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.
