Well, here we are again, part two! I’m in Jaipur now, it’s a city I’ve been to a few times and one of my favourite places to visit. It’s always been a really fun place for me, not just for photography…and it’s a wonderful place to come to for photography, not just for the marvellous buildings and sites, but the people here are colourful and amazing too.
The first couple of times I was in Jaipur, I must admit the pollution was terrible and I as a result I did get ill – one could almost slice the atmosphere with a knife, the pollution was so thick. In later years it was better, and I didn’t get ill.
Still, that was then and it didn’t stop me from travelling around and enjoying the city and surrounding areas, all the peoples, sites, sounds, smells. As I said: an amazing place. I recall on my second visit there, I was in a small room down some non-descript back alley, I was looking at semi and precious stones, what was truly amazing was ordinary people you’d never look twice at producing handkerchiefs from their pockets filled with cut stones. Jaipur has a very long association with gems and before diamonds and South Africa became prominent, India was the premier place for diamonds. It was a sight I’ll not forget, though not a situation where pulling out a camera is the right thing to do.
Later on, that same trip, I can remember in the early evening out and above the city, in the surrounding hills, near an ancient abandoned fort. Watching the local people herding their goats, in their colourful clothes, washed by the setting sun. The lights of the city below starting to twinkle on, a glorious sight – somewhere I have those images on transparencies – I hope that I can find them.
My first trip to Jaipur was in 1992, arriving there after leaving Agra – I honestly can’t remember how I got there (I hope it will come back to me, my memory is becoming worse!). What I do remember was travelling to my hotel, which was palatial and being worried about staying in such a magnificent place! Could I afford it? And it just wasn’t me! I prefer more modesty and I checked out, eventually settling on a lovely room in the Man Singh, after a short while hunting around for an alternative.
I was booked on a tour of the city the next day, which I was looking forward to, it was a half day tour and the bus was due to leave the next morning. The bus picked me up from my hotel and within a few minutes of being on the bus I had struck up a conversation with a young American woman travelling alone who was already on the bus, her name was Sarah and she seemed happy for the company. We spent the day chatting and enjoyed the tour together and spent the latter part of the afternoon chatting and sitting on the very pleasant lawn in her hotel, where many, many years later I would enjoy the same lawn with my wife and children on another trip.
As the afternoon drew towards evening, Sarah and I set off for Jaipur Railway Station to meet my aunt and one of my cousins, travelling from Bombay to meet me for the rest of the week, before I was to head back to Bombay with them. We arrived there about an hour before their train was due in and we settled ourselves into the station cafeteria and ordered afternoon tea for ourselves. We both found it amusing as our waiter, with a smile upon his face, would call Sarah “Aunty”.
When my aunt and cousin arrived, I think my aunt was somewhat surprised to be met by Sarah and myself, however, introductions out-of-the-way, we went some time later to find a nice restaurant, after we had gone back to my hotel room, where we deposited their bags and had a short rest with time to freshen-up.
We spent an enjoyable evening together and some time toward midnight, again after a stop back at the hotel to collect Sarahs bags, we were back at Jaipur Railway Station. This time to see Sarah of for her journey to Varanasi. I have to admit, I would have been really hesitant to get on the train she did, it looked in an awful state. If she felt the same, she didn’t show it! I remember Sarah telling us that there was always an older “uncle” on the train, that felt it his duty to look after her and so her trips went fairly smoothly.
That wasn’t the last time I saw Sarah, though she was an American, she lived in London, and after I got back home to London, we met several times, before we lost touch. One such occasion was a party Sarah and her boyfriend threw at their flat in North London – I went along with Pete and a compact camera (which always accompanied me to parties). I don’t recall the party really, I probably had a few drinks, but I do remember the journey home! It was certainly a sobering experience!! No, please I prefer my single malts neat!
For whatever reason, we decided to walk, so we started walking…if you remember from previous blogs, Pete and I lived on the same road. I can’t remember what the plan was – walk somewhere to where we could find a night bus home…something like that. Well, not long after we started walking the rain came down – in torrents and we were soaked fairly quickly, why we didn’t take shelter somewhere, I have forgotten, but we continued to walk in the rain – again in silence through the dark night, no bus came and we walked for what seemed like ages - it probably was.
Most likely, we walked back half way home and if memory serves me correctly, it was at Trafalgar Square, we finally got on a night bus and completed our miserable journey home. We were still soaking wet when we did eventually get home. My lovely black leather and cotton jacket was never quite the same again, it also seems to me that Pete and I had, on a number of occasions, done a fair bit of walking in silence!