Rambling through Rajasthan - Jaipur - Part 2

The Old City of Jaipur (Pink City)
Like many of the old cities, Jaipur’s Old City is a walled city, entrance into which is through large, beautiful gates. The gates lead onto wide streets that were being beautified with tinsel and lights in preparation for the Diwali Festival(The Festival of Lights) that was to start in three or four days time. The streets, although wide, were hectic as the locals were out in their masses to ready themselves for the festival. It is similar to Christmas - a happy time with families, a time for giving presents, prettying homes and selves.

 

 Scaffolding for a Diwali Arch

- constructed with bamboo and material strips   

The clay pots are throw-aways - one use only

 

It is in the old city that theHawa Mahal and the City Palace Complex can be found. The Hawa Mahal is a major landmark in Jaipur. Originally built for the royals to peer at on the mere mortals down on the street and to watch processions from behind shutters. Hawa Mahal means Palace of the Winds as once upon a time the winds used to whisper through all the little holes of the shutters. Palace of the winds no longer since someone had the bright idea to put glass behind the holes during one of the renovations.

The back of the Hawa Mahal seen from the observatory

The Hawa Mahal is part of the city palace complex. The palace itself is through a series of gates and away from the street.  Like most palace complexes in India it is a series of buildings - the Welcome Palace, the Maharani's Palace (queen's apartments), audience Halls, courtyards etc..

One of the series of entry gates

A puppeteer in an outer courtyard

Hall of Private Audiences

 

The Peacock Gate

The Next to the Palace is the Jantar Mantar, an observatory started in 1728 by a royal with a passion for astronomy. For a mere pleb such as myself, with little to no knowledge of astrological instruments, it appears to be a garden filled with weird and wonderful giant sculptures.

 

This one I remember as the concept wasn't beyond me.

It is a huge sundial!



 This beautiful series of twelve structures has something to do with the zodiac signs

 

 

 

A reminder of my previous life!

 



 A smaller, though still large, sundial.

Rambling through Rajasthan - Jaipur - Part 1

4th November, 2012
Once again the trains for this leg of the journey were fully booked  so Jai, our excellent driver, escorted us to Jaipur. Opting for a leisurely start we departed Agra around 10am and headed off. Once out of the Agra hustle and traffic jams we cruised (in India cruising is 80klms per hour - the roads not suitable for greater speeds) along a straight, flat, dusty, monotonous road for the next 235klms. The monotony was in the lack of variation in the road, a road difficult for the driver as there is nothing to challenge focus, attention or concentration, often leading to driver fatigue. The warmth of the morning sun shining through the car windows made us drowsy and we nodded off regularly. However, when awake, it was always interesting to watch the passing vista ofIndian life.

Jai's family live in Bharatpur, just over the border from Uttar Pradesh, in Rajasthan. He kindly took us to his home for lunch where we met his lovely wife and beautiful younger daughter. It was great to have a home cooked meal. 

Just outside of Jaipur we left the highway and headed along a narrow dusty road through a rocky and barren gorge. I was feeling confused as I knew Jaipur was the capital of Rajasthan and therefore a sizable city, so why the bad road? Jai didn’t say anything until he had parked the car. We were at Galta, the temple of the sun god but also known as the monkey temple. Late afternoon or dusk they converge on the temple in their hundreds. 

Early evening we arrived at our hotel for the next three nights. On our arrival we discovered that we had Jai to drive us around for the time that we were in Jaipur. Unexpected news for which we were grateful as some of the sights that we wished to see were out of Jaipur - doable on our own, of course, but a lot less hassling around with our own driver than multiple negotiations with tuk-tuk drivers.  

The sights around and in Jaipur
Amber
Our first day was utilising Jai while we had him and visiting the out of town sights. It was a beautiful day. We have finally left behind the pollution or, at least, most of it. The fort-palace  of Amber, or Amer, is a perched on a rocky mountainside above a lake or river (water of some kind).

Elephant rides for the tourists up to the Amber Fort/Palace

 

Amber Fort in the foreground.

Jaigarh Fort towering above.

 

Me and one of the fort workers

Above that is  Jaigarh, another fort, built later for better protection against invaders. It was never captured. Tunnels exist between the two forts so that during the times of siege the royals could be evacuated.

 

The new inhabitants of Jaigarh

 

And the new inhabitants don't mind helping themselves to the freezer when no-one is looking!

The views of the surrounding countryside from both, but particularly Jaigarh, are spectacular. It is a rocky countryside but very beautiful in its own way. The surrounding hills are surmounted with fortification walls. They are the Great Walls of India and seem to lead off into the distance. They would have been great to walk along but it did not seem that did not seem to be an option. The forts and the wall, the views, the whole lot, was impressive!

On our way back to Jaipur in the afternoon we visited another smaller fort, Naghargarh (Tiger Fort), which overlooks the city of Jaipur and the Water Palace.

And on the shores of this beautiful lake ........