Jaipur: Rajasthan, Part 2

From Udaipur, M. W. and I took an overnight train to Jaipur, the largest city and capital of the Rajasthan region. Train travel in India is an experience in and of itself; India has the second-largest and most expansive rail system in the world, and train travel remains a viable and popular option for intercity travel. I shouldn't be so surprised, but coming from the United States where train travel is essentially a curiosity outside of the Northeast Corridor, I couldn't help but be a little envious. Train travel is so popular in India that, even though we booked our tickets a month in advance, we were only able to reserve "AC 3 Sleeper" accommodations, which is one class below what most tour books recommend for Westerners. Oh well; it was fine, just a bit crowded. We did take a walk through the AC 2 and AC 1 cars, and the demographics definitely change. We were the only Westerners in our class. I've taken a few sleeper trains in Europe, and the main difference, aside from the behavioral norms of the passengers (which take getting used to), is that in AC 3 the berths are not segregated into compartments. We slept in essentially a giant train car with 62 beds in one room. It was a good experience!

At any rate, we arrived in Jaipur in the morning and made it to the hostel, where we crashed for a few hours before getting up at 9 AM and hitting the town. We stayed at Vinayak Guest House, which I note because it really stood out as the friendliest place I've stayed so far. The managers were gracious when we arrived much earlier than expected and let us sleep in singles for a few hours until our room was ready, and greeted us each morning with a cup of chai. If you're in Jaipur and staying on a budget, Vinayak is a great option.

First up we walked to the old city, called the Pink City because of the color all the facades are painted. M's guidebook recommended a walking tour, which took us through various districts specializing in different crafts. We walked through the part of town where all the stonecutters and masons work; where the jewel-cutters and polishers operate; the bazaar. We also saw more trash in the streets than anywhere to date (see below), and while cows may be sacred, they also live in, sleep in, and even eat the trash. I hope this isn't what upscale restaurants mean when they say "free range."




Suddenly we came upon Jaipur's most iconic building, the Palace of Winds. Its facade is beautiful, but there's not much to it. It's not really a palace so much as a structure allowing the noble women of the town to look out onto street life and processions without being seen. Throughout India we saw many examples of the traditional segregation of women of the court into "zenanas" or "harems", and one of their defining features is a set of highly latticed windows where the viewer can look out without being seen.



After some more wandering around, we visited Jantar Mantar, made a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year. It was cool, but personally I think it sets the bar a bit low for UNESCO status; it's basically a lot with several dozen astronomical structures, built by the astronomy-obsessed Jai Singh II several hundred years ago. He built five such lots around India, but this is the best preserved.




The last big stop in the old city was Jaipur's City Palace, another beautiful palace with an impressive armory. Indians apparently really liked building combo weapons, like a sword with two pistols attached and a knife that detaches from the hilt; or an arrow with a 12-inch half-moon blade attached to the front, for slicing an enemy's throat from afar. I have some pictures of the palace, but pictures in the armory were banned.



And finally for this day, we decided to take a hike up a hill overlooking Jaipur to Nahargarh, an old fort-cum-palace. The hike up was very enjoyable, and sort of reminded me of the Snake Path at Masada that I have never taken. From the top of the hill we had a great view over Jaipur.




The palace itself was impressive if only because it's beautiful, fairly new (I think only about 100 years old), and totally abandoned. That the maharajas could build such a place on a whim and then totally abandon it to go live in their other dozen palaces sort of astounds me. The number of beautiful, abandoned palaces we saw in India was interesting; I wonder how many of them would be turned into five-star hotels were they in Europe of the US.





The next day we hired a cab for the day and went off to see Amber Fort, Jaipur's most important attraction. On the way, we stopped to see the Water Palace, a half-submerged palace that you can only see from afar.



Amber Fort is a massive complex and was the stronghold of the rulers of the Jaipur region before they built Jaipur. It's a huge, fortified complex on the top of a hill, and was built to serve all the needs of a court. Next to it is Jaigarh Fort, a more military-style installation looking over and protecting it. We approached on foot, but there's a stable of about 100 painted elephants that ferry tourists up and down. The previous morning we had read a story in the local paper about the mistreatment of the elephants, that many of them are blind, and that almost none of them are considered "fit for riding", so we decided to skip that option. I think elephants by nature look a bit sad, but seeing dozens upon dozens of these huge creatures painted and forced to walk up and down the same path for years definitely made M and I consider starting an elephant revolt and stampede.




Like so many of the places where we spent hours walking around with an audioguide, I'm confronted with my inability to do Amber Fort justice. In addition to its beautiful architecture, we learned much about how the maharajas' court system worked: from the diwan-i am where they greeted the common man, to the diwan-i khas where they greeted courtiers more privately, to the zenana where eunuchs guarded their many wives and concubines, to the design and function of Mughal gardens and even Mughal bathrooms. Suffice it to say, this is a place you'll have to see for yourself.








Amber Fort took up most of the day. On the way to the train station for our evening train to Agra, we stopped by a workshop and learned a bit about what crafts Jaipur is best known for (turns out, gem cutting and polishing), but managed to escape without buying anything, even though one of the salesmen followed M into the street to try to sell him a $900 rug he had expressed some interest in. Overall, Jaipur's charms are definitely not its city center, but its outlying palaces and forts.

Next stop, Agra.