Monsoon – ‘Bad Rain’

Today is another driving day where we have to get from Jaipur to Barli (approx. 170km, expected around four hours).

As we head out for Mrs M’s marmite toast breakfast the heavens open with even more torrential rain than yesterday.  Even Mr M is alarmed by how heavy this rain is.

All through breakfast the rain continues, and only breaks as we meet Mr Khan an hour later.  This is apparently ‘bad rain’ today!

We carefully make our way out from the Haveli through water about a foot deep.  Mr Khan exclaims ‘My God’ – his usual phrase for when things look a little dicey – over and over and over.  Mrs M begins to look a little nervous.

As we continue through Jaipur the flood water gets deeper and deeper, and the ‘My Gods’ come faster and faster…

We eventually get through what we think is the worst of it, but this is only a short respite around the government buildings that clearly have better drains!

On approaching highway out of Jaipur we come across a large pile up of pedestrians, bikes, rickshaws, tuk tuks, taxis, motorcycles, cars, buses and lorries.  Even the water buffalo don’t fancy what’s ahead.  What ensues next is 30 minutes of pure comedy gold, where we lead the charge of tourists through the back streets of Jaipur trying to find a safe exit, stopping at every corner to ask directions.  This is both nerve-wracking and exciting as nobody in our car knows where we are, or how to get out of this part of Jaipur.  The car directly behind checked out of the same hotel with us and is clearly trusting our navigational ability.

Eventually we make it back onto the highway, past the big flood, and pointing in the direction of intended travel.  Big smiles all round.  It has just taken us 90 minutes to get out of Jaipur rather than the expected 15.

The rest of the journey passes fairly uneventfully until we get to Barli where we have to contend with cow rush hour getting into the small village, but we will cover animals and roads in another blog.

Total journey time 6½ hours.

Mr & Mrs M