March 9, Friday, March 10, Saturday

March 9, Friday, March 10, Saturday

March 9, Friday
Left Udaipur at 8:30 this morning to drive toward Jaipur.  I will have completed one loop of my Indian journey, on the map.   Not sure what happened to Neema last night after I saw him at the hotel, but he seems to be in a bad mood today.  First time this happens.  His driving is very aggressive and he’s playing leap frog with one of the other drivers.   He was actually smoking a cigarette as he was waiting for me this morning outside the hotel and when we stopped for a short break this morning he smoked again.  I haven’t seen him smoke before, and he never smells of smoke either.   He’s honking the horn at everyone.

We are in a marble producing region, so there is dust everywhere, and everyone seems to have their own yard-full of marble.   Many colours available:  white, grey, green, red, black,  and all beautifully veined.  The air is very hazy today, probably because of all the marble dust flying around.  

 

We even see some people still playing “holi” throwing coloured dust at each other. Neema explains that these are mostly police officers who had to work the day before and did not get to partake of the fun.
There are beautifully constructed stone fencing in the fields everywhere, perfectly cut stone creating perfect walls and there does not appear to be any mortar holding it all together. Artisans everywhere.
  And the cities and towns along the way are still filled with garbage and wandering cows and buffalo
  Beautiful fields, some still growing, some already harvested.
   Another truck about to lose its load.  We've seen half a dozen overturned trucks along the road.
 A huge temple complex up on a small mountain
  Huge bull in the middle of a busy road
The driving gets crazy again, only 2 lanes wide, but cars are passing even though there are oncoming vehicles. I know squeezing my thighs together isn’t going to help the car any narrower, but it’s the instinct of self-preservation. About 180 km from Jaipur we are back on the same road we travelled before when heading to Pushkar, on a divided highway, but with construction all along the entire distance making progress quite slow. We finally arrive at Jaipur and Neema drops me off at my hotel. Quite modern and very clean.
 
Unfortunately during the 2 nights I was here I killed a total of 12 bugs in the room.  There was a marble slab around the glass wall between the bedroom and bathroom, and I guess the moisture really attracted these bugs.   Kind of looked like small cockroaches, but light brown in colour and not as gross looking.  A year ago I would have been out of that room in no time;  now I just killed the bugs and went to bed.  What a difference a year makes!

March 10, Saturday

Jaipur is called the “pink city” because the oldest part of the city is within pink city walls; actually two sets of encircling walls.   The long main street within the walls also contains pink buildings, all made of sandstone
 The outer gate, entering the oldest part of Jaipur
  Buildings along the main street
   Driving toward the inner gate of Jaipur
  The other side of the inner gate.

This was an “over 300 pictures taken” kind of day, so I’ll really have to be selective in what I show you from this visit.   The highlight of the day was the visit to the Amber Palace.

 We drove outside the city toward the Amber Fort.  This was the main lower gate, with a wall encircling the entire complex.  HUGE!

   My first glance at the Amber Fort
The best part was riding an elephant up to the main upper gate of the fort
   I've climbed up on an elephant on that same platform to ride up to the fort.
 From atop of the elephant, a look back at the elephant and people riding behind ours.
   As we get higher up the hill, we get a great view of the gardens below where we climbed onboard, and the line of elephants coming up behind us.   There were thousands of us in the entire complex that day.
  From the same vantage point as the previous picture, we still have a long way to go to reach the fort.
  We still have to go up, then turn right and keep climbing until we reach the upper gate.   You can see the tops of the elephants near the gate.
  Other elephants are making their way back down to get more tourists.
   It was a lot of fun, but the seat we were sitting on wabbled side to side as the elephant walked, quite a bit more than I had expected.
 Unfortunately, as you can see, there are no pictures of me ON the elephant. The one time I would have LOVED to purchase the obligatory picture, they didn’t have any official photographers, just a lot of amateurs offering to take our pictures. I asked one guy to take my picture; he called himself “Ali Baba”. I had chosen to share an elephant with a young lady who was part of a threesome, and she wasn’t interested in getting her picture taken, but Ali Baba kept concentrating on her, asking her to take her glasses off, etc. I tried to explain to him that I was the one who wanted the picture, but his English was obviously limited, and of course the young lady had beautiful long blond hair so the camera was aimed at her. Long story short, Ali Baba failed to take my picture on the elephant ! When we got to the platform to get off the elephant, there was a big sign saying you could not take pictures here. They had a production line of elephants coming in offloading their tourists and heading back down. You would think someone would have had the forethought of setting up a few elephants that you could sit on to have your picture taken, but there wasn’t.
 We entered the Amber palace at the top, riding the elephants through the Sun Gate and disembarked near the Moon Gate.
  After I disembarked, I huried to take a picture of the elephant I had been riding on.  He's (?maybe it was a she !) looked quite small compared to some of the others.   AH..... pobresito !
   I got some tourists to take a picture of me with other elepnhants in the background, disembarking their tourists.
Did you notice that some of the elephants are painted?  Thats because a day before "Holi" there was a huge elephant parade here, all elephants were painted and decorated for the festivities.
  And the elephants kept coming in all day, with their load of tourists.
  From the lower courtyard, up to another gate leading to the first of many upper courtyards.
  Check out the wooden doors !
 From the lower courtyard, I made my way to the upper courtyard where I rented an audio tape and started my official visit.
  View of the lower courtyard from the upper one.
  View of the first upper courtyard
  The Hall of Public Audience is located in this courtyard and was built sometime between 1589 & 1641, during the reign of one of the Rajas.  During one of the attacks on the fort, fearing that the conquerors would destroy the beauty of this hall, they covered the ceilings and columns with some type of stucco to hide the details.  The hall was saved !   It is still a work of beauty and elegance.
I enjoyed the next 2 hours, wandering through the palace.
  From the upper courtyard the views of the surrounding areas were spectacular.  On this one, you can see the wall (something like the great wall of China, but on a smaller scale) on the mountain in the background.
  From this vantage point, you can see the lake and the island garden below.   On this other mountain in the background you can again see a portion of the surrounding walls that surround the Amber Fort complex.
  From the same window, a slightly different view looking down at the elephants making their way up and down the route.
  To leave the first upper courtyard and enter the main palace complex, you walk through another "gate", which is actually an entire building.
 The second upper courtyard is a beautiful garden, which contains the Hall of Private Audiences.
  The Hall of Private Audiences is a jewel of a building.  
 Details of one of the carved marble pannels of the Hall of Private Audiences.
It also served as the maharana's private rooms.
  Check out the artistry in these pannels: some type of metal, mirrors inlaid into marble !

