The Pinkish-Orangish City of Jaipur

---

So much to say. So much done. Trying to put it all into words .... where to start?

First, I will admit that "pink" is really orange and I spent a chunk of my time in Jaipur waiting for the pink city to reveal herself to me. Surprise! Did I ever feel silly.

We arrived at a much nicer hotel than our previous hostel. So nice I took pictures, but I won't bore you with them. We even had a garden with tables and chairs.

We went all over the city, which I liked much better than Delhi. Then we went to the Monkey Temple (where I had one use me as a springboard to get to food and saw wild peacocks by the side of the road. The next morning we toured The Amber Fort with a really good tour guide, saw the floating palace. In the afternoon we went to the observatory and inside the pink walls, and in the evening we went to the movies. Yes, the movies. Going to the movies here is a big deal. We saw the newest Hindi hit (not sure if it's Bollywood or not) in a packed theater that clapped everytime a new star came on screen. I'm already a fan of Indian movies--their music and dance numbers put American musicals to shame. Sufficed to say, I love it.

The Amber Fort impressed me the most. Forts here arent' just military they also have palaces in them. The one at the Amber Fort was spectacular. Marble carvings, ornately mirrored walls and inlay, mosaics, detailed frescos, expansive courtyards... I could almost imagine life as it might have been. Our tour guide told us that in the winter they would lay out thick, hand-knotted rugs and hang draperies to keep the warmth from the fires within. There were courtyards for the royals and for the entertainment, including dancing ladies. In the summer the gardens will be in full bloom and the fountains running.

Militarily it was also quite impressive. From the top I could see the old fort next to us and the wall stretching out to the horizon. I could see the elephants lumbering up the long walkway to the front gate. The yellow color seemed to glow in the sunlight. The expanse of the fort seemed unbreachable from the top.

We walked down and out, the same way the elephants were coming in. A "snake charmer" asked if I wanted a look, and I screamed and turned and ran down the steps, with an Indian woman laughing behind me. I found out the snakes aren't real (deadly cobras in a tourist setting? There's a bad idea.) but I still vow to stay away for the rest of the trip. I marveled at the height and expanse of the fort again as I got closer to the road--it seemed even bigger! We stopped in another garden to take more pictures and a swarm of birds kept flying, landing, flying, landing stopping as though there were a square and they had to land on each of the four corners.

After the Amber Fort we went to the Floating Palace. Or, rather, I should say we looked at it across a lake. A polluted lake. Luckily the trash was close to the shoreline and didn't end up in my pictures. As we were standing there marveling at the general splendor, Kent noticed 2 men heave-hoing a large trash bag into the lake. Nice.

We stopped for lunch and then went to the observatory. I can't recall much about it other than that I was impressed by its size and scale. And that someone built it so accurately so long ago without the help of computers. If you go (and I do recommend it), make sure you have a tour guide to explain it to you.

The Pink City is housed in pink walls and also has the palace where the royals currently live. Jaipur is the pink city, Jodhpur the blue city, and Udaipur the white city. Centuries ago carrier pigeons were trained to look for colors and that's how they sent messages from one city to another. The royal family still resides here.

Lastly, our tour guide took us to the complex where they have ceremonies and cremate the bodies of kings and their families. Each king over the centuries has had his own marble structure. All were ornately carved with mindboggling detail. There were statutes of curvatious women, carvings of animals and flowers, and scenes from stories. I even saw where they are building the next structure for the current king! (Sadly, it's just a slab, nothing too exciting.) The whole area was fenced in and had a really calm, but not eerie, feeling to it. It was peaceful. And a good way to end the day.

---

Photos

Post-springboard action
AKA feeding time

The Amber Fort
Note the man serenading us with his horn.

The Amber Fort
The middle top window is where the women used to throw flowers down on the men as they returned home. All windows are screened, as women weren't allowed to be seen by all.