North India Tour - Day 5

We stayed overnight at a Hotel called the Jaipur Palace.  Over the years we have found hotel names to be quite deceiving so it is always an interesting experience after seeing the web presentation of the hotel to actually arrive at the front door and see it for yourself.  Much like meeting people really.  The accommodation was great and they had a great restaurant plus a 24 hour Coffee Shop.  Lynn was delighted.

This was our first two night City so we were looking forward to having a bit more time to get out and see some of the normal things of the City.  Today's planned itinerary was a visit to Amber Palace and Jaigarh Fort (above) then back into Jaipur to see some of the tourist sites (City Palace, Astronomical Observatory).

Jaigarh Fort  and the Palace are 11 kms from Jaipur and look magnificent, perched on the hill top.  The guide book told us it was a great blend of Hindu and Muslim architecture, built in 16th century by Raja Man Singh.  The Old Palace lies at the base of the Jaigarh Fort. This area was the original Amber before Man Singh I came along and went on a building spree.

Imagine yourself in the starting gate for the Tour de India Elephant Time Trial.  We started at 20 second intervals and the course was downright treacherous.  All uphill with hairpin bends.  These Indians are crazy setting an elephant time trial course like this.

Funnily enough our elephant's name is Cadel and he looks fresh and in good shape.  He was carrying a bit of flab, but who isn't.  Before the first elephant started we noticed a couple of them gathered in the corner apparently chewing on some 'grass'.  Time will tell if it will assist them this close to the start.

We were about fifth to leave and started at what could be described as 'a good steady plod'.  We tried not to get Cadel too excited as we didn't want him to 'hit the wall' as the walls on this place look pretty solid.  It was a race of concentration with lots of distractions - photographers all over us, people wanting to sell Gary a turban, and what about a nice piece of cloth or yet another carved elephant.  Are these people serious! Don't they know there is an elephant race going on.

After five minutes we passed the elephant in front of us - unfortunately his rider got distracted by someone selling caps.  We pressed on around a dangerous hairpin bend where many an elephant has lost his footing.  Cadel beautifully changed his stride pattern to short rhythmic thumps and took the corner easily and in the process made valuable ground on a Russian elephant named Menchov.

This was where Cadel needed some encouragement so Gary leaned over and whispered in Cadel's rather large right ear.   Out of professional courtesy we cannot mention what was said but it was not long before Menchov felt the power of Cadel as he glided past him on a steep uphill section.  We arrived at the top with Cadel puffing slightly but in good spirits.  As we did a lap of honour around the quadrangle Cadel held his trunk aloft as a sign of his great time and assured victory.

Now back to the Fort and the Palace.  As we alighted from the elephant we were accosted by the 'official' tour guides.  We stuck to our script of wanting to view the place in silence and were soon left alone.  As usual we marvelled at how these places were built.  We are sure a lot of people would have lost their lives in its construction.

It was a great place, with spectacular views over the valley.  We spent an hour or so wandering the hallways and enjoying our time together.

India is a different place with different customs that most of the time seem so strange to us yet each day we understand a bit more about ourselves and how we treat others and how our viewpoint is sometimes so narrow that we are blinded to the things around us.

When we completed our time at the top we made our way down the steps to the car park to rejoin Ram to return to Jaipur to visit the Astronomical Observatory and the City Palace.  The Observatory was good with lots of different devices used (from 1728) for measuring star positions etc.  The maharajah was an astronomer and as the Observatory was close to the palace he used to carry out many observations there.  We were totally amazed by the things they invented back then to assist us today.  We are content that we don't know how they work.  

As we took the short walk from the Observatory to the City Palace we both realised that we are ready for a rest so headed instead for the car park where Ram drove us back to the Hotel.  When we first started travelling overseas in 2000 we made a pact that we did not have to see everything and if we felt like a rest then we would have one.  This was one of those occasions.  We have missed touring Jaipur City Palace forever but we did get a sneak peak through the large entry doorway in the wall.  From the outside it looked like most of the other palaces we have seen.  We don't think our missing it will change the world that much.

We arranged for Ram to pick us up again at 5:00 pm and drop us down to the Market area so we could see a bit of the local colour before our departure in the morning.