Jaipur, Jan 16-18

city gate at Jaipur

Jaipur is known as the "pink city" for the dark pink color of its old city buildings, built by the maharaja in the 1700's after moving the mountain city of 10,000 people down to the valley.  Very pragmatic of the king; there was no more room to expand at the mountaintop.  However, he left a massive fort called Amber Fort, and it is to this fort we go on our first morning.

Amber Fort in sunlight of the afternoon

It's misty when we arrive at Amber Fort, and we are greeted by a turbaned man with a cobra in a sack.  He wants to show us how he can bring the cobra out with his flute, but we decline.  We are much too eager to get to the fort and ride the elephant from the bottom of the rocky hill to the top.  Our elephant's master's name is Jazzqi, and we get on the howdah (chair or carrier) on the back of this gentle beast.  In earlier times the howdahs are pretty spectacular, as we see in the fort's display, with lots of silver and carvings and umbrellas, but ours is low key.  It gets us there, however, with men at our feet trying to sell souvenirs as the elephants make their way to the top; it could be dangerous, but no mishap on our trip.

riding with Jazzqi

ladies' courtyard in zanana at Amber Fort

The fort is massive with a big courtyard in which we arrive through a beautifully carved sandstone gate.  Our guide Sanjay tells us the history and particulars of the fort, and we visit many areas including the zanana which is where the ladies of the court stayed and played.  It was quite a luxurious but sequestered life, guarded and served by eunuchs who had an interesting life themselves according to Sanjay.

wall of pavilion at Amber Fort

dodging trucks and cows on our rickshaw

and a camel on our left

Taking our life in our hands (actually the driver's hands) we hire a bicycle rickshaw and tour the old town. On the way we see Hawa Mahal, Palace of the Winds, where ladies of the court can travel in an underground passage to climb this 5 story structure to view the goings-on in the main street. There they can watch and not be seen.  We are bombarded on all sides by other rickshaws, tuk-tuks, trucks, cars, carts, elephants, camels, and people walking.  Wild!!  And really fun!

Hawa Mahal, Palace of the Wind

screen to hide the ladies of court 

Jantar Mantar, the observatory

Our last stop of the day is at Jantar Mantar, the observatory built by Jai Singh in 1728.  It's now an 2010 World Heritage site and is a huge conglomeration of structures used to foretell eclipses, moon phases, earth tilt, and time to 2 seconds.  Pretty amazing.

Back at our hotel, we prepare to set off tomorrow for Jodhpur, but at around 3 am, we hear a ear-splitting racket on the tin roof of our hotel.  We jump out of bed and race to the front door of the hotel (our window opens onto a covered and enclosed patio, so we can't see outside) to find hail the size of my thumb plummeting from the sky.  Then a downpour.  I hope this won't delay our travel to the next city.