourselves invited into a gallery by a man who promised to mend D's hatband. It's amazing how they do it - we did buy a couple of small things BUT they did fix the hatband. Everybody happy. Sated with the hedonistic thrill of shopping we hopped a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. It became obvious that he hadn't a clue where to go and eventually we were passed over to another tuk-tuk who relieved our original driver of a portion of his fare but did get us back to the hotel. 
For our evening meal (in fact our only meal beside breakfast)we headed for the Peacock restaurant at the Pearl Palace Hotel. This gets consistently excellent ratings for both food and accommodation, but was fully booked when we applied in November. The rooftop restaurant was busy and we had to share a table with a French Canadian couple who were old India hands. We also saw the French teachers who thanked us for waking them up this morning. The food took a fair while to arrive but when it did it was very good, as was the Kingfisher. Towards the end of our meal there was a spectacular thunderstorm which forced everybody off the open air section of the roof into the covered where we were sitting. As we left the restaurant there was a tuk-tuk waiting outside. The driver knew exactly where we were going and how much we had paid on the way to the restaurant. We must be tipping too well.
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