Right now we are on the road leaving Jaipur and heading to Ranthambhore (I've given up any attempt on correct spelling) where we hope to see some tigers in the wild.
Jaipur, also called the Pink City, is in the desert state of Rajasthan and it was brutally hot all day (approaching 105). The city lived up to it's name with pink buildings and palaces everywhere you looked.
Sanjay doesn't like Jaipur because the traffic is terrible and the motos and tuk tuk drivers don't know their place in the traffic. He tells us that on the street the order of importance for a driver is as follows: 1) driver skill 2) working brake 3) working horn 4) working AC (my addition).
We arrived in Jaipur after our 5 hour drive from Delhi. On the way we stopped for breakfast on the side of the road and enjoyed an "Indian breakfast" of unsweetened yogurt soup, called caerd, with cheet barota, bread stuffed with potato, cheese and onion.
After dropping our luggage off at the hotel our first stop was to the famous Raj Mander movie theater to see the new Bollywood film, Agent Vinod. The historic theater was very impressive. The foyer included a grand carved staircase and was adorned with several low hanging chandeliers. The theater itself was very large with a curtain hanging in front of the screen. The movie was awesome. Agent Vinod is the Indian James Bond complete with shootouts, knife fights, car chases, tuk tuk chases, plot twists and lovely ladies. The audience is very different here though, with whoops and catcalling heard throughout the film.
Back out into the blistering heat we headed to the Aryuvedic massage parlor to end the day. They took us to separate rooms and we got an hour long massage, saturated with oils.
The next day we set out in the morning to check out some of the historical architecture. We saw the Window Palace, which didn't live up to the expectations. And then headed to the Water Palace which sits in the middle of the lake.
Our favorite of the ventures was the Amber Fort. Built in the 17th century for a powerful Raja it was an impressive spectacle. The palace was in a small valley surrounded by hills and spanning the hills was a long continuous wall that rose and fell with the terrain. The wall resembled (in my mind) a less massive version of the Great Wall of China. Tourists paid to ride elephants up the hill to the palace while paupers such as ourselves had to play hopscotch with the resulting excrement. The palace was massive and very well preserved with endless passageways, chambers and turrets with expansive views. From the palace you could see down the hill to the "Royal" lake where Sanjay explained that the elephants went to do Kama Sutra.
At this point in the day, the heat drove us back to our hotel to enjoy our "luxurious" outdoor pool, which was actually quite enjoyable.
The following day we left Jaipur and set out for Ranthambore in search of tigers. On the way we stopped off at the Monkey Palace that kept reminding me of Indiana Jones' trip to India (Temple of Doom I think). The palace was impressively cradled by the crook of the canyon. The place was overflowing with playful and fearless monkeys. After failing to convince Cat that it would be like petting a dog, we hopped back in the car and set out.
Jaipur, also called the Pink City, is in the desert state of Rajasthan and it was brutally hot all day (approaching 105). The city lived up to it's name with pink buildings and palaces everywhere you looked.
Sanjay doesn't like Jaipur because the traffic is terrible and the motos and tuk tuk drivers don't know their place in the traffic. He tells us that on the street the order of importance for a driver is as follows: 1) driver skill 2) working brake 3) working horn 4) working AC (my addition).
We arrived in Jaipur after our 5 hour drive from Delhi. On the way we stopped for breakfast on the side of the road and enjoyed an "Indian breakfast" of unsweetened yogurt soup, called caerd, with cheet barota, bread stuffed with potato, cheese and onion.
After dropping our luggage off at the hotel our first stop was to the famous Raj Mander movie theater to see the new Bollywood film, Agent Vinod. The historic theater was very impressive. The foyer included a grand carved staircase and was adorned with several low hanging chandeliers. The theater itself was very large with a curtain hanging in front of the screen. The movie was awesome. Agent Vinod is the Indian James Bond complete with shootouts, knife fights, car chases, tuk tuk chases, plot twists and lovely ladies. The audience is very different here though, with whoops and catcalling heard throughout the film.
Back out into the blistering heat we headed to the Aryuvedic massage parlor to end the day. They took us to separate rooms and we got an hour long massage, saturated with oils.
The next day we set out in the morning to check out some of the historical architecture. We saw the Window Palace, which didn't live up to the expectations. And then headed to the Water Palace which sits in the middle of the lake.
Our favorite of the ventures was the Amber Fort. Built in the 17th century for a powerful Raja it was an impressive spectacle. The palace was in a small valley surrounded by hills and spanning the hills was a long continuous wall that rose and fell with the terrain. The wall resembled (in my mind) a less massive version of the Great Wall of China. Tourists paid to ride elephants up the hill to the palace while paupers such as ourselves had to play hopscotch with the resulting excrement. The palace was massive and very well preserved with endless passageways, chambers and turrets with expansive views. From the palace you could see down the hill to the "Royal" lake where Sanjay explained that the elephants went to do Kama Sutra.
At this point in the day, the heat drove us back to our hotel to enjoy our "luxurious" outdoor pool, which was actually quite enjoyable.
The following day we left Jaipur and set out for Ranthambore in search of tigers. On the way we stopped off at the Monkey Palace that kept reminding me of Indiana Jones' trip to India (Temple of Doom I think). The palace was impressively cradled by the crook of the canyon. The place was overflowing with playful and fearless monkeys. After failing to convince Cat that it would be like petting a dog, we hopped back in the car and set out.
the old-fashioned theatre and bollywood james bond film sounds so interesting!
ReplyDelete.....now you're making me want to watch Temple of Doom even though I'm trying to do hw..... haha
Love the blog guys...Keep it coming! I read these entries to Pat (and Jay Labella)whenever they're posted. We love the stories!
ReplyDelete