Train cancelled.
New government rules meant that lower caste candidates should be prioritised for jobs. But this hadn’t reached the rural areas, so a local tribe were protesting by hitting the government where it hurt: trains. And if that didn’t work, they’d start blocking the roads, too.
Everyone at the hotel had a different recommendation on what to do: the son recommended we get the bus (with two changes); the owner suggested we hire a (very expensive) taxi; and the daughter thought we should go to Jaipur and “do something else”.
With a dodgy tummy, only three weeks to explore India, a desire to visit the National Park and with transport options only likely to reduce, we decided to bite the bullet, stomach the cost and get a taxi (a fair proportion of which turned out to be the fuel at 74p per litre – extortionate by Indian standards).
Good decision. The journey was fast, comfortable and interesting.
Things of note on the journey included passing a region that clearly specialised in making stone minarets:
A warthog:
Loud-speaker tuk-tuks:
Love the decorated backs of trucks:
A very quick 4 hours later, we arrived at a very impressive-looking hotel… with a loudspeaker blaring out music. Turns out that the neighbour’s son is getting married. Celebrations will last 8 – 10 days. Now that’s what you call a party!
The groom was sat upon a decorated white horse (looking completely unperturbed about the whole shenanigans – it was clearly very used to this). He was dressed in traditional Indian wedding finery, and people were dancing around him. Well, some people were – others were just stood around. The party would move 10 metres down the road, and the dancing would start again.
The effect was ruined slightly as the groom was periodically looking at his mobile phone, seemingly disinterested in what was happening around him!
Upon our arrival, we were immediately invited to the celebrations that evening. Introvert dilemma :/ Whilst I really wanted to experience it, I knew it’d be stressful and uncomfortable for me. I was also exhausted. Decided to give it a miss. May regret it.
Upgraded to the Maharaja suite. Which was definitely an improvement on the standard rooms as it had a bath and balcony. Whether a maharaja would have been impressed with it is another matter. But I’m not a maharaja, so very happy with the gesture.
After a rather shaky start, the day turned out OK 🙂
