I decided to spend the week convalescing in Jaipur to get my strength up, checked myself into the beautiful Diggi Palace Hotel, home to the Jaipur Literature Festival to pamper myself and re-line my stomach! My initial impressions of Rajasthan were probably marred by my delicate state after being ill, but in general I found it to be a much more fraught environment than down South. The first hotel I stayed at - Madhuban, a 'heritage hotel' was run with an air of contempt and disdain for the customer, not what you are hoping for after a 24 hour journey! Tourism is down 70% in Rajasthan so the tourist buck is more in demand than ever, and this could definitely be felt keenly everywhere I went. Having managed to avoid any cities so far, Jaipur was my first experience of a capital city in India. With a population of 2.5 million people, it is struggling with choking pollution, congestion, and wretched poverty. In the same breath, the beauty of its Rajput architecture, ancient artisanal traditions (jewellery making, stonemasonry, fabric block printing) makes it worth a visit. (Co-incidentally it just so happens to be the shopping capital of Rajasthan!) The women you see scrabbling around in rubbish heaps, their saris sparkling in the putrid filth like fireflies on a black black night are overwhelming - it is this constant tension between beauty and squalor that strikes you in India like no-where else I have visited. My tuk tuk driver, Honey (I have certainly never come across a man called Honey before!) was adamant that I come home and have dinner at his house with his mother. I politely declined, although I think it was innocent, you never can be too careful! He explained to me that he was hoping to marry his girlfriend but that they were beset by the usual problems that the caste system presents. After all, 'love is life' he said with kindness in his eyes as he dropped me off at the coach station to catch my bus to Delhi.
