Amber is the colour today
No photos from last night’s dinner – but where else would you see a flower market on the side of the road in a busy street!
Yesterday evening we went to find Captain Clarke’s parents who are also here in Jaipur. They are staying in a hotel called the Lalit which is a very modern hotel near to the airport. Not great for getting in and out of the old city of Jaipur because it is about a 40 minute drive from the city, but otherwise it’s fine. Their room was good and they are with a group of 28 people on their Saga tour. The guide that they have is very nice and Captain Clarke’s father is even enjoying India, which we never thought he would! We ate with them and enjoyed their hotel buffet dinner which was actually very good. One of the dishes was labelled as ‘Mutton Rogan Josh’ and underneath that ‘Lamb Curry’ – this caused us some confusion so we decided to confuse the restaurant manager too. “My man, is this curry goat or lamb?”, “Yes sir, it is definitely lamb” … “Well why is it labelled as ‘Mutton’ Rogan Josh then?”, “Because it is most certainly mutton sir” … “But mutton is not lamb, it is goat”, “Yes sir, this is most certainly mutton lamb” It was then that I had a moment of clarity and tested this on him … “Is lamb a baby sheep?”, “No sir, it is most certainly not … we do not eat sheep here. Lamb is a baby goat it is called ‘mutton’!” Cracked it! Lamb is not lamb, it is in fact goat. On this basis, because I cannot bear lamb in curries or stews, I decided to give it a go. It was indeed goat and it was a thoroughly delicious meal too … so much so that I went back for seconds! Goat is not lamb and lamb is not a substitute for goat – goat is a totally different and absolutely delicious meat in curries and probably other things too. We should eat more goat!
Ah, for the love of India! This bus was actually moving when people were getting onto it!
This morning Captain Clarke and I rose relative early again. Today it was because we were leaving at 08:30 hours to visit the Amber Fort just outside Jaipur and we wanted to partake in a little breakfast first. When we sat down to breakfast the waiter came and asked what we would like. Captain Clarke had two fried eggs, two sausages and two rashers of bacon and I had ‘Akoori’ which is an Indian dish of scrambled eggs with cumin, chilli, coriander, onion, turmeric and tomato. Prior to this arriving we were presented with a large plate of fresh fruit and three different fresh juices; water melon with ginger, mint with spinach, orange with cardamom. Our breakfast was then served and accompanied with croissants, muffins, toast and marmalade. Too much for a man of my disposition! Captain Clarke said his sausage would be categorised as ‘interesting’ but my eggs, which I have never had before but now have the recipe for, were delicious. Captain Clarke did depart rather suddenly for the ‘facilities’ and was not seen at the breakfast table again but, by the time I found him in our lodgings he had overcome his issues and was right as rain again!
The Hawa Mahal was built in 1799 to enable ladies of the Royal Court to watch processions without being seen.
Arriving downstairs at the appointed hour, we were met by our faithful driver Jaswant and our newest guide, Rakesh. Rakesh is not as open as our previous guide and, although very knowledgable, he doesn’t understand Captain Clarke’s humour (mind you, who does?) and is very serious all the time. He is friendly enough though and certainly knows his dates! So, off we went for our one visit today (kind of) to the Amber Fort which is just outside the city of Jaipur. On the way there though we stopped off for a quick photo opportunity at the Wind Palace in the centre of Jaipur. The Hawa Mahal is an iconic building of red sandstone that was built by the Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799 in order to allow the ladies of the royal courts to watch processions at festivals from behind lattice windows carved from marble which meant that they could see out but nobody could see in. This was further ensured by drawing a black curtain behind the ladies which made it dark to look into but allowed them to look out. The palace is known as the ‘Wind Palace’ or, more accurately, ‘Palace of the Breeze’ because the design of the windows allows a breeze to be drawn in which provided a cooling effect for the ladies sitting inside.
Riding up the steep hill to the Amber Fort on the back of an elephant!
