Jaipur diary: part 2......

12 June 2011
Jaipur, India

we had a packed day planned on Sunday.... even though there was no respite from the weather expected, we still wanted to make the best use of the day.... we had already missed the best of Hawa Mahal as we had skipped the morning visit there.... actually we had a great chance of going there early in the morning, but some weird circumstances prevented that as well.... so, we rather planned for The City Palace to come in first....


Hawa Mahal and the snake-charmer.....


Hawa Mahal is one the way to The City Palace.... so, we simply had to take a pause on the road; everyone does.... even though we missed a great opportunity to shoot this magnificent building in the early morning light, something made this stop worthwhile.... a snake-charmer was a surpise find there, and had to shoot him.... well, not for free though... but that filled up some of the gaps created by missing that early morning visit... anyway, The City Palace was to take the major time there... Hawa Mahal is kept as a secondary as far as time spent is concerned....




















The City Palace is another example of luxury enjoyed by the bygone era royal families... the architecture and designs are really admirable... and no surprise to see quite a few tourists, even in such extreme heat.... it was all about shooting architecture at the Palace, as the whole tour has been so far... there were some characters there that I would've liked to shoot... but didn't really go too far with it... my experience with a guide at Amber Fort didn't encourage me to try it again.... but the Palace guides wear great clothes, making them stand out among the intricate design details of the buildings.... they are themselves something to see...














we rushed to hotel, checked out and paid a nice short visit to Hawa Mahal.... it was right under mid-day heat.... although we didn't really plan for an extended stay there, we couldn't help taking some pictures there.... while inside, we were able to see what we missed in the morning hours.... its a nice building, although its inside isn't as attractive as its outside.... but the back side of the building does contain facades similar to the one in front... its more like a trade-mark facade....

our main plan was to visit Nahargarh Fort.... we simply didn't want to miss the view from up there.... we don't know how it would look.... it may even suck totally.... but as its totally unknown to us, its better not to miss it..... we don't want someone to come in and tell us that we missed the greatest view on earth!!.... so, after lunch and another shopping trip to RTDC, we were off to Nahargarh.....

it took us some time to reach Nahargarh..... on the map, it showed that it was 6km from Jaipur, whereas Amber was 15km from the City.... I thought the two would be on two different routes... and there was the Jaigarh Fort, which resides 400ft above Amber... but as it turned out, they're all basically in the same place.... Jaigarh Fort and Nahargarh Fort are on the same hilly road.... a fork divides the road into two and thats where we left Jaigarh and went to Nahargarh..... as we climbed, the view became more and more majestic.... as people from flat lands, we were awe-struck!... the roads are pretty pleasant, even though they're made across such harsh terrain.... the roads are easily accessible to small cars.... you don't require a 4WD car to reach the top....











the captivating view of Nahargarh instantly reminded us that it would've been a real miss if we opted not to visit the place.... its not the fort itself; its the view that attracts.... the fort lives on top of the city and the whole of the city can be seen from there.... the view of Jal Mahal from the top is simply awesome.... while at the City, I was constantly looking for an angle that would be a bit different from usual.... but I couldn't.... now I got this one.... I don't know how this would look in the fading evening light.... the walls of Jaigarh Fort seen from Nahargarh reminded us of the Great Wall of China....












we spent some time inside the fort, which isn't that small actually, even though its basically a supporting fort for Amber.... monkeys are the only current residents there.... their presence in this ancient settings puts some life in history.... its strategic location overlooking the city makes someone realise how it would've looked during its days of glory.... we thought it would take a whole day to explore all the unique angles of this fort.... and this fort surely has all those unique views.... just a few of them impressed us enough to justify this visit....

by around 4:30PM, we were off to Delhi.... it was supposed to take a bit longer as most people usually travel outside Delhi during the weekend and come back on Sunday night..... and it was a long journey.... quite tiresome.... we didn't reach Delhi before 10:40PM....

Jaipur was a tough tour considering the weather.... but got our money's worth.... its a unique place and its worth visiting anytime.... perhaps we missed out some of the more important cultural traits of Jaipur that makes it unique.... you have to come during the season to make the best out of a tour.... this is a place for National Geographic photographers....

more from Delhi to come....

Jaipur diary: part 1....

11 June 2011
Jaipur, India

a weekend is a weekend if you get to use the time at your own discretion.... well, in this case, coming to India, we did have one weekend in our schedules... we planned for a getaway to some place near.... a place that can be reached and returned from within the weekend.... Agra was one option, and the other was Jaipur... already some cautions were aired by some colleagues regarding the unsuitability of Jaipur in this season.... but we ultimate went for it.... Agra is a great place, but unfortunatel, its one of those very typical places that everyone visits.... so, we would rather explore the unknown if we have only one precious weekend.... touching both Jaipur and Agra was also not an option, since that would've meant that we would be on the road most of the time, enjoying very little sight-seeing, and no rest...






















anyway, a car drive very early in the morning was planned.... Jaipur is usually around a 5-hours' drive from Delhi... we reached there by 11:00AM.... the plan was to reach Amber Fort first, which was just outside the City.... we reached Amber under unbelievable heat!!... they said that it was 46-degree Celcius on that day!!.... its a magnificent fort to say the least.... its grandeur is something to see.... it has some lovely architecture inside.... the palaces inside reminded of the luxury enjoyed by the rulers of those times... the monkeys inside the palaces are the only attractive residents now-a-days.... great place!!... worth a visit; but gotta come during season....







Amber was something of a challenge under that heat.... took lunch inside the city and rested at the hotel..... waiting for the sun to give us a break.... there's a lovely place called Jal Mahal, which was our target for the evening.... its a palace in the middle of a lake, surrounded by hills on two sides.... we spent some time taking some snaps there.... lovely reflections of the building in lake waters..... the lake was also teeming with various aquatic birds.... Egrets, Herons, Lapwings decorated the already pristine view..... the heat was still on.... even well after the sun's departure from the skies, the heat was still difficult to digest.... the locals resort to many ways to save themselves from the tremendous heat.... a lot of people wear robes around their heads.... some women wear some hand gloves which cover their whole hand, almost up to their shoulders.... women wear both traditional and modern dresses.... traditional dresses are extremely colourful and remind us of the National Geographic covers... the streets are full of activities that would seem unique to a visitor.... but you have to have the time to see all that....

we took to RTDC (Rajastan Textile Development Corporation) after seeing Jal Mahal.... its a huge complex.... even though it says that its about textile, it was actually a mix bag of everything.... RTDC is just the sponsor, and under their umbrella, all of Rajasthan's handicrafts were on display.... a great place to promote the State's products....








we were keeping an eye on the watch, as we had another target... some light-shows at the Amber Fort... before coming here, I found on the web that Nahargarh Fort was the best during the evening.... so, we had a notion that it would be a good idea to go there in the evening... but ultimately we planned for Amber's 'lights-and-sounds' show... this is something I didn't read about before.... once we reached there, the show was already on.... there are two versions; the English one starts at 7:30PM and the Hindi one at 8:30PM.... we caught up with the latter one.... its more like a narration of the history of Jaipur in its glory days, when Rajput warrior kings ruled and made history.... the nice audio is given a lovely visual touch by some dynamic light-show on the huge walls of Amber.... the overall experience was awesome... it surely would've been a great miss if we failed to pay a visit there....

anyway, a dinner at a local restaurant brought the day to an end for us at Jaipur.... we were dead tired.... mainly because of the sapping heat and very little sleep the night earlier.... we had a lotta plans for the next day; so, some rest was essential....

more to come....