Architectural marvels, modern and ancient - Jaipur

This is the last of the series of posts on our Jaipur trip from summer!

In our last 24 hours in Jaipur we covered the Jantar Mantar, a Radhe Shyam temple, Birla Mandir and in the morning we covered the Hawa Mahal (air palace). We also managed to get stuck in a heavy downpour and photograph the Jal Mahal (water palace) in the evening!

The previous post on this series of visits is here.

We left Abaneri in the afternoon and came back to Jaipur city to see the Jantar Mantar. Another place that you do not want to visit on a hot and sultry afternoon. It was about to rain and rain big. Walking through those giant "astro-reader" implements was like being in a Hot Yoga room. If you are a big fan of astronomy, this place is a must see. They have precise instrumentation that tells you the position of everything related to everything else in space and time! That pretty much sums up the place.

I am not into astronomy. It is one of those things that I don't grasp easily. This thing in a marble hemisphere with lines around it tracked every planet and constellations position very precisely. It made my head spin!

After walking through all these "Yantras", we walked through the lawns. This little bird was shouting at me. Given I intended it no harm and was tired and weary, took another look at it to see "what its problem was". Turned out it had 4 legs!

After realizing I was no threat, she got up as though smiling at me and walked around. This beautiful chick came out and posed for me! That made my day...

Later on we visited two temples.. one was a Radhe-Shyam temple built in the 1600's by the King of Jaipur and another was the marble temple made by Birla.

It had also finished raining and we went through quite an ordeal getting back into level ground after that downpour. Jaipur's drainage system is probably one of the worst in the world. We were lucky to be in a van instead of a car. 

Cars were literally floating away in the flooding waters at one point near the Jal Mahal. The fresh rain did make the Jal Mahal stand out. If we make another trip to this place, we will definitely take the boat ride to this palace and see inside. Unfortunately, the boat rides are stopped during heavy rains. 

and here is a HDR version.

We were so tired that I did not get my camera out to take pictures at the Birla mandir. A cell phone photo is all we got.. guessing I have very few Birla mandirs left to cover in India!

On the last half day, we visited the Hawa Mahal with a tour guide who went over the kings and queens story yet another time.

This place is a true architectural marvel. It has 900+ windows on the wall facing the street. It has seven levels built staggered so that the foundation can handle it. How may other such massive seven storied structures existed 400 years ago? All the colored glass was imported from Belgium.. or so says the tour guide!

The views from this palace are all designed so that the many queens can watch the king and his processing come from the other place to this one from very far away. Have tried to capture some of those view points in the photographs below..

 The street we see now is where the processing used to come from..

You can see the Jantar Mantar from the top level of the Hawa Mahal and realize how big some of these structures are.. 

A view of the pink city from the top of the Hawa Mahal.

The air flow in this palace was amazing. The 900 windows are placed perfectly to usher in a wind gust that keeps the palace air conditioned 24/7. Here is the Hawa Mahal from street level on the outside. 

Here is an inside view..

Belgian glass takes care of light.. Marble and windows take care of the air circulation. Awe inspiring design!

A view of the courtyards inside. Dancing and entertainment was watched by the many queens through the windows. You can see the slats in the windows are all angled towards the courtyard. The queens can see the center but they cannot be seen. Again, ingenious design!

Even the passages and corridors were curved and lined with cool marble to circulate the air in such a way to create a cooling effect. They should show the Hawa Mahal as a case study for architecture students across the globe. 

After spending the morning at the Hawa Mahal, it was time to say bye to the Pink City!

I had to fly into the domestic airport in Mumbai from Jaipur and within 3 hours go to my in-laws place, grab suitcases and get back to the International airport to travel to east asia, for a business trip! 

Do not know if I should thank Cathay Pacific for their cancelling the flight. For one, I did not get on a plane that had engine failure. I got to spend 3 more days with my family, even if for a few hours each day and had to work during the night and sleep during rides. It also gave me a chance to calm down and get my nerves in order after that ordeal on the plane. 

A good two months later, they did refund that cancelled trip and give me a coupon for the phone bill (from all the calls I had to make from the plane to rearrange things)!

It has taken a long time to get the photos, videos etc. on to the travelog, but that seems to be the norm these days with the busy work schedule. Seriously thinking of buying a personal laptop and installing the Photo editing software on it. Can come in handy during long flights!

Here is to the next trip, to a location we have not seen before!

The well of Abaneri - World Heritage site

Previous Jaipur trip post is here.

We drove a good two plus hours from Jaipur City to see Abhaneri (an old well in the city of Abha) which was built in 800 AD and is a world heritage site! This place is amazing! To think that they built something like this 1200 years ago and things were a lot better for that local population than it is now was disturbing. 

Here are a few pictures of this magnificent well in HDR

After seeing the well, we visited an ancient temple that was close to the well.

The main statue was long gone but in its place is a more recent version. 

Every statue in this temple wall had its face disfigured and broken off by Mughal invaders. I can understand the Muslim invaders not being happy with the religion of the local populace they invaded, but this was Art! Someone didn't teach them that "a thing of beauty is a joy forever!"

