Jaipur Day 1

March 24, 2018

Today we had an early departure from the hotel to take a flight from Delhi to Jaipur. On our way to the airport we saw these camels pulling carts down the street with a pedal cart alongside. Just goes to show that they use a big variety of transportation modes here in one of the largest cities of the world.

It was a short flight to Jaipur and our bus was at the airport waiting for us. He had driven from Delhi over night with our luggage. We had flown because of the long drive time and rough road conditions.

Jaipur is the capital of India’s Rajasthan state and was founded in 1727. It is known as the “Pink City “ because in 1876 Queen Victoria was coming for a visit so Maharajah Ram Singh decided to paint the majority of the buildings pink in her honor. They have continued the color to help cut down on the reflection of light off the otherwise white buildings.

Coming into town there is a very impressive white marble temple sitting on a hill. I will tell more about this temple later.

Located downtown is the Hawa Mahal “Palace of the winds”. There are 953 windows (jarokhas) where in ancient times women of the Royal Family could safely watch the festivities and daily life happenings in the town. 

Our first stop was at the Jantar Mantar Observatory. It is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments built in 1734. This is the world’s largest stone sundial with the summer equinox side pointing upwards and the winter equinox side pointing downwards.

This is a time dial with the long section in the middle representing high noon.

Winter equinox side 

There are 12 structures representing the 12 Zodiac signs. Here is mine - Leo. 

Next we entered the City Palace complex. It was built between 1729 - 1732 and serves as the seat of the Maharajah of Jaipur.

This is the Mubarak Mahal which served as a reception center for visitors who were deemed too impure to enter the Royal section until they had bathed in water that had been purified with some holy water from the Ganges river. 

The entrance to the Royal section.

Diwan-i-Aam is the hall of public audience.

Elaborate chandeliers from the Czech Republic.

The Royal Palace can be seen towering above the courtyard walls. The family still resides in the palace.

There are 4 courtyard gates representing the 4 seasons and dedicated to Hindu gods.

This is the Peacock gate which is for autumn and Lord Vishnu.

This is the Lotus gate representing summer and Lord Shiva-Parvati. 

This is the Rose gate representing winter and the Goddess Devi.

This is the Green gate representing spring and Lord Ganesha. 

You can take camel rides around town.

 Cows are sacred and roam around freely.

Jan Mahal (Water Palace) sits in the middle of the Man Sugar Lake just outside Jaipur. 

After checking in to the hotel and taking a short rest period, we headed back into town to get a first hand look at a shanty area. Some of the living conditions are sad.

We quickly began to draw the attention of the area’s children as they followed us on our walk. They were very curious about us. The young girl in the orange dress agreed to talk with us. She was  engaging and her English was very good. 

Some of the adults were also intrigued by our presence but they were much more reserved in their interactions. This lady agreed to have her picture made.

We stopped at one point and sang some songs to the children trying to get them to sign for us. They eventually sang a few between their giggles.

We came across a surprisingly cottage industry where they were grinding raw pieces of jade into highly polished gem stones. There was no security gates or armed guards just a small open room.

 More curious onlookers.

Some boys were playing an old time favorite - marbles. It was a fantastic experience and I hope that the children will remember the positive interaction as they get older and begin to learn more about the outside world.

An ancient palace sits on top of the hill behind the Shri Lakshmi Narayan Temple.

We went to the temple to take a walk around.

The temple was dedicated on February 22, 1985 and is constructed of pure white marble. It’s truly an impressive structure.

 

The columns have many different carvings of philosophers and other religious figures. They wanted to show that everyone is welcome as is the Hindu philosophy.

This is Madonna and the Christ child.

This is Jesus Christ 

This is Moses and the tablets

It was dark as we left allowing us to see it lit up. Very impressive!

A fantastic day! Tomorrow we explore more of the Jaipur area.