In Jaipur, visitors find beautiful architecture with domes, screens and arches. The seven gates of the original walled city are still in place but not the wall that was built in the 12th century because the city was surrounded by mountains. The wall is now houses. The city was designed for 200,000 residents but now has 3.6 million. Jaipur is famous for its small cottage industries. Eighty percent of the malls were built with in the last five years but do not get enough business except when they offer sales. Our guide was raised in the southern part of the city and mainly uses his personal motorcycle but also shares a family car.
Our first stop was the Amber Fort, which our guide told us was much more beautiful than the Red Fort in Delhi, and our chance to ride a real live elephant. Our wait in the line was 50 minutes for a 15 minute-ride. Unfortunately, vendors are allowed on the grounds so if any of us ever acknowledged them, they would respond with "Hello, hello. Look here," and push their wares in our face. After the bumpy ride to the top of the plateau where the fort stood and the elephant peeing on Ken's foot, we agreed that elephant rides were highly overrated. However, elephants are a good investment in Jaipur because they can be used for tours, rides and weddings. An elephant costs about 1.1 million rupees and eats about 700 rupees worth of food a day. Their favorite food is sugar cane with bananas and fruits as special treats. Our guide called his baby-girl elephant (females are less aggressive) Lucky and considered her a member of his family.
When we descended from the elephant, we talked with Megan, a delightful 26-year-old who still had traces of Holi paint on her face. When we asked her where she lived, she answered that she had lived in Toronto. The question, "Where do you live now?" received the answer, "The world." She had taught English in Korea for 1 1/2 years and saved her money so that she could travel around Asia. Her favorite countries were Malaysia and Laos because they are not well known to tourists and the people are so nice. She had been in India several months and told us that the first month was rather "dicey" as a single female. Now a friend was visiting her for two weeks and then she would be in India for another month on her own. As for what country she will spend time in next, "Who knows?"
Her answer to what her parents thought about her traveling on her own was typical and priceless. To assuage her parents, she had purchased a cell phone and bought a card in each country. When she called her parents, their first question was, "Are you alright?" When she answered in the affirmative, their second question was, "Why haven't you called?" Parents all over the world are the same! We told her how much we envied her for traveling at such a young age and wished her luck in her future adventures.
Brent, Bev and Sara decided to remove their shoes so they could tour the Hindu temple. There they received a red dot on our forehead to represent a third eye. Visitors would ring a bell to focus their ears and be blessed with water sprinkled on the head to focus their eyes and mind. Paintings on either side of the temple showed the wife of the god Shiva before and after she reincarnated herself after his death as the goddess of the warriors to chase away demons. Her clothing went from white to black with her having 10 arms and 10 legs as the goddess of warriors. A drop of blood from a demon could create a new demon. In 1940, the temple was refurbished in marble. Until 1979, a goat was sacrificed in the temple every day.
The walls in this fort were painted, not inlaid, but the colors were spectacular and were accented with gold foil. The architecture was a combination of Hindi and Mughal. We particularly appreciated the chamber where the warriors modified their minds and hearts before they met with their families after a battle and the baths, massage rooms and steam room, under which the servants built a fire to heat the water. Rain water was collected for the baths. If the rain level was below normal, the servants would bring the water from Maota Lake through a four-sectioned water lifting system using pulleys and ropes and a Persian water wheel.
The chambers for the ladies were around the perimeter so that they could look out but not be seen from the outside. In the open theater, the nobility and their guests enjoyed parties with singing and dancing on full-moon nights. In the center of the fort was a beautiful garden of flowers to give the impression of the Garden of Paradise.
The most impressive room had mirrored pieces that had been stuck on the plaster while it was still wet. The ceiling was the prettiest part. At night, our guide informed us that every mirror twinkled and glittered like a star in the sky so the room gave the impression of being outside.
The Summer Palace, which was enclosed, had a natural cooling system through a series of copper pipes with perfumed water. We saw the carriages that carried the royal ladies around the palace because walking was difficult for them in their heavy costumes with 160 pleats and their 16 to 20 pieces of jewelry.
The fourth courtyard were the identical palaces of the emperor's 12 wives. Each apartment maintained that queen's privacy. The emperor's upstairs apartment connected to the queens' apartments through secret chambers. The emperor wanted to maintain equality among his queens because if any queen became unhappy, she could complain to her father who would stop supporting the king. We also found more bats in the open drops between the apartments than we expected.
