Sightseeing Marathon - The forts of Jaipur

The last post on Jaipur trip is linked here...

Day 3 of our trip was entirely spent close to Jaipur City. We saw so many sights and I took so many photographs for one day that this day's events have to be broken into two parts. 

We started early in the morning and went to see the Jal Mahal (Water palace). It was nice, given we were not allowed to go to it on the boat. We took a few "profile pictures" and moved on to go up the mountain range to see the first of three forts around Jaipur. 

Camels greeted us in the roadsides

The place had hundreds of dressed up camels that were used by the locals as transportation, be it pulling carts or as vehicles themselves. Cows: Banaras :: Camels : Jaipur, when it comes to animals mingling with traffic on roads.

The Jal Mahal was not picture perfect in the morning given the bland background and backlighting. So we planned to get back to it on another day or hope for better shots in the evening.

The views of the city were great as we moved up towards Jaigarh fort.

The fort had an impressive water tank that made it secure with respect to its water needs.  The entire thing had walls with slotted windows where marksmen would line up to shoot intruders, or so we were told by our guide.

The fort also is home to the worlds largest cannon!

Four elephants were requried to manouver the cannon and given that only one test shot was fired and that was enough to scare everyone away, this might have been a precursor to atomic bomb testing when it came to the logic of "lets just show everyone how scary this is and no one will dare attack us".. a logic that goes bad pretty quickly as someone else comes up with a different weapon in a few hundred years!

The walls of this fort run through the perimeter of the hills. Very impressive given it was built almost 400 years ago for a place that did not have any threats at the time it was built.

We wandered around the fort walls and turrets and got to see the valley views.

Right now the fort is home to a few tens of thousands of pidgeons! They were everywhere.

The views from the walls was just amazing!

After seeing this fort we went to see another fort, the Nahargarh fort. Nahar apparently means Tiger, but that had nothing to do with the naming as there was some backstory to this fort. It was pitched to us as a fort which was to keep the queens secure in times of war. 

This one had really impressive views of the entire Jaipur City as well as the valley below. The queens had it made, as long as their king was alive. If he died, they were either burnt alive with his body or had to go queen with the new king. Not so great, as far as options went. It was not like they could get a pension and live their life. 

The entrance was impressive once we got to the top of the mountain. 

The bikes provided a much needed time warp for this picture!

You walk into a courtyard and there are rooms for the queens on either side. There were way too many queens for one king and the kids were like "What the hell? I want to see who this idiot was who thought he could manage that many women!" 

We got to walk through three floors of the palace all the way to the rooftop to get a view of the City! Guess that if you are a king and you can do whatever you want with taxpayer $ or Rupees or whatever the hell currency he had, you get to build things like this! 

Every square inch of the surface was a work of art! This forting business must have been good for the local economy, employment etc. Maybe that was one reason for building these things, much like how we build unncessary Tanks and Military equipment that no one is asking for in places where there are no other jobs.

After catching a view of Jaipur city from every side, we started driving down to the Amer (Amber) Palace or Fort. They mixed it up w.r.t. calling it Amer or Amber and Fort or Palace. Guess it was both.  By the time we reached level ground, we were hungry. Our tour guide suggested we eat first and then see the Amer palace, but we wanted to finish off everything one shot. 

What we saw at the Amer fort was nothing short of spectacular. That will be part 2 of this post..

I really wanted to finish the Jaipur travelog before August and the Golu season, but there are still a few hundred photos to edit. The international travel disrupts posting. Will have to figure out a way to get VPN going so I can edit posts from hotel rooms in Asia. 

Another day, another post. On the plus side, it is good to be back in the US with the wife and kids again!

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...

Village Safari, Rajasthani style

Let us say that you want to see wild animals in the wild but in a safe way?  What do you do? You go on a wild animal safari. You are in a caged jeep, the animals are doing what they do.. you watch, hoping there is minimal impact to them from the jeep and come back home. A lot of us have done that..

Now, lets say you are in a place that is not your natural habitat. You want to see the people of that place and culture, but in a very controlled fashion. How do you go about doing that without having to deal with a lot of unknowns?  You go to a Village safari, at least that is what I am calling it. 

A Rajasthani town created for tourists where you get to see a village in action with some added entertainment. Add to this an authentic dinner in a shared setting and night lights, and what you have is Disneyland meets Burning man. It goes by "Choki Daani" and it is guranteed fun for the whole family.

I have always wanted to go to Burning man to take pictures. My family thinks I have some deviant gene that was part of a mutation experiment done after I came to the USA.

That said, Yes! I still want to visit Burning man someday. Maybe after retiring. I digress again..

The whole lantern lighting and bright colors, dancers, camel rides and gigantic props made this place have a surreal feel to it. There are not that many pictures because I wanted to take photographs without the flash and given the natural light was bright only in certain places it reduced a lot of options.

