Rajasthan Trip

14.08.14 – Jaipur

After lovely breakfast, we went and picked up Aroona, who took a day off from her hospital, to be with us and guide us around Jaipur city.  We drove off to Amer Fort where we climbed up the Fort, riding on Elephant’s back.  It was awesome experience. The fort contained inside the  opulent palace complex built with red sandstone and marble consisting of the Diwan-e-Aam or the "Hall of Public Audience", the Diwan-e-Khas or the "Hall of Private Audience", the Sheesh Mahal (mirror palace) or Jai Mandir (where we were imagining the dancing scene of Anarkali (Mudhubala) in front of Salim (Dilip Kumar) of Mughal-e-Azam film, and the Sukh Niwas where a cool climate is artificially created by winds that blow over the water cascade within the palace. With its large ramparts, series of gates and cobbled paths, the fort overlooks the Maota Lake, where they tried to grow Kesar in the garden.  It was lovely walking around and exploring. 

Additional Photos

We drove off to Jantar Mantar, which is one of the five astronomical observatories in western central India. The Jantar Mantar is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments, built by Sawai Jai Singh. The Jaipur observatory is the largest and best preserved of these.  The observatory consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking stars' location etc.  From there we walked down to the Museum across, where history of Rajput was on display including paintings etc.

Our guide as usual took us to block printing and silver smith to buy their ware. We then proceeded to have our lunch at MBM, for veg food but for the costs spent, it was not worth it.  After lunch we rambled around and did some shopping, especially for mochadi and sandals.  Again in the evening we were invited to dinner at Aruna’s place where we enjoyed “Lal Mas and Mirchi salan alongwith hot phulkas and dal/rice and kheer. Nice dinner and nice ride back at night through Jaipur city to our hotel.