Category: Rajasthan: Desert Cities and Palaces

We arrived in Jaipur on Saturday the 20th.

Known as the “pink City”, Jaipur is the largest city in Rajasthan and is the 10th most populous city in India. The city is made up of the walled “Old City” and the newer city that expanded outside of the walls.

Within the walls of the Old City the law still dictates that all buildings be painted pink making this interesting in the sense that most of the buildings are pink but although alike in colour there is still an interesting diversity that is not drowned out by the sameness of colour.  Hope this makes sense.

Jaipur also has cleaner air than most if not all of its smaller counterparts and we think this can be credited to the wide use of electric tuk tuks versus the air spoiling 2-stroke engine smoke belching motorized tuk tuks. There may still be some hope for these smog filled Indian cities.

We stayed at a great budget hotel, Hotel Sweet Dream, close to the city palace with a beautiful rooftop terrace with a water feature any water feature loving person would want. The service by primarily older male staff was great, The food was excellent and the beer was cold and reasonably priced.

A family group was on the terrace celebrating their daughters 5th birthday and out of nowhere the young girl came over to our table and offered us birthday cake. There was a two piece band playing Indian music and that combined with the cake made our evening complete.

We arrived in Jaipur mid afternoon so we visited the City Palace and left the remaining sight-seeing for the next day when we took an old original pedal powered rickshaw to the palace and the poor old bugger doing the pedalling was probably in his forties but looked like he was 85.

We had to reassure ourselves that this is how he makes his living and it is a very good thing that both of us have lost a fair bit of weight over the past 8 months so hopefully he wouldn’t drop dead before getting us to our destination.

We were told not to pay more than 20-30 rupees. We gave him 100 rupees.

The City Palace is a blend of Rajasthani and Mughal architecture originally built by Jai Singh II but enlarged and adapted over the centuries. The palace is private and is still in use by the current 18 year old Maharajah and the entrance fee and on-site curio shops and we assume are used to help feed the rich and send the young King to college in London. Oh, and also to help maintain the castle. Limited pictures because photos weren’t permitted inside.

City Palace 

Sunday morning we had our driver take us up to Amber Fort, a beautiful example of Rajput architecture that rises above the city on a rocky mountainside. Amber was the former capital of Jaipur state and the construction of the fort began in 1592 and houses an extensive palace complex built from pale yellow and pink sandstone and white marble.

Amber Fort

Our next stop was Jaigarh, rising high above Amber Fort and built in 1726. The walls surrounding he fort are over 20 km in circumference and offers extraordinary views of the Amber and Jaipur 11 km’s away.  After Jaigarh we made a pit stop to photograph Jal Mahal, a water palace in the middle of Man Sagar (lake) before heading to Galta Jai, AKA the “Monkey Temple”.

Jaigarh and Jal Mahal

After several attempts to find Galta, our driver who has thus far assured us he knows all the spots and how to get there and only ever seems to answer “yes sir” whether it is a question, statement or observation (there will be a section soon on our experience driving with “yes sir” for thousands of km’s), we found the parking lot in front of the small, very steep road that supposedly leads to the monkey temple.

At the parking lot several stands sold peanuts which we had read somewhere will help keep the pesky simians at bay so I bought a big bag although I only wanted to get a small bag but Joyce vehemently stressed that it will save our bacon when faced with the maniacal macaques that would confront us.

Loaded up with peanuts we proceeded to get a good glute workout heading toward what was supposedly on a National Geographic special on the National geographic channel that aired some time ago.

Not more than 10 minutes into our climb we encountered some of the holy hairy beasts guarding the route and within a matter of seconds, a large one spotted me holding a big bag, yes a big bag of nuts and proceeded to attack me.

I looked left, he moved right and did a quick switch and he proceeded to climb up my legs and then my back while, fruitlessly I might add, trying to grab my nuts.

I swung my bag and yelled and the monkey backed off knowing not to screw with me. I looked at Joyce with a slightly evil eye and we proceeded un-accosted for the next 1/2 hour of up-hill thigh burning hell.

