The Pink City

I visited India for the first time in February 2002. I was travelling to Delhi on business after being promoted to the newly created role of Area Vice President for South Asia. At the time, my initial mandate covered offices in Sydney and Singapore, a licensed partner in Malaysia and three offices in India. The Indian business was the region’s oldest entity, with a national operations team based in Delhi. A few months later, in May, I was promoted to Regional Director for all of Asia Pacific.

I flew into Delhi early in the evening on Thursday 21 February. A car and a driver from the local office met me at the airport. This was my first taste of middle-class life in India. I quickly learned that every senior executive had a car and driver, while at home, they typically employed several servants, a cook and possibly a gardener or a nanny.

At the time, I had no idea the driver was associated with our company. As a result, when he showed up at my hotel the following morning and offered to take me to the office, I assumed he was simply touting for more business. I told him to go away and subsequently caught a traditional black “Kaali Peeli” Ambassador taxi. The Indian management team was astounded when I rocked up in the cab. Needless to say, I never made that mistake again.

My working day was then spent meeting the team and learning all I could about life and business in Delhi. The following day, Saturday, I joined an eight-night escorted tour of northern India, before returning to the office for another week of meetings. The tour’s itinerary encompassed some of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh’s most iconic locations including Jaipur, Ranthambore National Park, Agra, and Varanasi.  Here's a summary of our daily itinerary.

Day	Date	Location
Sat	23 Feb	Depart Delhi. Drive to Jaipur.
Sun	24 Feb	Visit City Palace, Jantar Mantar, Amber Fort.
Mon	24 Feb	Drive to Ranthambore. Evening game drive.
Tue	25 Feb	Morning game drive. Drive to Agra.
Wed	26 Feb	Full day in Agra. Sleeper train.
Thu	26 Feb	Full day in Varanasi. Ghats, Dhamekha Stupa.
Fri	27 Feb	Sunrise on the Ganges. Sleeper train.
Sat	28 Feb	Arrive in Delhi.

The tour was touted as a small group experience. Just how small became apparent when we met up at our rendezvous hotel. There were only three of us; me, a young woman and one other guy, plus an escort and a minivan driver. I’d also booked the tour’s more expensive, private room option. As a result, everyone ended up with their own room, essentially subsidized by me.

Our escort proved to be little more than a disengaged chaperone. That's him sitting next to me in the image above. His role ultimately consisted entirely of ensuring we made it safely to our hotel each night, got on the right train and ate in establishments unlikely to hospitalize us. 

We learned quickly that he knew nothing of the places we visited and felt no compunction to impart any cultural knowledge of life in India, not even an insightful personal anecdote. Instead, he referred all such questions to the local guides he hired on our behalf at each location. His demeanour became an inside joke whenever we saw an explanatory sign or plaque. If only our guide knew this!

On our final night, our guide asked us to complete a detailed feedback form. Me being me, felt compelled to summarise our group's disappointment with his attitude.  I then sealed my feedback in an envelope as instructed. A couple of hours later he appeared in the hotel lobby where we'd gathered for a drink. He took me aside and expressed how perplexed he was by my feedback. He claimed nobody had ever made such comments. 

I had to chuckle. The simple fact that he'd opened a sealed envelope only reinforced perceptions of his failings as a guide. I doubt my feedback made it back to head office.

The first day of the tour saw us drive 250km to Jaipur. The trip took more than five hours and provided an eye-opening introduction to the chaos of driving in regional India. As we drove we witnessed extraordinary traffic scenes that became increasingly familiar as the tour progressed. This included trucks loaded with cargo stacked two or three times higher than the driver’s cab. These loads frequently bulged over the side and rear of the vehicle. We also witnessed motorbikes loaded just as precariously with either cargo or entire families.

My record count for passengers on a single motorbike was six people. This included a child precariously balanced on a rack over the front wheel, a child straddling the fuel rank, the primary rider, two people cramped behind him including a backwards-facing child seated over the rear mudguard, plus a baby swaddled against one of the female passengers. We later learned that the cost of a motorcar was out of reach for most Indians, hence a motorbike became everyone’s aspirational mode of transport.

We spent two nights in Jaipur, exploring the city’s famous landmarks. Jaipur is known as the Pink City. This nickname came about after buildings in its central district were painted pink to welcome Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1876. Many of the buildings have retained this hue in the years since. We filled our time visiting the City Palace complex, including a guided tour of its iconic Hawa Mahal, a palace built from red and pink sandstone, the neighbouring City Palace, and Jantar Mantar, an outdoor astronomical observatory.

Even our hotel was a sight to behold. We stayed at Narain Niwas Palace, now one of Rajasthan’s top heritage hotels. The building was constructed in 1928 by General Amar Singh Jr, the then Thakur of Kanota, one of India’s elite aristocratic families. For many years it served as a country resort for the royal household. It’s definitely been refurbished since my visit. However, the hotel's entrance still sports a couple of restored cast iron canons that were on display during my stay.

Jantar Mantar is an extraordinary complex. It contains 19 astronomical instruments including the world’s largest stone sundial. The Vrihat Samrat Yantra is an astonishing 27 metres high. It supposedly tells the time to an accuracy of about two seconds in Jaipur local time. Its shadow moves visibly at 1 mm per second, or roughly a hand's breadth (6 cm) every minute.

Our tour also visited Amber Fort, a hilltop fortification about 11km outside Jaipur. It was here that I rode my first elephant. We tourists were invited to climb a set of wooden stairs up to a loading tower where we then boarded a seated platform strapped to the back of an elephant. The animal then carried us up a narrow, steep roadway to the fort. 

The fort was stunning. It contains a series of increasingly intimate courtyards, some of which offer unrivalled views through arched windows across Maotha Lake in the valley below. However, the most impressive venue was Sheesh Mahal, a mirrored pavilion built for the imperial family's exclusive use. Its claim to fame is intricate paintings and glass mirrorwork that covers its ornate walls and ceiling. 

While visiting the fort, our group took time out for a quick stop at Man Sagar Lake. This unassuming lake, on the road between Jaipur and Amber Fort, is renowned for its stunning red sandstone palace. The 18th-century Jal Mahal (Water Palace) sits in the middle of the lake and is only accessible by boat. Sadly, the water level was low when I visited. As a result, this remarkable building appeared to be stranded in mudflats, rather than floating in the water as tourism promotions typically depict.

Follow this link to learn more about our time in Ranthambore National Park where we searched for the elusive Bengal tiger.