The pink glow of Jaipur


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Asia » India » Rajasthan » Jaipur
August 16th 2009
Published: September 1st 2009
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We were pleased to arrive at our hotel - the lovely 'Pearl Palace' - in Jaipur as it was still raining. We were all a little shaken as on the way our driver just missed hitting some cows that wandered out across the 6 lane highway. He slammed on the brakes, luckily not skidding as the roads were wet - the cows were then in front of a bus beside us which somehow missed them as well. Had they hit them I'm sure they would have bounced on to our car. The cows just kept wandering across the road! I've a lot of admiration for Indian drivers - most we've used have been really good drivers. After settling into our hotel we went for a walk around the neighbourhood once the rain stopped and ended up going on a tour of the city in an auto rickshaw. That wasn't a good idea as the bumps in the road upset my back and I had back pain for the next couple of days. The roads were terrible - we found out later that the Government had dug up all the roads to lay water pipes and then left it half finished until after the monsoon season. We weren't particularly impressed with Jaipur and it was our least favourite place in Rajasthan, even after a few days in the capitol.
Jaipur is known as the Pink City because all the old buildings are painted a terracotta pink. They were originally painted pink (the colour of hospitality) in 1876 to welcome the Prince of Wales. Today all new buildings within the old city walls must still be painted that colour. Avenues divide the city into large rectangles, each one specialising in a different craft. The streets were very long, all the footpaths were covered but you could not still walk on the footpaths as the shop keepers had claimed them as shop extensions. That evening we had a lovely meal at our hotel - the roof top restaurant has amazing furniture, each piece different and designed by the owner.
Next morning back into the city to visit the Hawa Mahal, the landmark building of Jaipur. It's nickname is the Wind Palace and it was built in 1799 to allow the ladies of the court to watch Royal processions. The foundations of the building are only one foot deep, it's five stories high and very narrow in depth. There are 593 tiny windows when viewed from the outside but I loved the interior as it was full of coloured glass panels, delicate screens and was wonderfully cool with a through breeze - hence its nickname. After we booked a walking tour of the centre of the city which we enjoyed - it gave us a great insight of how the city developed. The streets were lined with tourist shops and touts which made it a little unpleasant to wander. You do get rather tired of the constant pressure. We looked for a lunch stop and had a lot of trouble finding somewhere. Unlike Australian city streets the shopping areas are not dotted with cafes - you will have streets of jewelery shops, more streets lined with sari shops, another with metal products and eventually you may find one lined with food stalls.
Another taxi was booked for the next day - it was a long but enjoyable day of sightseeing. We visited the two forts and the Amber Fort. The Amber Fort (a fortified palace) was spectacular, set high above the city and surrounded by 18 klms of stone wall which stretched across the hills. They were the best walls we've seen since the Great Wall of China. To reach the Amber Fort, so called because of the amber stone it was built from, you could go up by elephant or be driven up. We drove - my back couldn't have handled an elephant ride. The mosaic work around the gateways was really beautiful, some of the best we've seen. Inside it comprised of three palace areas - the Winter Palace sparkling with mirrored mosaics, the Monsoon Palace was less spectacular and we only saw the Summer Palace from a distance as it was closed for renovation. It was quite funny to watch the long line of elephants - over 100 - make their slow way along the wide road up to the fort from above. The fort was the busiest tourist site we've seen since we came to India - it was very crowded.
Our next stop was the Tiger Fort (Nahargarh Fort) which is currently being renovated. Sadly it is also still the site of graffiti - I saw one Indian boy scratching his name into the paintings on the wall. It was a warren of rooms, most still showing walls with paintings in good condition though as many were damaged with graffiti. Very sad to see. Back along the rough road to the massive Jaigarh Fort which overlooks the Amber Fort - both buildings are within the 18 klm wall. Jerry loved this fort because it has the largest muzzle loading cannon ever built. It took 100kg of gunpowder and a 50 kg cannon ball and was only ever fired once, as a test firing. Another interesting part of this fort was the massive wall as our car actually drove along the top of it to get to the cannon! We had a great viewpoint of the Lake Palace from the hill - the palace is now off limits to tourist as instead of being surrounded with water it is now full of water1 Unfortunately it is sinking and the government is desperately trying to salvage it before any more damage is done to it. To finish the day off we visited the Central Museum (Albert Hall), an interesting collection of items (the dozens of plaster models in strange yoga positions were quite fascinating) in a spectacular building.
The next day we headed out of Jaipur to visit the painted cities of the Shekhawati region - mored about that in the next chapter. Upon our return from Shekhawati I spent a day ill with a tummy upset - first one I've had since we left home. The final thing we did in Jaipur was visit the City Palace which we were disappointed with. It was as expensive as all the other palaces we had seen in Rajasthan but there wasn't much to see inside. I did enjoy the textile museum within the complex - I love looking at fabrics - but most of the decorated rooms were off limits unless you paid an extra 2500 rupees. (AUD$65). Nobody seemed to be paying the extra. We did see the largest silver objects in the world - 1.6 metres high vessels used for carrying holy water from the Ganges to England when the Maharajah visited there. After visiting all the other palaces in Rajasthan we found this one an anti climax. I think Bickaner Palace was still my favourite, though Udaipur was spectacular. Our last stop in Jaipur was across the road from the palace - the Jantar Mantar, an observatory built in 1728 full of stone and metal sculptures. These sculptures were actually weird instruments used for measuring all types of things from time, to position of the sun and moon for Hindu calendars, for calculating eclipses, all manner of odd things in fact. We didn't presume to understand any of it. Next morning we left Jaipur and Rajasthan for Agra and the Taj Mahal. We had thorougly enjoyed Rajasthan - the lovely hotels we stayed in for not a lot of money, the gorgeous vibrant colours everybody wore, the camels - it was a great month and we can certainly see why it is the most visited state of India.


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