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We woke up at 6:15 a.m. after a nice sleep. Craig was feeling back to himself this morning, and we said that if that was the worst that the trip had in store for us health-wise, we really couldn’t complain. We took hot showers and then headed downstairs to the dining room for breakfast at 7:15. Alka served us toast, cheese, bananas and kali mirch-ka baag - a traditional clarified butter that women prepare on the roofs of their houses under the full moon.
The butter absorbs the rays of the moon. Mukul told us that his family used to observe this tradition when his mother was alive. Craig got to really enjoy the food this morning, as his appetite had returned. A definite benefit of the homestays we had done both at Mukul and Sunita's place and here at the Agrawals' was the delicious home-cooked food.
We said goodbye to the Argrawals for the day and headed to the Amber Palace, a short drive from town. As we approached and looked up the hill, Craig said "I see elephants! There are people riding elephants there!" "Are you sure?" Mukul asked coyly. Rajendra dropped us off at the gate and Mukul said that the elephant ride was a treat that he was planning to surprise us. We got in the queue for the "Elephant Office". It was rather amazing to see a large herd of elephants and their riders (called mahouts) waiting for clients. Souvenir sellers were especially intense in this area, trying to sell you just about anything. They were difficult to ignore, and if you made eye contact they would not leave you alone. When we got to the front of the queue, Mukul purchased our tickets, and Craig and I climbed up steps to a small platform and got on to elephant #121, sitting side saddle. Mukul took my camera and said he would meet us at the top, and that we were entering the city the way the Maharajas had. We zigged and zagged up the road to the Elephant Gate. There were enterprising photographers along the way who took shots of us on our way up the hill. The elephant was lumbering up the road and it was a very pleasant ride. Although Mukul had already pre-tipped our mahout, the mahout told us that was not enough of a tip and he needed double that amount. His badgering took away a bit of the ambiance of parading into the city on the back of an elephant. Music greeted us as we entered the pale golden-walled palace through the grand Elephant Gate. A man in traditional dress was playing a stringed instrument that resembled a violin. Mukul was already there, camera in hand, to photograph us. The city reminded us of Minas Tirith in the Lord of the Rings books. The structure dates back to 1592. Amber used to be the capital of the Kachhwaha clan, until Jaipur was made the official capital in 1727. First we looked at the elaborate silver doors of the Sila Devi Temple to the goddess Kali. We went inside and there were images of Kali with actual food stuck over their mouths by worshipers. There were nice archways and an altar with a representation of Kali which looked like a doll draped in red fabric. This idol was brought by Maharaja Man Singh in the late 16th century. We exited the temple and then entered the palace. The walls were decorated with elaborate crisp paintings. we admired many balconies and scalloped archways in the architecture characterized by both Hindu and Muslim influence. The Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors) was breathtaking with its Wall-sized mirror mosaics utilizing locally-made mirrors (in contrast to the mirrors in Agra Fort which were imported from Aleppo, Syria). There were also small stained glass windows in the shape of Islamic motifs such as flowers as well as Hindu images of people and animals. Some portions of walls were decorated with little tiny geometric pieces of colored glass inlaid in the stone. We saw some piedra dura with metalwork behind it which gave it a metallic sheen. The Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) is a series of white marble scalloped archways supported by 40 pillars. We recognized this delicate pavilion from the cover of our guide book, The Rough Guide to Rajasthan, Dehli, and Agra. We saw the Turkish baths (Hammam) and we got purposely lost in the meandering labyrinth of hallways. We saw jali screens with the holes angled downwards so that women could see the men entering the city, coming home after battles, without being seen themselves. Again there was rainwater collection and plumbing, similar to Fatehpur Sikri. There were great views of the surrounding hills. As we wandered the courtyards, we could see the red sandstone Jaigarh Fort atop a taller hill (flying a red flag to indicate that the Maharaja is in town). We wandered around the beautiful palace and admired the frescoes painted on the walls. I was a bit surprised by a painting of an angel - not a motif that I had seen depicted in India thus far. We walked past an absolutely massive iron cauldron, which was as tall as craig's shoulder. Whatever was cvooked in there was certainly cooked in huge batches. While we walked downhill to where Rajendra had parked the car, a seller approached us with the pictures he had taken on the elephant ride. Mukul bought us the pictures as a souvenir. We met up with Rajendra, who had bought us some WHO rehydration fluid at Mukul's request, as Craig's tummy had not been quite right yesterday. They were always looking out