Thursday 21 April 2016
Jaipur to Mumbai

Today begins my last full day in India, since my flights home from Mumbai (via Hong Kong and LAX) begin tomorrow night at 10:30 pm. I arrive in HK at 7 am the next morning (Sat). I  change planes (same airline) with 2.5 hour layover for the much longer flight to LAX, where I arrive shortly before I left HK (joy of international dateline). Then a couple of hours for immigration and customs and a short non-stop flight to Tucson, where I arrive in the mid-afternoon.  That is, if all goes according to schedule. All my flights have so far been on time, so here’s hoping Ganesh will be pushing the planes eastwards.

My driver and another Audley agent take me from the hotel at noon to Jaipur International Airport, a small but efficient operation, where I have about 45 minutes until boarding my Air India nonstop, 90-minute flight back to Mumbai.  And at this point it is time to bid farewell to my driver, who has supplied me with wet face cloths and ice cold bottles of water throughout the past six days.

Having spent two nights at the small and very personal hotel Dera Rawatsar, I will report that it is a charming and lovely place to stay, with excellent food and a smattering of old-time atmosphere.  If this were the cooler time of January or February (or the Fall),  it would be perfect.  But in late April, it is not ideal.  While the room is air-conditioned, the unit is barely adequate.  The bathroom has been updated very nicely, but the lighting is very bad (as it is everywhere in India), and there is no AC at all.  Other parts of the hotel are not air-conditioned either. There is heavy construction nearby (I was warned in advance), but booms go on all through the night (I think that’s a Cole Porter tune).

But now to Jaipur itself.

Wednesday 20 April 2016
Jaipur

The day begins with another buffet breakfast.  In general, the coffee at hotels in India has not been great, but today for the first time I am greeted with instant coffee.  I should stick with tea.  My driver, Prakash, and my Jaipur guide collect me at 9am for the 30-minute drive to Amer Fort in the hills above the city.  Like the other forts I have visited, this structure houses the emperor's palaces as well as a military installation.  At this fort, however, the military post is at some distance from the residences.  Because this is a major tourist site, there is a good deal of emphasis on the "show business" side, including highly decorated elephants for hire to ride the long climb up the hills (we go by car).  My guide tells me there are strict regulations regarding the animals' working conditions and hours, but Audley advises against using the elephants here if you care at all about animal welfare.

 

  

Besides the highly decorated rooms there are wonderful views over the valley in which the city of Jaipur sits.

On the way back to the city center from Amer, we stop for a photo op at a palace built in the middle of a small lake.  There are a number of these lake palaces throughout Rajastan.  Many of them have been restored as resort hotels for tourists.  This particular palace has been restored but is still in litigation over its ownership. This can sometimes take more than a generation to settle.

We are now ready to enter the walls of the "Pink City" itself.  Originally designed in the 1720s, it is the only Hindu-planned city from that period to remain intact today as it was then, except of course that in honor of a visit from the Prince of Wales in 1876, everything within the walled city was painted a rose color--but it's easier just to call it "pink."  At the center of the walled city is the "City Palace," still occupied in part by the Royal Family of Rajastan (Jaipur is the state capital), but other parts have been turned into historical museums open to the public (weapons, costumes and formal wear, religious artifacts, etc.).

 

Just outside the walls of the City Palace sits the expansive grounds of the Jantar Mantar (1728-33), an astronomical/astrological park filled with large geometric structures intended for scientific observation of the stars and planets, but used more for the popular superstitions of astrology believed in by many Hindus.  There is a similar but smaller park in Delhi (which I did not visit).  Although the instruments are still very accurate in reading the skies, to the more artistically inclined visitor, they seem like objects of modern art.

Does This Remind Anyone of the Facade of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco?
(see below)

San Francisco July 1995

 

 

It's time for lunch at a local restaurant before entering the "pink city" itself.  My guide joins me for lunch (the first time that has 
happened) and I let him suggest what I should order.  It's also the first time a guide allows me to pay for his lunch.  I certainly don't mind paying and I am glad to have his company, but when he asks me to buy an iPhone in the US and send it to him (he would then pay me electronically), I believe he has over-stepped his bounds.

Our first stop after lunch is the "Palace of Winds," so named for the hundreds of small openings in the facade that let the breezes through. These small windows also allow the women of the palace to look upon the streets without being seen themselves.  This often-photographed facade is one of the most familiar tourist views in all of India.  The facade is actually a false front, like a Hollywood set, while the palace itself is set back from the false front.

