To Jaipur: from the quiet countyside to the busy city

March 19, 2016

"Watch out for thorns this time of day" Patrick warns. His puncture a few days ago was due to a thorn. The first 15kms of road is lined with acacia shrubs.

Breakfast is included in our stay, and they were very accommodating in having it ready at 7am. So our start wasn't much later than usual. Nice assortment of fruit, toast with butter and jam, potato balls and omelet, along with coffee and juice. Sadat, the owner, gave us directions on how to find the pipeline road to Diggi so we didn't have to backtrack to Malpur. As with most directions, they seem clearer in the hearing than in following. We stop to ask for directions a couple of times.

From town, the turnoff is 2.5kms second left after crossing the canal. A couple hundred meters off the road, there is a pink building on the left and a small Temple on the right, then this is the correct road. The surface is bad with "speed dips", trenches across the road for who knows what and sandy sections. There is joy in the quietness. We have the road practically to ourselves for 16kms until we reach Diggi and re-join the main road.

The hot dry air leaves our throats parched, the water in the bottles warm, and the long flat road with threats of punctures from thorns or road debris, reminds us of Botswana. After 80kms we reach Sanganer with 15 kms to go to Jaipur on the Tonk Road. There is a feeling that we are almost to the end of the day.

Then reality hits, we are in one of the larger cities in India and the traffic ramps up, along with the noise and the constant jockeying for position. We've had relatively flat roads, the elevation gain barely perceptible until the overpasses getting through Jaipur making it feel like hills. We could have stayed on the lower through road but then would have had stoplights or weaving through intersections. The round about headed to our hotel was blocked off on one side making the road one way blocking the direction we needed to go. Patrick frequently checks GPS, we slowly narrow down where the Jwala Niketan Guesthouse is located. For 750 rupees Patrick checks the room, "it's not great, but OK" since we are in Jaipur for three nights, more rupees to spend on good food.

Late afternoon, we walk to Pearl Palace and eat in their rooftop restaurant. Best pizza! Served with condiments of red pepper flakes, tabasco sauce and olive oil. We will return to eat here again.

Now planning for the next three days of sightseeing.

Packing up our bikes at the Tordi Palace. The current owner is a nice guy and doing a good job at restoring and adding on to his palace. His family have been landowners here for 17 generations.

A lot of the new construction is built re-using old stone carved elements from other buildings that were demolished.

We follow the "pipe line" road north towards Jaipur. This road does not show up on googlemaps, but it starts about 2.5 km east of Tordi and follows the drinking water pipeline parallel to the mountains. The surface is not great, with some bad sections, but it saves about 15 km over the alternative of going back to Malpura first.

We see several of these trucks. Pretty sure they are carrying chopped straw.

Just outside of Jaipur we pass several cloth factories. Cloths are colored and spread-out to dry in the sun.

Hauling something on a tricycle cargo bike.

Arrived at our guesthouse. Jaipur is the largest Indian city we have cycled into so far and it wasn't much fun.

Today's ride: 95 km (59 miles)
Total: 14,771 km (9,173 miles)

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