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| IndiGo barf bag |
Once again, up early, this time to
catch a plane to Jaipur. We took IndiGo, which reminds me of
Southwest with their tongue in cheek attitude. Rajastan seems a
little less polluted than Delhi, where I have developed a nasty
cough.
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| Shahpura House wall art |
Our hotel, the Shahpura House, is
wonderful, a niche hotel of the best kind. Originally a manor house
of the Shekhawal clan of Rajputs, it was turned into a hotel by
Maharaj Surendra Singh ji in the 1990's. Decoration everywhere and
Indian style beds, cool marble floors and a/c. What more could you
want in a hotel.
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| Bedroom |
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| Palace of the Winds, a facade |
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| Jaipur Juntar Muntar, the largest |
After checking in and lunch in a
wonderful dining room, we went on a city tour. The old walled city
is most interesting but it is only a small part of Jaipur, which is
huge, having a population of 6.66 million. Know as the pink city, it
is the capital of Rajasthan, and the walled city is a World Heritage
site. It really is painted a browny-pink, especially inside the city
wall. Driving around we saw the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds,
the Lake Palace which was featured in “Octopussy,” with Amer Fort
overlooking it all. We then stopped at the Jantar Mantar, an
observatory completed between 1724 and 1735. There are five Jantar
Mantar's in India, and the one in Jaipur is the largest. It is
extremely accurate, especially considering the time period in which
it was conceived and constructed. Local time, for instance, is
calculated to within two seconds.
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| Peacock door in City Palace |
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| Closeup of the peacocks |
After the Jantar Mantar we went to the
City Palace, part museum, part private living quarters for the
Maharajah of Jaipur. We walked through myraid courtyards, through
private and not-so-private audience chambers and through gates, but
only touched on a small portion of the palace as most of it is still
the private dwelling of the Maharajah. Wonderfully displayed
textiles, but no photos were allowed.
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| One of the gates into old Jaipur |
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