Also the fixed fee at the entrance and "no need for tips" boards everywhere made it easy for us as tourists to enjoy this place. That said San went and bought some "kurthis" in the crafts section of the village only to realize the very next day that she overpaid.. a lot! That overpayment did have some value, in that it provided comic relief to a van full of weary travellers on day 2. We did see some real art work. An old man making print blocks from wood. He was so fast it was unbelievable. 

We also saw how the "hand printed" sari's are made using natural vegetable dyes.

The dinner itself was interesting. Five types of Roti's, a few select Rajasthani dishes that we had never heard of, lots of sugar and Ghee (clarified butter) in everything, in short, an extremely delicious and unhealthy meal that still brings back great memories. Also thanks to the iPhone 5S and the willingness of the service staff to take pictures for you there is at least one grainy picture of the dinner.

The service staff guy says to me "I can take a picture for you". Gave him my cell phone and I am about to start explaining to him what to do and he goes "I know what to do on iPhone 5. Have taken lots of pictures for people. Please go sit down". These guys knew every type of cell phone camera. Guess that is a skill that comes in handy to keep the crowd moving fast.

The only thing I did not like was the turban. It was on his head and he put it on everyones head before taking the picture. It was a germ factory. It is a miracle that we came out of that place without head lice!

It started raining like crazy when we just finished the dinner. We barely made it to our vehicle before the roads started flooding! Never realized it rained like that in Rajasthan or that roads could be flooded so soon. It reminded me of those National Georgraphic Specials where the Kalahari desert has rivers flowing in it all of a sudden. 

Strongly recommended for an evening of fun and a great dinner.

Luck, Chance or divine intervention - A trip to Jaipur

My vacation in India was supposed to be two weeks, including the 4th of July holiday. San and the kids were to spend another 2 weeks while I was to experiment alone in the Kitchen and go back to Asia for a business trip in those two weeks. My stay in India extended by an extra four days, and I got a chance to spend those four days with the family on a Jaipur trip. The way it happened was scary though.

My FIL had dropped me off at Mumbai airport for a Cathay Flight to Hongkong. Being my first time at the new airport, was happy snapping pictures of the airport and was in general looking forward to a great trip. It was a full flight and just as we were cleared for take off and the plane was about to go around the bend to start take off, the plane made the usual funny noises. The pilot however, announced that he was aborting take off and instead was going to cross over to the other side of the airport and get it checked by Engineering. His exact words were "this is most likely to be a 10 or 30 minute delay".

There we were on the outskirts of the airport with twenty or so vehicles of different sizes flashing cop lights everywhere. We did not know if it was really an engineering problem or something else. One hour goes by, we are all asked to remain seated, not get up, no water, no tray table lowering and no updates. Slowly the passengers who woke up and realized they are still on the plane started demanding updates. The updates were few and far between and finally 4 hours and 45 minutes after sitting on a plane that was supposed to fly for 5 hours 30 minutes,  the passengers started a mutiny of sorts. 

It was my most ridiculous experience on a plane to date. Finally the pilot said "we are aborting this flight" but we cannot go back to the airport in the plane. You will be taken in buses 50 at a time. The only good thing was that the passengers in first class allowed the elders and people with kids to go out first. 

Once we got back to the airport, it became even more ridiculous. The ground staff, which was mostly new college grads in Cathay uniforms were clearly not ready to handle 400+ irate and tired passengers at 6AM and to top things off we had to get a "cancel" stamp on our passports to Re-enter India! Then we had to get our baggage back and go through "customs". Fortunately they created a separate line for this aborted flight and let us out fast. Now this little "cancel" stamp is making every immigration officer look me up and down (I have already made it back to Asia twice since July)!

When my FIL picked me up back at the airport at 7AM, the logistics of this hit me. They were leaving at 11 AM to Jaipur. I had to stay alone in Mumbai for 2 days, then fly back and forth across the Pacific within 3 days. So alternate arrangements were made in 2 hours. I got Wifi ready to work from Jaipur over the next 4 nights and got a last minute ticket to fly with them and fly out of India 4 hours after we land back in Mumbai. It was sight seeing by day and work by night and was brutal, but we were all happy. The photographer was now part of the trip!

I was also over joyed at seeing San and the kids and have never hugged them tighter. Turns out the plane had engine failure and it was a good thing the pilot aborted the flight! 

Off we went to Jaipur and boy was it great! My FIL always does an outstanding job of planning a trip months in advance. He had to adjust on the fly and cancel a trip to Bikaner given my work schedule, but we managed to cover things in Jaipur at a steady pace over 4 days.

The ITC Rajputana, where we stayed was amazing. Just look at the lobby! Had to do HDR images to just capture a fraction of what our eyes saw there. 

The kids were running up and down the marble stair cases. To date we have not been in a more beautiful hotel.

Then we went to the room. It had a great view of the pool and there were folks going through a Yoga class in the lawn. 

Even the hallway props in this hotel were awesome!