These were such intricate carvings and it made me mad to see that someone could so callously do this to great art. My FIL did his best to calm me down by saying "most of this stuff doesn't suvive the test of time. So you should be happy to see at least these remains! if not by invaders, it is natural causes or erosion. there are so many burried places or civilizations that have come and gone.." etc. etc. 

Went around the entire thing trying to find one intact statue, but the folks who were responsible for the damage were very thorough! There was one piece on display outside the well.

Later remembered the piece at the Albert hall museum that had an almost intact face. There were a few pieces, that survived the onslaught!

A large goat was following me everywhere and even posed for me! It was so weird. Maybe it was someone I knew in a previous birth.. or at least that is what I was thinking while wandering through the place. 

We came out of the temple and were greeted by a bunch of vegetable vendors. The veggies there were sooo fresh. Felt like buying some home to cook. 

It was very pleasant outside, when we visited this place. That made the trip thoroughly enjoyable. Later that evening, it turned into clammy weather that was unbearable for a few hours. That still did not stop us from seeing a few sites..

Will post that tomorrow night.

If you visit Jaipur, this place is a bit out of the way, but is a must see!

Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur

The previous post on the Jaipur trip is linked here!

On the last day and a half we managed to see many more places.

We visited Albert hall, which was touted as the local museum. It was a gloomy looking place with not enough lighting, but it did have a lot of interesting pieces in it ranging from 800 AD to the early 1900's, from all over the world. Things that were originally collected by Kings and later curated by "Abert"! 

Going through a museum that is not air conditioned, is dark and dingy on a hot summer day, is not a good idea. The kids refused to move past the first two rooms and sat down on the floor to strike! They said "we will pass on this one appa! please see what you want, and pick us up from this room!"

Here are a few things that I thought were either interesting or unique to this museum.. 

The kids stayed put in that room with the mummy while my FIL and me wandered on..Tons of laquerware, other utensils and decorative vases that occupied a few rooms. If you are into Vases, this might be your place to visit!

Then there were the statues from the late 700's to 1300's. If you are into anything "Tantric"... this might also be the place for you to visit!

This door jamb thingy in the picture below the sign was massive and intricate. Would have loved to see the entire temple though.

I put two and two together after seeing this panel and visiting Abaneri later on. Could not comprehend what the size of the real structures have to be till the next day..

These statues with gold plating were tiny but exquisite. If you have all the money at your disposal, you can patronize such arts!

Talk of beheadings! I could not get the full story from this miniature figurine but the godess seems to be very happy to have slain the buffallo which apparently is symbolic of the bufallo demon king. Good thing the kids stayed in the room with the mummies. I would have had to explain a lot of things without any "konaar notes"!

Finally, there was a display of musical instruments from 1700-1800 and this thing was called a Guitar! Thought that was funny. The guitar surely evolved in the last few hundred years.

The biggest draw though, was the pigeons outside. Thousands of them! We watched a man feed them and a kid chase them around every 2 minutes. Took a slow-motion video of this on the iPhone 5S and had lost the slo-mo effect. Thanks to some edits on iMovie have gotten it to look close to the original.. 

 We went on to see the Abaneri wells. That has to be a post in itself! 

Living it up - Maharajah style

Previous post on our sighteeing marathon in Jaipur is here.. 

We had already visited 2 forts and it was close to noon when we decided to go visit the Amer (Amber) Fort / Palace.

This palace was something else compared to the previous two. The entrance and courtyards were the size of football fields!

What kind of place, has man hole covers with hand made art work?

Turkish baths with walls that have the equivalent of filigree work on marble?

A temple that is still acccessed only by the royal family to date? A Ganesha idol the size of a basketball made out of a single piece of Coral (no photography allowed.. costs a few million bucks and is in plain sight on the temple roof!) ? and the list goes on and on.. and yes, a separate palace quarters for the queens.. all few hundred of them!

Here are some pictures (mostly HDR)...

you just stand there and go "Wow!" 

Still learning how to adjust barrelling effect on the 17-44mm shots at 17mm. Will figure it out soon.

You go inside and it gets better..

The halls are cool and somehow in 110 F heat, you feel air conditioning thanks to the architecture!

Then there was the highlight, the "Sheesh Mahal" or Glass house. The walls and ceilings had a million glass pieces in them and they lit up the area. 

The grandeur of the whole place is something we have not seen anywhere before. Even the Taj kind of takes second place to this monstrosity. 

They constructed a floating garden to get special spices and herbs. Apparently they found out the hard way that it is difficult to grow Saffron in Jaipur. Given all the other advancements they had, it was an odd fact that the guide threw at us.

A close up of this garden..

We walked past turkish baths with elaborate hot water piping and decor walls to reach a roof garden.

You get great views of the city and the other forts from here as well.

Then there was the queens quarters!

Every queen had 2 bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. No attached baths apparently. That concept was not there in those days. They all had a common bathroom, which had a nice faucet system for sanitation. It was "interesting" engineering.

Given how the rest of the area was maintined, the queens quarters was definitely not taken care of. The area had an abandoned feel to it, but one can imagine what it would have looked like 400 years ago given their taste in art and marble. The government should restore this area of the palace. 

