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Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur - all the 'purs'
Entry 15 of 93 | show all | print this entry |
Tomorrow we leave romantic Udaipur to take the overnight train back to Delhi. We've been on the road for a little over a week, but it seems longer because we've seen so much and had so many cool experiences. We are having fun and most of the time the girls are smiling and laughing. That's an excellent sign. We must make sure they're fed, get enough sleep and have a good book for the down times, then they're doin' fine!
Jaipur
We arrived in Jaipur late at night and right away caught an auto-rickshaw staigtht to our hotel. It was so late, that the lights were out and we were a bit unsure of what we should do. We found the check-in desk and there was a note to P. Roome, "Here are your keys to your rooms. We'll see you in the morning. Good night. Management". Grrreeaatt!!! When we woke up in the daylight, we found ourselves in a little oasis, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We had a nice breakfast, then off to explore.
Jaipur is a busy city! We took an auto-rickshaw downtown to the City Palace. The museum was fantastic. The art depicted the history of the many different maharajas of Rajisthan. We learned quite a bit about the different maharajas and their particular talents (and quirks) they brought to their reign. We spent time wandering around the City Palace to see the many gardens, courtyards, shops and buildings. The architecture is a mix of mughal and rajasthani.
Next on our days agenda was to the Jantar Mantar Astronomy Centre. It was the most interesting place we've seen. We took a guide because we knew we didn't want to miss anything~ we were amazed at the incredible accuracy, down the the milimetre, of the various instruments. It was built in 1728 by Jai Singh. He was able to measure time by watching the sun shadows on the sundial. It is amazing the accuracy of the huge structures he built. Another area within the courtyard were the zodiac signs which are used to calculate eclipses. Again, we were so impressed by the astronomy centre~ brilliant minds!
We caught an auto-rickshaw to Hawa Mahal, built in 1799, it is a lovely palace built for the women of the court to watch the crowds below from behind shutters. There were lots of nooks and crannies to wander through and wind our way to the top of the five-stories. At the very top, we were able to get a great view of Jaipur. I thought this was one of the most beautiful buildings we had seen~ wonderful details in the architecture. It is made of the typical red coloured sandstone that gives the city its name, the Pink City.
We found a local hole in the wall restaurant. On the ground floor was a "take-out" stand with the guy cooking in the huge stir-fry looking pans. Interesting foods hanging, spices all around and he was cooking up a storm. We were led up a narrow staircase to a little room with 4 other tables. We filled the last table and right away ordered the usual two mineral waters. The food was excellent and the little restaurant was a memorable little spot. I think two weeks before the girls would not have ventured into a local restaurant like this, but they were fine with the choice and cleaned their plates, so all is good!
Back to the cute little hotel for a swim and planning for the next day.
We had a great auto-rickshaw driver who stayed with us the whole next day. He was an older, distinguished looking gent who gave us lots of useful information as we drove to various places. We went to Amber Fort, (1592) which is outside of the city. We saw lots of elephants ready to take people up to the fort. They were painted and decorated with the fancy adornments, but I couldn't help feeling sorry for the big beasts. Too hot to be lugging tourists up a big hill. I was quite happy to be in the rickshaw. Amber Fort was lovely, but very difficult to understand our guide. I was impressed with the carved marble and inlay of different gems. Maharaha Man Singh (commander of Akbar's army in this area) had this place built. He had 12 wives and each wife had her own bedroom. There were many back corridors leading from his room to the different rooms of his wives. His first, "main" wife was the only one with a "bathtub" dug into the stone in her living quarters. I guess the others... had a bucket?!
