Friday, 4 February 2011
We met our local guide, Gopal or Pal as he insisted on being called, this morning and drove to the walled area of the city. Now Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state, is also called the Pink City in reference to its distinctly coloured buildings within the walled city which were originally painted this colour to imitate the red sandstone architecture of Mughal cities. The present earthy red colour originates from repainting of the buildings undertaken for a visit by the Prince of Wales in 1876. The buildings looked terracotta instead of pink to me.
We stopped for a brief while at Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) for some Kodak moments before continuing on to Amber Fort about 11 km away. Pal told us there wasn’t much to see inside the five-storey building (built to enable women to watch festive processions without being observed).
We passed Jal Mahal (Water Palace) along the way to the Amber Fort, so named as it sits in the middle of an artificial lake. Amber Fort is located on a hill and is not named for the yellow fossilised tree resin; instead the fort is named after the town of Amber, in turn named after the Hindu goddess Amba. Unlike Srinagar and Agra, Jaipur was a Hindu city (towns with the suffix –pur had Hindu rulers). You can ride an elephant (for Rp900/person) or a jeep up to the fort or opt to walk up. I preferred to walk up and experience the fort this way and so opted for this (I arrived at the same time as my friends who opted for the jeep). Foreigners pay Rp200 to enter the fort. There are also walls along the surrounding hills not unlike the Great Wall of China.
The main sights within the fort include the Sheesh Mahal, adorned with thousands on thousands of mirror tiles on the walls and ceiling. There are also Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience), Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), Sukh Niwas (Hall of Pleasure) and Ladies Apartment where the consorts lived. I just love old buildings and old ruins like this and was very happy to be there.
We had to leave at some point and so left at almost noon. I decided to exercise my legs and walked all the way down the fort and along the Maotha Lake to the carpark. I reached there just as the others alighted from their jeep (OK, I had a head-start).
We drove off to a factory shop selling Jaipur handicrafts (saree materials, scarves, jewellery etc etc) and spent 2.5 hours (yes, you read that right) there. The saree materials didn’t catch my fancy, instead I was drawn to the jewellery store (the best jewellery work in northern India can be found in Jaipur, among other cities). I spent considerable time there admiring the rubies (from India and Myanmar), sapphires (also from India and Myanmar) and finally bought a star sapphire ring (after much bargaining). I bought only one small item and yet it cost me a mighty lot. It looks a bit like the Star of Bombay but only a fraction in carat size of course!
After that, we went to a pottery showroom. Now, Jaipur is famous for its blue pottery. We spent about half an hour here and I left with three plates and some magnets. We headed back to the hotel for our late lunch and prayers.
We left at 3.15 pm and headed to Jantar Mantar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (entrance ticket for foreigners costs Rp100). It is the largest of five astronomical observatories and is located very close to the City Palace. The observatory consists of major architectural and instrumental innovations and geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking stars in their orbits, ascertaining the declinations of planets, and determining the celestial altitudes etc. Our guide helped explain some of the devices (I must admit I didn’t quite follow his explanation). We could see the back façade of the Hawa Mahal from the observatory.
After that, we crossed over to the City Palace (foreigners pay Rp300 for ticket). It houses several palatial structures like the Chandra Mahal (or Moon Palace, home to the present Maharaja of Jaipur), Mubarak Mahal or Welcome Palace (previously a guesthouse for foreign dignitaries, now housing a textile museum), Diwan-i-Khas (or Hall of Private Audience housing the two largest silver vessels in the world which are duly mentioned in the Guinness book) and the Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience). There is also a bazaar in the complex but I was more interested in the cannons and old rickshaws.
We finally left the palace grounds and headed back to the hotel. We spent the evening packing and had dinner at 7.30 pm. There was some problem with the hotel lift and we had to use the stairs most times.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
We set off early today, departing Jaipur at 8.05 am for Delhi, another potentially five-hour journey to be endured. We drove through Rajasthan (and mind you, it’s the biggest state in India!) and passed villages, small towns, fields of yellow mustard flowers (they can grow higher than six feet!), and the occasional shepherds with their herds of cattle and gypsies. I was thinking that on this trip alone, I had seen numerous dogs, cows, buffaloes, goats, camels, horses, elephants, birds (including migratory ones from Siberia), pigs (yes, pigs. We saw a lot of them in Jaipur!) and only one cat (I also saw a mouse – or was it rat? I can never tell – in our boathouse room; it squeezed out under the door each time we saw each other).
