Day 62
Trip Start
Jun 19, 2008
1
21
40
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Jaipur,
Rajasthan,
India
Saturday, August 23, 2008
We started off at 5 am Friday morning. Friday was Andrew and my three year anniversary, so we woke up, packed, and exchanged gifts. Andrew got me some flowers and two rings in opposing turquoise and coral. I gave Andrew a traditional Rajastani box made out of maple and inlaid with brass so he can display his glass when we get back home. We didn't have much time to celebrate because at 6 we loaded onto the bus, and headed for Jaipur. Jaipur is a city in the state of Rajasthan built in 1727 C.E. It is known as the "Pink City" because when Edward VII came to visit in 1876 Maharaja Man Singh II painted the whole city with red mud to make it more uniform looking. Edward VII said that the whole city looked pink, and the name stuck. It is now law for all shops within the city gate to paint their buildings with the red mud. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, Clarks Hotel. It is a very nice hotel with a swimming pool and everything
Traffic Jam
. The first sight we went to see was the city palace and museum. The city palace is marked off from the rest of the city because it is painted yellow instead of pink. It is where the royal family lived when the city was founded, and still lives today. It also has the largest silver objects in the world, two large vases. They were used by Madho Sing II when he went to England in 1901 to carry water from the Ganges because he didn't trust the water he would be drinking in England. Pretty ironic as our main problem traveling in India is finding clean water... Inside the palace there was a textiles museum as well as a weapons museum. There were also some little shops to buy the famous handicrafts of Rajasthan. We went back to the hotel (exhausted) and ate at the mediocre buffet. We were disappointed to find out that the pool was closed because there was a private party being held. Instead of being discouraged, we went downstairs to join the party (what's the worst they can do, kick us out?). It turned out to be a party for Indian Oil Company, who had just made a deal with another company. They had a DJ, a buffet, an open dance floor, and what seemed to be like paid young dancers to keep the party going. It was slightly awkward. But we danced for awhile with them and they taught us how to do some of their dance moves. Slowly the party died down and we went to sleep.
The next day we woke up early and got on the bus to leave for Amber Fort
Day 1: City Palace
. Amber Fort is an old palace up in the hills about 11 km north of Jaipur. It was used from 1037 to 1728 C.E. before Jaipur was built. Because the palace is up atop a hill, the buses can't get right up to it. Instead, we were dropped off at the bottom of the hill and rode an elephant up the rest of the way. We walked up these stairs to a platform, where the elephant would rest it's trunk on the platform to stabilize itself. Then you climb onto his back and hold on! Our elephant was really fast and was passing all of the other elephants. Once up in the city palace we walked around and noticed that they were doing renovation work (basically repainting all of the walls). I asked one of the guys if I could repaint a flower and he let me! Now I can say a little piece of the palace was helped by me. Walking around more, we found all of these smaller little passage ways within the walls. They led to little rooms, and one even had what looked like a bath tub in it! They would fill the bathtub by hauling water up from the lake below, to a point higher then the bath tub. Then they would release the water and it would jet out into the tub because of gravity, basically to become a spa. More exploring and we found a wheel attached to buckets that were used to bring up the water. There were also more shopping stalls within the palace. One stall was had gemstones, and right next to the stall a guy was using a lapidary! A lapidary is a machine that we use back at the Craft Center in Davis often to polish stones or glass, it is a series of disks of varying fineness to be able to polish the stone evenly, it's a very time consuming process
1-Day 1: City Palace
. The one at the Craft Center is obviously electric but this guy's was hand powered! He used a stick and rope tied together to push and pull the wheel and with his other hand he would polish the stone on the wheel. It was so funny (I included to pictures for the Craft Center people)! Also in the market place there was a snake charmer (video included). We went back to the hotel for lunch, and then headed out again to Jantar Mantar, an observatory built to study astrology. It has the largest stone sundial in the world. It looked a bit more like a modern art park than anything else, and trying to capture how big these structures were was hard. It also had crazy charts used for astrological signs that would have been used to check the compatibility of marriages of the royal family. After that we were allowed to roam around the city on our own, and we all pretty much decided to go shopping. Rajasthan is known for its handicrafts (because it near the Thar Desert, there wasn't good agriculture so the people would have made a living making crafts). I bought some bangles, a purse, some dolls, and earrings. It was a lot of fun, but because the place is so touristy it's necessary to haggle a lot. To shopping in India is a whole art form. First you have to show interest in an item; the shopkeeper will tell you how nice it is and start his pitch. Then you ask for the price, and he'll probably say something ridiculous. Then you laugh, and half his price
2-Day 1: City Palace
. Then he looks offended and tells you how much more it's worth. Then you walk away from the store, and then he tells you a better price. Then you come back, and then you half his price again, walk away again, come back again, walk away again. It's quite tiring. Andrew and I decided that we wanted one of the beautiful silk bedspreads that are so famous in India. They are beautiful raw silk with gold thread boarder. For a queen size bedspread in America it's about $100. We found a red, orange, and yellow bedspread that we really liked, and the guy started at 4,000 Rs (about $100). I wanted it for 800 Rs ($20). So I told him 800 Rs, he laughed. Then it started to rain, which kind of puts a damper on the whole walking away process. But we really wanted the bedspread, and I could tell he really wanted to sell it to us. It took walking out of the store 5 times, and finally walked a block down the street with him running after us to get the bedspread for 800 Rs, I was pretty proud of us. I was ready to buy it when he got to 850 Rs, but Andrew stood firm in 800 Rs, and so that's what we paid. We went back to the hotel, ate, went swimming (no private party this time), and went to bed exhausted. The next day we left for Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal!
Comments
Day 62
Great pictures. Look forward to reading your account of this trip. Stay safe. Miss you both.
love vicki
Elephant rides YaY!
How cool it that to get to ride an elephant as part of 'public transportation.' Love it. The city and palace sound so interesting. Lucky you to get to paint a flower on that wall - what a beautiful mural.
And what about that snake charmer - Oh my! Hope he's really charmed it and it's not charmed him. Looks like pretty dangerous 'pet' to have.
Glad you're having fun and experiencing all that you can.
Love
Aunt Jeanne
Sha-Zammm!
Great job, guys! Crashing corporate parties! Shopping till you drop! Haggling with the best of them! Sticking with your offering price! The speediest elephant in India! Laughing so much your sides hurt! Lurking through off-the-beaten-trail passages (without getting caught!)! Painting one of the wall mural flowers! And then (thank you!) taking some pictures of that stone observatory in Jaipur!! Oh, be still, my beating heart! I am so pleased, and so proud of both of you, no longer amateurs, but seasoned travelers. (so jealous, we are!)