Rajasthan on foot

Having been travelling through one of India’s most popular states, I have begun to feel an appreciation for the human landscape and how people and place interact here.

In Udaipur to my delight, the city’s lakes were the centrepiece. The roads made sense and I even had one of the most enjoyable days of my trip simply walking around the waterscape. The chai tea had changed and the southern humidity had been replaced with a drier, baking sun, but I did not feel detatched from what I feel is India.

Ajmer was a more intense experience, and the sister town of Pushkar was not the spiritual haven I had hoped. Rather it contained psuedo priests as scammers, constant noise and a high street built to take travellers’ money. Walking was difficult there as every few steps a new local would interrupt you for some new experience or product.

But now I have had a sense of my current home, Jaipur, it is again a very different experience. The bottom line is that I love Jaipur. The train ride from Ajmer is a thing of beauty, rolling through the farmlands and desert. I fell for this city the moment I got off the train and could walk to my guesthouse with ease and little harrassment. Yesterday I explored the famous Amber palace on the edge of the city, again without too much input from locals and although I took an uber up there, I jumped on a local bus back into the city.

I think that when you use the normal public transport of a place, the human landscape simply makes more sense. You are acting more like a local and therefore become more at ease. Of course the lack of melanin in my skin will forever single me out as a westerner, but walking through the bazaars of the pink city this afternoon, I felt secure, safe and joyful. Jaipur is a delight to explore on foot, on bus or even, should you wish, on camel.

My last few days in Rajasthan will not be taken for granted, and I will very much miss the lifestyle, food and incredible friendliness of people here.