After relaxing for an hour, we visited the City palace of Jaipur. As soon as we entered the palace, we were greeted by a snake charmer. These guys know how to play to the stereotype!

There was a puppet show which included "Michael Jackson" which amused Jr. and the little one. I will reiterate.. they know how to play to stereotypes..

The Palace was full of weaponry from the 1700's and the gifts that the kings had received from various places over the years. 

 The halls were magnificent. I just went click crazy.. 

We used a tour guide who gave us a decent explanation for every thing we saw. This palace has multiple levels above and below the ground level. An engineering marvel if you realize they had a 10+ story building 350+ years ago.

My mind kept going to the same thought. These guys created so many wonderful things hundreds of years ago. What have we done since then other than figure out how to destroy them or disrespect them? and I did not think of this in an Indian context but a global context. Eisenhower created a fantastic highway system in the fifties and today there is not enough money to even maintain those, let alone reinvent. 

When it comes to creating architecture, we suck compared to our previous generations. It is all glass, concrete and steel. The artistry seems to have taken a backseat and chances are all these glass thingys wont last 350 years. 

This palace had 4 gates which were so ornate, one for each season. Apparently the king used to use the entrance for that season. 

Waited patiently at this gate for the two guys to leave, but no luck. They insisted on being part of the shot. 

 The stone work in the palace was mind boggling. 

as were the doors with all the metal work. This is one huge door to enter the palace!

Just look at this one pillar. I asked the guide how long it took to complete the palace and he said "one kings starts it and his grandson finishes it".. most palaces in the area were completed over almost a hundred years.

There were a few intersting artifacts in the Palace that caught our attention. One was this mirror gifted to the King from the Chinese. No matter where you stood, you could get a full length reflection. 

and what was the worlds largest silver pot! This thing made it to UK and back because the King would only drink and bathe in water from the Ganges. So he made two large silver pots, filled them with Ganga water and hauled it in a ship for his UK tour. 

The palace also had a big hall where all the artists who were patronized by the king for generations demonstrated their art form. The kids thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour watching the artist paint minute details with vegetable colors on silk. 

After spending a good two hours at the palace, we were off to have a traditional Rajasthani dinner.

Would definitely recommend the ITC Rajputana hotel for a stay if you can manage one of those dicount deals.

That is a post for another day...

Athirappilly Falls - Kerala

After having a ton of fun at Thekkadi on our recent India trip, we moved on to visit the Athirappalli (Tamil pronounciation) or Athirappilly (as they say it Malayalam) falls with a short stop at Kalady. 

Kalady is the birth place of Adi Sankara, the man who rejuvenated Hinduism across India when it was under threat from invasion on all sides. However cute as Kalady is as a small village on the banks of the Poorna(now Periyaar) river, I did not see anything special there. It was just another temple that was not even maintained to the standards of other important temples. The place could seriously use an upgrade. Moving on... 

Athirappalli is amazing! It was worth the drive on the windy Ghat roads, the trek on slippery stones down to the bottom and walking with plastic ponchos through and through. Totally worth it!

We get to see a lot of tall falls, but few wide ones here. One notable exception was Burney McArthur falls. This one is like a supersize version of Burney McArthur falls when it comes to the volume of water flowing down. Given that we were there in the middle of the monsoon, it was breathtaking!

I did take a slow motion video with the iPhone5, but somehow uploading it to Youtube makes it lose the slo-mo effect. 

If you visit Kerala, this place is a must see. On a touristy note, the ponchos are sold by vendors a good kilometer before you approach the ticket booth entrance for 100 to 120 Rupees. The store at the entrance sells it for 50 Rupees. Our kids learnt an economics lesson there which was interesting. 

Some pictures from the few hours we spent there. It was challenging to get anything there. Even if you have weatherproof 1000 dollar lenses with fancy hoods, the water just forms a fine mist in the air and hits you from all directions. I used to wipe down with a cloth, then aim, shoot, repeat. 

We came back up with happy thoughts and smiles on our faces. Just look at the little ones face on that last picture. It sums up our emotions walking in the mist!

When I post a picture on Facebook of how many states I have visited in the US over the last 21 years of staying here and many friends who were born and raised here tell me that is a lot more than they have seen! There are folks I know who have not seen any state other than California, Nevada or Oregon! 

India is also a vast country. When I was growing up, there was not a lot of time or money to go see the country. Our parents did take us on vacations within the state and to neighbouring Andra Pradesh using their LTC( Leave Travel Concession) tickets every summer. We used to love those trips, have fun visiting temples, taking bath in pristine rivers, etc. but they were like local travel. Not a wide exposure to the rest of the country.

Studying in Varanasi helped break that for me. 

Now that we have the ability to plan trips better and see more things in a short time, we are discovering a piece of India on every trip, even if the trips are few and far between.

This trip was after a gap of 3 years, so we covered two places that were on the list. Kerala and Rajasthan. 

Have finally started looking at photos from the Rajasthan trip.. will post them soon.