for us. Rajendra drove us to the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing . It was a museum of block printing techniques housed in a restored 16th century haveli. The museum described the entire block printing process, up through washing and setting in the sun to dry. The process employs hand-carved stamps which are hit with mallets to imprint ink on the fabric. Each additional color requires the carving of an additional stamp. A single piece of fabric can be stamped upwards of 1000 times to create the desired design. We learned that printing like this on cotton originated in India 4500 years ago. One man was demonstrating carving a stamp, while another man demonstrated the printing process. I got to take a turn placing and imprinting a stamp on a sheet of fabric. Imprinting the stamp was not difficult, but the way they must precisely line up elaborate patterns to make them look continuous was very impressive. We saw some small white and orange flowers which are used to make inks. The entire process was very tedious and manual. The remainder of the museum housed galleries of all varieties of clothing made from block printing in many different patterns and colors. It was hard to get good photographs because I wasn't allowed to use the flash. We looked around in the small gift shop. We bought the girls in Guatemala some Indian paper dolls and we bought a nice block printed scarf with gold printed accents and beaded fringe. We got back into the car and drove a short way to a vantagepoint for a nice view up at the Amber Palace. As we got out of the car to take a photo, one of the photographers who had taken pictures of us riding the elephants approached us. After much bargaining, Mukul purchased the photos for us. We stopped to think about the fact that the guy had waited for us while we went into the museum, then followed us out of the complex and back down to the road...it was enterprising but also a bit stalker-ish. He left with his money and we had a nice view of Maotha Lake, which had a pavilion which appeared to float on its surface. We made a quick stop at the nearby Gatore Ki Chhatriyan, an elaborate royal crematorium. At the entrance of the chhatries, lion statues face one another. There were detailed carvings in the white marble. The base of one of the monuments was carved with friezes of men riding elephants and horses to hunt big cats. There were jali screens above the archways. You could see Jaigarh Fort in the hills above you. There was a tree with roots growing down from its branches, cascading onto the chhatries and making them look like they are a part of nature. Next we went to the cenotaph of a Maharaja. There were smaller memorials inside to honor the women who committed sati at his death (wives who committed suicide by jumping onto his funeral pyre). We stopped at a shop called Shri Ganpati Arts to buy signature Jaipur blue pottery. The stunning blue color comes from a Persian blue dye. The technique came to Rajasthan from Kashmir. They had all kinds of items from drawer pulls to vases. We bought a small blue vase and also a small elephant, to commemorate our morning elephant ride. After that we went to Maharaja Carpets & Handicrafts. The first thing they did was to demonstrate a multi-color multi-layer block printing process. They took a square of white cotton and stamped an elephant on it. After all of the layers were applied, it looked quite elaborate. It would normally take a long time to dry in the sun, but so that we could take it home with us, they put it into a chemical bath which was smoking and looked rather dangerous to set the colors. Then they laid it to dry on the table and told us to pick it up before we left. We went back outside and saw carpets being hand-knotted on a large loom. They asked me if I wanted to take a turn tying the knots. There is a special technique for knotting so that the fibers are perpendicular to the rug itself, so that they stand up straight when the rug is complete rather than being directional. I was incredibly inept at doing a single knot, and the speed with which they fly through multiple knots seems superhuman. Then we went on to the next stage of the rug production process. After it is finished being knotted, a man uses an iron bar with a pointed sharp tip to separate all of the threads. Then they use a blowtorch on the back side of the carpet to burn off any imperfections. Next they soak the carpet in soapy water and use a wooden paddle (like you would use to put a pizza in a brick oven) to squeegee out all of the water. Then they comb the fibers with a comb and trim it with scissors three times. Finally, a woman hand ties cotton threads as tassels on the ends. All of it is an extremely manual and physical process, and it is obvious that their rugs are durable as well as beautiful. These rugs must be able to withstand any amount of of abuse. We went into the showroom and saw a variety of carpets, from wool to silk. They were all absolutely beautiful, and reasonably priced when compared to what such a handmade carpet would cost at home. It was amazing because when they turned the carpets in the opposite direction, the whole color palette seemed to change before your very eyes. As with many high end merchandise sellers in India, they treated us as guests, giving us Fantas to drink as they rolled out carpet after carpet from their inventory. We picked