From the time we waited in line for the elephant ride until we exited, we spent three hours and 20 minutes, which can be divided into these times and costs:
* 50 minutes waiting in line with vendors hassling us--priceless
* 15 minutes on elephant ride--suggested tip of 50 or 100 rupees--ride paid for as part of tour but driver wanted 200 rupees
* 2 hours touring Amber Fort--priceless
* 15 minute Jeep ride down the hill-300 rupees fixed price
When we left the Amber Fort, we paused for a photo stop at the Summer Palace, which was built on an island in the middle of an artificial lake, created by a dam, because the summer temperatures can rise to 45 degrees C or about 120 degrees F. In the rainy season, the palace seems to be floating on the lake. When the lake is dried up in the dry season, visitors can see the construction.
After we drove into the Pink City, we passed the Palace of the Wind (Hawa Mahal), a five-story pink sandstone palace constructed in 1799 to allow the royal ladies to observe daily life in Jaipur from 953 small windows on the front side of the palace without being seen. The City Palace, which is the residence of the current royal family--king, queen and visits from their daughter, son-in-law and three children--is yellow, the symbol of royalty. Once a year the king invites the people to the courtyard, which is pink for the color of welcome. Two large silver jars made out of 14,000 Jaipur coins issued by the treasury in 1894 are the largest silver jars in the world and hold water (silver kills germs). When the reigning king attended the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, he had the jars filled with water from the Ganges and brought them with him to England. Pigeons enjoyed perching on the chandelier while guards gestured to us to take their photographs so they could ask for a tip.
We toured the Hall of Public Audiences with it gold and stone trim, where the last ceremony was held when India became a Republic in 1949. On display is a portrait of the father of the current king, a polo player who won the World Cup in 1957 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth of England. We also visited the gallery of arms and weapons with daggers with crystal and jade handles, swords with hidden gun so the soldiers could shoot their enemies if they got close and a ceremonial sword set with precious and semi-precious stones; the textile gallery with its many possibilities for saris; and the arts and crafts gallery where local artisans worked. The next stop was the Jantar Mantar or the Observatory, an open-air museum that houses an amazing collection of traditional astronomical instruments, including the world's largest sundial that is accurate to two seconds, a North Star finder and a structure for each astrological sign to show the positions of different planets in the sign.
Our guide was highly educated with a university degree and a law degree. He is a professional tour guide, except in the summer when the weather is too hot, and he works for his brother in real estate. His wife is working on her master's degree. Their marriage was arranged by the parents but they had some say in it. The prospective bride and groom have some time together before the parents offer a proposal. He had declined three proposals and his wife several more before they were brought together. After 2002, any one who has more than two children can not be elected to a public office or receive a promotion in a government position. A Hindi, he has no Muslim friends. He attributes the 17 percent unemployment rate partly to the Muslims who have more children and are going down in status. Very interesting philosophy!
That night, our travel agent treated us to dinner at a popular Indian resort about an hour from Jaipur. We arrived at 7 p.m. and reached the sit-down restaurant at 7:15 p.m. just in time because the sit-down dinner started at 7:15. Amazing! What we did not expect was that a sit-down dinner would mean sitting on the floor in a lotus position and being served on an individual-sized small wooden table on plates and bowls made of woven paper. The waiters, who did not understand English, kept scooping food items that were unidentifiable to us on our plates and in our bowls. Thanks to an English speaking man who lived in India and was entertaining a woman friend from California, we learned that every dish was either spicy or sweet with a decided preference for extremely hot and spicy. The waiter poured buttermilk and water from the tap (drinkable or not for those who brushed their teeth with bottled water?) into two earthenware cups that resembled flower pots and generously ladled clarified butter on everything. Ken actually ate most of the meal, Brett sampled everything and the rest of us pushed the food around our plates. We longed for French fries and Kingfisher beer but, alas, the restaurant served no alcohol because this was a family establishment.
We finished dinner by 8 p.m. and roamed around the grounds of India's version of Downtown Disney with elephant and camel rides, arcade games, souvenier and clothing bazaars, massages, dancing with audience participation and singing. In less than 1/2 hour we were ready to return to our bus where we found our driver taking a nap on the back seat--he thought we would be a lot longer. When we arrived back at the hotel, we feasted in the bar on snacks, Kingfisher beer and wine.
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