We reached a fork in the road. You know the story, the intrepid traveller takes the road less travelled so we turned right eyeing high upon the mountain top what must be the famous Monkey Temple. Upon reaching the temple there was a sign. “Sun Temple”.

There were no monkeys around, there was some restoration work going on and a few old ladies were sitting around the entrance chatting and drinking chai.

Hello. Is this the monkey temple? Yes? No? Any monkeys? No. Hmm..Where are they? In the back of the mountains they said so we descended the precipice, slight exaggeration, and found our way to the other direction, turn left.

So now we are apparently looking at the monkey temple, about 750 feet below us but with one big hill in between which means a descent of 750 feet and then an ascent of 740 feet before another 750 foot descent. Damn. What to do but do it!

As we reached the second valley we approached what looks like a small temple compound and not many monkeys and we of course were approached by a temple priest with an eye for naive foreigners. He must show us his temple and bless us and tell us they rely on donations and yes this is the entrance to the monkey temple and we ask why are there only one pair of shoes at the entrance when we saw several tourists hiking down in front of us and we realized, duped again by a holy one.

We removed our shoes and were respectful and we respectfully declined his blessing and dropped 100 rupees into his scam tray, sorry, and then proceeded to get ripped off at the real entrance to the temple. 50 rupees for a camera, 150 rupees for a video camera, no charge for an iPhone which takes great video and photos and they can be posted on FB instantly if you have 4G on your phone.

This is a very big complaint we have in India so far. No charge for a smart phone, a small charge for a camera and a huge charge for a video camera. It doesn’t make sense this day and age.

Finally we turn a corner after the entrance and we are confronted with a sight out of sci-fi heaven. Wow! Narrow cliffs surrounding water pools, monkeys, ghost town temples further down. A very cool sight and not one monkey gave me a hard time or tried to steal the remaining nuts I had. Sure, a few eyed my bag of peanuts so I proactively threw a few to them but aside from the one earlier non temple monkey who doesn’t know the meaning Karma all was calm and the monkeys were well behaved.

Galta, the Monkey Temple

This is great. We’re almost caught up but it is still “yesterday we arrived at” etc.

Yesterday we drove from Ranakpur, backtracking part way towards Jodhpur and then headed East to Pushkar, a prominent Hindu pilgrimage town where devout Hindus should visit at least once in their lifetime. The town curls around a holy lake which is also surrounded by 52 bathing ghats where the pilgrims bathe in the sacred waters. We arrived around 3:00 pm, found a nice hotel and decided to relax and update the blog with the plan being to sleep in and tour around the sacred waters of Pushkar today!! Our first stop was to take the ropeway to the hilltop Saraswati Mata Temple. This is a very small temple with some resident Southern plains grey langurs and fantastic views of the edge of the Western Desert Plains and to the East the Aravalli mountains. Arriving back to the base safely, we headed over to town and made our way to the lakes edge just in time to be de-shoed, sat down at the lakes edge by a fly by night guru and blessed through a series of chants, hand washing, more chants, throw a flower into the water, more chants, hold a coconut and chant and finally get a red bindi smudge on our forehead before saying goodbye to 1,000 rupees that will definitely go to the local heritage fund and help save all the starving children and teach everyone to read and the bindi combined with the red cotton string wrapped around our hand will fend off any further gurus wanting to bless us and ask for money. We were so blessed to experience this. All kidding aside it was a serious ceremony meant to bring good karma to us and our loved ones and also grant us a wish. It was actually pretty cool and we weren’t bothered by anyone the rest of the day….except of course once we left the lake side.

We stayed at the Puskar Fort Hotel, a very nice property a few km’s from town because (a) they serve alcohol as it is not allowed in Pushkar proper and (b) it is a really nice quiet resort for a very decent price. Just outside of the rear hotel gates is a Kalbeliya village, known as gypsies in the lower caste system they live in make shift tents, tend to their cattle and camels and live a semi nomadic desert existence. The Bopa are another group in the area and are known for their music and fire dance shows.