We did a silly thing and decided to walk up the side of the steep hill to Nahargarh or Tiger Fort. It was during the heat of the day, but not wanting to miss anything, and we wanted to see the view of the city, off, I mean, up we went!! Found a little place for 2 bottles of mineral water and a couple of Pepsi drinks. Two men said, "Canadians, right?!" Both from Ottawa. One went to Glebe High School! (Carly will go there next year when we return). He lives in Madrid now. The other lives in Montreal. We had a good laugh. The next morning we saw them at the hotel. We sat and chatted with them and exchanged emails. Juan asked us to call if we decided to go to Spain. Nice guys. This is part of the reason I like travelling, meeting people from all over, and from home! Small world, eh!
Jodhpur~ We have only one full day in this city. We spent most of the day at Mehrangarth Fort, built in 1459. It was the most incredible fort we've seen! I don't think any other could top this fort.They had self-guided audio tours. The fortress is way up on a massive hill overlooking the city. We each had our own tour and could wander at our own pace. Inside was a wonderful musem and the audio tour explains the various artifacts and art work. There are a number of palaces within the fort and beautiful courtyards. The repairs and upkeep of this fort is well done by the current maharaja.
As we were leaving the fort, Molly noticed this guy wearing a t-shirt that said "IPOOD". We laughed at the joke and thought about our friend Pat, the IPOD king! Molly and I followed him to see if we could take a picture, but he walked down this pathway which led to the village down below. Carly and Peter caught up to us and we all decided to forget the rickshaw and just walk back into town via the pathway. It took us into the old town, also the Blue City. The blue of the buildings apparently repels mosquitoes! As we walked along, we chatted with a young man who invited us to his little restaurant for traditional Thali. We liked this guy and thought we'd try it. Up we went through his house to the rooftop cafe. Peter tried the saffron lassi. Once was enough. The thali was good with different veggies, rice, potato with spicy sauce and naan. We chatted with the kiddies on the rooftop next door. They were cute and wanted to visit, but as soon as the lady serving us came up, they scampered off, then returned when she left. The walk continued into the downtown through the small streets and old markets to the clocktower. We rode a horsedrawn rickshaw to the park and walked around. LOTS of children following and wanting to know "what country you from?"
Udaipur
We flew to this romantic city and again arrived at night. Our hotel is a more traditional type. It's lovely with a central courtyard and lots of plants, incense and arches. We had a nice dinner overlooking the water as we sat cross-legged at a low table. It was a memorable dinner. Udaipur is a great little city with a number of lakes around. It was HOT! but we enjoyed the city nonetheless. We spent a lot of time just walking around. We walked through the City Palace, which was nice, but after the fort in Jodhpur, well,... The fame for Udaipur is that it was in the 007 movie "Octopussy". One night we went to a rooftop restaurant and watched the movie with the Udaipur city noise down below. We stopped the movie at one point because a wedding procession was going through the streets and we wanted to watch, also, it was so loud we couldn't hear the movie. While in this city we saw no less than 10 wedding processions in the streets. They are loud! with loudspeakers, horns, drums and singing. The groom rides a decorated horse and the bride follows amongst others in beautiful sarees. The problem is they create huge traffic jams with even more honking of horns, if that's possible!! Lots of fun people we met~ the most memorable being the comical guy who decided he was our tour guide around the Jagdish Hindu Temple. He had lots of stories of the Bond film, claiming he was in the movie, the one on the rickshaw fighting with Roger Moore. He was a funny guide and even acted out the many different animals carved on the temple.
So, that's it for the wonderful 3 "Pur" cities in Rajisthan~ we enjoyed all of them for different reasons. We are ready to head back to Delhi for a few days with Pete, Sue, Aysia, Cal and Ethan. We hope to see a few more of the sights of Delhi, then off for the next adventure~ Varanasi and Kolkata. Dori
Oh, I almost forgot, but Carly wrote an entry (#12), on Srinagar, which was written a while ago but then accidently deleted by me then rewritten by Carly and I hope you will go and please read it as I put it in the order it should have been but that was a while ago. Sorry about all the confusion. I already apologized to Carly. Thanks, Pete
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| 15. | Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur - all the 'purs' - Jaipur, India Apr 17, 2007 |
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