Woolly says – The traffic never rests in this country and Sunday is no exception. My ears were hurting by the time we arrived at our first pink extravaganza of the day, namely the City Palace. Formerly the seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur, the head of the Kachwaha Rajput clan. It was built between 1729 and 1732, initially by Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, he planned and built the outer walls, and later additions were made by successive rulers continuing up to the 20th century. Having paid for our tickets which wouldn’t include the palace interior, very pricey and not in our budget, we wandered into the first courtyard. The walls almost looked as they though were a stage set and didn’t really look pink, more of a dusky peach colour. The large central building looked impressive from the outside, but the open sides had been filled with glass and it now housed the palace textile collection. I shook my head, after yesterdays choosing of materials I wasn’t sure if I could cope with more!
This would be slightly different and didn’t involve us having to make a decision, our clothes had arrived promptly the night before and fitted beautifully which had disproved his theory of the cost must to my satisfaction.
Woolly says – I noticed there was a lack of outfit in mammoth size! The collection was glittery and very regal in design and having ambled around we found ourselves outside in front of some camels who were covered in all sorts of ribbons and glitz, even the camels get outfits here! Next came the armoury which had glorious ceilings, which we weren’t able to capture and having quickly tired of the numbers of daggers and swords we moved into the second courtyard.
The gate into that area was wonderful with two large elephants on guard with a lovely paintwork job covering the rest of the gated area. The doors looked golden and huge and well worth a picture, in fact all of the doors were worth a photo. The second courtyard had an open audience area with the two biggest silver objects in the world on display, they were immense and as Jo gamely tried to take a picture where she wasn’t on the immense pots which took a while. The décor itself was lovely and as marble seems to be a readily used material here it was in abundance and beautifully carved. Through a doorway we went and into an empty courtyard which wouldn’t have been a second look at except for the doorways which were incredible. One of them had peacock designs and heads sticking out of it and was obviously the most popular one for all the selfie stars, patience is very much needed for any form of photography here.
It was worth waiting for and having finally had the one second pause to take the snap we retraced our footsteps and found the way into the Durbar Hall, sadly no pictures were allowed which was a shame as the ceiling was a work of art.
Woolly says – Having had our fill of the Palace I led the way through the traffic and across the road to a something that my guide book had told me was a trifle odd. The Jantar Mantar monument is a collection of nineteen architectural astronomical instruments, built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II and completed in 1734, from my first view it looked like a new age sculpture exhibition when actually it was comprised of masonry, stone and brass instruments that were built using astronomy and instrument design principles of ancient Hindu Sanskrit texts.
The instruments allowing the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye, with my naked eye it still looked very strange. The first exhibit was huge and as the three of us read I don’t think a single one of us was any the wiser, it was the same for the second, third and fourth of the huge items. We wandered around feeling rather stupid at our complete lack of understanding until arriving at a place where twelve objects looked exactly the same, even more bemusing. Suddenly Jo gave a cry and pointed at the word Cancer and the penny dropped, well to a certain extent, it was something to do with the zodicalogical signs and there positioning in the skies, we quickly found our corresponding symbols but still had no real idea of how it all worked. Having inspected several sundials and been none the wiser we decided that enough was enough and we trotted out of the grounds and back onto the noise of the thoroughfare.
It had been an interesting hour and in hindsight it might have been an idea to have a guide to explain a little more.
Woolly says – Our last place for the day had looked like a massive honeycomb on all the pictures that I had seen. The entrance was anything but, having paid for the ticket we wandered in and could see the rear view of the Hawa Mahal (known as the “Palace of Winds”) constructed of red and pink sandstone, it certainly boasted the cities pinkness. The structure was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh with its unique five-storey exterior its intention was to replicate the honeycomb of a beehive, with its 953 small windows called jharokhas decorated with intricate latticework. The original intent of the lattice design was to allow royal ladies to observe everyday life and festivals celebrated in the street below without being seen, since they had to obey the strict rules of “purdah”, which forbade them from appearing in public without face coverings. I gave up counting the windows and decided to have a look round instead. We could see into the enclave below and had a great view of the five stories, including what looked like a whole floor with stained glass, not something to miss in my world. Trotting across a myriad of roofs and small areas with tiny room wishing we had a map, another labyrinth to test my mettle, I took up the gauntlet and turned up and down corridors, through doorways until suddenly finding myself in the correct place. The windows were simple but stunning, as the sun shone the whole room had different colours flickering around, Jo snapped away.
I know it’s stained glass but it’s just to good not to take a picture.
Woolly says – Having studied all the windows in turn we arrived at the end of the room and came onto a small terrace with mammoth size doors in the wall, just the right size for me to peek out and see what was going on down below, the whole palace seemed to be the right fit for a mammoth in fact. A sloped pathway led us further up where we found a roof terrace with small domed, mammoth sized houses on each side, delightful and I promptly set about deciding what I could use each one for. Suddenly I realised that the women were missing and having scanned the area and seen no sightings I thought it might be an idea to tell a guard that my humans were missing, just as I reached him I could hear my name from above, I looked up, fans maybe? It’s so hard being a super star, then I realised it was only Jo’s dulcet tones indicating that she wanted me to climb the step steps to the very top….. on my own! Having eyed them up for a moment or two I decided the sit and wait option might be a good idea, it took three minutes for help to arrive!
They were a little steep, but the view was worth it, we looked towards the fort and across the city, pink everywhere, well dusky peach anyway.
Woolly says – I nudged Jo and asked the aloud the question we had all been thinking, when would we see the beehive? A hurried discussion took place and an agreement made, find the front of the palace following the theory that if we kept turning the same way once outside we were sure to find it. We found ourselves in an alley with goats climbing over everything and a group of children playing cricket, having shouted ‘6’ at a mighty fine bat, we turned again and found ourselves on the man road which was heaving with bodies, noise and vehicles. The huge honeycomb standing in the middle of it, trying to take a full photograph was impossible from the angle you had to try from, I turned and turned my beady eye towards a roof top café, ideal.
Well the view was but the food wasn’t so great. It was however a nice place to end the day.