India Part 3 - Jaipur

Nahargahr Fort looming over the city.

City number two then.  Given it's nearly 9pm I go with the tuktuk option to get to my hotel, it goes fine, barring the difficulty of persuading the driver that no, I really don't want him to come back tomorrow and spend the day driving me about.  Hotel is nice, luxurious even, and I guess I'm here in time to find a bar - this proves hard.  After much wandering I discover one lurking up a flight of stairs, makes me wonder if there's some local law about having them at street level - turns out there is a nice public bar in my hotel's basement.  Walking around Jaipur is perhaps a little better than Delhi, and at least my hotel is on an actual, quiet, street, still it's pretty bad.  And the number of animals here!  Cows of course, feral dogs and families of pigs wander about, goats and sheep stick close to their owners' doors, oxen, horses, camels, and elephants are all in use as beasts of burden, and there are monkeys everywhere... It all adds to the general theme of bodily waste - I swear my nostrils are actually sore from the amount of ammonia in the air.  One good thing, Jaipur is small enough that I can walk right out and up one of the surrounding hills, where I find Nahargahr Fort, a huge place of course, covering the whole hilltop, with fantastic views of the city.  I spend some time looking at the well preserved palace complex, then walk along the seemingly endless battlements, then keep walking out into the hills.

Nahargahr interior.

So nice to be out of the city, though I still have to fend off the odd tuktuk driver slowing down to call out 'where you go?'. Well, I follow the road for a while, then find a well used path downhill to meet a large lake I spotted from the fort.  Seemingly floating on it is the Lal Mahal, that is water palace, actually built on a small island on what is in fact an artificial lake.  It's most picturesque anyway.  There certainly is a lot to see here in Jaipur, not least the ornate centre, this is the famous pink city, well it's more a sort of reddish brown to be honest.  Still, the numerous broad, porticoed streets are quite impressive, and the city palace I pay to get into is certainly grand, though I'm not sure it was worth five hundred Rupees.  Rather cheaper (i.e. free) is the monkey temple, home to a thousand or so of the things apparently, well hardly surprising if they are going to keep feeding them.

The Lal Mahal.

Last day, and given my palace ticket is a 'composite' one giving entry to various things I attempt to get value from it.  First some more cenotaphs, I saw the Maharanis' yesterday, today the Maharajahs', both quite impressive, the queens' tending to 'lots of small ones'.  Then off into the hills once more, no time to walk but the tuktuk is cheap enough, time to see the Amber Palace, another huge edifice built half way up a hill, really it is reminiscent of fantasy novels where some great city is described as built by giants, or an elder race of men.  Of course in reality this was built by order of an autocrat with an awful lot of artisans to command... Anyway, up the hill I go, then realise I've lost my ticket, oops, down the hill and it is sitting where I exited the tuktuk, yay.  Or not... I get back up the hill and they say, no this ticket is no good.  Not for this palace.  This is a ticket that has the words 'All palaces' and 'Amber' on it, but they're not going with it... can't decide if it is a scam or just poor advertising and general incompetence, still they do say it will get me into the fort up the top of the hill.  More schlepping up then, with all my stuff on my back, well good exercise I guess, and I am sure that I am totally fine to make my train which leaves in, mm, two hours or so.

One recently painted building showing why it is called the Pink City.

As it turns out the fort is well well worth the climb, for the stunning view if nothing else.  You can see all the way back to the Lal Mahal from here, there is an interesting cannon foundry, still with the huge, oxen powered drill they used for reaming out the barrels in what looks like working order.  Many battlements to walk along of course, a garden suspended high above the valleys below, and another palatial interior, and then a slight drawback as I emerge from a different exit compared to the one I came in, ah well there are tuktuks here too.  Of course they want four times as much to take me back into town as what I paid to get here, well, I haggle it down to a mere two and a half times as much, go me.  Well, gets me to the train station in plenty of time anyway, time to grab some snack food before the train goes - I get a samosa, and what seem to basically be curry pies.  They are yummy.  And the train, this time with comfy seats, leaves a mere ten minutes late... again, there are no people sat on the roof that I can see.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.