Today I hit the tourist highlights of Jaipur, otherwise known as The Pink City. Jaipur is divided into Old Jaipur and New Jaipur. My hotel is GORGEOUS in New Jaipur - I'm so happy to finally be able to take a hot shower! Perhaps I haven't mentioned this, but my apartment in Bombay doesn't have hot water. With all the heat this country has, you'd think they'd have figured out a cheap way to heat up some water for bathing, but alas it appears they haven't. Anyway, from what my guide tells me, it seems like Old Jaipur has been around since the 18th century. Sometime during the 19th century, when the Prince of Wales was coming to visit for the first time, the sitting maharaja decided to paint the entire city in shades of pink, since pink symbolizes a warm welcome. Ever since then, the entiretey of Old Jaipur has been painted in pink, with repainting happening approximately every 3 years. It's really quite beautiful.
I had hired a guide through my hotel and a driver through the service that my firm uses, so I was all set and ready to go for the day. Our first stop was the Amber Palace in the Amber City.
The Amber City is outside of Old Jaipur, and was the capital of this state before Jaipur was built - the Amber City dates to sometime in the 16th century, but there are ruins around here as old as the 14th century or older. Jaipur became the capital when the poplation was too big for the Amber City, and since the Amber City is surrounded by hills there was no room to expand.
There are 103 elephants in Jaipur, and most of them are employed by giving tourists rides up the hill to the top, where the Amber Palace is situated. Unfortunately I got there too late in the day to get an elephant ride - most elephants only do one round trip up and down the hill per day, so you have to get there early to take advantage of this. We did pass a couple elephants walking home after they had done their duty, though...
After the Amber Palace we went shopping at a local marketplace. The markets in Jaipur are closed today for a political rally, but this one was open because it was in the Amber City. I looked at rugs - but decided not to get one since I already have a Turkish rug, and I ended up buying myself a lovely blue topaz pendant and ring as an early 30th birthday present to myself (yay!). Jaipur is known for its jewelry - apparently the majority of all the emeralds in the world come from the mines in Jaipur. They had a lot of beautiful stuff - Mom would love this place :) In addition, they did a demonstration for me of color block printing, which is very popular here. It's a method used to dye or paint fabric using vegetable-based colors and carved wooden blocks. One block will have the outline of the shape (e.g. a camel) and the other block will fill in the color. It was very interesting, but I didn't really feel in the mood for buying textiles today.
After that we went for lunch. It really was scorching hot, so I was happy to get inside in an air conditioned place. While driving, we passed another palace - the Lake Palace - that literally is in the middle of a lake. It looks so glamorous and amazing, but we can't visit it since it's under renovation.
I ordered the vegetarian thali for lunch - this time I actually took a photo so you can see what a thali looks like:
After lunch we went to the only working astrological observatory in India. It was filled with these massive instruments that astrologers will use for various purposes like constructing horoscopes. It also houses the largest working sundial in the world. Given the importance that this culture puts on star signs and whatnot, it is impressive to see what they've built to honor it.
The Pink City
I had hired a guide through my hotel and a driver through the service that my firm uses, so I was all set and ready to go for the day. Our first stop was the Amber Palace in the Amber City.
The Amber Palace
The Amber City is outside of Old Jaipur, and was the capital of this state before Jaipur was built - the Amber City dates to sometime in the 16th century, but there are ruins around here as old as the 14th century or older. Jaipur became the capital when the poplation was too big for the Amber City, and since the Amber City is surrounded by hills there was no room to expand.
Hills surrounding the Amber City
There are 103 elephants in Jaipur, and most of them are employed by giving tourists rides up the hill to the top, where the Amber Palace is situated. Unfortunately I got there too late in the day to get an elephant ride - most elephants only do one round trip up and down the hill per day, so you have to get there early to take advantage of this. We did pass a couple elephants walking home after they had done their duty, though...
Hi, Mr. Elephant!
The Amber Palace was absolutely beautiful. It was built by a maharaja with 12 wives, so there is a master bedroom and then 12 bedrooms one after the other, each for a different wife (called maharanis). The maharanis were not allowed to even speak to one another without permission from the maharaja and a representative of their husband present at the conversation taking notes - they were definitely birds in a gilded cage.
A view of the residential courtyard. The area in the middle is where the women would be allowed to have supervised talks. If they spoke without permission, the area in the middle is where they would be punished by being forced to grind grain, while the other 11 wives watched on in judgment.
