| Jaipur City | Arya Niwas |
| Jaipur Facade | Elephants |
| Amber Fort | Jaipur Jewels |
Jaipur City
Driving down into the famous Pink City of India was an experience. The heavy and varied traffic in this busy city centre was the opposite of the serenely peaceful mud huts. Of course you can have too much peace and quiet though, so it pays to mix it up a bit and enjoy the hustle and bustle of Jaipurs streets.
I chose this photo because it showed a common sight Indian streets - cows. Even if the traffic is really dense and noisey (everyone drives on the horn) cattle will still calmly wander across the roads holding up all the traffic. The people will try to move them off the streets as fast as possible but can not harm the animals. To do so would be anathama to the Hindus, so cows go wherever and whenever at their own pace, very used to being treated with respect.
We arrived at the Arya Niwas Hotel in the centre of the city. Of course, we didn't expect to have the place to ourselves, but we also didn't think we'd be sharing it with our monkeys either. In fact the monkeys roam all over the city and you become quite used to them, sometimes seeming to follow you down the street, you on the pavement, them on the rooftops.
Jaipur is famous for this facade, so I couldn't resist taking a pic of it. It stands in the centre of the city, and is painted pink to symbolise welcome. The whole city was painted pink for the first time when King George V paid a state visit and has been repainted every year since.
Jaipur is also famous for its elephants that live in the city, walk to one of the imposing castles that overlook this strategic city and then ferry tourists up and down to the fort from the base of the cliff all day before returning to the city at night. This may seem harsh but it does keep perhaps 100 more elephants in the world and you can pay the 'pilot' extra not to harm the animal as you are carried up to the castle. Having never ridden on an elephant before we took this opportunity to make our way up to the Amber Fort and thouroughly enjoyed the view on the way. Upon arrival, you climb off onto a raised platform from which you descend by steps. After getting down, I took this picture of some of the elephants waiting to pick up returning tourists who paid for the round trip.
This is the view of the Amber Fort from beneath the cliffs. It is a reassuring presence, keeping a watchful eye over the trade route city. It is not the only fort either, there are two others perched equally high on different mountains around the city. The Amber Fort was also the home of the Maharaja and countless concubines. It holds an unusual place in history too, because it is one of those few castles in the world that was never taken by force. Today however, after the age of Maharaja's, no one lives here anymore and it belongs to the city of Jaipur.
Inside the fort there are numerous courts and rooms, in some instances wtill retaining their original decorations. This picture shows a typical style of wall decoration that frequently appears in generic form in Indian paintings, reliefs and textiles.
Can't leave Jaipur without a mention of Bini and Charu. They run a shop (The Gem and Silver Palace) right next to the Arya Niwas Hotel that sells all sorts of jewellery. That isn't unusual I know, but they are the friendliest people you'll be likely to meet in the city and a welcome relief from the pressure selling you find everywhere else. We're pictured here, with Samantha, Bini, Charu and and their famous daughter (two times Little Miss Jaipur!).
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