The next morning I wake up at the hotel in Jaipur and head to breakfast, again catered by the hotel as part of the room. I walk in, and as I head for the food I’m redirected to a table where they offer to get the food from the buffet for me. I tell them I’d like to get my own as I don’t know what they are serving (and everyone else is getting their own…), and they politely say that would be fine. I order a coffee, and head up to the counter.
There is more sausage that is properly cooked, which is a nice thing to see, and also bread and pastries, and local Indian dishes. I honestly don’t remember exactly what I ate but it must not have been enough for the servers! I went back to the table, and was offered toast five times over the next hours as I ate. In addition, when I went up to the counter to get some juice, a server was quick to grab the dispenser-handle for me, and assist me in filling my glass… it was a little over the top! I appreciate being assisted, especially in situations like the night before where I’m confused on the etiquette, but not like this!
After breakfast, I check out of the hotel (since I only have my backpack anyway) and we begin my full-day tour of Jaipur and its sights. We are starting today at the Amber Fort, where I am hoping to climb onto the back of an elephant and enjoy a ride up to the fort while taking some pictures and enjoying the view!
The Amber Fort
As we head into the gate, though, my guide preps me a bit for the ride, and it leaves a bit of a sour taste on the interesting experience… “Don’t look at the hawkers trying to take your picture on the elephant”, he says “if they try to get your attention, look away”. I finally ask him why, and he tells me they will try to get a picture, and then force you to buy it. I tell him that I just won’t buy it, and his exact words were:
“If they get your picture, you will buy it. These guys are… they are… criminal. They are a group of criminals. Buying the photo is the only safe thing.”
Hmmm, okay. So… buy the picture or face the Nikon mob here in Jaipur, or hide my face every time I see a photographer and hope for the best. Interesting, and I have some good pictures of how hard they try to get your picture (I hid my face behind my camera, it seemed appropriate), and I found out I did quite well when I was leaving and they didn’t approach us, but then it occurred to me I didn’t really get a picture of me on the back of an elephant… and then I sort-of wanted one! Oh well, next time!
On the left, a guy trying to capture a picture of a tourist
But now I’m a little ahead of myself, we got out of the car and climbed the steps to the loading spot for the elephants. Typically one or two people will ride on each elephant, so while I’m a bit bigger than most of the people here I surmised I wasn’t probably bigger than two of them, and they let me climb in by myself for the ride up. The guide would meet me up there with my driver in a parking lot, and I would take the long way around with my elephant driver!
The Loading Zone, my elephant is just behind this one!
On the back of each elephant was a cushion-ish box that you could sit in with a few bars to ensure hand-holds. I wondered about this just long enough for the elephant to take about six steps, and realized that part of the reason for the hand-holds is the entire contraption swung a bit wildly with the motion of the animal underneath. It felt a bit like a roller coaster! If you have any concerns about the health of your back… I wouldn’t encourage the ride, but overall I had a great time as we began the trek up the mountainside.
As we went along, you could quickly see those asking for photographs, and I started a good-natured race with the tourists on the back of the elephant alongside us (we won!). It was a great time! What surprised me most was that the same hawkers of photos would also try to tell you small items, standing right between the elephants and the wall. I was already having trouble… to balance my weight they had me sitting in a pretty precise spot on the cushion, and I was too tall so my legs dangled off the side. This wasn’t entirely unexpected, however the elephants have a tendency to lean against the structures they walk past, and it sent hawkers scrambling to get out of the way as the small gaps closed and the elephant rested against the wall. For me, this meant pulling my feet up and away from being stuck in the same collapsing space. Eventually I turned sideways and pulled my legs in, much to the disagreement of the driver!
We finished the ride, and my driver did take a few pictures of me in the cage, but you can’t really tell I’m on an elephant. I’m a bit bummed about this in retrospect, but at the same time I can remember the experience and I had a really good time taking pictures and realizing that not too many people can say they’ve ridden an elephant to a fort! (Well, at least not in the US…)
The elephant line, as more individuals took the interesting ride up!