Inside the Palace of the Winds

 

View of the Pink City from Palace of the Winds

The facade of the Palace of Winds is embedded in the outer wall of the Inner City.  On both sides of this street are covered arcades lined with hundreds of small shops.  I really wanted to wander here on my own to take pictures, and on the streets inside the wall as well.  But my guide insists that he will not leave me alone ("my safety is his responsibility"), even though I say I will make arrangements for the driver to take me back to the hotel when I am finished, and that I am an experienced traveler who can take care of myself.  There is no way I can win this argument.  He offers to walk me through the arcaded street, but at such a fast clip that it is really hard to take satisfactory photos. This is the only time on the trip that I have felt encumbered rather than helped by a guide.  Oh well, I guess I will just have to make another visit.

 

 

It is mid-afternoon when we drive back to the hotel and I am ready for some rest and another dinner al fresco in the courtyard of the hotel. Since the portions are so large, tonight I stick with a chicken and rice oriental stir-fry with some naam.  I can sleep in tomorrow since my flight doesn't leave until early afternoon and I plan to spend the morning re-packing.

Tuesday 26 April 2016
Tucson

I am finally feeling my old self again (no pun intended); it takes a lot longer to recuperate from those long flights than it used to.  But I am at leisure, between catching up on bills and chores and laundry, to continue the blog from where I left off.  Some of this I had written previously, but did not have a chance to post.  So I will be posting a few more entries to complete the trip. 

Tuesday 19 April 2016
Agra to Jaipur

[Sorry about the wrong date--and all the typos--in the previous blog--but I usually write this at night when I am very tired]

The drive from Agra to Jaipur will take most of the day, especially with welcome stops at two tourist sites and another stop for lunch. Prakash (I apologize for mis-spelling his name in previous entries) drives with ease and care.  Most of the trip is on a series of inter-connected expressways, with at least five stops for tolls--I'm glad I'm not paying--although each one is mighty cheap and motorcycles are free.

Our first stop is at the deserted royal city of Fatehpur Sikri, about one hour southeast of Agra.  My excellent Agra guide, Gary, accompanies us here, from where he will return to Agra, and Prakash will drive on to Jaipur.  FS, as I shall call it, is a place I knew nothing about before planning this trip, and the size of this city-that-no-one-wants is immense:  fort, several palaces, and a large mosque.  India is littered with cities created and deserted; every time a new ruler conquers the old he must establish a new seat for his new kingdom.  This one is particularly well-preserved, because it was occupied for only a short period of time when the ruler decided to return to Agra.

The Palace and Grounds

 

                                                                                            

The Mosque

Emperor Akbar built his "victory" city in 1570.  But because the location was not strategically viable and the availability of water became a problem, he abandoned FS and moved his capital back to Agra in 1585, just 14 years later.  An outbreak of plague before the turn of the next century, emptied the city of the small population left behind.  My tour takes in the private palaces and grounds and the large mosque. Much of the military fort and its surrounding walls are also still standing.

Gary and I say our farewells by showing pictures of our partners. He has a very beautiful wife and two young children whom he dotes upon. I show him the print pictures I carry of Will and the cats; he shows me his iphone. Gary is the first person here with whom I feel comfortable enough to discuss my life with Will.  As a Sikh, he belongs to a sect that is more liberal and open to differences than all the other religions of India combined. Whenever a guide, driver, or agent of Audley, would ask the usual personal questions I  always responded truthfully about my relationship with Will, but would usually leave that as a simple declarative statement.  With Gary I was able to share more about our relationship and he sincerely wished us both well.  He says I must return to India with Will; he assures me that he will take good care of both of us.

Agra Guide, Gary, at Taj Mahal Gate

But onward I must travel.  Prakash drives for another hour before stopping at a roadside restaurant offering a long menu with choices from at least five different national cuisines.  This is where I first taste one of my new favorite Indian dishes, butter chicken, along with delicious butter-garlic naan bread.

The rest of the ride passes through agrarian lands lying fallow between planting seasons.  About 45 minutes before we reach Jaipur, we stop at the very small village of Abhaneri (mentioned by Audley, but not even noted in most guidebooks), my second great surprise of the day after FS. All there is to see in this one-horse town is a deep hole in the ground.  But what a magnificent hole it is!  I don’t even know how to describe the amazing arrangement of steps leading down to green water at the bottom of the well (Chand Baoris).  A few pictures will have to suffice—at least until I have a chance to see Christian Bale’s Dark Knight (a scene was filmed here).  A friendly and well-rehearsed local resident provides a brief tour for a small gratuity (this is a nation built on tips).

My Driver from Delhi to Jaipur (7 days), Prakash

As we approach the outskirts of the city in the heart of Rajastan, the landscape finally begins to change, with rising hills and cliffs starting to enclose the highway.  There is even a road tunnel cut through the last of these cliffs that take us directly into Jaipur, “The Pink City.” We drive directly to the hotel, where I elect to have dinner, home-cooked by the owner and his family, who also help serve.

I will report more about the hotel in the next blog.