The Blue City, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Sonya

Jodhpur was our next stop after Pushkar. We met a friendly rickshaw driver at the bus stop and he took us to our hostel, a really lovely quaint place which had some views of the Mehrangarh Fort. We had lunch and decided to wander around by foot to the old city and markets. It was an interesting walk, plenty of narrow streets filled with colourful houses, children giggling and shouting hellos to us, stalls selling sweets and sarees. The old city was centred around a clocktower with the Fort looming in the background. We walked around the markets which were very local, we didn’t spot too many tourists around.

The following day, we had breakfast at a stall in the old town famed for their omelettes (after spending a fair bit of time trying to figure which was, in fact the correct stall). I had a plain omelette (was still recovering from stomach issues) but have to admit, it was pretty good. We then walked up along a winding road to the Fort (located 122 metres above the city) for a visit. The weather was warm and while it was a long, sweltering walk, it was worth it.

Mehrangarh Fort

The Mehrangarh Fort was one of the most spectacular forts I’d visited, filled with brilliant palaces. The view from the top of the fort to the surrounding city is marvellous and allows you to understand why Jodhpur is known as the Blue City.

Singhar chowk inside Mehrangarh Fort

Treasures of Mehrangarh Museum

Throughout the Mehrangarh Fort there are many galleries displaying priceless treasures including elephant’s howdahs, palanquins, armoury and paintings.

Pushkar, one of the oldest existing cities in India

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Travis

From Jaipur in Indian state of Rajasthan we caught a short bus ride to Pushkar, a very small holy town with a central lake. The small city size kept everything walking distance, which was always desirable when travelling, the bus stop was only a short walk to the main streets and lake.

One of the oldest existing cities in India associated with the Hindu god of creation, Brahma. The Brahma Temple is one of few existing temples and the most prominent of them.

Unfortunately, by this time in our trip Sonya had got a serious case of ‘delhi belly’ (food poisoning) and was out of action for most of this leg, fortunately, this was her second time visiting so she didn’t mind missing out on the sights. While Sonya spent most of the time recovering, I made the solo journey up Ratnagiri Hill which presented beautiful views of the main lake and surrounding ghats and temples.

A few days after our arrival, when Sonya had recovered we left towards Jodhpur, nicknamed the ‘Blue City’.

The Paris of India, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Travis

The next day we decided to visit some of the outer city Jaipur sites. With the first rickshaw driver we organised, we were a little too relaxed and after paying him 100 rupees for fuel while we went to get a lassi (Jaipur’s most famous lassi), he did not return. We found another rickshaw driver and were on our way again, although as we were leaving for Pushkar in the afternoon, we were extremely rushed.

Monkey Temple (Galwar Bagh)

Our first stop was Monkey Temple, located four kilometres inside Jaipur’s eastern hills. The rickshaw driver dropped us off at Galta Gate, which was the start to a one kilometre winding road towards the Monkey Temple.

As soon as we arrived we saw half a dozen different animals, cows, chickens, pigs and of course monkeys. The monkeys were playing in troughs of water, jumping in and out similar to a child in a swimming pool. The whole winding road leading to the Monkey Temple was scattered with monkeys, local Indians were very generous, giving the monkeys grains and mangoes, I would imagine as an offering to the god, Hanuman, a monkey-like humanoid.

Monkey temple is actually a collection of sacred temples and water tanks (kunds) that were used as an ancient pilgrimage site. We walked around for a little while, snapping photos of the beautiful architecture.

Amer Fort

Even though we had seen our share of forts, there were still many aspects of this fort that were different and surprised us. The Amber Fort shared mixed styles from Hinduism and Islam, the first building the Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) demonstrated this perfectly with the elephant capitals and latticed galleries above.

Water Palace (Jal Mahal)

The Water Palace is a palace situated in the middle of Man Sagar Lake. Not originally part of our tour due to time constraints, we convinced our rickshaw driver to make a brief stop for photos (as it was on the way), he wasn’t too happy when we didn’t pay him more though.

This concluded our travels through historic Jaipur, later in the afternoon we caught a bus to nearby Pushkar.

The Pink City, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Travis

Continuing our ‘gold triangle’ leg of India, we caught a five hour bus ride from Agra to Jaipur, the entrance to the Rajasthan region. Jaipur is also known as the Paris of India and the Pink City, though I didn’t find it particularly pink at this time.

On arrival, we found it extremely difficult to find a hotel with vacancies, our auto-rickshaw driver somehow knew this, and even after seeing a few of the Lonely Planet recommendations that were all full, we took his advice and used one of his recommendations. Unfortunately, like many of the hotels it wasn’t walking distance to the main square.

After we checked in we decided to follow the LP’s Jaipur City Walking Tour, this gave us a feel for the city and also allowed us to see a few of the main sights with sunset light.

The next day we checked-out some of the main Jaipur tourist attractions.

Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds)

Early in the morning we made our way to the Hawa Mahal (or Palace of Winds). The Hawa Mahal has an amazing exterior facade, looking similar to the honeycomb of a beehive. These individual windows allowed for the ladies to view the streets without being observed themselves, this practice known as purdah is similar in concept to the veils worn by Islamic women.

Inside the palace was a maze of hallways and rooms, all intricately decorated with colour and floral decorations. From the highest levels, the Jantar Mantar and City Palace was visible, our next destinations.

Jantar Mantar

Jantar Mantar (literally calculation instrument) is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments and was one of the more interesting sights I had seen. Again we decided to get the audio tour, though even for me, an engineer, I found the content far too complex.

There are fourteen instruments, the largest known as the Samrat Yantra, the world’s largest sundial at twenty-seven metres high. The collection made for great photos, unfortunately, I got told-off by one of the guards when I tried climbing them.

City Palace

Nearby the Jantar Mantar is the Jaipur City Palace, a huge complex, with portions still in use by the royal family and sealed off from tourists.

The highlight of the palace for me was the Pitam Niwas Chowk, an inner courtyard surrounded by four gateways each representing a different season and adorned with amazing decorations. The most famous is the Peacock Gate, which represents the season autumn.

The colour of the buildings is the origin of the term Pink City, having been painted on the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1853 in a show of hospitality.

Nahargarh Fort

From the City Palace we made our way north along the south face of the Aravalli Hill to the Nahargarh Fort. The fort, whilst unrestored, still showed some amazing frescos. Looking over the fortification walls was a beautiful view of Jaipur City below.

Jaipurian Langurs

A trip to an Indian city isn’t complete without bumping into a few monkeys. At Naharagarh Fort we came across into a troop of friendly Jaipurian Langurs, I had fun feeding them our mango skins, until one of them grabbed the whole bag full.