The Journey so far-

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• Rats Rule in Karni Devi Temple, Bikaner
• Bikaner to Jaiselmer, The Zooming Drive
• Beautiful Sunrise over Gadisar Lake in Jaiselmer
• Sonar Fort in Jaiselmer
• Silky Sand Dunes, Sam in Thar Desert
• Stunning Sunset over Sand Dunes in Jaiselmer
• A Crazy Run, Jaiselmer to Jaipur
• Exploring Amber Palace, Jaipur – 1

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Day 5 | 20th, December 2010 | Amber Fort and Amber Palace, Jaipur

The main palace had an entry fees of Rs 10 for Indian Citizen and Rs 50 for foreign tourists. We quickly bought the tickets and went inside. There were some beautiful pieces of architecture waiting for us inside which we did try to capture. Everybody was having fun over there and so were we as we went more and more inside the palace. We also played some hide and seek in the narrow corridors between the walls and even tried to go deep into the basements which were lonely. The palace was huge but we were enjoying it playing one thing or the other, taking pictures and what not.

Day 5 | 20th, December 2010 | Amber Fort, Jaipur to Delhi

After good 2-3 hours of fun and enjoyment, we decided to move back. My sweet wife wanted to get some mehndi to beautify her hands and we searched some mehandiwala in the complex but there was none. I didn’t want to disappoint my wife so we decided to head back to Jaipur city. As we took off from the parking and were just enclosing our seat belts one ever corrupt Rajasthan traffic police cop jumped in front of us. We had just moved out of parking and took the U-turn and I had my seat belt in place but my wife was finding the buckle to enclose it which he pointed out. He asked me to come out of the vehicle and ask to hand over the driving license. I showed him the license but didn’t handed over to him. But before what happened next, here is the last set of pictures from the Amber Palace, Jaipur…

I recalled the incidence when I handed over the license last time to a corrupt Rajasthan Police cop (in our trip: Delhi to Udaipur | One Crazy Drive), he kept it and asked Rs 300 for giving it back without any fault. This time I started argument with him and he was like that I was not wearing the seat belt which I kept explaining. Soon his subordinate shouted, “Do not argument and hand over the driving license. You wife was not wearing the seat belt…” Hearing that I also shouted on them asking them first to decide between themselves, who had not fastened the seat belt either I or my wife. After that the cop got a bit relaxed and knew now that it was of no use now. In order to leave change the topic he asked me the parking slip as I was telling him that I have just moved the vehicle out from the parking in front of you. I showed him the slip and that f***** cop finally let us go.

The locales were also abusing both of them for troubling the tourists and stating that its their job everyday to frustrate one tourist or the other. At one point of time when I told him “If you continue to harass tourists like this, they will stop coming to Jaipur then”. He replied that “Who cares…” I was surprised on one of his comments which clearly stated corruptness and greed of that A********. Anyhow, we were free to go and mood was a bit spoiled but as we entered the Babu bazaar of Jaipur, it was total chaos all over there. People were fighting inch for inch and traffic was in chaos all over. I know we were stuck, somewhere cars were getting towed by police recovery vans and somewhere bikes. There was utter confusion where to park the car or not. I was not in the mood to get into another piss with Rajasthan police … So, we kept moving and saw a parking lot after crossing the signal. But, there was no way to enter the parking lot and the entrance which we found lead from the one way… I knew as soon as the cop standing there will see out of station number plate on the car he will vouch for every chance of making some money. This experience was spoiling the day for me and my realized it. She asked let’s go back home, we will have the mehndi some other time or in Delhi only.

As we moved back towards the road to Delhi, we went through more pain of traffic jam this time on the other side of the road. It was more difficult to negotiate than ever but somehow I kept my patience win over the frustration which was creeping in. More than 90 minutes of struggle and we were out on the highway again… The whole two hours were wasted in utter frustration almost spoiling the trip, just over that famous mehndi of Jaipur … I was happy that we were cruising again and this time back home … Rest of the time we kept driving without any stoppage with no interesting thing happening on Delhi – Jaipur highway which had same old traffic fuss at many stretched. It took us around 4-4.5 odd hours to reach our lovely home back in Delhi.

This concluded am extremely lovely, entertaining and  journey to Rajasthan.