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Early start today - we set off for the Amber Fort which is a half hour auto-rickshaw ride away. As we got closer I began seeing elephants everywhere, passing them on the road as we drove to the base of the mountain on which the Amber Fort stands. It was only when we reached the bottom of the path which leads up to the fort that I realised how many elephants there were - there must have been fifty of them! I got super excited and took far too many photographs - there's something so gentle about elephants despite their size and potential to be a dangerous animal, they really are majestic creatures and I never tire of seeing one, I doubt I ever will. The options for reaching the fort are walking up the path or going by elephant - it doesn't take a genius to work out which I wanted to do! You travel two to an elephant so dad and I were given a particularly lovely elephant with a very smiley driver and we set off up the mountain. The journey takes about twenty five minutes and every second of it was completely awesome. There are people standing rather perilously on the walls lining the path taking your photograph all the way up the hill (as you can't really take a photo of yourself on an elephant when you're on it!) but thankfully our guide that we had arranged at the bottom was waiting at the top and after a rather risky drop of the camera into his hands, he took a few pictures of us on it. A pretty fantastic morning to say it wasn't even 9:30am yet.
We then went off to explore the Amber Fort with our guide. The view from up there really was incredible - the most surprising thing being the seriously long wall which surrounds the entire valley, our guide called it Amber's version of the Great Wall of China. This fort is more of a palace, built from pale yellow and pink sandstone and white marble, and divided into four main sections, each with its own courtyard. An imposing stairway leads up to the main palace but just off to the right we found the small Siladevi Temple. A tiny but beautiful temple where from the 16th century up until 1980 (when the government banned the practice) a goat was sacrificed here on a daily basis. Lovely!
Although the courtyards and the corridors are sparse here, the detail on the walls is incredible. I know that I'm constantly talking about stonework and marble these days but Amber Fort isn't lacking in this kind of craftsmanship. The main reason for hiring a guide is the level of detail you get that without one you'd miss completely. Unlike a lot of the other places we've visited in the last week, forts included, Amber Fort has very few signs or information boards indicating what you're looking at so without a guide we wouldn't really know anything specific about our surroundings. He told us about the main palace being split to allow each of the Maharaja's two wives to have their own individual but identical quarters. Apparently they had to be kept completely separate or they'd physically fight - power struggles amongst wives were common apparently! The most beautiful rooms in the fort are visible but cordoned off from visitors. Our guide informed us that this was a relatively recent development to stop tourists from stealing the gemstones from the walls and urinating in the royal summer toilet - can you imagine?! The miniature gardens within the palace were also quite beautiful - to find an area so green up on the mountain surrounded by stone was really quite special. After we left the guide and were heading out of the fort, dad spotted a 'secret' tunnel entrance (he'd been in there on his last visit to Amber Fort and said it was worth a look). He was right, the tunnel was great. The bats however, were not! My experience with bats is limited but being in an underground tunnel with the only exit being at the opposite end and a LOT of bats between me and it was NOT fun and I soon found myself short of breath and heading directly (eyes down) for the exit, much to dad's amusement! After a quick drink in the resident Cafe Coffee Day (finding this within the walls of the fort was like finding a branch of Starbucks in the Queen's dressing room at Buckingham Palace) we set off back the way we came down the mountain, walking with the elephants this time. We were immediately accosted by a young man holding a picture of us on the elephant from earlier that morning - I had wondered if having your picture taken on the way up was a bit like when you're on a ride at a theme park and you have to go and look at the picture somewhere in order to buy it. This was not the case - they just find you! Bearing in mind this was a couple of hours later and there are a lot of tourists there I thought it quite impressive! He wanted 500 rupees for it, dad ended up giving him 50 - I'm yet to inherit dad's negotiating skills! After switching rickshaws (due to our previous driver being a total con-merchant) we made our way up to Jaigarh Fort. It's a steep uphill walk of about 1km but we decided against it as it was just past noon and it was really quite hot! This fort was never captured and is a splendid example of 18th century defences, without the palatial frills that are found in many other Rajput forts. It never being captured may have something to do with it housing the world's largest wheeled cannon, Jaya Vana. It's MASSIVE. I'm not sure how to explain just how massive it is....well it would take four elephants to make it change direction (pretty big hey?!). Wandering around the rest of the fort offered picturesque views across the valley and allowed us to look down on Amber Fort which was even more impressive from above. By mid afternoon we were heading back to the city and called in at Royal Gaitor - the royal cenotaphs located just outside the city walls beneath Nahargarh. The stone monuments are beautifully and intricately carved - somewhat over the top for individuals' memorials but beautiful all the same.
After such a lovely day everything went a bit wrong. On returning to the hotel I felt immediately quite sick and ended up retiring to bed at about 5pm. It was probably just too much sun but I felt bloody awful. Even (a rather odd) home comfort of managing to watch Downton Abbey online [please note: you can take the girl our of England but period dramas ALWAYS help when unwell!!] didn't help and eventually sleep seemed to be the only option. Fifteen hours later (that must be the most I've slept in years!) I woke feeling a little better but still not great. We decided that another whole day in Jaipur followed by a six hour train at midnight to Deshnok to visit the Rat Temple and then a five and a half hour bus to Pushkar might not be the best idea. Instead we bought tickets for the 2:15pm express train to Ajmer (only 100 rupees for the pair of us) and two hours and a short taxi later we were at the Hotel Lotus in Pushkar. After a week in India travelling in an actual car certainly felt strange!! Sitting by the lake in the chill out area of the hotel drinking honey lemon ginger tea after the last twenty four hours is like heaven in a cup. After the chaos of Jaipur, Pushkar is like the antidote to all the noise. It's so calm, so peaceful, and dad was right, it really is worthy of being his favourite place on earth. Seven days here probably won't be enough!
- comments
Leslie Frith I am so pleased you are experiencing travel in India for the first time you see, smell, sense, interact you will never forget these initial reactions!!! Time to relax is very important, this is when you recharge your batteries and reflect on what you've already experienced and plan your next adventure! Love every minute of it Becki, Although you must be careful to drink water (& salts) & wear a hat & light cotton loose clothing for protection from sun & mosquitos!!! Enjoy & learn from your Dad! Don't ever try to compete with him, especially drinking alcohol!!! Lesson over, I feel so useless with my new hip & can't wait to get back to fitness asap!! I look forward to the next instalment of your adventures in India!!