After Mari and I made quick work of the Taj, we loaded into the car and took a 4 hour drive to Jaipur. I had heard so much about Jaipur from the people I work with. I was told there were bazzars (small shops) everywhere. I was told you could buy bengals, fabric, jewelry, and a host of other things. While we did find some places to shop, much of our time was taken up by the tour we went on.
We arrived into Jaipur around 6pm and got checked in an settled before heading to a different hotel to meet Daniela for dinner. The following morning we woke up around 7:30 and headed down to have a little breakfast before our tour. There was a great buffet set up and the food looked great. The only reason I am mentioning the breakfast is because of one item they had out. Pancakes. Mari went crazy! They were mini pancakes and Mari was so happy. As it turns out, they don't do pancakes in Tokyo... whoda thunk it?
Daniela and the car picked us up around 8:30 and we were off on the tour. Our first stop was a huge fort called, the Amber Fort that was on top of a hill.
*Pro Tip, the B in Amber is silent
To get up to the fort, you could either take a car, walk, or take an elephant ride... I will let you guess which one Mari and I chose. For a mere 900RS (<$18) you could get a two person ride on an elephant. We boarded our elephant and slowly (and uncomfortably I might add) made our way to the top. The entire way we were bothered by hawkers and others trying to sell us worthless trinkets, but since we were a solid 10-12 feet above them it mattered little.
The view from the top (as usual) was beautiful. After taking some pictures and listening to our tour guide we made our way inside. The fort is a maze of court yards, small rooms, and even smaller passage ways. If we were not with someone who knew where to go, I can guarantee we would still be wandering around this massive fort.
All of the color on the wall in the picture is from paint that is made by crushing semi precious gems and stones and mixing them with a milky like paste. Those walls have not been repainted in over 400 years.
Once inside the fort, we wandered around and saw many different rooms before we stumbled into the "third courtyard". This area of the fort is also known as the Mirror Palace. The walls and ceilings are covered in mirrors. The mirror were small and convex shaped. When dark, and a candle held in the right spot, the whole area would light up. Really ingenious if you ask me. Across the courtyard from the mirror palace was a primitive form of air conditioning. There would be a huge wall of moss hanging over and blocking air flow into the garden area. Water was the pumped (naturally I might add) into the moss. So when the breezes came and hit the wall of moss, it would cool the air before it came into the garden area. This place would have been incredible to see in working order.
As I said before, the Amber Fort had LOTS of rooms. The Maharaja that designed the fort made the "fourth courtyard" for his wives, concubines, and mistresses. The Maharaja's room had a passageway that led to a common corridor that then branched into each of the 12+ rooms individually. The king was able to visit any one of his ladies without the others know which one it was. I can not begin to fathom how difficult it would be to keep track of it. "Damn it, I'm in Jessica's room, I meant to go to Carla's room... I guess Carla will have to wait till tomorrow".
On our way out of the fort we came across something I had been looking forward to seeing... a snake charmer! It was really cool. The guy had a couple little baskets, and once someone put their money down he took off the cover and began playing. And what do you know... there was a cobra! Our tour guide told us that if we paid 20RS (<$0.40) we could go and touch the cobra while the charmer played. None of us had the courage... even after we were told the cobra had its fangs removed. Maybe next time...
Next up, the Jal Mahal, which means the Water Palace. They are currently doing renovations on it so we were unable to actually go to the palace, but it was really pretty to see from shore. We also had a pretty decent view of it from our hotel room.
We then stopped at this fabric store that was really cool. They did something called block printing. Which consists of dipping a wood block, with a negative carving in it, into ink and pounding it onto fabric. After the demo we went into the store and did a little shopping. Mari got a custom dress made from silk with block printing on it, and I went to the custom tailored blazer and shirts. Overall a really good stop.
Next stop was the City Palace. No cameras were allowed inside of the palace, so I only have one picture of this one. There is a whole bunch of history and plenty of stories about this palace... I honestly can only remember two. The first is about a mysophobe of a king. He was so worried about his drinking water when he traveled that he made a huge urn out of silver that he took with him when he traveled. To each his own I guess. The other is about a huge king. This king four feet wide, over seven feet tall and weighed over 550 pounds. Oh, and he had 108 wives...
Our last stop in Jaipur was the Jantar Mantar. This is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments built by a king... who apparently always needed to know what time, season, and astrological sign it was at any given second. He built 14 different instruments including a sun dial (pictured below), star tracking and elipse predicting devices, and a device for individual constellations. So when your child is born, you are supposed to check this place to find their astrological sign.
Apparently the "small" sundial was not accurate enough for this king, so he had a larger one built. This one stand 90 feet tall and is the largest sundial in the world. It could actually be smaller in size, the reasoning being "The scale to which they have been built has been alleged to increase their accuracy. However, the penumbra of the sun can be as wide as 30 mm, making the 1mm increments of the Samrat Yantra sundial devoid of any practical significance."
With just a car ride back to Delhi (worst in my life), our trip was coming to an end. Once back in Delhi, I took Mari on tours I had already done and what I thought she would enjoy (Old Delhi, Lotus Temple, etc, etc). This brought us to Friday... the day Mari left. A sad day indeed, but her visit was so much fun and provided a much needed break from the monotony of the internship.
