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Published: April 18th 2005
Jaipur City Gate
One of the many gates into the old city, each of them differentWe immediately caught a bus from Nawalgarh to
Jaipur, when it was about to leave. It was again a luxury coach, with only two seats on both sides of the aisle, and for the first time we could also store Stephan’s bigger backpack in the luggage compartment overhead. The trip went ahead without any complications or special events. Once again we arrived in darkness and as the bus was entering the bus stand, we were already spotted by a rickshaw tout. Anyway, for the first time, there was the system of prepaid taxis, which gives you a rough idea about the real prices and how much you have been ripped off so far. We wanted to stay at a place where all the other backpackers put up but we did not like it at all. So we asked the rickshaw driver about other hotels, and the nice prepaid system collapsed. The backpackers’ place had been close to the centre, now we drove further away, but the district was nice and very quiet. Our hotel was a medium-priced one at the end of a dead-end street and provided with a nice little garden. As we had no idea about the surroundings yet,
Jaipur Palace Gate
Nice pink gate painted in light blue and white we chose to have dinner in the hotel, where we could not escape a man and his string puppets. His little brother was singing “Frere Jacques”, a French children’s song and pronounced the words in such a horrific accent that Stephan decide to teach him a correct pronunciation and explain the meaning of the words. The puppet player was very skilled and we were quite impressed but refrained from buying a puppet although he quite insisted. After the show and a nice tip they left and we enjoyed our non-vegetarian meal on the rooftop.
Fortunately we had both fully recovered by now and were bursting with energy to explore the city centre. Jaipur is a big city with approximately 3 million inhabitants. The old city is encircled by a wall painted in pink and has several beautifully painted entrance gates. The
City of Victory was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Jai Singh, a ruler very interested in mathematics and science, the layout of the streets was based a mathematical grid of nine squares representing the ancient Hindu map of the universe. The main streets are 33 yards wide (33 is auspicious in Hinduism); the lesser ones are graded in
What a car!
We wondered how long it has been standing there width down to 4 m, all being in proportion to one another. In Jai Singh’s days, the buildings were painted in a variety of colours, pink (a traditional colour of welcome) was used in 1853 in honour of the visit by Prince Albert, and the colour is still used. We drove to the City Palace, occupying the Central Square, but before entering it we wanted to eat something and looking for a restaurant we passed by Jaipur’s most photographed monument, the Palace of the Winds. Stephan of course took some pictures, when suddenly our camera let us down. It would not focus any more and it was almost impossible to move the objective. We were quite desperate, it was Sunday, many shops were closed and we had no idea where to have it repaired. Stephan did everything to clean the lens as far as possible, but to no avail. But people were friendly and helpful and we got the address of a camera repair shop. We did not enter the City Palace this day, we want to provide our readers with nice pictures all the time.
After this we took a ride to one of Jaipur’s main streets, the
Guards
Stephan got nice company Mirza Ismail Road, which is the restaurant road, one eating place beside the other, you are spoilt for choice. We later walked around a lot and noticed that shops or workshops of one kind were always clustered, a system which goes back to the days of the havelis, where each district housed a particular trade. The system is very interesting but it can drive you mad when you look for something special and happen to be in the wrung region. One part of the restaurant district especially interested Klaudia, that is the lassi section. For those who don’t know: a lassi is a dairy product, thicker than buttermilk and thinner than curd. Klaudia is just crazy about it, as long as they don’t put sugar into it, in hot weather it perfectly quenches your thirst and cools you. There she got the best lassis do far, this is for sure! The lassis are sold in clay tumblers, which stay humid and keep the delicious drink cool for quite a long time. As we could not do much sightseeing, we decided to keep our readers informed and worked on our travel blog for a long time. Each coin has two sides,
Maharaja Guesthouse
Astonishing symmetry in white marble (if we only had had photoshop to remove the dot from the sky, we would have done it for you) one has to think positive!
Next morning, Stephan drove to the camera repair shop, while Klaudia was enjoying herself in the hotel garden, writing her diary, reading and observing the numerous birds and squirrels. Stephan was back soon, the shop only opened at 11 a.m., and he brought Klaudia a lassi, what a nice surprise. We then went back to the shop together, which was held by an old man who was a specialist for analogue reflex cameras. His little shop was squeezed in between many medicine wholesalers and he had two pretty girls helping him, especially with the English. He refused to open the camera but gave Stephan some equipment to clean it thoroughly, a blowing device and a brush on top. Thank God, the zoom worked again afterwards, the poor camera had taken in too much dust in the desert! There were still several black dots on the pictures, but this man would not touch a digital camera, instead he gave us an address in Delhi, where we would turn to when in the city. Anyway, the man was very friendly and would not accept any payment!
