India – Touring Jaipur

Folks at the Jaipur New Hotel told me the city is known as the Pink City or the City of Amber. I’ve seen more pink than amber so I’m going with Pink City. Here’s a shot of the ‘New Gate” in the light of day.

I strolled around Jaipur making random turns. I know that’s not a good way to learn about a place but it suits me. I stopped in at “The Albert Hall”. Same Albert different hall. The one here has been made into a museum. The history of India is so rich and deep it’s overwhelming. People sloshing back and forth from all over Asia, the Mideast and Europe. Fight and die, win and lose, rinse and repeat. The museum has exhibits of weapons and textiles and art. Interesting but to me it seems abstract. The take away for me was to enjoy some clever weapons; pretty cloth and garments for kings, queens, maharajas and sultans; and their sports & games.

I found the game exhibits the most engaging. I’d heard chess originated in this part of the world but I didn’t know how much it had evolved over time. They say it was common for traders to carry cloth chess boards and pieces and play games when they met up. But first you’d have to agree on the rules of the game. Sounds a bit like poker or pool which has regional variations. One variation involved adding chance to the game using dice. In another saw one chess board that was similar to the modern board but included a number a safe squares where you couldn’t be captured.

They say if you go back a millennium or so Hindu women wore face coverings similar to Muslims today. The Hindus were amazingly accommodating to this restriction. The building in the photo below was constructed with windows designed to give women unobstructed views of action in the streets below without letting the spectating women be observed from the street.

Evidently polo was a popular in Asia 1200 years ago. They say the big rivalry was between China and India with teams traveling between the countries for annual matches. The women were not just spectators they wanted to play polo too. How do you do that while covering your face? They came up with a clever solution – night games and a fiery ball. They used a metal ball containing suspended candles. The ball was pretty big at about 8 in diameter. It’s hard to believe it all worked well but it would be a sight to see a bunch of women on horses running around in the dark chasing a ball on fire.

I enjoyed the energy of Jaipur. It’s a tourist city but the touristy parts are confined to specific areas and don’t bleed into its other parts. Better still I thought the touristy parts earned their fame. They felt like real places yanked out the “Game of Thrones”. There were the usual hawkers of touristy stuff but they were polite. By polite I mean when you say “I’m not interested” they mostly move on to the next guy. One item did interest me. I was hatless on a warm day and sunny day. I looked for a hat but didn’t see any however they did have these small colorful umbrellas so I bought one. I got a good workout that day walking over 5 miles with a 2000 ft elevation gain. It would have been much less pleasant without the umbrella. Less fun too as the umbrella attracted a lot of attention. Some people borrowed it for friends and family pictures. Some wanted pictures with me. Similarly to Russia getting your picture taken with an American is an Indian thing too. Even without the umbrella I’d guess 50 people asked to have their picture taken with Carolyn and me.

Here’s a real Indian classic: snake charmers! These guys were sitting on the side of the road I went over to see what they were up to and was really surprised to see black cobras! Defanged but still scary.

I’ve liked a couple tuktuk drivers I met on this trip. One of them was in Jaipur. I met him outside the hotel. I wasn’t looking for a driver but he started up a conversation and asked me if I knew Macklemore the rapper. The odds of me knowing any rapper are small but I do know Macklemore from the song “Thrift Shop”. Several years ago Carolyn and I got a bit obsessed with “Thrift Shop” and even more so with the creative covers it inspired. The driver explained that Mackelmore visited Jaipur three years ago and he got got to showed him around town. The driver was so pleased he subtitled his “Chapati Express” as “Mack Lemore”. The story sold me so I arranged to go for a ride with him the next morning.

We rode around town and he dropped me off at fortresses, palaces, parks and museums. He gave me a little introduction to each place and turned me loose while he parked waiting for me to return. I liked that level of interaction. I was mostly on my own but with a good bit of orientation. On our drive we encountered a large number of speed bumps. I asked him what they’re called in India. “Speed Breakers” he said. I told him in parts of Mexico they’re called “Sleeping Policeman”. He liked that humor. He asked me how many children I had. I told him none and he asked me if I was married. I confirmed and he asked how many wives I had. Indian humor.

The combination fortress and palace below covered hundreds of acres. I found it easy to imagine life there. It’s one of several places that would make a great movie set and probably has. Surrounded by a rambling wall and it includes several palaces and a large man made lake holding water for both the fortress and the town outside the wall.

Inside the wall successive generations of rulers made resulting in a series of palaces of increasing ornateness. Below are some palace photos.

The “Water Palace” is at a nearby site and had an interesting role in the community. It was a real palace for a long time but it was located in a low area which someone decided would make a good lake for city water storage. So the palace got its first couple stories flooded making it useless as a place to live. But it still had some 100 unsubmerged rooms. Local kids saw an opportunity and started paddling out in the evenings to go a little crazy in the space.

Then adults joined in making the place a brothel, bar and gambling joint. All things frowned on by Gujaratis. But it’s isolation allowed the good people to look the other way and the place thrived for years.

Back in the city and wandering around I found a fun place for dinner. I noticed a sign on the street advertising a rooftop cafe in a 5 or 6 story building. I entered an unlikely, unpromising scene and started climbing stairs. It was chaos in every direction. I kept climbing because nobody tried to stop me but I saw nothing past the street level sign that was encouraging. Finally the chaos and clutter started lifting and I popped out in a nice rooftop cafe as advertised. The experience getting there reminded me of the time in Bangkok where Carolyn and I got dragged though a gauntlet of commercial stalls. This experience was similar except this journey was vertical.

I’m in big city but I saw men pulling carts, cows, goats, camels, donkeys, elephants and all sorts of motor driven vehicles all sharing the roads. And flocks of pigeons, eagles, crows, some kind of parrots and several bird breeds I didn’t recognize sharing the sky. And of course dogs, monkeys, cats, squirrels and bunches of people sharing the sidewalks.