Entering the land of the Rajputs
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
9
158
Trip End
Jul 21, 2007
Jaipur,
India
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
He takes us to Hotel Vaishnava with it's roof top restaurant, internet access and clean facilities and we are happy to settle. Ricky has cleverley used the journey from the train station as a window of opportunity and has made his sales pitch to offer his service as a guide around this sprawling city on the edge of the desert, and has indeed successfully sold us his service for the duration of our stay. He advises us the best and quickest way to see all the sights of The Pink City of Jaipur and commences our tour with the underwater palace.
Rajasthan was ruled by the Rajputs who are a clan of Hindu warlords that basically spent the whole time fighting amongst each other so never extended their kingdom much past the current boundaries
Enormous sundial from the top
. Basically the whole of the old city of Jaipur was built by the ruler of this area of Rajasthan, Maharaja Jai Singh, according to principles set down in the Shilpa-Shastra, an ancient Hindu architectural treatise. The city was painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876. Ricky first took us to see the underwater palace which originally was a nine story building but the surrounding lake was flooded leaving only the top three storeys in view. It's quite a spectacular sight. It looks as if it's just floating on the water and is even more magical at night. From there we took a drive up the mountain side to visit Tiger fort which overlooks the whole city. We gained the benefit of Rickys knowledge when he whipped us up the footpath, past the herds of matching cap and bumbag wearing tourists, slowly sweating their way up the hill, and situated us in the perfect spot to view the sunset over Jaipur. They even had a guy selling Kingfisher albeit at twice the normal amount but you've just got to no?
Feeling relaxed and excited about the rest of our stay having had a fabulous intro to this enchanting place, we set off down the mountain by dark and were lucky enough to witness the rare sight of a wild tiger crossing the road!
An evening meal in the rotating Om Tower restaurant quenches the touristic impulses in us. Great views but the food leaves us cold. The cheesiness of the place is unparalleled as far as we can see, owing solely to the mini club on the floor below the restaurant which was totally deserted until we crossed the threshold, literally triggering the sound system and pop up barman who offered us a beer. We agreed and sat among the plastic cowboys and american theme park like surroundings. terrible. Oh and REALLY REALLY cold as well until they turned the blizzard setting of the AC down
Festival elehpant
. Rickys helicopter alighted from our hotel at 10.30am the following morning and during the course of the day we took in the varied delights of the Jantar Mantar observatory which was like a huge sculpture park created by the architect of the pink city; Jai Singh in 1728 to make astronomic measurements. Awesome in scale. The reason for the massive size of the place is that at the time they were unable to make instruments to a high enough tolerance to make accurate measurements, so they just increased the scale and were thus able to calculate to a much finer level. A really beautiful and impressive place.
We also went to the Royal Gaitor which is at the foot of the hill on which Tiger fort stands and is where all the Cenotaphs of the Maharanas and Maharajas are. They are beautifully and intricately carved out of marble and sandstone and are there to commemorate the lives of the rulers of Jaipur throughout the ages. There were absolutely no other people there and as a result it was really tranquil. All you could hear was the snuffing of a donkey and birds flying around the monuments.
From there our pilot took us back into the Pink City and dropped us off next to Hawa Mahal which is a building that was created specially so that the royal ladies could sit next to the many windows and view the life and processions of the city unfold below. It's been well preserved and is a good example of Rajput artistry with pink, delicately honeycombed sandstone windows, rich in detail and colour: a feast for the eyes. We then braved the bazzares which lie behind it and spend the next two hours haggling wildly for a bedspread. Tiring work.
Well we are off in the morning so have to pack up yet again and hop on a bus to the holy city of Pushkar.
