It’s time to burn

Heat, sun, fair skin and blond hair are not a good combination.  When I was in my twenties the object was to tan as much as possible.  Factor 15 for a day or two and work my way down.  I never used intensive bronzing lotion though. 

Europe is nothing like India with heat.  It is so incredibly hot all the time in India and we were there in October, not the hottest time of the year.  Dad and I were on a tour that started in Delhi.  Most of the hotels we stayed in there were incredible.  The food was wonderful and never caused a problem at those hotels.  The beer was a bit odd, even the European beer, it tasted fusty.  The Indian beer was real Indian beer not the stuff you get in the UK.

My favourite place on the tour was Jaipur.  Our itinerary showed it would be a six-hour drive from Delhi.  As we sped out of Delhi on a motorway and I saw that it was only 180km to get to Jaipur I thought this was over generous.  After a few miles the standard of the road declined alarmingly, with potholes ten feet across and broken down cars.  It took the 6 hours.

Jaipur is the pink city due to the stone that it is built from.  One highlight was visiting the Amber Fort that overlooks the town.  Like many Indian attractions it reflects the incredible diversity of India’s history and the different Empires that have ruled it.  You are accosted by beggars with eye catching conditions at every place that you go – Slumdog Millionaire is only the tip of the iceberg.

(Tour party at the Amber Fort – I’m in the red shirt at the back, with Dad on my left)

Jaipur was not packed like Delhi – far more open with wide roads and space to breath.  It looked like a real city.  We had lunch with the wife of a local Prince, in a very beautiful house with cool wide-open courtyards.  She was lovely, but it was a business meeting tourists, so it was her job to be.

(Lunch with the Maharanee – the timer on the camera was wrong, it was lunch time).

The tour did feature far too much time shopping.  The afternoon included a lengthy period at a jewellery shop.  Our suspicions should have been raised by the fact that our tour guide said she was building up credit at the shop for a particular item.  Tour guides only take parties to places they get a kickback.  When we got home there was an e mail group for the tour party, some people had spent large sums and the items were overpriced by a factor of two.

There is also a fascinating outside observatory dating back several hundred years which is fascinating to explore.

I liked Jaipur so much that the Rajasthan Royals are my IPL team of choice😊

Time to Burn