Having taken our photo of the Hawa Mahal it was off to the Amber Fort. The Amber Fort was built, initially, by the Maharaja Man Singh who designed it to accommodate his 12 wives. He started it in 1590 but the fort as it is today was not finished until 1640 with two additional courtyards being added by his son and grandson. The fort sits on top of a pretty steep hill and, whilst it would be possible to walk up most tourists don’t. There are those amongst you who will know that I have ‘done’ elephants and swore I wouldn’t do one again … today I broke that rule! The last time we took a ride on an elephant it was ‘bareback’ and we had to straddle it. Now, elephants are beautiful animals and intelligent, friendly and loyal but straddling an elephant is a bit like straddling the roof of a mini – legs were not designed to stretch that far apart! Fortunately, this elephant had a platform on which to sit and this is how we got up to the fort. Inevitably there were photographs taken by hawkers who then want to sell them to you and yes, we did buy some in the end. I am unable to share with you these photos, not because I can’t find a way in which to digitise them, but because I have left them in the car. I will retrieve them later and add one tomorrow. The chap who took the photos was very pushy, so we refused his advances – he wanted 3,000 rupees for them which I was not prepared to pay. I told him I didn’t have that much money but he said he saw me with several 2,000 rupee notes earlier in the day – which was true, they don’t miss a thing! Eventually, after much wrangling and pleas of losing money and starving family (with a very expensive Nikon digital camera around his neck!) we agreed on a price … 100 rupees or bin the prints! He took the 100 rupees muttering something under his breath that I suspect was not very complimentary!
Elephants arriving at the top of the hill into the first courtyard of the Amber Fort, the Jalebi Chowk.
There are over 100 elephants carrying people up the hill every day. They are very well cared for though with each having his own ‘Mahout’ who looks after it (a Mahout is a person who literally grows up with, and lives with, the elephant – they often form a lifelong bond), they finish taking people up the hill at 11:30 and do not work after that time and they all live in one of two complexes close to the fort which are maintained by the government. The fort itself remains in private hands and is owned by the current Maharaja of Jaipur, Padmanabh Singh, the adopted son of the previous Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh Bahadur MVC who died in 2011, who is 20 this year! An acclaimed Polo player, Padmanabh Singh is currently studying in London and has an estimate net worth of £332,700,000 – I think he’ll be OK! Although the ‘Royal’ status of a Maharaja no longer exists (the last ruling Maharaja of Jaipur was Maj. Gen. Maharaja Sir Sawai Man Singh II GCSI GCIE who’s rule ended in 1949) and even the titular ‘Maharaja of Jaipur’ was abolished by the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India at the behest of … Indira Gandhi, the local people still refer to Padmanabh Singh as the Maharaja and he was officially ‘crowned’ as such shortly after the death of his father. The Amber Fort (also known as the Amer Fort) derives its name from the local word ‘Ambikashwara’ which is a local name for the Shiva, although there is local folklore that suggests it derives its name from ‘Amba’ the Mother Goddess Durga (she’s a warrior goddess in the Hindu religion but the whole Hindu gods and goddesses thing gets a bit complicated for non-Hindus and I am not going to attempt to explain that!).
In the middle of Lake Maota is Kesar Kyari Bagh, an island build in the 15th century to grow saffron.
Back to the Amber Fort (I did warn you that Rakesh was good with dates and history!), it sits on top of a steep hill overlooking the lake Maota which is a man made lake built specifically to irrigate the Kesar Kyari Bagh island which was built in the 15 century in order to grow saffron which is still grown on it today. The lake used to have crocodiles in it to prevent locals from entering it and stealing the saffron and, although there aren’t any crocodiles in it today there are signs saying that crocodiles have been sighted and that entering the lake would be dangerous which seems to have the desired effect. Well, that and the fact that the water is so dirty and contaminated by the cows, buffalo, pigs and wart hogs that feed in it, that it would probably kill you anyway! When arriving at the Amber Fort you enter through the Sun Gate (I’m not even going to explain that one … work it out!) and into the first courtyard which is called Jaleb Chowk – this is an Arabic word meaning a place for soldiers to assemble. One quite interesting facts about the Amber Fort is that it has never, ever been attacked or needed to be defended in any way apart from once – when Padmanabh Singh inherited it, his father’s will was contested in court and the Amber Fort was one of the assets in dispute. The will was upheld.
The Maharaja’s apartment has the dome on it, each wife had her own apartment around the courtyard.
I am not going to write too much about the Amber Fort here. There is a gallery below with lots of pictures. I have already received a complaint that one of my ramblings was so long that when it was being read out loud the reader went hoarse! I will just pick a couple of highlights. Firstly, it is in three main parts. The first courtyard (which is actually the last you see when visiting it) was built by the Maharaja Man Singh to accommodate his 12 wives. There are secret passageways throughout the building which enabled the Maharaja to decide on which one of his wives he would like to ‘pay a visit’ to and could then get to her without being detected by others. He maintained his own quarters overlooking the courtyard and each wife had her own rooms consisting of a kitchen, a sitting area, a bedroom and toilet facilities. There are three ‘apartments’ on each side of the courtyard for the wives and the Maharaja’s apartment sits slightly above so that he can survey them all. This was the element of the Amber Fort that was built starting in 1590 and is the oldest part of the fort. The fort itself is built over the top of the remains of an even earlier fort that was build by Raja Alan Singh in 967 CE. The fort was then extended by his grandson Jai Singh who built the second courtyard.