We finally came out of the palace and took more photographs of the palace from the road. 

and we were tired with a capital T! Our guide told us to check out a restaurant called Zeeman for Vegetarian food and we went there for a late lunch. 

The food was mouth watering. Naan that just melted in your mouth. Every dish was a delight. If you are vegetarian and you want to have a great meal after a long day of roaming around palaces the size of football fields, you cannot go wrong with this place!

We went back to our hotel rooms and came back to pink city to see a few more places and have dinner at Dasaprakash. It was good food but a let down, after that wonderful lunch at Zeeman!

We visited a few more places on the next day and a half. Those posts will have to wait. 

When culture calls…

The blog is getting a series of travelogs, from the recent ?! Jaipur trip. Things have started to blur already and I have to go look at photo time stamps, to recollect what we did in those 4 days!

Day 1 was just landing there, visiting the city palace with a tour guide and having dinner at Choki Dhani.

Day 2 was spent going to Pushkar. It was a 2+ hour drive from Jaipur and the kids pretty much went on a fighting match right after we got into the van.

It was one of those days!

The adults in the van decided that we would physically separate the kids, by using daddy as a divider. That worked out well for all parties in the van, driver included, except for daddy!

Simply could not move as they slept with their mouths open, on either shoulder. 

There was really nothing scenic on the drive to Pushkar. A large man made lake near the town of Ajmer, which was full of garbage as far as the eye could see, and a temple that did not look that old.

It kooked more like a recent addition, within the last 100 years. I expected a temple that was a few thousand years old. It looked like a replica of the Mahalakshmi temple in Mumbai, without the beautiful ocean view in the backdrop. 

It definitely did not live up to the hype as a "one of a kind" temple for the creator, Brahma. Someone needs to build a better temple for the dude. Also the vendors outside the temple, both at the stores and the ones hawking stuff off their hands and shoulders, were not nice. They were rude and bitter, with all tourists. We were so turned off by the experience, that we did not bother to go take a look at the Pushkar lake behind the temple. 

Some temples give you goosebumps. Let's just say this was not one of them and leave it at that. We drove back and had to find lunch somewhere and this sign board caught our eye!

Now that our interest was piqued by the Sweaming Pool, a little closer inspection showed more details..

The kids who usually are very cranky when woken up in mid van sleep, were laughing at the prospect of having Tost and Burgar's. We were sold! 

So off we went to the counter of the Family Garden Restaurant and the kids got another education.

Now you try and explain a gramaphone record and a rotary phone to kids who think CD's are a relic! 

We paid, went inside the Family Garden and sat down to see if the food was going to be good..

When the food came, we were not disappointed! It was yummy. They made a very nice dal, jeera fried rice, nice rotis, gave us fresh dahi and some side dishes to go with the rotis. It was simple dhaba food that was delicious.

After a full meal, we got back to Jaipur and did a replay of the kids sleeping on my shoulder. There is a famous Mosque in Ajmer where everyone is allowed inside, but we passed on the chance.

I was wearing shorts and the kids were in skirts. Our driver mentioned that while everyone was okay to go inside and it was not restricted to Muslims, there were clothing restrictions. We had already had the same experience with clothing restrictions, a few days earlier in Kerala, where I had to go get a dhoti to enter a Hindu temple in Kalady, which was only restricted to Hindus in dhotis.

We then came back to our hotel, for a short break and also explored the hotel better. Looked at the artwork displayed in various entrances etc.

This one sculpture of dancing folks was really beautiful.

Then we went on, to an evening of Bangle shopping in the old city market of Jaipur aka "Jewelery" Bazaar. They say "Like a kid in a candy store", but I suggest that it should be replaced with "Like a girl in a bangle store" after going through this experience. 

Wife, MIL, Jr. and the Little one, spent a full hour in a bangle store, while my FIL and myself fidgeted patiently outside, saying polite "no"s to guys who were trying to sell us everything from hand puppets to Hello kitty bedroom slippers, all at discounted prices.

While this was going on, did take some pictures of the bangles from the displays outside the next store, with the iPhone. My camera was given the equivalent of a "gag" order by the ladies when it came to shopping. A 5D Mark II around the guys neck, ruins the bargaining power of the ladies, or so they tell me. 

Finally almost an hour and a half later, the ladies walked out with a small subset of the bangles they started out to buy. We were really not sure if we got ripped off, but the smiles on their faces was priceless!

Then to round up day 2, we walked quite a distance to LMB which is short for Lakshmi Mishtan Bandar (sweet shop). Walking into the shop was like walking into heaven. 

There is a quote on the walls of the Cupertino Library from Jorge Luis Borges that says "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of Library".

Here is my quote. "I have always imagined Heaven will be a kind of Mishtan bandar".

We were ushered into an AC hall through the sweet shop to get our dinner. The service was nice, but the dinner got mixed reviews from the family members based on what dish they ordered. The side dishes and Naan and paratha were excellent. The chaat items were okay (based on what they said). 

We went back to get some rest and get ready for more sight seeing on day 3, a post for another day...