Next up, a post on a "rain party" and a weekend trip to Chandigarh with Dinesh! Should post that tomorrow.
We arrived into Jaipur around 6pm and got checked in an settled before heading to a different hotel to meet Daniela for dinner. The following morning we woke up around 7:30 and headed down to have a little breakfast before our tour. There was a great buffet set up and the food looked great. The only reason I am mentioning the breakfast is because of one item they had out. Pancakes. Mari went crazy! They were mini pancakes and Mari was so happy. As it turns out, they don't do pancakes in Tokyo... whoda thunk it?
Daniela and the car picked us up around 8:30 and we were off on the tour. Our first stop was a huge fort called, the Amber Fort that was on top of a hill.
*Pro Tip, the B in Amber is silent
To get up to the fort, you could either take a car, walk, or take an elephant ride... I will let you guess which one Mari and I chose. For a mere 900RS (<$18) you could get a two person ride on an elephant. We boarded our elephant and slowly (and uncomfortably I might add) made our way to the top. The entire way we were bothered by hawkers and others trying to sell us worthless trinkets, but since we were a solid 10-12 feet above them it mattered little.
The view from the top (as usual) was beautiful. After taking some pictures and listening to our tour guide we made our way inside. The fort is a maze of court yards, small rooms, and even smaller passage ways. If we were not with someone who knew where to go, I can guarantee we would still be wandering around this massive fort.
All of the color on the wall in the picture is from paint that is made by crushing semi precious gems and stones and mixing them with a milky like paste. Those walls have not been repainted in over 400 years.
Once inside the fort, we wandered around and saw many different rooms before we stumbled into the "third courtyard". This area of the fort is also known as the Mirror Palace. The walls and ceilings are covered in mirrors. The mirror were small and convex shaped. When dark, and a candle held in the right spot, the whole area would light up. Really ingenious if you ask me. Across the courtyard from the mirror palace was a primitive form of air conditioning. There would be a huge wall of moss hanging over and blocking air flow into the garden area. Water was the pumped (naturally I might add) into the moss. So when the breezes came and hit the wall of moss, it would cool the air before it came into the garden area. This place would have been incredible to see in working order.
As I said before, the Amber Fort had LOTS of rooms. The Maharaja that designed the fort made the "fourth courtyard" for his wives, concubines, and mistresses. The Maharaja's room had a passageway that led to a common corridor that then branched into each of the 12+ rooms individually. The king was able to visit any one of his ladies without the others know which one it was. I can not begin to fathom how difficult it would be to keep track of it. "Damn it, I'm in Jessica's room, I meant to go to Carla's room... I guess Carla will have to wait till tomorrow".
On our way out of the fort we came across something I had been looking forward to seeing... a snake charmer! It was really cool. The guy had a couple little baskets, and once someone put their money down he took off the cover and began playing. And what do you know... there was a cobra! Our tour guide told us that if we paid 20RS (<$0.40) we could go and touch the cobra while the charmer played. None of us had the courage... even after we were told the cobra had its fangs removed. Maybe next time...
Next up, the Jal Mahal, which means the Water Palace. They are currently doing renovations on it so we were unable to actually go to the palace, but it was really pretty to see from shore. We also had a pretty decent view of it from our hotel room.
We then stopped at this fabric store that was really cool. They did something called block printing. Which consists of dipping a wood block, with a negative carving in it, into ink and pounding it onto fabric. After the demo we went into the store and did a little shopping. Mari got a custom dress made from silk with block printing on it, and I went to the custom tailored blazer and shirts. Overall a really good stop.
Next stop was the City Palace. No cameras were allowed inside of the palace, so I only have one picture of this one. There is a whole bunch of history and plenty of stories about this palace... I honestly can only remember two. The first is about a mysophobe of a king. He was so worried about his drinking water when he traveled that he made a huge urn out of silver that he took with him when he traveled. To each his own I guess. The other is about a huge king. This king four feet wide, over seven feet tall and weighed over 550 pounds. Oh, and he had 108 wives...
Our last stop in Jaipur was the Jantar Mantar. This is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments built by a king... who apparently always needed to know what time, season, and astrological sign it was at any given second. He built 14 different instruments including a sun dial (pictured below), star tracking and elipse predicting devices, and a device for individual constellations. So when your child is born, you are supposed to check this place to find their astrological sign.
Apparently the "small" sundial was not accurate enough for this king, so he had a larger one built. This one stand 90 feet tall and is the largest sundial in the world. It could actually be smaller in size, the reasoning being "The scale to which they have been built has been alleged to increase their accuracy. However, the penumbra of the sun can be as wide as 30 mm, making the 1mm increments of the Samrat Yantra sundial devoid of any practical significance."
With just a car ride back to Delhi (worst in my life), our trip was coming to an end. Once back in Delhi, I took Mari on tours I had already done and what I thought she would enjoy (Old Delhi, Lotus Temple, etc, etc). This brought us to Friday... the day Mari left. A sad day indeed, but her visit was so much fun and provided a much needed break from the monotony of the internship.
Next up, a post on a "rain party" and a weekend trip to Chandigarh with Dinesh! Should post that tomorrow.
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