Jaipur India Part 4 of our 10 day trip in India
Known also as the pink city, and again its traffic is as bonkers as New Delhi, at the city’s heart is the city palace and it is still home to the ruling family.
Today was a full day of multiple sightseeing with lots of walking in-between multiple car trips and also an added bonus we got to cross a 6 lane road full of continuous traffic where you just have to start to walk and the cars and motorbikes flow around you, we’re glad we had our guide with us for that one !
Our guide for today was Raj, very similar in age to us and for me the best guide of the tour so far, his knowledge of the area was immense and he was keen to tell us about and show us more than just the tourist sites. He also appeared to know everyone which meant we fast tracked entranced because of this, he never rushed us around things and after exploring an attraction he gave us free time, and Raj was with us all day.
The places we visited today were :
Hawa Mahal
Located near the center of the Pink City is this five story building which was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. This palace is decorated with 953 windows or ‘Jharokhas’ which are adorned with intricate designs. The main reason behind the making of Hawa Mahal was to felicitate Rajput women who were not allowed to appear in public places to catch glimpses of royal processions and watch the hustles and bustles of the city without being seen.
Panna Meena ka Kund
We had asked our guide if we could see a stepwell and this is the one he took us to. This beautiful 16th-century stepwell lies in the shadow of a famous Amber fortress and was built so the people of Amer could collect water, which was later used at many temples nearby, the women also came here to fill their water pots for household work.
Amber Fort
A short drive from Jaipur is one of India’s most well-known and most-visited forts. This magnificent fort comprises an extensive palace complex, built from pale yellow and pink sandstone, and white marble, and is divided into four main sections, each with its own courtyard.
Jal Mahal
A huge palace in the middle of a man made lake, it is a five-story palace, with the first four floors being submerged under water. The palace was renovated and enlarged by Maharaja Jai Singh II and is considered as one of the finest examples of Rajputana legacy. Unfortunately today you can not visit it, just admire it’s beauty from the shoreline.
Jantar Mantar
Considered as one of the largest observatories in the world and within it is a collection of 14 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur, and completed in 1734. It’s here we saw the world’s largest stone sundial that stands 27 meter tall as is called Samrat Yantra (Giant Sundial), we were also told it is accurate to 2 seconds as its shadow moves 1 mm every second. We did check it to our phone time and it was very close, that’s unreal consisting it was constructed nearly 300 years ago.
City Palace
This is a royal residence and former administrative headquarters of the rulers of the Jaipur State. Construction soon after the establishment of the city of Jaipur under the reign of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, who moved his court to Jaipur from Amber, in 1727 and occupies at least 1/7th portion of the Pink City.
We did also stop for lunch, again it was down a back street but very nice.
On arrival back at the hotel, we had googled that a 5 minute walk away there was a nice roof top bar, so that’s were we headed for evening cocktails and its were we watched the last of the diwali indian festival fireworks.
Today its back to New Delhi as our time in India is nearly at an end.
#robandann