I’m on an elephant!
A view of the countryside
Steps into Amber Fort from the entryway
Amber Fort is at the top of a mountain that sits just outside of Jaipur proper, and I could never get a good answer on when it was constructed. We actually passed by parts that had fallen down as we drove away from the fort later. Apparently it underwent many construction phases and was never truly “finished” as many rulers customized it for their liking. Over time, it acquired things like a mirror room, where the entire interior and exterior of a structure was covered in mirrors (or painted with mercury for its reflective purposes), and dozens of gardens that were meant to be mirrors of gardens seen around the region and in foreign lands.
When built, every bit of this ceiling would have reflected light
Kings who lived here installed ramps and had some of the first palaces accessible by early wheelchairs. As with most things here, however, the reason was far from altruism. My guide explained that, afraid their wives would leave them for other men, kings would provide their wives with so much jewelry it became hard to move or walk under their own power. The term “golden handcuffs” perhaps actually applies very well in this instance, and so the queens would be carted from room to room. All the ramps had horizontal grooves cut in them that would have a carpet laid over it, and these would stop the chair from making noise as it rolled, but also act as a natural speed break to ensure there was no racing down a hallway.
The entire fort was quite a sight to see after leaving my elephant, made of sandstone and marble you can tell that architectural styles varied during construction and some were mashed together, but overall this approach works wonderfully. The marble screens here were exquisite and the craftsmanship was intricate and precise, even thousands of years later. The stone inlay here is also astonishing, and without restoration most of the stones have held their place.
All of the color on this archway is done with inlaid stone
They even inlaid stone on the ceiling!
Throughout the tour different rooms were pointed out to me where we could see the surrounding countryside and I took some amazing photographs. Even here, there is a slight haze of pollution that affects the pictures, and I’m hoping to clean them up at some point once I’m home and do my best to minimize that, but it was fun to look down on the elephant ride I had, and see just how well-positioned the fort was as far as the vantage point it offered as attacking forces approached. Jaipur has a grouping of different mountain-top forts, and I got a few pictures with more than one fort in it as well.
The Queen’s overlook
The road I came up on my elephant
A quick glance at the countryside
It was beginning to get really hot in Jaipur, and it wasn’t even 10:00 yet. Tours hung out in the shade and most didn’t venture out into the sun as we headed back down to the car to leave. Monkeys hung out, waiting to be fed by the tourists, and I grabbed a phew quick photos of the surrounding town as well. Back in the car, we learned each elephant walks down the road on their way home… which definitely snarls traffic!
Monkeys!
Heavy traffic just outside of Jaipur!
We left Amber Fort, and headed back into Jaipur. My guide this time was a very odd man, who liked to tell me he was going to explain everything first, walk me around, and then I could take pictures. He did not like the idea of me taking pictures while he was talking and scolded me more than once when I forgot. Essentially this meant I had to walk through the same areas twice, but it means he didn’t have to hang out in the sun while I took pictures, and typically he would say something like “we’ll meet over by those big trees”, and then he would go sit and enjoy the shade while I walked back to where we started and took pictures by all the things he had just explained. I gave him trouble about this, but he didn’t seem to mind and overall I actually enjoyed the freedom to take as long as I wanted and know he wasn’t really waiting on me (well, he was… but at least he was in the shade!).
My guide on the very left, waiting in the shade at Amber Fort as I took pictures
In the car on the way to the Palace of Jaipur, the guide was already stressing that we could take as long as we wanted to at each location, and it occurred to me that Jaipur might not really have a full day’s worth of sightseeing given how adamant he was, and I resolved to take as long as I thought necessary and ensure I got every picture I wanted, just in case.
