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Comfortably seated in our private tourist bus we thought our journey to Jaipur would pass event free, how wrong were we - well this is incredible India ! A lorry driving down the wrong carriageway forced us into a ditch which incensed our driver so much he did a u-turn and set off in pursuit whilst his co-driver took out an iron bar and hung out of the passenger door. Sensing imminent danger and probably blood it was only through the gentle persuasion of another female tourist at the front of the bus that the chase was abandoned and normal service resumed - phew!!
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and, next to Delhi, is the biggest city we've visited so far in India. The old city is enclosed in a 20 foot high fortified wall with 7 entry gates. My first impression of old Jaipur is that it is very uniform which is highly unusual for India. The streets are wide, lined with buildings of a similar design, fronted with long covered walkways and painted a salmon pink - the national colour of welcome in India. It turns out that Jaipur was the first planned city, which explains it's uniformity, and is known as the pink city because Maharaja Man Singh II painted it this colour in honour of the visit of Prince Albert, Prince of Wales, in 1905 and 1911.
Jaipur is heavily congested and cycle rickshaws, horse drawn carts, elephants, tuk tuks, cyclists, cows, people, cars and motorbikes come at you from all angles! Trying to cross the road is one major challenge as I discovered to my peril. Fortunately a very nice elderly Indian gentleman, sensing my distress, led me across the road and with one arm outstretched to the side, palm faced forward he almost stopped the traffic to get us to the other side of the road - my knight in shining armour!
We saw our first snake charmer in Jaipur, he saw us approaching, lifted the lid of the basket, smacked the snake on the head with his flute and then proceeded to play. Davd and I both jumped at the sight of the snake and almost ran past him. Sorry no money from us mate!
Jaipur has many sites of interest but again, due to time restrictions, we had to select only a few so we opted for the Palace Museum, Amber Fort and Hawa Mahal or the 'Palace of winds'.
The Palace Museum is part palace and part home to the current king, despite the fact that royalty have been outlawed in India for some time - still confuses me that one! Of interest here were the 2 largest silver objects in the world, according to the guinness book of records, silver pots which were used by the Maharaja Sawa Madah Singh II to carry water from the River Ganges whilst visiting the UK for the coronation of King Edward II in 1902. He required the water for bathing to ensure that he remained holy whilst he was travelling overseas.
The Amber Fort is a huge fort just outside of Jaipur. Elephants are still used to take tourists up to the fort but, as Intrepid do not support this activity, we used our two legs instead. We got massively hassled by street sellers on the way up trying to sell us all sorts of things such as scarves and tiny wooden elephants - they started at 2 for 100 rupees, reducing dramatically as the walk progressed, to a low price of 10 for 20 rupees. I understand that it is their livelihood but they are so thick skinned and continue hassling you even though you ignore them, tell them to go away or just tell them repeatedly that you're not going to buy from them - tough stuff! Unfortunately the audio tour of the fort no longer exists so we had to just wander aimlessly through the myriad of rooms, stairs and balconies. I can't even start to explain how big this place is, I just feel remarkably sorry for any poor servant who had just arrived here to work, as I have no doubt that they would have got incredibly lost in the place! It was fascinating and amazing but would have been infinitely better with some kind of guide.
We also visited the Hawa Mahal which I found particularly interesting as it was built as the exclusive domain of the kings wives, children and concubines. Historically hindu women did not wear the veil but as muslim traders started to arrive in India so did the purdah (which means curtain) and the zenana, a building where women live in total isolation from the outside world. Clearly such segregation was a practice which could only be introduced by the wealthy noblemen, elite and royalty of India. The women of the Hawa Mahal were guarded by Eunochs who vetoed any male visitors, such as traders, who entered the palace, despite the fact that the women still had to conduct any trade with them from behind a screen. The king was very keen to keep his women happy, amused and occupied with much singing, dancing, bathing, polo and archery as it was believed that keeping them happy would stop them from straying - well where there's a will there's a way, even in a zenana! To get from one level of the palace to another there is a tower with a really steep path winding round it. As the queens and princesses wore such heavy elaborate outfits they had to be carried or pushed from level to level - again poor servants! One side of the Hawa Mahal is elaborately carved and makes up the east wall of the city complex and this is where the women would sit and watch the goings on in the street below without being seen. I can only speak from the information I have available to me, but this place, despite it's beauty, just reminds me of an exclusive prison for women!
On our first night in Jaipur we decided to paint the town red and head for the premier nightspot 'Back to Basics'. In retrospect I think we were somewhat missold this place as it wasn't quite the happening disco we'd expected though we did manage to do a bit of dancing which was the whole object of the evening. Getting home was a bit of an ordeal as the tuk tuk driver had absolutely no idea where we were staying though he naturally failed to inform us of this when he took the fare. David was getting angry with him, Veidi had her head in her hands, Helen just wanted to go back to the club and get another tuk tuk and I was getting more and more concerned as I knew we were driving further away from the hotel - in the end Hayley took control of the situation and having woken up a sleeping doorman to get directions we managed to navigate our way home. This excercise was actually very good practice for the further 2 times that we had to guide tuk tuk drivers back to our hotel!
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