 

After two nights in Jodhpur we departed to Ranakpur on Wednesday the 17th. Our original plan was to see the sights in Ranakpur in the afternoon and then drive to Udaipur and spend two nights in Udaipur, essentially having only one day to explore Udaipur since we probably wouldn’t arrive until early evening. We decided to explore the Jain temple in Ranakpur, spend the night in Ranakpur and then skip Udaipur and head straight to Pushkar. We’re gaining one night by skipping Udaipur which we will either use in Jaipur or Varanasi where we really don’t want to feel rushed. We know Udaipur would have been great to see but we unfortunately can’t see everything and we would like to slow down a little in Jaipur and Varanasi.

Ranakpur is home to one of five of the most important Jain temples in the world and the renowned temple in Ranakpur is considered to be one of the best. It contains 1,444 exquisitely carved marble pillars and no two are alike. There are five distinct ceiling domes carved in marble (the whole temple is carved in marble) and the detail in the domes and quite frankly the whole temple can only be described as mind blowing. The temple was built by 2,500 craftsmen and took fifty years to build. Walking through the temple was one big WOW!

There are several other smaller temples in the area and on our way back to our car, right across the parking lot was what we were told is the Kama Sutra Temple. I couldn’t find anything specific about this temple or if it is in fact called the Kama Sutra Temple but the carvings were exquisite with a few intertwined bodies and body parts and inside, “Photography Is Forbidden” Joyce happened to  mistakenly get a good pic of one of the many Jain deities.

We’re trying not to fall too far behind in the blog. Keeping the dates accurate and the sights, smells and sounds clear in our minds is a bit of a challenge at times but I think so far so good. We departed Jaisalmer on Monday, Jan 15th for another fairly long drive arriving into Jodhpur around 2:30 in the afternoon. We found a great hotel and Tony at the front desk offered to take us on a walking tour of the old town and see sights he says most tourists will never see so we said forget it! No, we of course said yes and after a little bathroom break we joined Tony for a good 1 1/2 hour, 8,000+ step, 10 story walk/hike through the old town of Jodhpur, also known as the “Blue City”. We escaped the congestion and made our way through narrow winding and sometime steep inclined roads and were able to get a glimpse into the other side of the day-to-day existence of the city’s inhabitants. We felt lucky to see this and we did not encounter any other foreigners throughout our walk. The blue city is slowly losing its blueness. As homes are sold, some new owners have decided to change the colours of their homes, some are adding tile facades, others leaving the paint to peel away. Of course we had to ask why the homes were painted blue in the first place and the answer is threefold. First, blue does not attract heat and since Jodhpur is also known as “Sun City” because of the amount of sunlight received every year, blue helped keep homes cool in the summer. Second, and this is interesting, blue repels mosquitos. No mosquito will ever land on a blue surface so the homes were not just painted blue on the outside but inside as well. Third, blue was the colour of the Hindu god Krishna, the deity of love and compassion.

While walking through the neighbourhood Tony made a call and guided us to a home under renovation and after climbing several floors we reached a roof top terrace with a great view of Old Town and Mehrangarh Fort in the distance. Making our way back we slid through an inconspicuous side door for a great view of part of the castle and then finally through the market in Old Town and a stop at an ancient step well.

Pooped we retired to our hotel terrace restaurant and Joyce caught this great three-tiered pic, the illuminated castle, Old Town and our terrace restaurant.

Another sunny day in “Sun City” and a day spent exploring Menrangarh Fort and Museum and Juwant Thada. Originally built in 1459 with many other portions built up to 1803 the fort also houses a palace, now a museum and is an exquisite example of Rajput architecture. Perched atop a 130 metre escarpment the materials used to build the fort were chiseled from the rock on which the fort stands.

We were getting sore feet but decided to head over to the Juswant Thada, a marble memorial to Maharaja Juswant Singh II. The whole structure and funeral pyres are chiseled from solid marble.