Before heading to the Palace, we stopped to look at a building just sort of sitting out in the water near the hotel, Jal Mahal. It was apparently closed for touring (I did ask!), however the story behind it is very interesting. Jal Mahal sits in the middle of a man-made lake that was created when a dam was erected for fear of water shortage in Amer (the original name of the town where the Amber Fort is located). Once the lake was created, Jal Mahal was built in-place and had water siphoned out as the constructed it. Over the years, it has required reconstruction after reconstruction, never quite getting to a point where it remains open to tourists for too long before closing again. The last closure ran until 2008, where a restoration was successful overall, though the length of time before the next problem remains to be seen.
Jal Mahal is five stories tall. During low water, two levels of the palace are visible. Once the monsoons come, an additional level will be underwater on the outside as the water level rises.
After a photo stop for Jal Mahal, we went on to the iconic picture that most people familiar with the city think of when they think of Jaipur, Hawa Mahal. In actuality, there is nothing behind this structure save for a few floors on which you can stand. It was created to allow the royal women to look on the city of Jaipur without being seen… and while listed as a palace this is nothing but an architectural front! Who knew!
Hawa Mahal
After a quick stop here for photographs again, we headed to another palace, the Palace of Jaipur.
We entered the Palace of Jaipur (also called “City Palace), which is actually separate from the “Royal Palace” of Jaipur, and began our tour. My guide offered for us to also tour the Royal Palace, which in hindsight probably would have been a good idea, however they wanted nearly $50 for me, and another $50 for my guide, for the tour! Typically the guide’s ticket is not required, so I declined this tour, it had not been in the original plans anyway! We entered the palace, and for the first time Jaipur’s nickname of “The Pink City” actually began making sense! The place was primarily the same pink color it has been when the town gained its nickname, and it was very pretty indeed.
The entrance to Jaipur Palace
To some degree I felt a bit like an intruder, the Royal Palace borders the older palace, and at one point we were asked to move aside as “The Prince” made his way by in a car on the way to a meeting (I’m told the prince is extremely young right now, a child). In addition, there was a building in the middle of the grounds where a group of girls were practicing dances as they attended a “summer session” and learned the traditions of Rajasthan. It was fun, however, and while I was not able to take pictures inside the buildings I did get some great photographs.
At one point, my guide took me to an art library where the descendants of great artists still paint and create art using the same techniques today as they did when their ancestors made works of art for the palace (tangentially representative of the caste system, it seemed to me). The secrets and tips are passed down through families, and I walked past pictures of Bill Clinton and political leaders of India touring the very same library that I did as we headed into the space.
The idea, of course, is that I would purchase pieces from the artists there. I was tempted, to be sure, however most of the art there was created in such a way that it is artificially expensive given the amount of extensive time it takes to make the piece. There is, of course, something to be said for quality and I don’t mean to imply the pieces were not exquisite (they were!), but when the primary skill which is being put on display is the ability to paint a full-page masterpiece using a paintbrush with a single hair… and each piece takes months (if not years) to complete… the art leaves my price range (and price vs. emotional return on investment) range extremely quickly. I sat through a demonstration and was given one card with a quickly drawn elephant and my name on it, and then politely thanked the artist and left.
On bottom, Jaipur Palace in pink. The yellow building behind it is they Royal Palace.
A doorway in Jaipur Palace, very ornate! This was the “spring” door into the center of the palace, with one for each season
We took our time touring the rest of the palace, and the paintings of all of the kings of Jaipur (again sorry, no pictures inside), and left the palace to enter Jantar Mantar, which was one of the most astonishing places I got to see on this trip. It doesn’t compare to the Taj Mahal, of course, but Jantar Mantar is a collection of what amounts to time pieces, the largest of which is nearly 200 feet wide and 100 feet tall, that are accurate to within minutes and beautifully constructed.
