Just ended three amazing days in Jaipur. Seems to me that if you want to see what Rajasthan is then it is all to be experienced in this vibrant city. Friendly people, breathtaking buildings, crazy colourful bazaars but all set against a backdrop of poverty for so many and unbelievable filth in the streets. Its just as well the internet can't add smells to blogs as you would probably have closed this page already!
Left the hospice group behind in Delhi two days ago and set off for the golden triangle with Lesley. Booked a hotel in Jaipur for 3000 rupees (about £36) for a twin room with breakfast. Seems that I had inadverently booked us a 'deluxe' room so now chilling in the three roomed "Mughal Suite" at the Bissau Palace. After several nights in a tent and two nights spent on hot overcrowded trains the contrast couldn't be greater. Beautiful wall paintings and old artefacts from the days of the Raj everywhere....that includes the staff, the ancient once silverplate teapots now worn back to the underlying brass, the dust, the ants, the mangy moth eaten stuffed tiger's head hanging in the lounge, the 1920s wiring and the plumbing! Simply so full of charm that no modern hotel could ever match.
The manager clearly learned how to deal with middle aged English ladies by watching Marigold Hotel. I must remember to say hello to Judy Dench and Maggie Smith when they appear at breakfast... With just one full day left to go of my Hospice Fundraising Indian Adventure the great news is we have almost reached my £5,000 donations target. There is just £168 left to raise to hit the mark. It was a pretty high target, so I worried it may have been was unrealistic when I set it, but it just goes to show what amazingly generous people are out there...
A four hour drive to Agra followed by a five o'clock alarm the next morning was worth every minute to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. Its a true monument to love ... although it seems Mumtaz Mahal did produce 14 children and die in childbirth before the world's most stunning building was created in her honour. I really do hope Shah Jahan remembered to tell her what he thought of her before she died.
Part 2 of the journey at the Cankids Children's Cancer Hospice in Delhi. Harrowing day meeting kids who have such late diagnosis that their conditions, that would be probably be curable in the UK, are now very likely to be fatal. Told how the Indian public health service resources are so short that kids have to be sent from the hospice to join the local hospital blood test queue at 4am to have a chance of getting their test as part of that day's quota. Unbelievable stories how hospital beds are so unavailable that kids undergoing chemo have only a 2 day hospital admission then are discharged to sleep on the filthy Delhi streets in their immuno-compromised state. Hard to see how any would survive that if Cankids didn't provide them a bed and a relatively clean environment. Bringing them a suitcase full of toys and helping painting and refurbishing their rooftop canteen for them seemed like such a small gesture amidst so much need.
Our guide's kind offer to wake us up at 6am to see the sunrise was rather redundant given that sleeping on a mountainside at nearly 3000m doesn't easily induce a lie in. But he was right, the sunrise was simply spectacular...made all the better by knowing there was only one way we would be trekking today - and that was downwards!
After a night in a tent a 7.5 hour slog up Triund mountain was not looking that attractive. But WOW was it worth it. Reached the top at 2875m, over twice as high as you can get in the UK yet still dwarfed by the huge Himalyan (Dalhudar) ranges around. Simply amazing views for 360 degrees. We could even make out the Tibetan temple and Dalai Lama's residence at McLeodganj in the distance.
The porters had made it to the top with the mules well before us and set up the tents on a small plateau just below the summit. Bit surprised to find a stone shack there with a rather resourceful Indian entrepreneur selling coke, redbull and crisps. Seems my hard slog was simply his commute to work! |
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