After a short visit to Juswant Thada our tuk tuk driver suggested a leisurely stroll in a park which we cannot find the name of but contains several beautiful hindu memorials/shrines dating to the 14th century. The walk to the temples were filled with beggars, lepers and filth. The temples seemed out of place, there was garbage everywhere and it was a huge disappointment to see such beauty among all the shit and crap and filth. The Indians (most) seem to have no concern for their environment. It is truly a pity to see this but sadly it is not just India that this problem and we wonder what the solution might be if any.

Next stop, Ranakpur.

The long days seem to be adding up. This one, Bikaner to Jaisalmer on Saturday  the 13th was about 369 km and took us close to 7 hours. We left Bikaner around 1:15 pm after catching some of the Camel Festival so didn’t arrive into Jaisalmer until just after 7:00 pm which essentially meant a two night stay in order to take everything in the next day and we certainly did have a full day.

The desert city of Jaisalmer literally means “the Hill Fort of Jaisal” and is also called the “Golden City” thanks to the colour it gets from the yellow sandstone used in the construction of its buildings. The city is one of the last big towns in Rajasthan closest to the Pakistan border (about 100 km away) and sits in the heart of the Thar Desert. There are several “must see” places to visit in and around the city and with just one full day we focused on the primary sites; Jaisalmer Fort, Fort Palace, Jain Temples and a short camel ride into the Thar Desert to catch the sunset.

Jaisalmer Fort is one of the largest fortifications on the planet and is the only living fort in Rajasthan with 3,000 people within it’s walls running businesses, cafe’s, markets and home stays making easy for the imagination to wander and see how life was many centuries ago. Within the fort and at its centre is the 11 story palace that served as the private residence of its rulers. Interestingly, all of the doors within the palace are quite small and were built this way for the express purpose to force the person entering to bow and stoop as they enter, not knowing if an important person was on the other side and thus saving their wrath because you didn’t bow upon entering their space. Also within the walls of the fort are a group of 7 intricately carved Jain temples built between the 12th and 15th centuries and connected together by corridors and walkways. We’re running out of words to describe the artistry and beauty of these and all the other places we’ve seen. I think I’ll have to start consulting a thesaurus since gorgeous, stunning, amazing, awe-inspiring, incredible etc no longer do justice to these and the many other historical monuments we’ve seen and will see in the future.

The fort and palace

Jain Temples

We were supposed to meet back at our hotel at 2:45 to meet our jeep to take us out to the camel pick up site so after leaving the fort we stopped for a quick bite at a very good Italian restaurant just near the fort entrance. While patiently waiting for our order we were told there was going to be a very large Hindu procession happening within minutes just outside of the walls of the restaurant. Known as the couple who are always on time, we waited anxiously looking at our watch, looking for our pizza and procession and luckily enough we got both before making a b-line back to our hotel.

Sweating profusely as we got back to our hotel, it’s been a while since the temperature here is comfortable, around 25 deg. and very low humidity, we regrouped and headed out to the Thar Desert for a camel ride to the dunes to catch the sunset. Now this is India and no matter where you are, there will always be small children who will find you and want to entertain you for a few rupees. The middle of the desert was no exception. As we sat upon the sand contemplating the scenery and relative quiet, three young children, two boys, one girl slowly climbed the dune towards us. The boys had symbols for their instruments, the young girl was decked out in the latest Rajathani fashion and they proceeded to sing and shake and tap their symbols while the young girl danced, rather provocatively for her age, to, wait a minute, are they singing frere jacques? Yes they were and that is probably the first French song I learned back in grade 1. Needless to say they didn’t know anything in English so we shooed them away and pointed them toward what looked like a Chinese or Japanese couple and told them that they had lots of money. The sunset was beautiful, awe-inspiring, gorgeous, never mind.

 

Yesterday after staying an extra unplanned night in Bikaner in order to take in the Bikaner Camel Festival Parade we were not disappointed. Decked out in beautifully ornate and tribal costumes by both the camels and participants we were treated to a fairly short but well worth the extra night parade. Held every January 13th-14th, the parade and festival brings together locals and tourists to celebrate the trains of the desert.

