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Published: February 1st 2007
Jaipur is just like I pictured the whole of India before I came here. It's the capital city of dusty, rocky Rajasthan, where the desert is, so it's a good place to see people with their camels and turbans. It's got a long history of Moghuls and Maharajas that I don't pretend to know much of, but which lends its character to the city. The walled centre is known as teh "Pink City" - a name borrowed, unsurprisingly, from the apparent tradition of coating the walls in a pinkish, baked-clay wash..Even the shop shutters are painted pink. I think it's a law or something, to impress the tourists. And there are plenty of them.
Jaipur is part of India's "Golden Triangle" - the other two locations being Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) and Dheli. These are the three destinations that all the one-week package tourists visit, which shows when you go shopping here - the first price is astronomical, but falls off quickly whe they realise you have a sense of the value of things here. Only today we were chased by a guy who started trying to sell us some dolls for US$10 each (or about Rs 500). We weren't really interested, but he didn't believe us (Jen made the mistake of saying "Ten rupees?" when he said "Ten each, madam!" Which meant she was interested despite all claims to the contrary) - the price kept falling over the space of about 3 minutes, until it reached bottom at Rs100 for two (or Rs50 for one - a tenth of first price!) and he gave up. We didn't say a word to him in this time. They ask ridiculous prices because the package tourists don't even think to haggle. They just take the first price offered and think it's a bargain.
First full day, we took a look at the palaces in the city. The first place was nice enough, nice paintings and twirly bits on the ceilinge etc etc (you know the score). The standout bits for me were the fantastic armory with loads of gold plated and bejwelled exotic-and-painful-looking weaponry (no photography allowed, though) and the guy down the hall from there who started playing some mean drums. Not sure what for, but it was pretty good. Asked for a tip, but people want free money for everything here, so it's offputting when they ask for it.
The highlight of the day (for me) was the fantastic C17th observatory biult by Maharaja Someone, who was very interested in Astrology. The sundials are great sloping staircases you can climb up. The largest sundial in the world is situated here - supposedly accurate to 3.3 seconds, though the blurring of the shadow makes it more like 20 seconds. Also here are clever hemispherical depressions bearing maps of the heavens on which the sun leaves a shadow at the point it's currently in, dials that tell you which major constellation (i.e. Leo, Libra, Pisces) the earth is currently facing (there needs to be one of these for each of the 12 major constellations and they are only useful for the month of the year in which the sun occupies that one). There's an instrument for measuring the sun's angle of elevation at it's apex (only useful at noon each day) and one that's got two sundials facing away from each other, inclined at such an angle that the sun will only illuminate one face, depending on whether it's north or south of the equator. Everything is huge. I wouldn't have had the merest inkling of teh use of any of these things had it not been for the guide we hired at the entrance. Apologies for those of you reading this who aren't interested in this sort of thing, but I am, so I've written about it.
The Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds, was built by the Mughals, to house their women, who were kept under very strict Purdah (veiling). It's a smallish palace which is much more impressive from the outside than the inside. The windows are designed so that the women could see out to watch processions and suchlike, but nobody could see in. Some of you might sound that this particular brand of Purdah sounds archaic, but Rachael, who we were travelliong with until we parted ways a week or so ago, wrote her university dissertation on this, and it's still practiced in some areas of the Indian subcontinent.
Today we left our hotel, took a cycle-rickshaw for Rs20 to the bus stand opposite the Hawa Mahal (brag, brag) and took a bus for Rs8 each to Amber Fort, 11km oustide Jaipur. This is set on one of the impressive ridges you can see overlooking the city, surrounded by impressive mountains, all lined with impressive fortifications and impressive walls (thesaurus? who needs 'em?). It's big. You can get elephant rides up it, but we had enough of elephant rides after our trek way back in Chiang Mai, and they are an extortionate Rs450. More for the package tourists, really. The vendors here asked particularly amusing prices for things. I've already mentioned the doll seller, but another young boy tried to sell us a book of postcards for Rs600! That's the best yet. And to think people actually pay that, not even thinking that they are paying £8 for 10 postcards.
Anyway, the fort itself, like I said, is huge. The twiddly bits are nice enough, but personally I was more fascinated by the endless labyrinthine set of passageways. It's the sort of place you can wander around for ages, debating which passageway to go along next, looking for interesting corners. Nice. We decided not to get a guide, mainly (I think) because I'd read about the mazelike quality of the fort and I wanted to be able to get lost in it of my own accord.
Tomorrow, we're off to a nature reserve to look at some ofthe wildlife. By the sound of it, this one has mostly birds. We were going to go to one famed for its tigers (you've a good chance of seeing themthere) but on closer inspection, it's expensive, complicated and you can't be sure you'll get a seat on the safari trucks to go tiger spotting once you've payed the daily entrance fee, so we've changed our plan to a more laid back one. From there we'll head on to Agra, to see the Taj Mahal.
Hope all at home are well.
Love to all,
Sam
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Joss
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hi bro!
I like the way you just throw that in there: "From there we'll head on to Agra, to see the Taj Mahal." like it means nothing. I just got back from a little mni holiday to Slovinia with a few friends from uni. it was really impressive! (lol) we spent most of the time in the capital city of LjubLjiana wich has architecture reminicent of Prague or Vienna. its a really friendly place where watitresses are happy to chat. lolts of nice touches as well, like snacks being brought to the table when you enter a bar or cafe, or water being provided automatically. We also went to the city of Protejne (pretty sure thats right) for a day to see an amazing cave complex. The second largest in the world they claim, it goes back about 30km into the rock or some equally impressive number. That night we headed to Kranj to see a band called terrafolk that Jo knew. They were amazing! They played both traditional and newer songs. They were sort of metal on folk instruments at times. They were also very funny, judging by the laughs coming from the crowd though we didnt get most of the jokes, just the musical ones. Anyway, see you less than a month! love you broXXX