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Friday, January 17th – Jaipur
It is a glorious morning, mildly warm and sunny, as we set off to tour the city after our breakfast in the hostel cafeteria. Out first destination is Jantar Mantar, in the heart of the city core. It is built as an observatory by Sawai Jai Singh II, the best of its kind in all India still in existence. UNESCO has classified it as a
World Heritage Site. It is an outdoor site, certainly different than any other attraction I have seen. There are stairs leading up to nowhere, at the top of a large sundial, and various other astrological measurement devices. We can climb around and above them, but they are left unexplained, without plaques or diagrams, so it feels more like a playground than a museum.
Also downtown, we visit the Maharaja’s Palace (we don’t go inside) and the beautiful white marble Sgri Narayan Temple. Since everything in the city is relatively new – not more than 250 years old – it is generally in excellent condition.
The most spectacular attraction in the downtown is the Hawa Mahal, the official palace of Sawai Ujjawal Singh, built in 1799 to house his harem. Its fanciful pink five-floor façade resembles a beehive with bay windows. Its more than 950 small windows and lattice work that honeycomb the façade, allowed the women of the harem to look out over the street life of the city without being seen, who were under strict observance of “purdah”, the law forbidding them from being seen in public. The palace behind has inner courtyards and lots of rooftops to walk around on. It is quite magnificent.
After a quick lunch at a restaurant near the Hawa Mahal, Frank ride up to Amer Fort, the hilltop fortress we saw yesterday coming in from the north. On the way we stop to photo graph the Jal Mahal, a palace in the middle of Man Sagar Lake, which lies between the city and the fort. The palace takes up the whole island and appears to be floating on the lake itself. There is no apparent transportation out to it from this side, but we wouldn’t have time to visit it anyway.
It is a steep climb to the fortress. The fortifications we saw were not the main part of the fort. The main part faces onto small Maotha Lake. Inside it is massive, made of sandstone and marble and extending over four levels, each independently defensible, and leading up to the older Jaigarth Fort which it connects to through an underground tunnel. Frank and I scattered to explore the fortress on our own. The guide says it is also called the “Amber Fort” or “Amber Palace”, because of its colour and elegant design.
The afternoon has grown hazy and views from the fortress overlooking Jaipur to the south filter with smog. The sun is still setting early so Frank and I head back at
4:30, heading home from the north exit that leads around through the village of Amer below the fort. It leads back to the highway we used to enter Jaipur last night, so it is easy to find our way back. In fact, Jaipur is an especially easy city to find one’s way around it. It would be a nice Indian city to live in, if I wanted to live here.
We save money by having dinner at the hostel tonight. It is simple cafeteria fare and a chance to hang out with other travelers again. It will be our last chance for a few days. James has made a stink to the hostel management about our dorm’s squeaky door. They sent a man around with a can of grease. He attempts to pour the whole can over the hinge but James stops him, screaming at him for being so stupid. “Use a pencil or a stick to put just a little bit on at a time, you idiot!” he screams for all to hear. The worker is laughing at the scene he is making, and so are the rest of us. In the end, James decided to show him how to do it and ends up doing it himself. One requires a sense of humour to live here.
PHOTO 1: Jantar Mantar, stairway to nowhere
PHOTO 2: Jantar Mantar, sundial
PHOTO 3: Jantar Mantar, satellite dish?
PHOTO 4: Maharajah's Palace
PHOTO 5: Sgri Narayan Temple
PHOTO 6: front facade of the Hawa Mahal
PHOTO 7: from the rear walls of Hawa Mahal
PHOTO 8: Jal Mahal on Man Sagar Lake
PHOTO 9: entrance to Fort Amer/Amber
PHOTO 10: arches in Fort Amber
PHOTO 11: view of fortifications from Ft Amber
PHOTO 12: old gate near Fort Amber
PHOTO 13: view of Jaipur from Fort Amber
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