While in Bikaner we stayed at the Hotel Harasar Haveli, originally the home of the hotel owners father and now converted into a very nice hotel. The architecture has all of the beautiful, intricate carving hallmarks of the areas many haveli’s.  The rooms were comfortable, the staff was excellent and attentive, the restaurant food was good and the price was right. We would highly recommend this hotel.

Rats! Rats everywhere, over 40,000 last estimate and they are revered, worshipped and loved by a small Hindu sect. If you are squeamish by the sight of rats, this is not where you want to visit. In our books though an absolute must see. The devout believe drinking from the same waters as the rats will protect them from sickness and give them longevity. There is a long story behind this belief that dates back to the 14th century.

Next stop, Bikaner. We arrived yesterday mid afternoon so had some time for a quick lunch before heading out to have a quick look at Junagarh Fort. It was about 3:15 when we headed over and the fort/palace closed at 4:30 so it was a bit of a whirlwind tour of this impressive fort constructed between 1589 and 1593. There are several “mahals” or halls beautifully decorated with blue cloud motifs, carved sandalwood, gold gilded paintings, ivory carvings, mirrors and a cornucopia of fascinating relief carvings.

After a quick tour of the fort/palace we grabbed a tuk tuk and our driver was great. We asked him to take us to the old town to see the market and he became our tour guide along the way. Bikaner also has many havelies but these are not exquisitely painted as in Mudawa but carved in red coloured teak wood. He graciously showed us a few of these wonderful masterpieces.

Old town market. Congested, polluted, smelly and convoluted but a must see!

Yesterday, after a 506 km journey from Delhi we reached Mundawa in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. The Shekhawati is known for its grand havalies meaning “house” but more to the tune of “mansion”. The region was on the Silk Route, or more accurately, on one of the many routes taken by traders primarily between Arabia, India and China where silk, silver, opium,spices and many other goods were traded. In the 18th and 19th centuries Marwari merchants from the area lived abroad in India’s new commercial centres and sent the bulk of their vast fortunes back to their families to construct grand havalies to show their neighbours how well they were doing. Competition ensued and the result was grand homes and temples which are richly decorated and still to some extent preserved to this day. The havelies in Mundawa are over 200 years old and most are in a state of decay while some have been restored and a few restored and made into magnificent hotels. We stayed at Hotel Mandawa Haveli, a beautifully restored 1890’s haveli with rooms surrounding a painted courtyard.

The morning after our arrival we did a short 1 1/2 tour of the many havalies in town. If we won 50 million on the lottery we would most definitely come back to restore one of the many mansions in dire need of some TLC. The artistry generally belonged to the kumhars, or masons, and they were both the builders and painters of incredibly ornate and wonderfully decorated homes.

We have a 21 day circuit planned. It took a while to work it out but I think we have it pegged down. We’ll spend most of out time in Rajasthan edging up to the border of Pakistan and then Madhya Pradesh and back into Uttar Pradesh. We have a car and driver, our bags are packed with one big one left here at the hotel and we’re all set to go tomorrow morning, after breakfast, probably around 9:00-9:30.  What’s the rush?  Below is a brief description of the towns, sites and areas we plan ro visit;

Mandawa; Mandawa fort and the areas mansions (havelis). The area is known as “The open art gallery of Rajasthan”.

Bikaner; Surrounded by the Thor Desert it is known for its 16th century Junagarh Fort and the nearby Karni Mata Temple where the religion revolves around the worshipping of rats. Known as the Rat Temple.

Jaisalmer; A former medieval trading centre in the heart of the Thar Desert. Known as the “Golden City”. We’ll do an overnight camel trip into the desert.

Johdpur; The “Blue City” in the desert.

Ranakpur; Marble Jain temples, magnificent architecture and lots of monkeys.

Pushkar; Bordering the Thar Desert, Puskar Lake and hundreds of temples.

Jaipur; Capital of Rajisthan also known as the “Pink City”.

Orcha; Raja Mahal, Betwa River, Mughal architecture.

Khajurao; UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hindu and Jain temples.

Varanasi; The spiritual capital of India. The sacred waters of the Ganges River and over 2,000 temples.

Agra; The Taj Mahal.