Jaipur

January 29, 2012

Jaipur

It’s just starting to get dark as we arrive in Jaipur. Sanjay expertly negotiates the traffic and the crowded streets. We are big-time Sanjay fans. He opens the car doors for us, supplies us with fresh bottled water and generally looks for ways to make us comfortable; always with a broad kind smile.

 We have just enough daylight to get our first glimpse of the pink city of Rajasthan.  We see 4 different wedding celebrations on our way to the hotel. One is complete with a uniformed brass band, (I count 6 tubas), and a horse-drawn carriage decorated with flowers. They all are elaborately lit with sparkling lights, and in every case, music and excitement pulse out into the street. 

Our hotel, a Carlson Suites, is not as grand as either Le Meridien or the Wyndham, but it is trying. While check-in is in progress they serve us a glass of pineapple juice, (canned). In the room there is a photo of the complimentary fruit basket they will bring us when we’re settled. Unfortunately, the picture and the actual fruit are not a match. A bruised apple, a tired looking banana and something that we aren’t familiar with (an unfuzzy kiwi with a mauve colored flesh?) just don’t make the grade for this old food snob.

The breakfast buffet is good with omelet and dosa stations and lots of fresh fruit. It gets us off to a good start.

Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, the Indian state bordering Pakistan.  It’s known as the pink city. Pink is the color of royalty. When Prince Albert came to visit in 1876 the whole city was painted pink in his honor. The old, central part of Jaipur retains its rosy walls.

Facade in the Pink City

Right after breakfast we head to the Amber Fort just 6 miles outside the city to join the queue forming for the elephants. A long elephant ramp climbs the hillside and winds through archways and fortifications to the central courtyard of the fort. A long line of painted and decorated elephants carries visitors up the hillside. When it’s our turn Claire and her mom and Nana climb aboard and settle onto a flat box enclosure to join the pachyderm parade for a swaying slanted side-saddle ride. Daddy follows on his own caparisoned elephant.  It’s like sitting in a gigantic rocking chair. Remember Edith Ann?

Amber Fort

Elephants Through the Grate

Main Courtyard of the Amber Fort

Pachyderm Parade

Hawkers appear here and there along the narrow route wanting us to have our picture taken or buy their goods. One tosses an elephant quilt into my lap. I don’t want to encourage his business practices, so I toss it back. Not a bad throw from the back of an elephant.  We rock and roll through the Sun Gate into the fort and disembark onto a high platform where our guide, Barat, is waiting.

Amber Fort was constructed by the Jaipur royal family above Maota Lake, beginning in the 16^th century.  It took 155 years to build through 5 generations. It was not only a fort, but a residence. It contains palaces, courtyards, gardens, fountains and even a swimming pool for the maharaja. The carvings and inlays and gilded columns are truly fit for royals. The walls that run for miles along the adjoining hillsides are just astounding, on a par with the Great Wall of China but not nearly as long. One hundred members of the royal family lived here, guarded by 20,000 soldiers. The soldiers were stationed in an adjoining fort connected to Amber by a well-guarded tunnel.

Inlaid Masterpiece

Standing in an Arch of the Palace

Wall of Defense

Fortification Along the Ridges

From the ramparts we look down on a garden designed in the pattern of a Persian rug.

Persian Rug Garden

One courtyard has many rooms opening into it where the queens resided. The king could visit the woman of his choice without the others knowing where he was because he could enter a room through a separate corridor without being seen. 

Eunuchs (volunteers?) guarded the harem which numbered 300. Busy guy.

The Mirror Palace, within the fort, has ceilings and walls inlaid with small mirrors in intricate designs. The mercury in the mirrors warmed and cooled the palace according to the season and the mirrors illuminated the rooms when only a single candle burned.

Hall of Victory

Mirror Palace

If There's a Mirror....

As we walk down the cobbled passageway to meet Sanjay we find a snake charmer performing in a sheltered corner. Mystical, fascinating India.

