Diwali | Where shall we go to next?

Posts Tagged With: Diwali

East meets West whilst we have a rest

Posted on November 14, 2012 by julieallen36

We experienced night time Diwali celebrations from the safety of our hotel’s rooftop restaurant yesterday. We’d decided that, although Jane wanted to, it was best not to have the ‘Karl Pilkington fireworks in the streets of Mexico experience’ as that looked really scary.
The restaurant was very busy and we had to wait about an hour to get a table but we didn’t need to worry that the fireworks would run out as they went on for hours. In fact they’re still going off again tonight!!
So by the time we got in the fireworks seemed to be getting louder and louder. As we walked in a guy coming out said ‘it’s like all out warfare out there’ and he wasn’t too wrong. The view was great and you could see all the big buildings lit up with streams of electric lights, massive fireworks going off all over the city skyline, fireworks going off in the street below and firecrackers making huge repetitive gunshots going off everywhere. Opposite us a man was trying to have a more sedate little celebration on his rooftop by lighting hundreds of the little oil clay lamps with his young son.
The firecrackers in particular really make me jump, in fact fireworks in general make me nervy at the best of times. Tonight, however, I had quite a long list of health and safety concerns. Not only were people holding fireworks, they were throwing them. I’m sure there weren’t many lighter tapers being used and rather more firework to firework lighting going on. I did not seen any buckets of sand and nor did I see a single person wearing a luminescent jacket acting in a supervisory capacity. However, one of my biggest concerns was that we were sitting in a rooftop restaurant where our protection from the rockets appeared to be a fabric awning. Hmm.
So under this racket we enjoyed our meal. Enid was on tomato and basil soup tonight and I had Chinese sweet and sour veg. Joyce and Jane stuck with Indian and ordered Indian veg which when it arrived was a dark green slime. To go with this they also had some fried spinach leaves which they seemed to think were rather nice. I’m sorry- I know I should go local but I just can’t anymore! I want a marmite sandwich, Enid wants beans on toast, Joyce wants a juicy big steak and Jane says she could murder a curry!!
Food is not the only thing we’ve noticed is a bit more Westernised in Jaipur. We’ve also noticed that there are more shiny, modern buildings -often shopping malls. There are more cars and less bikes and the cows have gone from the streets. We’ve noticed signs everywhere in India celebrating the god Vodaphone and in fact we have an ongoing competition to see who can find the most unlikely person on a mobile phone. So far it’s a toss up between the ancient cowherd in the middle of Ranthambore Tiger reserve dressed in his traditional white outfit sitting at the water pump on his mobile and the elephant driver who, after his shift, was having a sneaky ciggy and making a call on his mobile.
TV channels are another thing. Tonight Joyce and Enid were watching ‘Come Dine with Me’ from Doncaster and Jane and I were glued to ‘Extreme Makeover- home edition’ from Michigan.They even have MTV India which we watched yesterday in the coffee shop.
Today we’ve had a lovey relaxing day walking around the bazaars of the old Pink City although its more a shade of terracotta these days as apparently that colour paint is cheaper (job lot?). It turns out the cows here are just hidden down these backstreets which were far quieter than anywhere we’ve been so far. It was really pleasant walking around with everyone wishing us a Happy Diwali. You don’t half have to mind where you put your feet though.
This afternoon we’ve spent by the pool and then at 4 pm Enid and I went to the spa for our massages. I had a lovely Indian head and foot massage and it was the 2nd best massage I’ve ever had. Best? Hacienda Xcantun, Merida, Mexico. Worst? Tortuous agony in Koh Samui, Thailand. Never ask for pressure anything other than ‘gentle’ in Thailand.
I am now feeling completely relaxed, re-energised and ready for Golden Temple in Amritsar tomorrow.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Diwali, fireworks, Jaipur | 2 Comments

Happy Diwali!

