Monkey temple (Jaipur >> Pushkar)

9 Oct 2010

Since it was our last day in Jairpur we decided to make the most of it and do one last sight – the monkey temple or Sun Temple (another monkey temple I hear you say!). Having looked at the map it was a fair trek so we decided to get a cycle rickshaw there and having flagged one down the driver/rider assured us he knew where it was. When we were dropped a little over half way outside a shop we realised this clearly wasn’t the case; luckily his ‘mate’ in an auto rickshaw did know where it was, only problem was the rip off price he was charging. Pissed off with having been lied to by the cycle rickshaw driver we gave up and returned to the only trustworthy and reliable form of transport in India – walking.

We arrived at the foot of the temple and began another ascent up, picking up some monkey food en-route. It wasn’t long before we found the star attraction – the monkeys. I pulled out the food in the plastic bag and had it immediately snatched from my hands by one of the larger, bolder monkeys (a cheeky monkey?!). I grabbed the bag back and then fed them more gingerly from then on. We very nearly lost our Lonely Planet to one small chap:

Sneaky bugger!

Amusingly, and fittingly I suppose for a temple, there was loads of cows also vying with the monkeys for food generally getting the upper hand over the monkeys due to their size advantage. Two local men turned up on their moped with about 30 bananas with the sole purpose of feeding the monkeys and cows. Cows it turns out have a penchant for bananas and will happily eat them skin and all.

The temple itself was nothing particularly special, although the ladies who lived there were pleasant enough. As usual we were expected to make a donation, in return for which Olivia got herself a Gap Yah piece of string bracelet.

Nothing much to see, but pretty views

Having climbed up to the top of the mount we were rewarded with panoramic views of the city, the scale of which was apparent only for this high.

The main road into the city (and the air pollution)

Having duly paid respects to some god or other, we pottered back down the path through the troops of monkeys to the bottom courtyard. Yet more locals feeding monkeys greeted us, but what amused us much more was this chap taking a swim:

He looks like a little old man!

Having enjoyed Jaipur (mostly) we got back on the train, this time headed for Ajmer and then onto Pushkar. The train journey was easy, us steadily becoming veterans of India’s rail system, and upon arrival at Ajmer we were whisked off in a rickshaw to the bus station and took the scenic 30 min bus over the ominous ‘snake pass’ to Pushkar town.

We stayed in a place called Navaratan Palace for two reasons; it has a pool and it also has tortoises free roaming in the garden! The actual room itself was basic but the location was good.

In the evening we came across this Am Dram production:

Not sure what it was all about but it was interesting for quarter of an hour, until we got completely lost and could work out which god was which. Still, the kids watching seemed to be enjoying it.