The maharanis wore ridiculous outfits that weighed up to 20 lbs plus another 20 lbs of jewelry. Their clothing and jewelry weighed so much that they weren't able to walk with it on, so the palace was built with ramps everywhere to accomodate the wheelchairs that the maharanis used (pulled by two servants, of course) to get around.
Imagine this being your window to the outside world because you're a woman and the outside world isn't allowed to see you...
The current maharaja is only 15 years old - it seems that the maharajas in this area all had difficulty having sons - most only had daughters, so there have been many issues with succession over the centuries. The last maharaja adopted his eldest grandson and made him his heir, so that when the last maharaja died (last year at the age of 80), his teenage grandson (now adopted son) took the throne. Royalty here has no real political power - similar to how royalty acts in the UK these days. However, they are very rich and own a lot of land and businesses, and much is expected of them in terms of being leaders and role models.
The Moon Palace, where the current maharaja lives. The small flag on top of the big flag indicates that he is inside the palace today.
The palace was intentionally designed so as to confuse any marauding attackers. Apparently there were hill tribes that frequently attacked it, so it definitely has a somewhat maze-like feeling to it. One of my favorite rooms in the hotel was the area of the palace that was used in the winter. The walls and ceilings were inlaid with mirrors that reflected light and also absorbed heat from the oil lamps that were placed around the rooms. This area was mostly used for the maharaja to hold private audiences with guests.
View of the audience hall in the winter section of the palace
The larger, less adorned reception area that was used for the public is on the outer part of the palace. If you're standing in direct sunlight, it feels like you're baking on the pavement. Thankfully, the kings used to put up tents over the area where the general public (male only, of course) would sit and wait to get the attention of the king and his advisers. They don't keep any of those tents around any more, so I was happy to stand in the shaded area where the maharajas sat...
Where the maharaja would sit on his velvet pillows...
After the Amber Palace we went shopping at a local marketplace. The markets in Jaipur are closed today for a political rally, but this one was open because it was in the Amber City. I looked at rugs - but decided not to get one since I already have a Turkish rug, and I ended up buying myself a lovely blue topaz pendant and ring as an early 30th birthday present to myself (yay!). Jaipur is known for its jewelry - apparently the majority of all the emeralds in the world come from the mines in Jaipur. They had a lot of beautiful stuff - Mom would love this place :) In addition, they did a demonstration for me of color block printing, which is very popular here. It's a method used to dye or paint fabric using vegetable-based colors and carved wooden blocks. One block will have the outline of the shape (e.g. a camel) and the other block will fill in the color. It was very interesting, but I didn't really feel in the mood for buying textiles today.
After that we went for lunch. It really was scorching hot, so I was happy to get inside in an air conditioned place. While driving, we passed another palace - the Lake Palace - that literally is in the middle of a lake. It looks so glamorous and amazing, but we can't visit it since it's under renovation.
It looks like it's floating, but it actually rests on a small island in the lake (which is man-made, unfortunately)...
Stunning...
I ordered the vegetarian thali for lunch - this time I actually took a photo so you can see what a thali looks like:
From front right: Raita, fresh salad, ladue dessert, rice, dal, mixed veggie curry, paneer tikka masala, and roasted aloo...YUM
This gentleman stands outside the restaurant and opens the door for people coming in. Love the mutton chops.
After lunch we went to the only working astrological observatory in India. It was filled with these massive instruments that astrologers will use for various purposes like constructing horoscopes. It also houses the largest working sundial in the world. Given the importance that this culture puts on star signs and whatnot, it is impressive to see what they've built to honor it.
Sundials
Used to find out what your star sign is
The observatory
Some instrument used for people with my zodiac sign (Cancer)
We next went to the City Palace. Since it is owned by the maharaja, not all of it is open to the public, but a few areas have been converted into a museum for clothing of the maharajas and maharanis plus the throne room (!). Photos weren't allowed inside, but I did take a few of the palace's exterior.
Palace glamour
The huge silver jars inside the pavilion were used to carry water from the Ganges with a maharaja when he was traveling, since he drank it every day for religious reasons. They're in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest silver jugs (or something like that)...
With that, we are done for the day. My guide did say something rather cryptic to me as we were leaving the City Palace - he told me to watch out for the driver of my rented car, that the driver is "a very cunning man." We were just walking up to the car as he said it, so I didn't have time to ask him to clarify what he meant. Regardless, I don't want to take any chances, so I cancelled my car for tomorrow and am going to hang out around my absolutely beautiful hotel instead. Better safe than sorry! Tonight I'm supposed to meet up with my friend Johanne's friend Roopam, who lives here and is going to go eat dinner with me. Should be fun!
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