The first large sundial we saw
Jantar Mantar was built by Sawai Jai Singh, and completed in the mid 1700’s. Singh was obsessed with time, celestial bodies, and being able to chart the skies and time relative to the position of the sun, time of year, and how it relates personally to him and his birth date. With this in mind, he build one device after another to track time using the sun. The first was a sundial (one of the world’s largest), however it was only accurate to around fifteen minutes and had to be adjusted for the width of the shadow it cast. When this wasn’t good enough, he built a second sun dial, but this time split it into a curve of about eight feet on both sides of a wall sitting at the center. Imagine the shape of a “C”, turned on its side (open part facing up), and then split in the middle with a staircase.
This was the sundial specifically for Pisces, though I think it measured more than time
Using mathematics and angling the stone (to account for the distance from the equator apparently, I’ll admit most of this is above my head and how he figured it out is even more unknown to me), he then was able to calculate time even more accurately, and developed ones also aligned to the cosmos for each astrological sign. The accuracy was increased dramatically and was within five minutes or so (of course, depending on your sign).
At the same time, Singh began building star charts showing both the position of the sun and sun’s shadow, as well as all the stars, and how it would look at different times of the year. Again most of this is beyond me, but the pictures represent the Northern and Southern hemisphere, and I was amazed. It may be hard to see, but there is a metal piece that sits atop the circle, and indicates what my guide referred to as the “sun’s shadow” (I think he meant Earth’s shadow). It was one impressive thing after another!
The two hemispheres, and their stars (the missing spaces filled in on the opposite bowl)
After looking at the start charts, I realized we were standing close to a structure that had been dug about fifty feet into the ground, and looked surprisingly like the time dial I just mentioned. As it turns out, Singh was still not satisfied with around five minutes of inaccuracy, and took his design one step higher, building the largest time structure in the world with an observatory perched at a stairway in the middle. (It’s official name is Vrihat Samrat Yantra). I took a picture of both sides, and I hope to combine them into a desktop background… though looking at it now I have some angles to fix!
An amalgamation of the sun dial that is accurate within a minute (a few seconds, they say)
For Jantar Mantar, I’m going to link the Wikipedia page, because if you have more interest in all the calculations allowed by the different instruments you can find it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar_%28Jaipur%29
I’ll admit I did not take as many pictures here as I would have liked, but the sun was at its full strength and it was over 115 degrees with very little shade (bad for sundials, I imagine!), so I grabbed quick pictures and then headed for shade and our next stop. I’m still blown away by all of the time and measurements that went into such an awe-inspiring structure, and I wish I’d had more time (ha!) on a cooler day to take even more pictures.
It didn’t feel like we had been rushing, but now it was just slightly after noon, and we had completed the day’s sightseeing tour. My guide seemed a bit worried, and my flight wasn’t until 6:00 PM. He suggested lunch, and I readily agreed. On the way, though, my guide wanted to be sure I got the opportunity to see the local hand-made items, and so we stopped at a cloth and carpet factory, and a jewelry store, both of which I walked through much more quickly than I think they wanted, and bought only a few items and not the high-dollar items they were all hoping for. If I recall correctly Jen and I also had this same trouble at all the sights in South Africa. We tour things quickly, take photos and don’t really dawdle, which tends to confuse tour guides! With that said, we did finally decide to head to lunch.
The printmaking process, stamps and paint
At lunch, I got the opportunity to have more naan in an nondescript restaurant that had air conditioning but was otherwise just a very drab building with a bar in one corner. I forget what I tried to order now, but realizing I had nothing more to do until my flight and it being only 1:00 PM now, it was time to have a drink or two! I ordered one drink from the menu, which they had to inform me they were out of… so I ordered another… no luck there either. After trying a third drink they were also out of, I asked the waiter what they did have. He left, and came back to tell me that they only had a long island ice tea. Well… that sounded good enough! With a mixture of booze I enjoyed a mixture of onion and garlic naan, and a tomato chutney I have not been able to get anyone to name for me.