one out and Mukul helped us to bargain for it. We got a 6'x9' 625 knot/sq inch Shalimar Garden design made out of "baby" lamb wool. Shipping was included in the price because the government of India is trying to kick-start commerce, and they will pay the shipping if you buy handmade items. That was convenient! They had me sign and date the back of the carpet to prove when we received it in the mail that it was indeed the rug that we purchased. After that, we went upstairs to their block printing store. Mukul pointed out a nice yellow and white salwar kameez (long tunic shirt with loose fitting pants) with a cheerful flower pattern. It turned out that they had it in my size. I tried it on and decided to purchase it. To round out the ensemble, I needed a matching neck scarf. The clerk took out bolts of several yellow fabrics, and matched up the color with the outfit. He said that it would need to be cut and hemmed. We needed to eat lunch anyway, so they said that they would finish it off and bring it to us while we are next door. That sounded perfect to us. We walked next door to the 175-year-old Samode Haveli, now a heritage hotel. It had a gorgeously decorated dining room with crystal chandeliers and every wall and ceiling surface painted. We got a light lunch of eggplant and paneer (cheese) fritters. Instead of our usual lassi, we splurged on decadent vanilla milk shakes with ice cream. The finished scarf arrived almost immediately, with all of its hems sewn. It was a bit strange to have this degree of personalized service. It felt like we had servants or something, and it was a little awkward for us. Next we went to the Jantar Mantar, a Mughal observatory built by Maharaja Jai Singh II between 1727 and 1734. He built 5 such observatories (with others in Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura, and Varanasi). The Jaipur facility is the largest, and it looks quite surreal, like a giant's playground. Singh's goal was to make permanent instruments which would stand the test of time, and to promote naked-eye astronomy amongst the general populace. They have indeed stood the test of time, and are still standing nearly three centuries later (having undergone significant restoration in 1901). The Samrat Yantra is the largest sundial in the world. While traditional sundials generally have a rod which casts a shadow (this shadow-casting object is known as a gnomon), the gnomon of the Samrat Yantra is a stone triangle over 90 feet high. Its upper face is angled at 27 degrees (the latitude of Jaipur). The gnomon projects a shadow onto curved cement quadrants (that look rather like a skateboard halfpipe). The curvature ensures that each hour is equally spaced, which makes this an “equinoctial” sundial. Singh made the sundial so large for improved accuracy. Adding 13 minutes to the reading of the sun dial today makes it equal to the local time. Two bowls inset into the ground make up the Jai Prakash – a.k.a "mirror of the heavens" or the Jai Armillary Sphere. Each bowl is 5 meters in diameter. It is inlaid with marble and various concentric circles lining it in black. It almost resembles the schematic of the Death Star at the end of Star Wars. There is a metal washer suspended over it. During the day, its shadow shows the exact position of the sun. At night, people would enter a small chamber beneath the bowls and the round washer would help them to read the positions of the stars. The Ram Yantra are a pair of tall cylinders which are used to measure altitude and azimuth of celestial objects. It was really warm and the sun was strong at this time of day. There was no relief from the sun in the Jantar Mantar complex, so we took a quick walk around the grounds and then headed to the next door City Palace Museum. As we walked there, we were accosted by a beggar who was using his hands to propel himself down the street looking for money from passersby. It's hard to look at someone suffering and not toss them some little bit of change. But it's just not possible to help everyone you see who is in need. We wandered from room to room in the City Palace, through a clothing gallery (one of the Maharajas weighed over 200 kilograms, and his gigantic robe was on display) and into a weapons gallery. There we examined ivory and crystal handled swords and daggers, guns, arrows, armor, etc. It showed that someone had a rather dark sense of humor because there were signs spelling out "Welcome and Goodby" [sic] with actual weapons forming the letters. A group of local schoolkids was wandering around the museum, but they seemed more interested in us than the artifacts on display. A couple of boys shook Craig's hand and followed him around the exhibits. Outside Mukul got our photo in front of the palace (as he was always very good to do) and the kids found this very amusing, so Mukul took one of them as well. We saw two massive 5-foot-tall, 750 lb sterling silver water jugs called Gangajalis. Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II was supposedly afraid to drink Thames water on a trip to England for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, so he brought these two 4000 liter jugs with him full of Ganges water. They are said to have been made by melting down 14,000 silver coins, and the entire process took two years. They were polished to perfection. they reminded us of the Cloud Gate in Chicago. We then got into the car and Rajendra drove us through Jaipur. We passed the massive pink sandstone Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Breeze), built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Singh as part of City Palace. It is 5 stories tall and has over 950 windows covered with jali screens. It was an extension to the women's quarters, so that they could observe goings-on within the city center without being seen themselves. We also passed the Tripolia Gate, a yellow gate to the City Palace. We could see the pinnacles of temples poking up above the one and two story city buildings. We went to the biggest roundabout in town and nearby Mukul had Rajendra stop in traffic so that we could hop out of the car. We saw every manner of vehicle from bicycle rickshaw to motorbike to car to bus. People were transporting every type of cargo for which their mode of transportation may or may not be approriate. A stack of resin chairs tied together sticks out the back of a rickshaw, and a bicyclist has an inverted pyramid of large cardboard cartons of kitchenwares balanced on the back of his bike, seemingly defying physics. Everyone was selling things preparing for Diwali. People had their wares laid out on newspapers on the side of the road, just inches from the traffic. Garland was strung up on streetlamps. It felt like we had been dropped into The Amazing Race; the scene was so chaotic, and here we were, a couple of foreign tourists trying to accomplish something without becoming too overwhelmed by our surroundings. We braved the traffic and Mukul led us up some stairs to the roof of a temple where we could get a great view of the chaos in the garland-bedecked streets below. They were also building a gate out of bamboo spanning the road which would be decorated with fabric and lights for Diwali. This was a great perspective and we took many photos. A holy man sat cross-legged on a table playing a drum and another sat beside him playing a harmonium, which looked like a cross between a keyboard, an accordion, and bellows. We stopped to watch them for a few minutes, and I took a video. We climbed down the stairs to the street and stepped cautiously into traffic to get back into our car. A bicycle rickshaw driver flirted a bit as we progressed in the traffic. I got a good photo as he pulled up behind us. We hopped out again at the LMB Hotel, which houses the most important confectioner in the area. You walk in and there are sweets behind a counter, and also tables of packaged sweets, ready to purchase for all of your Diwali needs. There are staff who take your order and deliver your food to you. Mukul ordered some sweets for us to eat and they brought them on a plate with a spoon. They were delicious. Mukul also purchased some masala things that reminded us of tortilla chips. They were quite yummy. A cameraman and reporter from Channel 99 was interviewing people. As the only westerners in the shop, we wondered how long it would take before they tried to interview us. The answer was not long. They asked what we were eating and we had to defer to Mukul. They then asked who our friend was, and I thoroughly embarrassed Mukul by saying he was named Best Tourist Guide by the National Tourism Board. When I snapped a picture of them with their TV camera they thought that it was funny and started laughing.We took our to-go sweets and headed back to the car. On our drive back to the house, Mukul spotted a yellow footed green pigeon and stopped the car so we could watch it. The birds were very colorful and Craig spotted a Eurasian golden oriole. Mukul got very excited. Further down the road, Mukul had Rajendra pull over again when we saw a cart of custard apples for sale. He bought some for us to share. Back at the house, Alka served us tea and we ate the custard apples. They were interesting and rather difficult to eat as you had to suck the custardy flesh off of the seeds. We changed into more comfortable clothes and relaxed for a few minutes in our room before joining Mukul at his request in the common room. Mukul grabbed a beer from our fridge and then went downstairs to get some juice for me. He returned with some savories as well. We sat in the common room and chatted. The Agrawal's son Abhinav came upstairs to play video games on the computer. At 8 o'clock, dinner was ready: Spicy tomato soup, cauliflower, kidney beans in a brown sauce, and rice. Craig’s appetite was back in full force, thankfully, as the meal was wonderful. Alka and Abhinav served us and then joined us at the table. Once again the thought crossed our minds that we could probably be vegetarians quite easily here, with the quality and variety of foods we have enjoyed so far in India. Craig laughed thinking that at one point about 10 years prior, he had thought he didn't like Indian food, thanks to a bad experience at an Indian restaurant near home. Pretty ironic considering how much he loves it now! Mukul started talking to Hemant about the possibility of booking a Southeast Asia trip with us in the future. Shortly after 9 o'clock, we said goodnight and retired to our rooms. I wrote in the journal until 10:05. View Larger Map |
       Block Printing Demonstration at Anokhi (20 second clip)   Hand-knotted rug demonstration, Jaipur (20 second clip)      Traffic, Jaipur (20 second clip)  Musicians in Jaipur (20 second clip)  
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