The Jal Mahal, or Water Palace “floats” in the middle of Man Sagar Lake. Built in 1799 as a pleasure palace it has been abandoned but is undergoing restoration for its new purpose as a hotel. What a great place to stay! We take time to stretch our legs and walk along the viewpoint to relish the view always careful not to interact with the enterprising vendors who’ve set up shop here unless we’re ready to negotiate. Across the way camels wait with their handlers for photo-ops (there’s a fee). They look positively nonchalant, gazing into the distance and ruminating on what?

Jal Mahal

Our guide wishes to show us how Jaipur wooden block printing is done and we agree to be shown. The demonstration leads to a showroom of bed covers, pashminas, table cloths and clothing. We look, but leave without making a purchase. Somehow the primitive block printing that we watched in the demo turned into stacks and racks of manufactured merchandise.

Helping the Master Weaver

Multi-Layer Block Printing

Finished Product

And then do we wish to see how the famous Jaipur gemstones are cut and polished?  Oh, sure.  After the demo comes the showroom. I want to look at a semi-precious stone, the ruby star of India in a ring. The trays come out in profusion. I say “simple” and repeat over and over. And I do find a small stone in a sterling setting that I bargain for. Lesley finds a gorgeous amethyst for a great price and we make our deals while Jake looks on in amusement. They will size my ring and bring it to our hotel later in the evening.

Back on track we visit the Jantar Mantar.  This is an ancient observatory consisting of fourteen architectural astronomy instruments dating from the 1700’s. They are built from stone and marble and were used to make astronomical predictions of the sun and moon and planets. They also measured time via the world’s largest sundial (27 meters tall) and predicted eclipses. The instruments are huge; the largest is 90 feet tall. It’s like strolling through solid geometric shapes. We can watch the time ticking on the sundial. It is accurate to the second.

Huge Astronomical Instruments

The City Palace is still inhabited by the royal family of Jaipur. They have opened portions of the palace and a museum to the public and supplement their income with the entrance fees. The royal flag flies above their private quarters in stripes of color each denoting an enemy territory conquered.  

The colossal silver jars once used to transport sacred water from the Ganges are the supposed highlight, but our favorite exhibit is the wide trousers of the 500 pound maharaja which take up a room width glass case. 

In one part of the palace is a market of Jaipur goods, (Does the palace get a commission on sales? Wouldn’t be surprised), and there we find the shoe stall with stacks of exotic flats. Lesley and I each purchase a pair of Aladdin shoes; although for practicality the toes don’t have the extended curl and one more pair each. When I complain that one shoe is a tad tight, the salesman puts his own bare foot into it and wiggles it around, and that just does the trick!

Jaipur Flats

We get a call that my ring is sized and ready. We swing by the shop and pick it up. I put it on my pinky finger and watch the star of India twinkle in the sunlight.

Bejeweled Baby Toes

 

Our guide mentions that his cousin owns a textile shop and when we ask to do a little street shopping, the street where he chooses to take us is the one where his cousin’s store is located. Coincidence! His cousin’s store does sell authentic Jaipur textiles. I find a quilt which is an exact replica of one I purchased in Alaska. I love that quilt and I’d better, the price in Alaska was about 4 times the asking price here. The quilts are such a good deal, in fact, that I buy two. They are willing to unfold and display every quilt in the store until you find the one(s) you like. I feel some guilt over all the refolding and stacking they will have to do, but they assure me this is what they love to do. (?) Lesley and Jake find printed table covers.  After the transactions are complete they proudly show us photos of Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford shopping in their store. Perhaps the cousin was their guide too.

We walk the street to another textile shop where we find what we call balloon pants, (so comfy) and other fun things. The Claire effect goes into overdrive when the shopkeeper calls her a “movie baby” and awards her with an elephant t-shirt.

After a diaper change Sanjay offers to dispose of the used diaper. We all watch in horror and dismay as he walks down the street and hurls it into the distance. When we object he smiles and says “this is India”. Yes, but…

While standing in line today waiting for the elephants I met a woman from the UK traveling alone. She has hired a driver to guide her but custom does not allow him to eat with her or stand in a queue with her. She was on her way to a convent orphanage in south India which is run by her friend. She is a midwife and goes once a year, puts on a sari, and assists in the convent hospital. Angels among us.