We finally pulled into Delhi after 2 pm (the traffic was quite heavy seeing it was Saturday afternoon. The Government officers works half-day on Saturdays) and met up with our local guide. We drove past the Parliament, along Rajpath heading towards India Gate (we didn’t stop) and headed for Bahá'í House of Worship. My friends didn’t want to enter so I didn’t either. We left after taking some photos and drove to Qutub Minar, stopping en route at DLF Place Saket for lunch. I performed prayers in the nursery room after trying in futile to find a prayer room. I exited out the wrong door and had to walk around the mall trying to find our vehicle.
We then drove to Qutub Minar but didn’t enter; we just snapped pictures from outside the complex. Built in the early 13th century, Qutub Minar and its monuments are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 72.5-metre high minaret was the tallest skyscraper in the world when built and I was a bit gutted that we weren’t going to explore the grounds.
We were then taken to the nearby Rajasthan Textile Development Corporation, a bazaar selling Rajasthan handicrafts. We were knackered and no longer interested in souvenirs at this point, hey after all, we had spent considerable time in that store in Jaipur just the day before anyway. We left after fifteen minutes.
Our guide then got down at a metro station and our driver drove us to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 6 pm, just as it was getting dark (and our flight was at 11 pm!). I was down to my last few hundred rupees (enough to buy myself dinner) but found the books irresistible and finally bought one novel using my plastic (books there are seriously cheap!!). After dinner, I went to a pub and watched the Newcastle-Arsenal match (and the stupid meltdown. 4-4 WTF?!).
That put me in such a foul mood that I couldn’t sleep all the way through the flight (well, I always have problem sleeping in flights anyway). Damn you, Arsenal. Damn you, Phil Dowd. And damn you to hell, Jackass Bastard, the living breathing scum of the earth. Grrr...!!! Thank God the pretend invincibles lost to the hungry Wolves.
I’m sleepy... *stifles yawn* (Thanks, RvP)
We met our local guide, Gopal or Pal as he insisted on being called, this morning and drove to the walled area of the city. Now Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state, is also called the Pink City in reference to its distinctly coloured buildings within the walled city which were originally painted this colour to imitate the red sandstone architecture of Mughal cities. The present earthy red colour originates from repainting of the buildings undertaken for a visit by the Prince of Wales in 1876. The buildings looked terracotta instead of pink to me.
We stopped for a brief while at Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) for some Kodak moments before continuing on to Amber Fort about 11 km away. Pal told us there wasn’t much to see inside the five-storey building (built to enable women to watch festive processions without being observed).
We passed Jal Mahal (Water Palace) along the way to the Amber Fort, so named as it sits in the middle of an artificial lake. Amber Fort is located on a hill and is not named for the yellow fossilised tree resin; instead the fort is named after the town of Amber, in turn named after the Hindu goddess Amba. Unlike Srinagar and Agra, Jaipur was a Hindu city (towns with the suffix –pur had Hindu rulers). You can ride an elephant (for Rp900/person) or a jeep up to the fort or opt to walk up. I preferred to walk up and experience the fort this way and so opted for this (I arrived at the same time as my friends who opted for the jeep). Foreigners pay Rp200 to enter the fort. There are also walls along the surrounding hills not unlike the Great Wall of China.
The main sights within the fort include the Sheesh Mahal, adorned with thousands on thousands of mirror tiles on the walls and ceiling. There are also Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience), Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), Sukh Niwas (Hall of Pleasure) and Ladies Apartment where the consorts lived. I just love old buildings and old ruins like this and was very happy to be there.
We had to leave at some point and so left at almost noon. I decided to exercise my legs and walked all the way down the fort and along the Maotha Lake to the carpark. I reached there just as the others alighted from their jeep (OK, I had a head-start).
We drove off to a factory shop selling Jaipur handicrafts (saree materials, scarves, jewellery etc etc) and spent 2.5 hours (yes, you read that right) there. The saree materials didn’t catch my fancy, instead I was drawn to the jewellery store (the best jewellery work in northern India can be found in Jaipur, among other cities). I spent considerable time there admiring the rubies (from India and Myanmar), sapphires (also from India and Myanmar) and finally bought a star sapphire ring (after much bargaining). I bought only one small item and yet it cost me a mighty lot. It looks a bit like the Star of Bombay but only a fraction in carat size of course!
After that, we went to a pottery showroom. Now, Jaipur is famous for its blue pottery. We spent about half an hour here and I left with three plates and some magnets. We headed back to the hotel for our late lunch and prayers.
