The Friday Mosque built on an outcrop of rock near the Red Fort and the tallest mosque in India with a 100 square metre courtyard surrounded by colonnades (Kumuka's words, not mine).
My words.... I wore a moo moo. What the hell!?!
I wore a long sleeved cardigan, a high top underneath, socks on my feet … so basically nothing was showing and yet I needed to be wearing a bright pink moo moo with white polka dots on it. Yeah got a picture in your mind... because I looked like a tool.
Anyway Jama Masjid (which means Friday Mosque) is quite stunning as it has the long beautiful stairs leading up to these red walls. I think what made it all quite visually beautiful was the dense fog sitting on the city (mixed with a hint of pollution) which gave it a little bit of a (insert scary movie alternative word) feel to it.
While we only had a few hours to spare in Delhi we also visited the memorial garden to Mahatma Ghandi where we were greeted by a crowd of school kids who wanted to pose with our touries and then ended up singing us a song. It was quite sweet. At this point, i thought this was adnormal, by the end I got used to all the looks, cameras, posing and confusion.
After that, we jump on to our tour bus and drive for the next six hours to Jaipur, trying to amuse ourselves with books (me, Russell Brand's new book where he writes about him being an ass), sleeping and chatting with my touries.
We had a New Zealander (on her first international holiday... she visited Australia but it doesn't really count), a Brit, two South Africans (one born in Germany, spent most of his time in Russia), a Canadian (living in Hong Kong), and then four Australians in total (including my gorgeous friend Sam and I).
Sounds like a bit of a joke, a New Zealander, South African and a Canadian walk into a bar...
Anyway after six long bloody hours we get the to Jaipur, capital of the northern India state of Rajasthan or internationally known as the Pink City.
Our first stop was a shaking run across a busy road to get a view of the Hawa Mahal. To get to this building, we had to cross a one way road filled with bicycles, cars, rickshaws, passengers, buses. I have to admit I screamed like a little girl as I dodged all these modes of transport to look at the building.
Hawa Mahal is pink (go figure) with multiple-coloured windows where the Maharajah's royal ladies (or basically to put it blatantly, easy girls) watched festive processions and other events behind windows, so they were not seen by the public. Nice!!
We make our way to Jaipur's Amber Fort via our personal jeep, driven by the one and only Baba, who had the unfortunate task of driving up a steep hill. The Amber Fort features the silver door Temple of Kali, the Audience Chamber (coupled with a ceiling of beautifully crafted mirrors) and the Hall of Pleasure. ;-)
While the Fort was fantastic, our trip to it was quite amusing. Our New Zealand friend began her innocently flirting with poor Baba (who was married too) … I must explain she is a very friendly person and really enjoys interacting with people. So what looked like flirting was probably chatting to her. More on our amusing New Zealand friend later.
I just have to make note of the delicious food... Butter Chicken, Aloo, Garlic, plain and introducing cheese naan (how I love thee and miss thee), paratha, dumplings (the sweet version... can't remember the name) … I can keep going about the food but if I do I might have to go out right now and find an Indian take-out.
I will be strong.
P.S I had to include the picture of the goats wearing clothes... apparently they were cold. Makes sense. Goats need to keep warm, clothes provide warmth, so dress the goats.
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