March 15th
It was with some relief that we checked out of 'The Tigress' hotel. Mr. Singh, our previous driver, had insisted that he would return to transport us to Jaipur. We were happy to agree; the car was relatively comfortable and he wasn't much of a talker whilst driving which suited us fine.
The Umaid Bhawam Hotel was our cheapest hotel of the holiday but, by far, our favourite. It had definite 'Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' vibes and I channelled Judi Dench as we explored the beautiful, hand decorated spaces.
After exploring the hotel, we found a nearby restaurant recommended on our much used Happy Cow App. Sadly, it let us down. The restaurant turned out to be in another hotel. They welcomed us warmly but clearly had no idea about what constituted vegan food and just agreed to everything to be polite. We had supposedly vegan thalis. Not only were they bland but we had to pick out the obvious bits of paneer and scrape off the yoghurt dressing. The thali arrived with a gulab jamun for desert. R thought that they might have managed a vegan version. One nibble proved that to be false. The best that could be said was that the drinks were nice and there was a lovely garden.
We took a tuktuk to the Old City, referred to as the Pink City after it was painted pink for a visit by Edward VII when he was still the Prince of Wales. The frenetic nature of the traffic had a manic energy. Bikes, cars, tuktuks all seemed to drive towards each other, horns blaring. After 5 minutes of mentally shrieking, you quickly become used to it and it was amazing!
We drove by a cookware stall and stopped so I could buy a masala dabba to hold my spices. I have yet to set it up. I'm really looking forward to it but want to be well enough to fully appreciate it.
We walked past stalls of spices and sacks and sacks of chillies. The chilli hit the back of our throats and we found ourselves sneezing and laughing in equal measure. The stalls were fabulous - even if we had to swerve past the odd dead rat on the pavement!
We had the first, and last, drinky coconut of our holiday and then, just as we were about to explore a market, we were intercepted by a man who insisted on talking to us at great length about his workshop. As he was talking, I found myself becoming hotter, with nausea and abdominal cramps. I geticulated to R, who apologised to the man and we quickly returned to the hotel. From this point in the holiday, I never felt entirely well. It wasn't food poisoning, just, I think, my gut starting to rebel at having curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner for days on end. Please don't misunderstand me, I think it's probably obvious by now that I love a good curry, but my gut just sometimes has a will of its own! It wasn't completely debilitating but I was constantly aware of my stomach and at times had to sit down until the discomfort passed.
March 16th
Before we set off on holiday, I knew that I would like to take some sort of cookery class in India. The one that I plumped for was a 2 hour class (it was actually much longer) with a local family. Monty, Harshita and their adorable daughter, Gina, were brilliant hosts. Upon arrival in their home, we were welcomed with drinks, garlands of flowers and tilak applied to our foreheads.
With their help, we prepared a number of dishes: a mixed lentil dhal; saag aloo; bottle gourd and tomato curry; jeera rice; chapatis and an almond milk, cardamom and saffron rice pudding. If I say so myself, they were yummy! :O)
I'm looking forward to mine looking like this!
My dish to prepare was the saag aloo. I feel that the ingredient that made the most difference in this dish was the mustard oil. We had to heat it, wait until it stopped smoking and then add the spices. Now, apparently, mustard oil isn't allowed for consumption in the UK. It has high levels of erucic acid which can cause fats to accumulate in cardiac muscle. I'm hoping that frying mustard seeds in other oils will be a reasonable substitute.
Another chapati making lesson!
Here was my small portion - I was still feeling a bit under the weather:
It was all delicious and the rice pudding was especially calming to my poor old tum! After lunch, we said goodbye to our hosts and returned to our hotel for a quick rest before heading for Jantar Mantar, an outdoor collection of 19 astronomical instruments, including the World's largest sundial. I didn't feel up to a guide, but it was lovely to walk slowly round the exhibits in the warm evening air.
A final tuktuk ride back to the hotel took us by the Jal Mahal, a water palace in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake:
The illuminated City Museum:
You certainly made the very most of your holiday. Wow amazing to have cookery lessons too. Hope your poor tum has recovered now. B x
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