  And there were artisans cleaning and repairing some of these details.  The ceiling and the walls were all decorated in this way. 
   On the other side of the garden courtyard were open rooms used by the maharana.  This time, beautiful pastel coloured marble inlays in white marble.  This picture shows a water system used throughout the palace not only to circulate water, but also to cool the rooms !
   Everything seems to have been built to perfection.
  Up one other level to get some different views of the fort.  There are a multitude of courtyards everywhere I look.
   Looking to the garden courtyard below and its beautiful fountain.  Absolutely breathtaking
   One of the jalousie windows in the maharani's palace (wives of the Maharana)
  Secluded third upper courtyard for the ladies of the court.
   This structure in the middle of the courtyard was used when the Maharana came to visit and decide who he would select to sleep with that night.
 Each wife had her own private quarters, but they weren't necesarily lavish.
  
A look down at the ladies courtyard
 
 Another beautifully decorated room I found as I was wandering around.

It was a good walk back down to the level where the car was parked and after a few wrong turns, I finally made it back to the car.
  Walking down the mountain on the pedestrian walkway.  Good thing because the route the elephants take is even longer, and it is now full of poop droppings.
   I reach a gate and am lucky enough to catch an elephant walking by.
   I've reached the bottom and am now at lake level, looking towards the island garden.
  Last look back up to the Amber Fort.
   Outside the main lower gate, picture of the huge wall encircling the complex.
After leaving the Amber Fort Neema drove me back to see a few along the way.
  We pass by a lake leading back into the city and stop for a picture of a palace built on the lake.  Neema says it has been abandoned but that there is talk of someone opening a restaurant there.  Would be a BIG HIT!

Our next stop is the location where the wives (queens = Ranis or Maharanis ) of the Rajas (or Maharajas or Maharana = King, Great King, Emperor) were cremated and their cenotaphs/memorials built.

  The biggest cenotaph on the grounds; beautiful carved white and pink marble
   Grounds where cenotaphs are located
   Platform where the cremations were actually carried out.
Back in the old city, I ask to stop and visit the Hawa Mahal or Palace of Winds (the Ladies Palace).
   Hawa Mahal,  Palace of Winds.  Check out the number of windows in this place.  Since this was the ladies palace, they could see out and look at the streets below, but no one from outside could see in.  

Unfortunately by then both my Sony camera batteries had died and I had to use my camcorder again to take pictures (not as good quality and can’t download until I get back to Canada) and filmed.  So you don't get to see anything else from my visits that day, but they included:
- the interior of the Palace of Winds  "A beautiful crown shaped palace, built in the 18th century"    
- the City Palace       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Jaipur
- Jantar Mantar:  an observatory with huge instruments which were used by scientists.  "The largest and best preserved of Sawai Jai Singh's five observatories.  It is built in stone and marble whose settings and shapes are designed scientifically and which are one of the high ponts of medieval indian astronomy."        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar_(Jaipur) 

Had a nice meal at the hotel, they had a buffet of Indian delicacies.