The second courtyard houses the Diwan-i-Aam or Public Audience Hall.
This second courtyard was built to house the Diwan-i-Aam or Public Audience hall. The idea being that subjects of his kingdom could come along and the Maharaja would sit in the middle of the Diwan-i-Aam with his dignitaries. If you were lucky enough to be sitting close enough, it was possible to talk directly to the Maharaja which brought him closer to his people. The ladies of the Royal Court could view the proceedings from behind lattice windows (similar to those at the Wind Palace) and not be seen by the audience. The central ‘room’ has a sunken marble floor area about 1″ deep which was designed to accommodate a carpet of this thickness that the Maharaja would sit on. There are also rings mounted in the ceiling to hang curtains from so that the Maharaja and his entourage could be obscured from view if it was felt necessary. There are ‘ramparts’ all the way around the courtyard with various lattice windows so that an advance view of those who might be attending was possible and, also enabling the Maharaja or his entourage to look down on proceedings in the lower Jaleb Chowk where his army would be assembled.
The winter quarters are a stunning array of mirrors, marble carvings and semi-precious stones used as decoration!
Later, a third courtyard was added to provide private quarters for the Maharaja and his family. This is also very much a display of opulence with a ‘Winter Quarters’ on one side of the courtyard, a formal garden in the middle and the cooler ‘Summer Quarters’ on the other side. Both sides have accommodation for the Maharaja and his family on one side of a communal meeting room and accommodation for a favoured family on the other (often more of a political alliance than any form of friendship). The Winter Quarters are stunningly decorated with mirror and with white marble inlaid with black marble as decoration. Even the photos in the gallery do not really do it justice! The sheer intricacy of the designs and the delicate inlaying of black marble or other semi-precious stones is just breathtaking and one can easily see why the Amber Fort is one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of India! The visit really was fantastic and we are both privileged to have seen such a beautiful building!
Well, it wouldn’t be right if we weren’t there somewhere!
On our way back into Jaipur there was one further stop … the Summer Palace. Now who would have thought that a Maharaja with such wealth and status would have built himself a Summer Palace on an island in the middle of a man made lake! The lake was built for two reasons – it helped to keep the Maharaja and his family cool in the intense summer heat, and it provided fish for fishing which was a favoured pastime of the Maharaja. The summer palace is beautiful and I felt sure we had seen it somewhere before. Then it came to me, there is scene where Rick Stein is cooking a curry in his TV series about India and he is standing on the exact same spot that we are when he cooks it! Readers will probably be pleased to hear that this is my last word on the Amber Fort or the Summer Palace and that there is really only one other small matter which I feel it is my duty to report.
Connecting Jaipur’s new Metro system to the electricity!
Jaipur is in the middle of having a Metro built. The line will cross directly from one side of the old city of Jaipur, otherwise known as the Pink City (which the government have subsequently decreed must be painted terracotta and not pink, which it has!) and there are a number of building sites where huge holes have been dug to accommodate new Metro stations (it is supposed to open in the Autumn but, frankly, I can’t see how they could possibly achieve that!). Whilst perambulating around the old city yesterday I noticed a sign on one of the hoardings, it read “Safe City Jaipur. All of our construction work is carried out under our ISO 18000 system”, now I don’t know which system they are using but it certainly isn’t one that I recognise! I hope to find the sign again and I will take a photograph of it to share! For those that don’t know, ISO 18000 is the current ‘International Organization for Standardization’ standard for Health & Safety! (I have no idea why it uses Zs, it is based in Switzerland not America!) This photo was actually a team of workmen in a hole connecting up a power cable that, in my estimation, is capable of carrying megawatts of electricity! Rakesh, our guide did take us for a short stroll through the market but we didn’t have the heart to tell him that we had already walked through that particular bit yesterday. It hasn’t changed much since yesterday, so I didn’t bother with any new photos. This afternoon we are going to have ‘Tea and Tiffin’ on the terrace, so that’ll be interesting and I shall, no doubt, feel the need to report on it tomorrow for fear that by Monday I will have forgotten! It is, as we all know, RudyMenTerry!
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