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Having arrived at our beautiful hotel here in Jaipur, we marveled at the sights the surrounding terrain has to offer. We have the best view of the lake, as well as the hotel itself. But I shall let Trystan wax poetic about our splendid accommodations here.
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Adventures in the Pink City January 13, 2001
Ttrealtravels2005-12-26 16:28:15
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a puppet show, and a small kids' park. All told, a very interesting evening that gave us a distinct local feeling. Because of this and its relative distance outside the city (15 miles or so, a long way in this part of India), this restaurant/resort is certainly not mentioned in the tour books!
Astronomy and Royalty
Our final day in Jaipur was a bit tiring but also pretty darn fun. I began, unfortunately, with an allergy attack and was sniffily all day. Neither of us got a lot of sleep. But we soldiered on.
First up was the Observatory. It looked like a modern art sculpture garden, but really it was a series of 300-year-old astronomical and astrological instruments.
Immense sundials displayed the local Jaipur time (35 minutes off from national India time), courtesy of sharp shadows cast by today's bright sun. This site is home of the world's largest sundial, which is even more precise. Other giant instruments tell the angle of the sun and various astrological predictions based on the movement of the planets.
Next was the City Palace and Museum. This complex is still home to the present maharaja, a 70-year-old man still with some riches and beautiful homes. One area of the Palace Museum displayed truly exquisite textiles (which made me want to shop for saris and scarves :-). So much gold, silver, and copper thread!
Another gallery was filled with miniatures and life-size paintings, plus manuscripts and rugs. All very fine work. The palace is also home to the largest pieces of solid silver in the world -- two immense jugs meant to hold Ganges water.
A Taste of Bollywood
After some shopping, we went to a Hindi movie at the elegant Raj Mandir Theater. The movie was three hours long, full of songs, action, melodrama, and fanciful sets. We didn't catch all the details as there were no English subtitles, but we still had fun. Talk about your authentic local experiences!
And we seemed to provide some entertainment for the other cinema-goers, especially the Indian children who stared at us, fascinated. They've probably never seen Westerners before, at least not in their movie theatres.
See photographs from:
India Gallery