It’s a delicious chutney (which is like a dip I suppose but with larger and inedible ingredients used to flavor just left in the bowl) that is a bit odd from a taste perspective but was something that I really enjoyed. I’d had it at our hotel in Bangalore where no one could tell me what it was except “chutney”. I got a bit more information here, that it contains sour pickle, carrot, and tomato sauce. I haven’t looked it up yet, but I will be! I have a list of foods I need to be able to make that I tasted here, and that is definitely on the list!
I took my time, ordered another drink and another round of naan, and soon it was 3:00. The guide wanted to go, so he came over and asked if I was ready to go. I mentioned that I would actually enjoy another drink, but the waiter brought me the check and said they wouldn’t serve me more than two drinks (this is actually pretty normal here, restaurants tend to look down on drinking in general). That was okay, I decided, and we headed out. We dropped the guide off a short distance away, and elected to head back to the hotel in hopes they would let me hang out in the lobby.
Being more than friendly, they offered to have me stay in the hotel bar, which led to a few gin and tonics with malsala peanuts. Everyone greeted me by name (they looked me up by room number, even if I had checked out) and I enjoyed a brief talk with one of the bartenders about his life in Jaipur. He had grown up in poverty, and with his position at the hotel he supported his family and parents, who all lived together nearby. We talked a bit about my trip and he suggested coming back when it was cooler. Eventually he left me with an electric fly zapper (there were a few around) and gave me more peanuts!
At 4:00, my driver met me and told me the tour company would like to offer me a massage since I had so much time left over at a local massage shop. Having been in 115 degree heat all day, the last thing I wanted was to have some poor person have to touch me, so I declined. Instead, we left the hotel for another jewelry store (at my driver’s suggestion) and I picked up something I had been hoping to get for a friend. Then having no idea what to do with me until 5:30 PM when we were to meet the local office representative and head to the airport, my driver headed to a local temple and suggested I get out of the car and walk around for fifteen minutes.
I was happy to be off the planned path a bit, and took off down a local road with shops bordering the way. I soon lost my driver (who I think was sort of keeping an eye on me), and ducked into a gift paper store. The shop girl looked very confused as I perused for a while, and when I bought some paper looked even more confused, but happily let me purchase the wrapping paper. I hope it makes it home okay! I meandered a bit further but the shops turned into appliance and outdoor furniture shops… and I couldn’t imagine putting them in my suitcase, so I headed back. My driver was happy to see me and mentioned how he thought he had lost me, but we joked about it and I told him I’d given him the slip. He wasn’t very happy!
We met the local representative a few minutes later, headed to the airport, and, after some baggage miscommunication, ended up on the plane. I actually had to check my carry-on when I flew back to Bangalore, I had purchased something that was a bit heavy and put me over the weight restriction. This caused me to have to put it through the only x-ray machine in the airport, only to be told I’d used the wrong one. I checked again, it really was the only one. I went back to the check-in counter to ask if I was confused, and a very nice guy from the airline helped me put it through the same machine I’d already been through again, and then slapped a new sticker on the bag instead of the one I’d received initially. I still have no idea what it meant, but there was a fun moment where you’re not allowed to go past the guard without a boarding pass, and they lady at the counter had torn mine up until I re-scanned my bag. After some arguing, the guard (who was armed with an assault rifle) eventually just wobbled her head, and pointed for me to go through without any paperwork. I’ll have to explain the head-wobble in another post, this one is getting long!
After that point it was smooth sailing, and I was back in Bangalore and back at my hotel. The entire trip had been amazing and I was very happy with my travel agency! I had a fantastic trip I wont soon forget, and what is posted here is a very small subset of all of my pictures from the trip.
If you have any interest in traveling to India, I would encourage you to contact the group that put my trip to Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur together!
V.J’s Exotic Safaris
safaris@southwind.net
http://www.vjsexoticsafaris.com
https://www.facebook.com/vjs.safaris
