Sunday July 11th, 2010:
This has been my favorite day in India so far. Breakfast in our beautiful Taj hotel (Jai Mahal Palace), then a day full of sight-seeing and shopping. We saw several snake charmers at the tourist spots, although it does take the mystique out of it to know that most of the cobra have been de-fanged and the charmer wants your rupees even for taking a photograph! So that, perhaps, has become just a tourist cliche, but it was still fascinating to watch. We took photos of the intricate old-wall gates of Jaipur and of street scenes as we traveled to the renown Amber Palace for our first sight-seeing stop of the day. We also visited an outdoor observatory and the Monkey Temple, plus some shopping venues for jewelry, textiles, and gifts.
The elephant ride up to the top of the Amber Palace was the highlight of the day, by far. I had rode an elephant once before, as a child at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in California. Unfortunately since I was really young at the time I didn't remember it very well. This time, I'll never forget the experience. We rode the elephants in pairs (with our SMU roommate for the trip). It was so much fun! My elephant was determined to be first, so although we were the third to leave the platform we were first to the top! We had some time while we waited for the other riders, so we could pet the elephant and take photos while everyone else arrived. What strong, patient animals!
The intricacy of the design and architecture of all the Heritage Sites we visited just continues to amaze me. I can't believe the intelligence and ingenuity it took to build such incredible structures by hand so many hundreds of years ago! The Amber Palace was extensive, with a big variety of buildings and design motifs. The mirrored Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience) is what I am standing in front of in the photo to the left. It is so detailed and intricate, and must have been a spectacular place in which to host guests near the gardens and breezeways.
The outdoor observatory we visited next in Jaipur was constructed hundreds of years ago to track the position of the sun, tell time, and catalog planetary positions for use in horoscopes. We got to walk around and view all the instruments, which had stunning degrees of accuracy (the largest sun dial is accurate to 2 seconds of time!). Again, human ingenuity stuns me when I think of how these instruments were crafted with such precision out of only marble and metal.
Finally, we visited the Monkey Temple. What an odd experience! It's an active temple site, so many Indians come to feed the monkeys that inhabit the property and to also bathe themselves in the nearby pool. They believe the pool is blessed and will cleanse them of their sins. As a tourist, it seemed to be a strange mix of a zoo, a public pool, and religious monument. The monkeys will take food from your hand (or your bag, if you carry it with you) and are quite aggressive about it. Meanwhile, people are walking around near the pool in only their undergarments, and the young men in particular make quite a show of jumping into the water and splashing each other like it's a recreational park (couldn't take photos of that part). All of this is in the setting of ancient buildings and sacred carvings and symbols. Oh, and you can't overlook the ruins and trash, the beggars, and the other stray animals (dogs, cows). What a clash of old/new, sacred/secular, natural/man-made. It was contradictory in so many ways.
We also stopped at a textile store and got to see the unique Rajasthani art of fabric block-printing, but I'll make that process a separate post. What a day!
To see more photos of my time in India, go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67693&id=1493536168&l=6effaaef67 or connect with me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/alexandra.watson . You can also find me on Twitter as "abcwatson".
This has been my favorite day in India so far. Breakfast in our beautiful Taj hotel (Jai Mahal Palace), then a day full of sight-seeing and shopping. We saw several snake charmers at the tourist spots, although it does take the mystique out of it to know that most of the cobra have been de-fanged and the charmer wants your rupees even for taking a photograph! So that, perhaps, has become just a tourist cliche, but it was still fascinating to watch. We took photos of the intricate old-wall gates of Jaipur and of street scenes as we traveled to the renown Amber Palace for our first sight-seeing stop of the day. We also visited an outdoor observatory and the Monkey Temple, plus some shopping venues for jewelry, textiles, and gifts.
I think the Monkey Temple was on an episode of the Amazing Race. I bet that would have been very interesting to see in person! I'm sure your elephant ride was amazing in person too! I've ridden one at the Santa Ana Zoo but the scenery is a bit different obviously!
ReplyDeleteI think one of the amazing things about traveling outside of America is that everywhere else has so much history, older buildings, etc. I loved Europe for those reasons (among others).