Jaipur is our first stop in Rajasthan. It is known as the pink city. It is not only home to the Hawa Mahal, but also a luxurious city palace, an observatory (Jantar Mantar) and Jai Mahal, a sunken palace. Nearby, Fort Amber is also worth a visit.
We land in Jaipur on Sunday evening and finally meet up with my parents, who have spent the last three days on their own in Delhi. We empty a bottle of wine on the terrace of our homestay and catch up.
Bazar discovery tour
The next morning, we drive into the pink city at 8:00 am. We get off at a market about 1 km before the Hawa Mahal and let ourselves drift through the narrow streets. The stores are not yet open, so we can admire the beautiful houses in detail.
The pink city is actually not pink at all, more orange. During the day we learn that all the buildings used to be yellow, and even today most of the buildings are painted yellow inside. In honor of a royal guest from England, the buildings were then painted in brick color. The guest then admired the city and called it pink city. Whether the man did not get on with colors or it was a linguistic misunderstanding cannot be clarified. One way or the other, today it is the pink city.
As we take pictures in front of a particularly beautiful house, the owner comes up to us. He tells us that the house is already 125 years old and invites us into his home. We follow him up the narrow steps, enter the apartment and are led into his daughter's room. The sun shines through the stained glass windows, but the room remains comfortably dark, keeping the heat out.
Soon we are sitting on the couch, being offered kaju katli (sweets made from cashew nuts) and namkii (a kind of chip mix) and tea. Unsure, we decline the tea, as we don't want to make any extra work for anyone. Wife and daughter are introduced, we chat for a while and take a selfie as we say goodbye.
Back in the narrow alleyways, we are asked by another man to follow him. We step through an inconspicuous door and are surprised: we are apparently standing in the middle of an old palace-like estate that has been gnawed away by the ravages of time. We are delighted with these discoveries, the hospitality and the walk in the still pleasant morning air.
We make our way to the Hawa Mahal, having breakfast on the way at a roadside stall with rice, pomegranate seeds, raisins, nuts and herbs. It tastes amazing 🩷. Also on the roadside, craftsmen are waiting to be hired and are happy to take selfies.
Hawa Mahal: Palace of the Winds
The Hawa Mahal was a palace for the maharaja's wives. They were not allowed to leave the palace or show themselves to any man. For this reason, the maharajah built this palace adjacent to the city palace, not for living in, but so that his wives could watch what was happening on the street and in the market through the 365 windows without being seen. This way they could at least find some distraction, as there were no televisions yet.
The building is also known as the Palace of the Winds in German and is mentioned in a novel that really impressed me about India: the Far Pavilions by Mary M. Kaye. From the outside, this building is probably one of the most photographed buildings in India and very impressive. We are also given a guided tour of the palace - but it would have been ok without a guide as well.
The seven floors of the Hawa Mahal are built on the ground without foundations, making it the tallest building in the world without foundations. It is designed in such a way that a cool breeze can always blow through the long corridors, hence the name Palace of the Winds in German. However, you won't find a bedroom here - the palace was not built for living.
The various floors are not only accessible via stairs, but also via ramps. This is because some of the princesses were so heavily adorned with jewels that they could no longer walk and were wheeled around the palace in a kind of wheelchair.
After these interesting impressions, we need a break. At the Tatoo Café, we not only find an excellent view of the front of the Hawa Mahal, but also delicious continental food and good coffee.
Jantar Mantar
Afterwards, we think it would be a good idea to visit Jantar Mantar, the observatory, in the midday sun. We decide against taking a guide here, even though we would certainly understand the complex better if we did. So we just enjoy the fascinating architecture and a shady bench.
City Palace
Next, we look for the entrance to the City Palace. We find it quite quickly and took a guide. To be honest, I don't think it was an official guide afterwards, but he was funny and nice and took a lot of time for us and spoke very good English.
The first thing we did was walk through an exhibition of royal clothing. These included the clothes of the founder of Jaipur, Jai Sing II. He simply named the city after himself - Jai, like his first name, Pur means city. The other cities in Rajasthan are also easy to explain: JodPUR, UdaiPUR, ...
The third king was not only extremely tall, but also extremely fat, allegedly weighing over 250 kg. His clothes were the size of bed sheets. The exhibition is located in the castle's guest house. To make all guests feel at home, the exterior decoration of the house includes elements from Islam, Hinduism and Christianity - a nice touch!
The guide has a few stories up his sleeve, including the fact that there is no toilet paper in Indian toilets because the food is so spicy that the paper would catch fire.
After the guest house, you walk across a dance floor decorated with columns into the former audience hall. The walls are artfully painted with natural colors and gold, the colors have not been refreshed since the 350 years of existence, but still shine brightly.
On the walls we can see portraits of the old kings. Jaipur has a purely royal culture, no queens. The last king only had one daughter and no other children. His daughter in turn had two sons and a daughter. In order not to let the royal line die out, the king adopted his grandson. When the king died, the succession was settled by his adopted son. He is now king and his mother is his sister - family is somehow always exciting 😅.
The king reportedly receives many complaints by mail from tourists who fall for fake pashmina and block print merchants. For this reason, he has introduced a demonstration of block printing and identification marks of real pashmina as part of the palace tour.
As the king is in the palace, we are not allowed to walk directly to this part of the exhibition but are taken by tuktuk. We already had a hunch and ended up in a store. Here we are first explained a bit and then shown a lot. I'm still not sure whether it's actually part of the exhibition. We only buy a little something and then drive back to the entrance of the palace, the sun has already set.
Jai Mahal
We meet our driver Prakash and drive to our last stop, the Jai Mahal. This palace can only be viewed from a vantage point and is not accessible to visitors. The palace lies in a lake, four floors are under water, only two floors are visible. The palace is very beautiful to look at in the dark or at dusk.
In the evening, we have a delicious meal in a restaurant around the corner, enjoy a glass of wine on the terrace of our homestay and then go to bed.
Fort Amber
The next morning, we have breakfast with a view of the Palace of the Winds at the Tatoo Café. We then drive to Amber Fort, which is only 20 minutes away from the Hawa Mahal.
The fort stretches across the ridge, the yellow buildings are magnificent and visible from afar.
We get out of the car and are surrounded by merchants like mosquitoes in the jungle. Everyone wants to sell us something, a jeep ride to the fort, a parasol, bracelets, blankets, ... It's awful. In the midst of this cluster of shouting traders, we walk up the path to the fort for 10 minutes. The view is great, but the pushy traders, who don't understand a no, are terribly annoying and spoil the experience considerably.
Once we arrive at the fort, we buy a ticket as quickly as possible to avoid the crowds. And indeed, as soon as we get through the ticket control, it becomes a little less stressful.
One of the things we see in the fort is a hall of mirrors, which the king liked to look at. We could spend a little more time here, but we still have a 7-hour drive to Bikaner ahead of us, so we plunge back into the flood of traders and make our way back to the car.
This article is part of a multi-day trip through Rajastan. We continue on towards Bikaner, where we spend two nights in the desert.
You can read about our experiences and why even the journey to the desert is a little adventure here: Bikaner
- Glamping in Camp Rajputana.
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