Posted on November 13, 2012 by julieallen36

Yes- Happy Diwali everyone! We’re here in Jaipur where they really like to go to town in celebrating. Diwali is also known as the Festival of Lights and is one of the most important Hindu festivals. It is celebrated by families who perform traditional activities together at home including lighting clay oil lamps and cleaning the house. Both of these are done to welcome the Goddess Lakshmi into the home. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity ( both material and spiritual). In addition the festival is celebrated by setting off firecrackers and fireworks, by everyone putting on their new clothes and by sharing sweets with friends and family. In addition, here in Jaipur they all seem to collect a stem of sugar cane to take home.
So we’ve been out all day today in Jaipur having a mad rush with our guide around its various monuments and you might have thought that, like on Christmas Day back home, there’d be no-one around (the M6 is always wonderfully clear up to Mum and Dad’s etc). Oh no that’s not the case here -it’s still very busy and really the daytime seems to be like Christmas Eve with all the men doing their last minute shopping and then the real celebrating begins in the evening. So I will capture more about how that goes tomorrow.
Today we met our new guide Jaysingh who again was very lovely. First we visited the Palace of Winds which is really just a facade which the old queen used to have to hide behind to look at all the goings on in the street as she wasn’t allowed to be seen. The facade was actually named after all the windows it has -365 in the main part and about 900 along its entire length. So nothing to do with wind then which really takes away the romantic image a bit don’t you think?
Then we went out to the old City of Amber to visit the Amber Fort. Now, this is really impressive and my mouth did literally drop open when I saw it perched up on the hill and with its own version of the Great Wall of China.
We climbed upto the top of the fort by elephant-hurrah!! We had to queue for about an hour in the sun and got seriously hassled by the tut sellers here. However, Joyce and Jane did some splendid haggling over decorative umbrellas. Joyce in particular hanging on until the last minute to get a few more pence off her chap who by this stage was dangling off her elephant still trying to hike his price!! Give in mate – it’s Joyce we’re talking about here – ‘Queen of the Haggle’.
The elephant ride was good fun although we had elephant number 105 which seemed particularly slow and wonky. It was really quite uncomfortable and I began to wonder whether we were on the punishment elephant for tourists who don’t listen to their guides. Loads of other elephants overtook us and it was impossible to take photos. The views, however, of the other elephants and surrounding scenery were fab.
I am afraid to report that I cannot remember very much about which Maharajah built the Amber Fort. I do know that there are 22 Maharajahs in Rajastan still today and that the current one in Jaipur is just 14 years old. We also learned a little about the caste system today which is a funny old business. We were also particularly impressed with the hall of mirrors which is made from glass all the way from Belgium. It was very light and shiny.
After this we went onto visit the observatory and also the City Palace but by this time we’d told Jay that we weren’t interested in going to see how the jewellery was made or the fabrics ( no more emporium visits for us thanks) so I think he was a bit fed up and just wanted to go home to his family. So he whizzed us around running past things with a quick sentence or two which none of us listened to because we were all a bit hot and bothered anyway. So I think his approach worked well for all of us.
On our way back we wanted to go to another cafe that Jane had found on Trip Advisor as we had been fantasising now about their lemon cheesecake for quite a while. I always thought that Indian food would be fine up until the point when I got sick and this is SO true. Last night when we arrived here at Shahpura House (great old hotel by the way) we ate in the roof top restaurant and 3 of us ordered pizza and Jane had the Chefs Special Curry. She is a Trojan!
Anyway the cafe was closed because of Diwali so the guide and driver dropped us at another place called Coffee Today. There was only one other customer and the guy serving seemed completely bemused by us. I guess it’s the equivalent of spending Christmas Day in a Costa Coffee. Now there’s an idea Mum to save on the cooking!
So we had our refreshments and then came out to catch a tuk tuk back. There was a mad rush as we bartered with the boys for their best price. In the end we paid a little bit more than we’d been told it would be but what a result when it turned out we’d picked the Disco Tuk Tuk driver who drove us home to our hotel as the music blared out and we all sang along to ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’ Brilliant!

PS we have a winner of the bird competition. It is indeed The Game Ranger herself -Laura – who correctly identified that the outsider in the group was the Damson Headed Parrot. There are apparently no parrots in India and what we saw were PLUM headed parakeets! We did actually see quite a few Great Tits.