The Pink City... Jaipur

After leaving Rising Star in southern India, we flew up to northern India to the city of Jaipur.  We had arranged to tour with a local of Delhi named Benson who has a travel agency called Abish Travels.  He met us at the Jaipur airport.  He had arranged for our driver named Surender Singh, our tour guides at each of the three cities (BK, Nadeem, and Ankit), and our lodging for four nights.  He took good care of us as he took us around the "Golden Triangle" of India.  Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi form a triangle on the map and are parts of India that one must see.  I highly recommend Abish Travels if you want to travel this area.

Jaipur, we were told, was the first planned city in India.  It's known for its textiles and is the gemstone capitol of India.  It is often called the "Pink City" because many of its prominent buildings are painted in a pink color... more of a sandstone color.  When we were there, the famous Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) was being repainted "pink".  We drove past it on the way to our hotel.  Our tour guide, BK, said we'd go back to it the next morning, but I guess he forgot.  Here is a little video clip that shows it briefly.  Check out the wooden scaffolding. You don't see that around here!

Here's our hotel that night.  It used to be the prime minister's palace and the room we stayed in was the room that the maharaja would stay in when meeting with the prime minister.  It dates back to the 1700s and is called the Naila Bagh Palace.  There was a peacock walking around on the premises.  We only saw him once and didn't have our camera out to snap a photo.

Before going to our hotel, BK took us to see Jantar Mantar, an amazing observatory built by Sawai Jai Singh II in 1728.  He was one smart maharaja!  There are 16 instruments there, some of which still are used today.  One of the structures he built is a sundial, Laghu Smrat Yantra, constructed on latitude 27 degrees north which he figured out is Jaipur's latitude.  It calculates Jaipur's local time up to an accuracy of 20 seconds.  Another cool structure is the Jai Prakash Yantra, two sunken hemispheres that map out the heavens. It is believed to have been built to verify the accuracy of all the other instruments in the observatory.

Next, the very knowledgable Jaipur resident tour guide, BK, showed us around the City Palace.  It has been the home of Jaipur's rulers since the first half of the 18th century.  The architecture is beautiful.

We saw many of its treasures like jeweled daggers and swords, silk rugs, and royal clothing woven in gold and silver.  Such wealth these people had!  My favorite part was the Pritam Chowk, Court of the Beloved, which has four beautifully painted doorways that represent the seasons.  The paint is made out of dust of gemstones painted on when the plaster was wet.  That is why over the 300 years, it hasn't faded and is absolutely stunning.

Click on this to see the detail.  This one's my fav.

The next morning we headed up to the most impressive Amber Fort, which means "Sky Palace".  Jai Singh I built it in the early 1600s.

To get up to it, we rode on an elephant on the cobbled pathway to the huge inner courtyard.  At the beginning of our ride, you can hear men trying to sell their goods to the tourists.  I was surprised to hear one of them yelling out in spanish how many dolares something was.  I have to tell you that we had elephant snot blow on us several times.  Mostly on our white legs, but once it hit my lip.  I guess that's all part of the experience:)  Take a look.  And don't laugh at my white legs and Matt's goofy hat.  Yeah, we are tourists.

Just as it is at the City Palace, the color on the walls here at Amber Fort was done with the paint made from the dust of gemstones.  One area called the Sheesh Mahal has tiny mirrors embedded in the walls and ceilings.  They used to light candles or torches in there at night and it would sparkle like a starlit sky.  A-Maz-ing!  I liked to imagine what it was like to be a princess living here in this palace so long ago.  They had such wealth and luxury surrounding them.  There is a swimming pool, a steam room and jacuzzi, indoor plumbing and water system brought up by pulleys in the man made lake below.

Paint from real gemstones

Indian pigeon in flight:)

BK showed us the hidden images in this marble wall carving

See the tiny mirrors on the ceiling and walls?

Honeycomb screens carved out of one piece of marble!

After leaving Amber Fort, we passed by the Floating Palace (as seen in the recent movie "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel").  So cool.  We were entertained there by a cute little boy who did some magic tricks for us.  I gave him some rupees and told BK to tell him to do well in school.  BK knows this kid and that he does go to school and that is why he didn't shew him away when he approached us.