A day in Jaipur - Sunday, January 27

It was lovely to wake up to the splendor of the Rambagh Palace. The satin pillow rest for the bath I was dying to take but never found time for and the Mughal crescent topping the spectacular bathroom mirror were reminders of what fun it is to get a little taste of what royal splendor could be like. The expansive breakfast buffet (including peeled and sliced dragon fruit!), plus a menu of custom-prepared items (how could I resist the scrambled eggs with button mushrooms and a dash of truffle oil), fueled us for the congested world of Jaipur tourism outside the gates.

I kept hearing a thwack sound as we walked through the loggia toward Reception and our rooms. It turned out to be the man who spends the day in the Moon Courtyard, thwacking a white flag with a large baton, to scare off the persistent pigeons. His work was like a fluid dance movement: raise flag in front, swing baton in a great curving arc to thwack the flag, follow through bringing baton up and lowering flag. A new percussion instrument!

Even the sweeper at the front gate wears a lovely sari and folds her names to say namaste as we pass by.

Off c. 8:30 with a new guide and into the congested streets. Kenneth spotted this truckload of chickens for the camera.

We headed straight to the Amber Fort, and found just a 10-minute wait for the elephant ride to the top. This guide, as our others, said tourism has been down significantly because of the recession. In what should be high tourist season, he is getting just 10 assignments a month.

I had read that an elephant ride is like riding in a boat on bumpy seas. We had the extra dimension of a climb up the hill, fairly steep in some sections. The c. 25-minute ride seemed pretty long. Especially to Kenneth, who did not enjoy it at all until we finally reached flat land and saw the end. The mahout told me to re-position a couple of times; I wanted to feel more secure than that! But, like the camel ride in Morocco, we can now check Elephant Ride off our bucket list and smile at the photos.

We climbed steps to the mounting platform

Our mahout, reassuring us

A view from the way up

Survival: success!

The guide told us all about the elephants. How they are really southern India animals, accustomed to warmer, more humid weather. So they just do five trips a day, starting at 8 a.m.. The mahout is with his elephant from childhood. The government has created an "elephant village" with housing for mahouts, vet care for the elephants, etc.

The fort is a top tourist attraction. Its name has nothing to do with amber, but is an English pronunciation of an Indian word. A garrison fort is actually higher up the hill; this was actually a palace, begun in the 1500s and enjoyed until 1727 when the maharajah decided to build a new palace a few kilometers away, beginning the town of Jaipur. It's a remarkably well-preserved place and with enough restoration in some areas to easily imagine the splendor. Of course the throngs of tourists were matched with throngs of in-your-face vendors so we were glad to get inside the gates and away from them.

Since I'm writing this in the early morning dark, as usual, it's hard to fact-check in my guidebooks, so I'll mainly do photos for now and continue my plan to add "addenda" later. The huge first courtyard features a photogenic entry gate and a wall the guide said had not been retouched in its 400 years. The whole palace, with its additions through the years, reflects a combination of Mughal and Hindu architecture style.

The maharajah sat inside this grand public audience hall while the public stayed on the terrace below to make their requests. I love the elephant detail atop the columns.

Looking down to the entry courtyard beyond, you can see the elephant dropoff spot in the middle of the photo.

When I saw a Chinese girl taking a picture of a friend I offered to shoot the two together. It turns out they were part of a Chinese university journalism class making a visit, and immediately they wanted a picture of us with their classmates. Very cute, very good English, very enthusiastic. A hopeful sign for the future?!

Close-up of the fresco painting on the gate exterior

Detail of ceiling inside gate, with sparkling gold leaf

Another big courtyard had a geometric garden in the center and lovely miniature paintings of Persian perfume bottles on the wall of one opening off the loggia (a design similar to one in Bikaner).

An ingenious system provided "air conditioning" for one interior space. Cutouts in the marble allowed air access. As breezes came in, water rolled down a slanted center panel, helping to create a cool breeze (well, something like that), and the water was channeled away for recycling.

On the far side of the court was a most fabulous party space...easy to imagine with carpeted floors, curtains hanging in the openings, and lamp light reflected off the zillion convex mirrors embedded in the walls. Again and again we see obvious inspiration for our hotel's designers.

Stunning ceilings!

 Lovely marble screens provided a view down the hillside.

Peeking through one of the openings, I got a better view of the "floating garden" we saw from the elephant. 