We were not far from the
City Palace (1730)
Rajendra Pol
What a lively colour! and walked there, past all the shopkeepers who were so eager to sell us whatever. While entering the Palace through the
Virendra Pol (drum gate), you immediately came across the
Mubharak Mahal, a huge building inside a large courtyard. It was originally built as a guesthouse for the maharaja, an immaculately conceived two-storied building designed to the same cosmological plan in miniature as the city itself - a square divided into a 3x3 square grid. Even if you are not aware of these facts, you can’t help admiring the building’s perfect proportions in white marble. These days it houses a collection of textiles, which generously illustrates life at the maharaja’s court. Then we passed a beautifully carved and painted gate flanked by two huge monolithic elephants and equipped with an impressive brass door. By the way, it were the numerous heavy brass doors that impressed us the most. In the next courtyard you find a strange columned building, an open hall that used to be the hall of private audience. It is painted in pastel colours and displays a kitschy amount of stucco. Some weapons are on display there, as well as the world’s two largest silver urns, each containing
Hall of private audience
Here the Maharaja welcomed his guests 900 litres. They were used by a ruler who went to England and wished to carry water from the Ganges with him. He was a devout Hindu and whenever he touched a non-Hindu person, he washed his hands in the holy water. In England he certainly will have needed such an amount of water! On our way to the private quarters of the royal family (they are not open to the public) we came into a small courtyard with four astonishing gates. The first is the peacock gate (the peacock is India’s national bird), where you can find peacocks painted and carved in all sizes. The second gate is the lotus gate, which is covered by lotus petals all over; the third gate represents spring in dark green colours and the fourth is summer, in lime green. We again saw a nice collection of miniature paintings in a stunning hall from the 18th century. This evening and the next (April 11 and 12) we watched the colourful Gangaur Festival, about which you can read in the next entry.
Next monument was the
Palace of the Winds (1799), forming part of the eastern wall of the City Palace complex. It
Detail
What a mixture; Arabic arch, European chandelier and Hindu decoration is a five-storied pyramid structure made up of small casements, each with tiny windows and arched roofs with hanging cornices. The maharaja who had it built was a devotee of Krishna and wanted the building to look like the crown on the god’s head. Looked upon from the street it seems very impressive, but once you are in, you realise that it almost merely consists of a façade. It was built for the ladies of the harem, but when you walk around - or climb the numerous staircases - you can hardly believe that it was actually lived in, it is so uncomfortable a building. After that we again walked around and admired the craftsmen and beautiful gates in the city wall. Stephan was so happy that the camera worked again that he was so incautious to take position in the middle of a road, and although Klaudia did her best to warn him from approaching vehicles, he was touched by a motorbike and dropped the camera! Fortunately, nothing had happened to him and the camera had not been damaged either. He only lost a tiny screw of his glasses, which of course could not be found again. People pointed
Silver Urn
It was used for transporting the Ganges' holy water to pagan England an optician out to us, who immediately replaced the missing part and also fastened the earpieces, and when we wanted to pay him, he was a bit offended. You can get very good service in India, and when you need help, people are very helpful.
The city’s founder was very interested in natural sciences and an astronomer himself. In this quality he built the
Observatory, Jantar Mantar (1728 - 1734), literally
Instruments for measuring the harmony of the heavens. Jai Singh wanted things on a grand scale, on the grounds you find 16 instruments, each serving a particular function and giving an accurate reading. They include: sundials, an instrument for locating the position of the Pole Star, an Observer’s Seat for the maharaja, another for measuring the longitude and latitude of celestial bodies, the “King of Instruments” for calculating the Hindu calendar once a year, other instruments for finding the altitudes or the position and movements of celestial bodies, 12 sundials for the signs of the zodiac and finally one acting as a double-check on all the other instruments.
The City Palace in Jaipur is different from other palaces in Rajasthan, because it is not surrounded by ramparts.
Cleaning
Hurry up, we have to clean the whole palace for the Pakistani president! This is due to the fact that the city is encircled by a chain of hills, where many forts are situated on top. One of these forts is
Amber Fort from the beginning of the 17th century, where we went next. We had to hire an auto rickshaw because the day was already quite advanced. Slowly climbing the hill, we passed very many persistent vendors and also a high amount of beggars, we really felt uncomfortable. Once again, you enter by a huge gate with an impressive old door, then on the left you will find an open hall of public audience and pillared arcades, from which you had an excellent view on a beautiful garden almost completely surrounded by water. The next gate was wonderful, painted all over in stunning detail and beauty. The next courtyard led into the former female quarters with a nice garden and an incredible hall decorated all over in colourful mosaics and mirrors. The Palace closed around 5 p.m. and at that time, the monkeys took over. These incredible animals knew exactly at what time the visitors left and started foraging the dustbins! Although we had to rush through, we enjoyed the palace’s setting
Ganesh Pol
This door led into the courtyard with the four beautiful gates and beauty.
We liked Jaipur quite much, because after many small and dusty places we enjoyed the big city feel. Due to the problems with the camera and the Gangaur Festival, we spent again several days there. For people who have little time at their disposition, it is though not necessary to spend more than two days in Jaipur, from the point of view of the sights, it is not extraordinary. Traffic is quite dense, for the first time we saw a huge amount of bicycle rickshaws, apart from the usual vehicles and animals and we even all but collided with an elephant in the streets! The administration is quite active in regulating the traffic, one big road is a one-way street in the morning and becomes a normal one again after the rush hour, fascinating system.
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peacock gate
Wow! Great site with fascinating photos. I was looking for peacock arts and your peacock gate photo is really beautiful. Have bookmark your travel blog. Now I am planning a trip to Bagan. Glad if you could give me some info on the safety there as well as the cheap lacquerwares that I can buy. My email: soi41@hotmail.com Cheers