India - Jaipur/Pushkar

We went to Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan state, the second pink city in the world after Toulouse of course! ;)

Hawa Mahal, Wind Palace

The city centre is not that extraordinary but a few kilometres away stands the impressive Amber Fort. Its four level walls enclose a luxuriant palace complex:

Suraj Pol, sun gate

Diwan-i-Khas, private audience hall

Raja Man Singh Palace

The temple of the Sun God or monkey temple looks like a western cinema set: some improbable temples nested in a narrow valley surrounded by black mountains:

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As we did not succeed in meeting people outside tourist intercourse, we tried to couchsurf in India. For that we choose Jaipur and our request was accepted by a friendly newly married man. Unfortunately our time in Jaipur matched with some festivities in his cast and part of his family was also hosted at his place. Therefore it was obliging of him to offer us a place to crash in the basement of the house.

We would have had to sleep on some blankets piled up on a concrete floor in an area which looked like a pig stall! It would have been ok with us except for the little menagerie downstairs: crickets and other crawling unidentified insects but above all various green and black lizards three times the size and the width of lizards in Europe!! We prefered then opting for an hotel.

And we learned that we were right: in that house were also hosted three other surfers, in the same basement but in a closed room with a bed. We met them at Amber Fort the next morning and they told us that the night we were supposed to stay there, they found a scorpion in the basement!!

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The village of Pushkar in another tourist attraction in Rhajastan and one of the five sacred pilgrimage sites for Hindus. There, alcohol and public effusions are forbidden. The streets are organized around a holy lake where fifty two ghats (series of steps) leads to the water. Like in Varanasi the lake is used for sacred bath. We found this place relaxing but not really fascinating. A two hours walk in the narrow streets around the lake and that's it!

 Pushkar Sarovar (lake) & ghats

Street in Puskhar

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Our India visit has been entertained by many strange meetings with the animal world. First of all there are the familiar encounters in the streets with cows, pigs, sheeps and squirrels. The cows are sacred animals in India. Some of them are attached and taken care of but it seems that the majority of them is left wandering in city streets, on the roads and even on the highways! They usually eat the garbage there. One Indian told us that cows eat everything, even plastics! We saw once a kid emptying his garbage plastic bag in front of a cow who had to do the recycling job... Animal protection has definitely a lot of work to do here!

 In front of the Temple of the Sun God, near Jaipur

In Agra fort, Agra

Maybe the frequent meetings with some exotic animals were a lot more exciting.

Walk to Amber Fort, Jaipur

At the entrance of Amber Fort, Jaipur

At the temple of the Sun God, near Jaipur

In Amber Fort, Jaipur

The most common animals we have to deal with during our strip are the evil mosquitos! And yes, every eight hours, we have to put mosquito repellent on our skin. But Luis found the ultimate weapon: the mosquito electrocuting racket!!