Rajasthan Trip Report - Jaipur (Guest Blogger Croom)

Mom wrote up her Jaipur trip before she left (she left late late late Tuesday night). I haven't even started it. So I'm going to share hers with you. I would have posted this 3 days ago when she wrote it, but was waiting to have time to post pictures to go with it. Still haven't found that time. Here is her report. Pictures to follow in a day or two.

Here at long last is Part II of my travels to India. On Wednesday the 20 something of January we flew from Mumbai to Jaipur, an hour and a half flight on a wonderful airline called Kingfisher. It had the best service I have ever had on any airline. When we got to Jaipur there was a driver with a sign saying "Rincon." He drove us to Khem Villas, a lovely tented/cottaged place just outside Ranthambhore National Park, and the TIGER preserve. (More details of this can be found on Mary Croom's blog, www.diegoymaryrincon.blogspot.com) It was a lovely place, with 4 tents, 6 cottages and 4 rooms in the main lodge. We were in 2 of the cottages, Diego and MC in one and Luis and I in the other. It was a lovely spot, with gorgeous plantings, a small lake, and walking paths, all surrounded by fields of corn and mustard plants. The first night we were almost the only guests, the second there were about 8 others, so we had wonderful service. The owners, Usha and Goverdan something-or-other were delightful. He is a doctor whose family is from that area. His dad was active in the founding of the park and the organization which encourages the protection of the tiger population in India. Usha was lovely and quite interesting to talk to. She is from a very conservative family in Udaipur. She told us about family customs, her education and the life they live in this very remote part of India. They have started an English medium school in the village (principally so their children could go, I think) and give scholarships to many of the local children, especially those whose parents worked at the hotel.

At night there was a pit fire next to the lake where we had drinks before supper and got to meet the other guests. On Thursday, MC and Diego went on the first game drive and were blessed with seeing a tiger. MC and I went in the afternoon and did not. Those who have been on African safaris might be disappointed with these game drives, because there was not much game. However there was much to be fascinated with. For me, I was most impressed by the force of the monsoon in this very interior region. The monsoon ended in October there this year, and you could see wide swaths of land destroyed by the force of the water, with large trees uprooted and such. Also in the park were beautiful lakes with ancient hunting lodges and mosques and tombs from the times of the rajahs.

On Friday morning, Diego and I took one last game drive, we all had lunch and got back in the car for the drive back to Jaipur. We took a different route, and if I had not known better, I would have thought we were in a different planet in a different century. For at least the first hour we saw more camel-driven carts than trucks OR cars. The roads were barely one lane wide, so someone had to pull off to the side so the other vehicle could get by. It was a very agricultural area, with enormous fields of mustard (which, by the way is a beautiful sight- yellow flowers on bright green stems about 2 feet tall), wheat and corn. At every tiny (4-5 mud-brick huts) village there was a well with a substantial hand pump. Often children were there washing clothes, if not there were women there pumping vigorously for their daily needs. The women were dressed in bright saris of every beautiful color under the sun. Each woman wore large thick silver anklets, even in the poorest towns. Several had large and heavy loads carried on their heads, held in place by a circlet made of thick cloth as we have seen in Kenya and Tanzania. We saw cow patties drying in the sun in great number and in patterned circles. There has been a government initiative to encourage their use as fuel, as there is certainly not enough fire wood for all. We saw men resting on charpoys (just like in a Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth), groups of men squatting in the dust playing cards. There were MANY goats everywhere, and cows wandering everywhere and sheep, too. One thing that struck me was the fact that the driver honked gently (and incessantly) to warn of his coming: for cars, trucks and people, but also for camels, cows, oxen, sheep, goats, dogs and even for birds, so strong is the respect for every living thing.

The 132 Kilometer trip took 4 hours. The last hour was tough, with too many heavy trucks and not enough room on the road. The road did expand to 2 and finally four lanes, but the traffic increased exponentially. All the buses looked about 50 years old and were FULL. The local matatu/dolla-dolla was a very old jeep, what looked to me like a 1950's vintage, crammed with people. The most crowded on had 6 people in the front seat, with two people sharing the steering wheel and 12 or so people in the back. Amazing. Also on the road was an incredible assortment of vehicles, make-do trucks from tractors and things I have never seen before, but made to carry things. The regular trucks all also look like '50s vintage, gaily painted with a sign saying "Goods Carrier" in fancy script.

We arrived in Jaipur about 5:30 and drove straight to our hotel, which was a town palace built about 1900 and beautifully restored in the '80s. Lovely courtyards, high, high ceilings in every room, exquisite marble inlaid floors and art-deco tiles decorating the walls in the bath, which had an at least 7 ft. tub. Our rooms were on the third floor, no elevator of course and the last 10 steps without any *gasp* rail at all, (needless to say, I held on to MC or Diego every time we went up or down) opening onto a roof-top area with tables and chairs and room for Luis to crawl around to his heart's content. Soon we began to hear a symphony of calls to worship: it turns out that Jaipur is 30% Muslim. Some were loud speakers, but definitely hi-tech ones, not the raspy tinny ones we heard in Zanzibar. MC and Diego went out to supper, and Luis and I had room service.

The next morning we engaged a car and driver to see the sights. The first stop was to the Amber Fort/Palace on the outskirts of town high, high on a hill overlooking the city. On an adjacent hill was Jaiger (pronounced Tiger) Fort which was surrounded by an 18 Kilometer wall that looked much like the Great Wall of China. As we approached the Amber Fort, we were immediately impressed with its size: huge. Our driver let us out and we got in line to ride ELEPHANTS up to the entrance. It was an amazing experience! MC, Luis and I were on one, and Diego on another. It was about a 15 minute ride and I was delightfully scared/thrilled the whole time. The fort was started in the time of the Moghuls and finished in Hindu times, so the architecture and decorations were mixed.

We first went into the Hindu temple and saw walls of silver, sadhus, priests and worshippers and suddenly bells began to ring and huge drums rolled. Wow-ee! We visited the public spaces, the Zenanna, the Rajah's quarters and more. It was enormous and awesome. Formal gardens, tall walls, arches, inlay, mirror walls, marble inlay, archways overlooking the city. And a zillion tourists from every corner of the earth. Everything is ocher colored, just like the surrounding lands. It was easy to imagine scenes from "The Far Pavilions."

Oh, and by the way, the main rajah in the 18th century had 12 wives and over 136 concubines.

On our way back to our hotel we saw a surreal palace built in the middle of a lake, a pleasure palace built in the 18th century. We drove through the old walled city of Jaipur and saw the palaces and old homes there. One palace is said to have 5,000 windows, all covered by jalis (where our word "jealousy" comes from), arabesque-y coverings so the women of the harem could watch what was going on in the street, without being seen. That afternoon, while Diego and Luis napped, MC and I went shopping, and was it fun. And we flew home the next afternoon. A wonderful, fabulous, educative and fun four days with MC, Luis and Diego. And I didn't even tell about riding the camels at Khem Villas!

The last installment with my adventures to Goa with Suzanne will be written from 231 Meadow Gate Dr, as I leave at 240 AM for home.