 Of course the palace had indoor latrines, and they were on the tour. This was for ladies - thus the high-up "window." The ladies, not the men, had a heater in their space: the pot at left held water that was heated by a fire below!

One small space in the women's section of the palace was designed as a yoga room , with high ceiling to make the om resonant. Our guide did a very very fine illustration.

A lovely surprise on the way out: The Hot Pink shop has a location here. I had read about it in a recent House Beautiful and was disappointed to see its primary location made it impossible to stop at today. A French woman came to India 17 years ago and has attracted international designers using Indian materials. It was tiny but full of treasures. And of course I thought Kenneth needed a little sit-down break while I did some quick exploring. 

A view up to the site of our morning adventure:

Elephant going home after morning's work

Coconut seller (for coconut milk)

Lake palace

Next stop: The essential sales operation. No matter how many times I ask to go to the one official government handicraft shop, the guide insists on taking us to one of these "recognized" places. And over time I've just come to accept it. It always benefits working artisans in the villages. We did have a nice no-pressure demonstration of their single-knot rug-weaving technique, block printing, etc. Their prices were as expected.

We sat for a few minutes of looking at their rugs. In contrast to the dhurrie craftsman's independence, this operation determines the designs and commissions the villagers to do the weaving. They had some very nice traditional tribal designs; this was a favorite.

But it was time for lunch. Instead of taking us to a restored haveli recommended by our planner ("too far") we were led to a tourist operation nearby, complete with musician. Well, traffic is awful today and our bowls of soups were OK.

On to the next monument. On one lane we found half-dozen vendors...who turned out to be selling food for pigeons. Gag!! The little space was jammed with them. We keep getting lessons on Hindu practices and values...but can't you respect pigeon life without feeding them?!

Poppadum sellers in the streets:

Next stop: an astonishing collection of sun dials (giant and petite) and other astronomical instruments used to tell times and create horoscopes. The guide knew more about this big area than we were interested to learn. I thought it was more interesting as a "sculpture park" than an 18th century scientific wonder!

Next, a visit to the city Palace museum, a complex with textile museum (lovely things, but no photos), a Treasures exhibit, and some really lovely courtyards and architecture.

A peacock gate

The maharajah in 1902 filled this pair of record-breaking-size silver urns with water from the Ganges when he traveled to the English coronation!

I had wanted to explore the touristy small shops in the Old City area for a half hour before calling it a day. But the guide didn't want us to go there. He said as soon as we showed interest in anything, we'd be mercilessly hounded. I'm sure that's true. And I admit to feeling exhaustion at that point. So we went on to my next preferred stop: a big vegetable market.

This is the color that gives old Jaipur its "Pink City" name.

What ARE those green vegetables?!

We stopped at an ATM (limit of $200 per withdrawal - at $4 charge on this end; phooey) and found the resting rickshaw guy by the curb.

I had to bring up the topic of the Delhi rapes and the status of women in India today...but was sorry I had when the guide, sort of apologizing for being honest, explained his view. I had hoped that as a fairly young person he would see the problem, but he clearly reflects the age-old view of women and their role in causing rape!

Back in Heaven, we were greeted by facing horsemen after we cleared security.

Looking out our window, we found a path to a party defined by marigold blossoms.

The pigeon man was still at work 

A very fine cappucino and cookies restored my energy...for perusing the hotel shops with their fabbbbulous jewelry

Lovely flower arrangements everywhere 

We ate in the #2 dining room at the hotel, where the menu had several "International" choices. I started with a lovely light consommé with morels and chicken quenelles but moved to a wonderfully rich phyllo pastry & mushroom ragout & spinach with steamed veggies. Kenneth ordered a fancy tomato soup and a prawn risotto. At the next table a couple of Australian MDs were seated and it didn't take Kenneth long to start up a conversation which lasted through the meal.

I was disappointed to learn the hotel does not have a booklet with pictures of the maharajah paintings that line the halls, so I took my own on the way back. This time I recognized the famous sundial and the lake palace. Just two samples:

 

 I had put the room's Quotes of Gandhi on the sofa with a hope to spend some time with it (alas, no). Turn-down service had placed a bookmark by it! And when I admired the coasters under the water glasses, they became gifts!

While Jaipur wasn't quite as magical as I expected (I've now seen four major fort/palaces, and of course each could use a billion dollars for restoration), this hotel exceeded even my lofty expectations. Back toward reality, with a 9 a.m. departure. Will we see tigers?