MAR-10: Taj Mahal/Pink City of Jaipur tour - Day 4

Let me begin by saying hello to Liam Sullivan, his classmates and teacher.  His mother tells me that you are reading this blog.  I hope that you find the postings interesting.  If you have questions, please send them to me and I will try to answer them. 

Tour Description

After breakfast, proceed to the Amber Fort (pronounced "Ammer") with a photo stop at Hawa Mahal along the way. The ornamental façade of the Palace of Winds is a prominent landmark in Jaipur. It is a five-story structure of sandstone, plastered pink and encrusted with fine trellis work and elaborate balconies. The palace has 953 niches and windows.  Built in 1799 by Pratap Singh, the Mahal was a royal grandstand for the palace women.  The Amber Fort, high atop a hill on the edge of town, is the classic romantic Rajasthani fort/palace. Its construction was begun by Man Singh I in 1592, and completed by his descendent Jai Singh I. Its forbidding exterior hides an inner paradise where a beautiful blend of Mughali and Hindu styles finds its ultimate expression. After lunch you’ll take a city tour of Jaipur, stopping to visit the amazing Jantar Mantar Observatory. This is the largest and the best-preserved of the five observatories built by Jai Singh II. Still in use today, it houses a range of outsized astronomical instruments. At the nearby City Palace, you’ll find a delightful blend of Mughali and traditional Rajasthani architecture. It sprawls over one-seventh of the area in the walled city and houses the Chandra Mahal, Shri Govind Dev Temple and the City Palace Museum. An evening flight will return you to the ship in Mumbai, where you will re-board the ship.

Tour Experience

 After a good dinner and a restful night at Rambaugh Palace, which although immense was considered by the royal family who owned it only a hunting camp, we departed for Amber Fort.  To get there we had to drive through the pink city of Jaipur.  We learned that the pink city is not pink.  Many years ago the maharaja at the time had the entire city painted to welcome a delegation from England.  The British did not know how to describe the color and so called in pink.  The color is what today is called terracotta. 

Standing in the parking lot at the fort you can actually see three forts.  One fort is very old and in ruins.  (It is in the upper right section of the photo.)

The third fort, although built about three hundred years ago had features such as air conditioning!  (more on that later in this blog) 

The  forts are amazing architectural accomplishments not only in their sophisticated design, but because they were built by hand.  Everything that had to go up the mountain was carried by people, donkeys, camels or elephants.  Every stone had to be cut by hand.  Every board had to be sawed by hand.  Thousands of people worked on the project.  These were not slaves, but rather paid workers.  People were willing to work for very little money and the maharajas were incredibly wealthy. 

In a jeep, we ascended the narrow, winding streets leading from the parking lot to the fort.  The alternatives are to walk up on foot under a hot sun or ride up on an elephant.  Having ridden Asian elephants two years ago in Laos, Pam & I knew that while it looked like fun, anyone prone to motion sickness might want to reconsider.

I will not go into a narrative of our tour.  The Tour Description and the following pictures will give you an idea of the impressiveness of Amber Fort.

About the air conditioning – water was carried to the top of the fort, the first part of the way by animals and the last part of the way by servants.  Rooms were built so that a breeze passed through them.  Slits were cut into the stone on the windward side of the room.  Before the breeze entered the room it passed through a gentle waterfall that cooled it.

Back down the mountain we went.  

In the parking lot was the usual horde of peddlers.  As at other stops our guide herded us onto our bus, then held what he called a "bus-zaar".  He would ask us what we wanted, then haggle with the peddlers on our behalf.

Returning to our hotel there was a quick photo op at the palace on the lake.  This palace is not being used.

After some meager sustenance back at the Rambaugh Palace hovel our next destination was the Royal Observatory.  Once again I will leave it to the tour description to tell you specifics about this site built by a maharaja interested in astronomy and astrology.   It is easy to believe that these structures could provide only a rough approximation of date and time.  In fact, the smaller of the two sundials is accurate to within 20 seconds and the big sundial which is ten times larger is accurate to within two seconds.  In case it was cloudy or night when someone wanted to check the time, the maharaja installed a clock nearby.

 We walked from the Royal Observatory to the City Palace Museum.  Since the maharaja lives in this Palace, only a small part of it is open to the public.

It was now time to begin the trip to Mumbai and ROTTERDAM.  The trip was uneventful other than a long wait for the flight and a boxed dinner that was best left uneaten. 

Having experienced airport security in Sri Lanka and India, I will never say an unkind word about TSA in the United States.  Even when we got to the pier in Mumbai, before we could go to the ship, all of our luggage had to be x-rayed and our passports verified.  Bear in mind that when we entered India four days earlier (actually five since we did not get to the ship until well after midnight) our passports, visas and luggage had been checked repeatedly.  Every night when we arrived at a hotel our passport information had to be given again.  Before we could get on the plane to Mumbai our passports were checked four more times.  I was thoroughly wanded and frisked at the airport even though I did not set off the metal detector.  In total, these experiences moving around India were an important reminder of the freedoms we and guests to our country often take for granted.  Oh, and if you see a police officer or soldier doing something wrong don’t take a picture of it; doing so is illegal and can get you in serious trouble.