12.17 pure jaipur

ah jaipur!

we are staying at a boutique hotel called the shahpura house, a converted residence of an old royal family. the cool thing about the place is that every night, on the rooftop patio restaurant, there is live folk music and dance performances in old rajasthani style. men sit on the floor playing dholkas and women wearing heavy embroidered dresses dance up a storm, people clap in time with the music. it's a bit fun.

despite being crook capital of india, we have been dying to go shopping so this was where we did it. the place is a buzz. you cannot go down the street without someone yelling "madam, madam!!" and trying to get you to part with money. whether it's the calls from the shop keepers, the jingling 'jhumkhas' of women's anklets, horns of speeding drivers, there's never a quiet moment in this city. all set against the backdrop of indian music. i've already recorded some fantastic stuff including two young kids playing flute and drum at a re-created rajasthani village fair called chowki dhani.

one pretty cool palace we visited was hawa mahal, the palace of winds. the tiny windows in the front are made so that the courtly women could look out onto the city without themselves being seen. the rock used for the construction is part of a larger palace complex that was all done in pink, making jaipur the 'pink city'.


other monuments we saw included the amber fort, a beautiful mix of mughal and rajput architecture and is part of a larger complex of buildings. at the top of the main building was another queen's window, where a gorgeously carved window screen would ensure her privacy as she looked out over the square.

12.16 naughty

so here we were touring up in rajasthan and my mom thought it would be cool to go on an elephant ride. part of me feels sorry for these animals, the other part of me is more like "when in rome..." except we are far, far, far from rome.

our driver stopped an elephanteer on the road and haggled with him so we could get atop the beast and be carried around like royals for a few minutes.

lucky us, we met up with bubloo - the naughty baby elephant!

only 10 years old, the wicked bubloo decides to knock my dad off a stone wall (he had to grasp the harness for his life while his feet left dangling over the edge of the wall!). always wise, dad decided not to do the elephant thing after all. i climbed up and off we went, me and my mom.

the most boring mode of transportation i've encountered yet. and slow!! so that was the much-hyped moment in the sun. although it felt like forever.

12.15 victory city, pink city

on our way to jaipur, the pink city, we stopped at another important historical site, known as fathepur sikri.

fathepur means 'victory city'. this was the new capital that the moghul akbar built at the old city, sikri. this was perhaps my favuorite history lesson, probably because rather than a fortress, fathepur sikri was the residence of akbar and his wives, and contained residences, halls, stables, masjids and other interesting buildings, all laid out in a whimsical pattern rather than symmetrically.


the other important thing i learned in this history lesson was that akbar was not narrow-minded. only one of his wives was muslim from turkey. the other was a hindu from rajasthan, and the last was a christian from goa! the architecture of each of their separate 'havelis' or houses, reflected in thier design their own religious background. for example, the christian wife's haveli had crosses in the carved stone. the hindu wife had flowers and flames, while the muslim wife had q'uranic ayats. they each had their own kitchens, so their meals could be prepared according to religion and taste. there was an entire hide-and-seek building in which women would be blindfolded and try to find one another. the courtyard was floored with beautifully carved squares, in the centre was a square bench on which akbar and his wife or wives would sit. the women of the harem (in addition to his wives, he had 300 girlfriends, talk about a player!) would dress in one of two colours and stand on the squares in a game of medeival chess!

despite being scammed by a guide who had approached us on site (never pick up a guide on site in india, it's best to pre-book one yourself!) it was a magical visit. i could imagine the sound of music coming from the various buildings, girls running around playing and beautiful fabrics covering each archway of each of the buildings, behind which, who knows what would be happening!

i'm amazed at the genius of architecture of this place, and the other monuments we have visited. what a shame that after such extravagance, such incredible workmanship and such immense expense that that the main family line has died out; their homes are now deserted. well, except for the millions of annual tourist visits, of course...

the day was topped off with our arrival in jaipur... as we arrive in the dark, i can make out a very unique architecture and cannot wait for sunrise to go explore the pink city!