Jaipur - Day 2

This is a link from my blog about my trip to India in 2014
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david63
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Jaipur - Day 2

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Post by david63 »

Ah the bliss of not having to get up at “silly o’clock” – we could actually have a lie in until 07:00 as we were not meeting our guide until 09:00.

Today comprised of an excursion to the major “tourist” sites of Jaipur starting with the Amber Fort Palace – named after the place and not its colour as some believe. The Palace is quite high up in the mountains and the path up to it is extremely steep which basically means that walking up is out of the question. The other alternatives are by elephant which is where we were advised not to use as these are not well cared for elephants and are purely for the tourist with no thought about their welfare. The second option is by jeep but as we had just finished having three dust jeep rides we declined this offer and settled for our driver taking us up in the car.

The first port of call here was at the Amber Palace Temple which is an active Hindu temple. The removal of shoes, socks and anything leather is required before entering. Once inside there was some chanting and bell ringing going as is the way in these temples when all of a sudden and without any warning (well non that we understood) there was this almighty cacophony of noise – bells ringing, drums beating and some guys at the back hitting what looked like frying pans with sticks. The whole experience was totally unique and unexpected and we came out with our ears ringing.

From the temple we then moved on to see the magnificent palace with, amongst other things, the hall of mirrors where all of the walls and ceiling are covered in pieces of mirror – the effect is stunning. When going round these palaces you can only marvel at the craftsmanship that was around 300/400 or more years ago – many of the things could probably not be done today with all the technology that we have.

The destination after the Amber Fort palace was to the Hawa Mahal (better known as the Palace of the Winds). Now we already knew from what we had read that this is not really a palace but more of a façade where the women from the palace could watch the processions without being seen. This palace is only one room wide and all the pictures that you see give the impression that it is out on its own somewhere – the reality is that it is on the main street through the city, somehow we feel let down!

Anyway onwards and upwards – we now move on to the City Palace which is more of a museum of the times of the Rajasthan Maharajas than anything else but it is the place where ruling Jaipur family lived in the 18th century.

From here we went just outside the Palace to Jantar Mantar or observatory which is totally incredible place bearing in mind that it was built in the 1700’s. This place contains some absolutely incredible constructions which were used for all things astronomical – including the largest known sundial that is accurate to two seconds (based on the solar time in Jaipur)

That about rounded off the day and the only other left to do was to have a relax around the hotel’s pool.

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GillD46
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Re: Jaipur - Day 2

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Post by GillD46 »

It all sounds very interesting, but I feel exhausted just reading about it.
Gill

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