We left at 3.15 pm and headed to Jantar Mantar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (entrance ticket for foreigners costs Rp100). It is the largest of five astronomical observatories and is located very close to the City Palace. The observatory consists of major architectural and instrumental innovations and geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking stars in their orbits, ascertaining the declinations of planets, and determining the celestial altitudes etc. Our guide helped explain some of the devices (I must admit I didn’t quite follow his explanation). We could see the back façade of the Hawa Mahal from the observatory.
After that, we crossed over to the City Palace (foreigners pay Rp300 for ticket). It houses several palatial structures like the Chandra Mahal (or Moon Palace, home to the present Maharaja of Jaipur), Mubarak Mahal or Welcome Palace (previously a guesthouse for foreign dignitaries, now housing a textile museum), Diwan-i-Khas (or Hall of Private Audience housing the two largest silver vessels in the world which are duly mentioned in the Guinness book) and the Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience). There is also a bazaar in the complex but I was more interested in the cannons and old rickshaws.
We finally left the palace grounds and headed back to the hotel. We spent the evening packing and had dinner at 7.30 pm. There was some problem with the hotel lift and we had to use the stairs most times.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
We set off early today, departing Jaipur at 8.05 am for Delhi, another potentially five-hour journey to be endured. We drove through Rajasthan (and mind you, it’s the biggest state in India!) and passed villages, small towns, fields of yellow mustard flowers (they can grow higher than six feet!), and the occasional shepherds with their herds of cattle and gypsies. I was thinking that on this trip alone, I had seen numerous dogs, cows, buffaloes, goats, camels, horses, elephants, birds (including migratory ones from Siberia), pigs (yes, pigs. We saw a lot of them in Jaipur!) and only one cat (I also saw a mouse – or was it rat? I can never tell – in our boathouse room; it squeezed out under the door each time we saw each other).
We finally pulled into Delhi after 2 pm (the traffic was quite heavy seeing it was Saturday afternoon. The Government officers works half-day on Saturdays) and met up with our local guide. We drove past the Parliament, along Rajpath heading towards India Gate (we didn’t stop) and headed for Bahá'í House of Worship. My friends didn’t want to enter so I didn’t either. We left after taking some photos and drove to Qutub Minar, stopping en route at DLF Place Saket for lunch. I performed prayers in the nursery room after trying in futile to find a prayer room. I exited out the wrong door and had to walk around the mall trying to find our vehicle.
We then drove to Qutub Minar but didn’t enter; we just snapped pictures from outside the complex. Built in the early 13th century, Qutub Minar and its monuments are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 72.5-metre high minaret was the tallest skyscraper in the world when built and I was a bit gutted that we weren’t going to explore the grounds.
We were then taken to the nearby Rajasthan Textile Development Corporation, a bazaar selling Rajasthan handicrafts. We were knackered and no longer interested in souvenirs at this point, hey after all, we had spent considerable time in that store in Jaipur just the day before anyway. We left after fifteen minutes.
Our guide then got down at a metro station and our driver drove us to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 6 pm, just as it was getting dark (and our flight was at 11 pm!). I was down to my last few hundred rupees (enough to buy myself dinner) but found the books irresistible and finally bought one novel using my plastic (books there are seriously cheap!!). After dinner, I went to a pub and watched the Newcastle-Arsenal match (and the stupid meltdown. 4-4 WTF?!).
That put me in such a foul mood that I couldn’t sleep all the way through the flight (well, I always have problem sleeping in flights anyway). Damn you, Arsenal. Damn you, Phil Dowd. And damn you to hell, Jackass Bastard, the living breathing scum of the earth. Grrr...!!! Thank God the pretend invincibles lost to the hungry Wolves.
I’m sleepy... *stifles yawn* (Thanks, RvP)
Sunday, 6 February 2011
We landed at 6.40 am, about half an hour ahead of schedule. I performed prayers at the satellite building and by the time I reached the main terminal, got through autogate and reached the carousel, my bag came out. I took the coach back to KL and an Indian New Zealander sat next to me and we chatted throughout the journey. Abah picked me up at Ampang Park LRT station and after cleaning the kitchen (what a mess!), I unpacked. It took me less than ten minutes to unpack – what can I say, I’m a fast un-packer ;)
So that was my CNY trip, how was your break?
We landed at 6.40 am, about half an hour ahead of schedule. I performed prayers at the satellite building and by the time I reached the main terminal, got through autogate and reached the carousel, my bag came out. I took the coach back to KL and an Indian New Zealander sat next to me and we chatted throughout the journey. Abah picked me up at Ampang Park LRT station and after cleaning the kitchen (what a mess!), I unpacked. It took me less than ten minutes to unpack – what can I say, I’m a fast un-packer ;)
So that was my CNY trip, how was your break?
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