Last night in Jaipur we went on a frustrating hunt for a cash point. There was an ATM just a few shops down from where we were staying, but it wouldn’t give us cash. We soon realised that we needed to find an ATM with the visa/Mastercard symbol on it to be able to get cash out on our credit card. Most places we’ve been able to pay on our card, but our driver to Agra today needed cash and as our reserves of notes were low – we had to get some more money!

We set off for a Bank of India ATM that Google maps told us was just 15 minutes walk away. That isn’t far to walk – unless you’re in India, where walking anywhere is like doing all four zones of the Crystal Maze with a Tough-Mudder obstacle course thrown in for good measure. The alleged Bank of India ATM turned out not to be where Google maps told us it was. I examined the street view image and established it was in another building further down the road. We continued on – but it was still nowhere to be seen. In further examination of the map/street view image I realised the bank ATM was at the rear of the building. Round the corner we went. Success! We found it and withdrew the cash – although the whole experience had been quite stressful.

Cash in hand we decided to get a tuk tuk to the only vegan restaurant in Jaipur – it was about 15 minutes away. The driver of the first tuk tuk to stop had no idea where it was and he spoke no English, plus he had no headlights or rear lights on his tuk tuk. It was a big no-no from Mike “I’m not getting in that!”. Although the driver was hard to shake off, we firmly declined. We found another tuk tuk parked a little further up the street. The driver was sat in the back chatting to his girlfriend on his phone (who happened to be in London and turns out had visited Bristol 4 times). He wasn’t able to drive us but he rushed into his store and came out with his brother who duly agreed to take us.

He was a nice young guy who insisted we ‘pay him what we felt’ as ‘it was only money’. He was very chatty and intrigued why we were going so far for a restaurant. We explained we were vegan and that’s why. He was interested in what we did and didn’t eat. The journey was all going fine until we came up to a large island intersection and he stalled the tuk tuk! We were stuck in the middle of about six lanes of crazy traffic as he tried to restart it. I think he’d flooded the engine (he kept saying it was over full). He uttered something about him going to kill his brother (who’s tuk tuk it was). We were both hoping that he didn’t kill us first. Both Mike and I had visions of something ramming into the back of this stalled tuk tuk. We had everything crossed, willing the engine to restart. Fortunately he managed to get it going again and we crawled off – somewhat limping along until we got to the restaurant.

The meal was nice and the two guys who ran the restaurant were friendly, if a little surprised to see two white European guys turn up – or maybe anyone turn up as we were the only two people inside. After we’d eaten and paid we set back on the hunt of another tuk tuk back (we were shaken but not stirred by our latest near death experience). As we were further out of the city there were fewer tuk tuks around and we stood by the side of the road for a while waiting. Suddenly one pulled up. It was a six seater – two up front and four facing each other at the back. It already had three guys in it, but as we’d not had any other luck and the said they’d take us for R200 (about £2) we agreed and got in.

It was only once we’d set off that I realised just how dilapidated this tuk tuk was. The seats were stuck together with tape and as I glanced up, instead of seeing a roof there was part of a rusting sheet of metal flapping above my head. I crossed everything and carefully tracked the route home on Google maps on my phone to make sure we were not being kidnapped. They dropped us one station sooner than we had asked for and then tried to charge us R50 more than the agreed price (they didn’t get it), but I was just relieved to get out alive! I can see the appeal of an Uber over this!