The morning began with breakfast in the ornate dining room of our hotel. The hotel had been a Maharaja's palace year's ago and was still run by descendents of his family. I had toast and marmalade which was a real treat because the marmalade tasted of real marmalade. After breakfast, I had a quiet walk around the beautifully laid out and colourful garden and caught a comple of pictures of the peacocks. Peacocks are the national bird of India. Our guide, Eugene Pram, gave us about an hour's lecture on India, its history, and its social issues. It put a lot of things into perspective for us which we will discuss on the blog in due course. Then around 9:30 we set off for our "city tour". Jaipur is also known as The Pink City. The nick-name comes from the red houses in the Old City which were painted pink to match the red-sandstone of the Mughal empire. In addition, the Maharaja ordered that all houses were to be painted pink in 1876 when the Prince of Wales visited from Britain.
Places of interest are mainly located within the walled city. We went to the City Palance complex which is the most important landmark with its numerous outbuildings, courtyards, impressive gateways and temples. Next, we went to the nearby Jantar Mantar, one of the five observatories built by Sawai Jai Singh. Here we saw a variety of complex astronomical instruments, carved out of stone- and from which you can still fairly accurately tell the time. We drove past but did not go into the Palace of Winds just outside of the palace wall. This was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. The story goes that in the not-too-distant past, ladies of the court found it convenient to watch the activities on the streets below without being observed themselves.
After lunch we wandered around the side streets and bazaars of Jaipur, went to the Internet and met our truck around 4:00 p.m. to be dropped off at a family for a "family stay". We stayed wtih a lovely couple of doctors in their beautiful home in the suburbs of Jaipur. We were treated to a delicious tea and dinner of favorite Indian dishes and had the opportunity to talk to them about their life and asperations...and India. The couple owned a hospital for bynacology and optimology. It was so lovely to be in a civilized home as opposed to crazy towns, hotels, and camp sites and we really appreciated their hospitality and kindness.
Places of interest are mainly located within the walled city. We went to the City Palance complex which is the most important landmark with its numerous outbuildings, courtyards, impressive gateways and temples. Next, we went to the nearby Jantar Mantar, one of the five observatories built by Sawai Jai Singh. Here we saw a variety of complex astronomical instruments, carved out of stone- and from which you can still fairly accurately tell the time. We drove past but did not go into the Palace of Winds just outside of the palace wall. This was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. The story goes that in the not-too-distant past, ladies of the court found it convenient to watch the activities on the streets below without being observed themselves.
After lunch we wandered around the side streets and bazaars of Jaipur, went to the Internet and met our truck around 4:00 p.m. to be dropped off at a family for a "family stay". We stayed wtih a lovely couple of doctors in their beautiful home in the suburbs of Jaipur. We were treated to a delicious tea and dinner of favorite Indian dishes and had the opportunity to talk to them about their life and asperations...and India. The couple owned a hospital for bynacology and optimology. It was so lovely to be in a civilized home as opposed to crazy towns, hotels, and camp sites and we really appreciated their hospitality and kindness.
3 comments:
Very Interesting Blog! Thanks so much for sharing :) xx
Hi Liz (and Ray) I am really enjoying your travelogue - almost feel I've been there too - your descriptions are so colourful with so much information. Do hope you will share your photos with us when you return. You really should write a book! Happy Trails - Gill (Book Club)
I have been wondering how you deal with the heat. From your discussion of smells, it sounds as though the truck windows are open, so I presume it is not air conditioned. According to the Toronto Star, every time I check, the high is around 45C and the low around 30C for Delhi.
It was a delightfully fresh 9C and sunny here this morning when I went for my Sunday morning run. I wore shorts for the first time this year. I suppose you are now acclimated and wondering how we stand such cold!
Randall
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