Well after cities like Chennai and states like Jharkand Jaipur truly is “India-lite”. It’s cleaner and quieter, with less poverty, good roads and good shops. Basically life is just easier here. After having seen almost no western faces in the last two months we are seeing hordes of them. Not that we particularly want to but it is different! I’ve even found a good running route (4km sandy track around Central Park) which is my first running opportunity since Palolem beach over four weeks ago.

Our hotel  has a spa with a very interesting treatment category:

Thinking about it it’s quite apt in a way, I’ve experienced more than one tortuous massage!

Our first visit in Jaipur was to the City Palace museum, this is a terrific complex with lots to see including the Mubarak Mahal:

This building was finished in 1900 and was recognised as the most beautiful building of the 20th century by the architects of the world during their annual meeting in Beijing in 1997. Not really our taste but we could see what they meant.

The museum was fascinating and we learnt a lot, most interesting snippets for me were:

Solah Shringar – the sixteen essentials of getting dressed! More here: http://anamikas.hubpages.com/hub/Solah-Shringar-16-Adornments-of-a-Hindu-Indian-Bride-Woman

Chaturanga – a forerunner of chess invented in India in the 6th century AD

Gangajalis – the museum is home to two silver jars which are the largest silver objects in the world. They each weigh 345Kg, have a capacity of over 4,000 litres and are 160cm tall. When, in 1902, the Maharajah of the time was invited to the wedding of King Edward VII he took along the two jars filled with water from the Ganges for his personal use!

Jaipur flag – The founder of Jaipur was Sawai Jai Singh II, when he was eleven years old the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb gave him the title “Sawai” which literally means “one and a quarter” but is a metaphor for someone extraordinary. The Royal family passed on the title Sawai and use it to this day and when the King is in residence a quarter sized flag is flown above the city flag. Here it is flying above the Chandra Mahal:

Here’s another shot of the Chandra Mahal:

In the foreground is the Jantar Mantar, an early 18th century observatory:

The Jantar Mantar is home to a number of structures which are used in astronomy and astrology. Leishia said it was probably the CERN of it’s day!

Here is a massive sundial accurate to two seconds:

The observatory also has twelve structures each of which represents a sign of the zodiac and points towards that particular constellation. Here is Leishia pointing out the time on her (Sagittarius) yantra (there’s that word again):

After the observatory we took a tuk-tuk to see the Jaj Mahal which is apparently being converted to a restaurant:

This former palace is modelled on the palace in Udaipur where we have booked a couple of nights in January to spoil ourselves! Looking forward to that!

The best news of the day was that we finally saw an elephant! Here she is, lovely girl:

Then, on our way back to the hotel, we were lucky enough to see a small wedding procession, apparently the women were going to the temple to pray:

Very cute!

The next day we went to see the Galtaji colloquially known as the Monkey temple (because there are monkeys everywhere).

Here’s a shot of one of the more pleasant monkeys:

 He’s on the left 😉

We had bought some peanuts to feed the monkeys, the peanut seller said it was good karma. Well it bloody wasn’t for us – some of the monkeys saw the bag of nuts in Leishia’s hand and basically attacked her. She gave up the nuts but not before one of the monkeys had bitten her finger! We didn’t get to see the main temple, instead we came back down the hill and went off in search of a pharmacy!

With Leishia dosed up on antibiotics we went on to the Hawa Mahal – the Palace of the Winds. This palace was built solely to house the Maharaja’s harem.  The audio commentary (paraphrased) said the Maharaja would often visit for physical pleasures and poetry. Poetry? Really?

The palace was designed to protect the royal ladies (who spent their lives in purdah) from the eyes of men. Every window and opening was designed so that the women could see out but men could not see in. The architectural features were very attractive:

After the Palace we went to see Gatore Ki Chhatriyan, the burial ground of the Jaipur maharajas. Some of the tombs here were spectacular, beautiful structures with very high quality reliefs and sculptures:

It was around this time that Leishia started to suffer from the effects of the antibiotic. She became pretty sick and we had to retreat to the hotel and tuck her up in bed. So apart from one rogue monkey it was another good day.

On our final day with Leishia recovered we drove north to the Amber Fort. Our tuk-tuk driver of the last couple of days (Shakir) very kindly offered to guide us out of the city on his motorbike! Here he is:

If you’re ever in Jaipur and need a tuk-tuk or a full blown tour of Rajasthan get hold of Shakir (shakirkaif2333@yahoo.com).

The Amber Fort is overlooked by Jaigarh fortress:

Seeing Jaigarh on top of the hill made me wish we could spend longer here. It seems even with five months you still have to pick and choose your ancient monuments!

The Amber Fort is both a fortress and a palace and is equally impressive:

Many people ride up to the fort on elephants, there must have been at least fifty, some climbing the hill, some trudging back down and a lot more in the elephant parking area!

The fort is huge with three separate sections, this is the lower level:

The royal family had a garden built on the lake below:

The entrance to the Palace proper is through the Ganesh gate with Ganesh blessing the entranceway:

Inside the palace area there were lots of very pretty features:

 This is a waterfall and channel

 

And here’s the prettiest:

Beyond the fort you could see the city walls and their watch towers on the surrounding hills:

Eventually the fort became overcrowded and in 1727 the Maharajah ordered a new city to be designed and built – Jaipur.

We liked the Amber Fort!

As we were leaving we saw our first snake charmer:

And on the walk down the hill we saw a trader selling lentil masala, very tempting:

After the Amber Fort we made our way to Delhi; we’ve just arrived and are going out to celebrate our wedding anniversary!