Posts tagged jaipur
The Beauty of India
I’m sure you’ve already heard that India is an overpowering place. The sights, the sounds, the smells, and any other S-words that could continue that alliteration. The entire country is alive and breathes with this incredible vitality, even in its darkest parts. But I am nowhere near a good enough writer to convey the complex contradictions and inherent truths that are evident all around you when you see India for the first time. So here are some things to keep in mind if you find yourself stepping off the plane onto the sub-continent.
There really are over a billion people in India. People are packed in everywhere and, subsequently, you won’t enjoy the same amount of personal space as you’re used to. This can be uncomfortable, especially for females, and I won’t say it’s some culture thing you should experience, it’s just a fact of life in India. The other big culture shock is the poverty and the visible squaller some people are living in. While India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the distribution of wealth and the standard of living are just not what Westerners are used to. And yet despite the garbage, filth, and poverty that some Indians endure, every person I know who has been there sees it as one of the most beautiful places on earth.
I don’t know how to explain India’s beauty any other way except that it is a type beauty that doesn’t exist in the developed world. It is purely organic and brutally honest. The beauty of India is not in it’s perfection, but rather in all it’s imperfections and the juxtaposition of life and death, the ripe and the rotted, the sacred and the profane, and it is all presented simultaneously. Exploring India has been one of the most engaging, challenging, and spectacular experiences of my life, the country presents life unedited, and I love it.
I’m all about traveling around the world just to see a building or painting – I’m a sucker for art like that. I fell in love with art in high school and I haven’t kicked the habit yet, hopefully I never do.
Consequently, seeing the Taj Mahal has always been a dream of mine, it is regarded as one of the world’s most architecturally perfect buildings and I was always told that the first sight of it would stick with you forever. Let me say this, it doesn’t disappoint. The Taj left me speechless.
Amber Fort in India
Outside of an intriguing city called Jaipur sits a massive sprawl of buildings that seldom leave people unimpressed. We approached the area and got out on the side of the road to take distance shots of the entire panorama. Brushing off the hats that hawkers placed on our heads for purchase, we clicked the crusting landscape in our viewfinders and prepared for an enlightening, yet steamy day.
There are two ways to ascend the hill towards the Amber Fort: walk on foot or hire an elephant to get you there. Seeing as it costs $13 for five minutes on an ellie that gets horrendous care and maintenance, I silenced my desires to roll around on the back of a pachyderm and employed my boots. A couple boys on the way tried to sell us postcards of the site, but never have I been inspired to write a postcard and send it even if it were free…so I moseyed on with them still calling me in my wake.
Our tour leader hired a guide who explained in great detail why we were wandering around on a mountaintop under a blistering sun. The structures boasted both Hindi and Muslim architectural elements, intertwined with a level of craftsmanship not found too often in today’s world. Mosaics caused the palaces to bling and the intricate stone carving made it possible for the old Mughal inhabitants to develop such things as air-conditioning and one way windows. There were perfume fountains and wheelchair ramps for the royal ladies who couldn’t walk with all the layers of clothing they had to adorn. Every factoid this guide threw at us wowed us, even as our heads were slowly baking in the sun.
Both tourists and Indians wandered the grounds. It wasn’t packed but was easily scattered with interested minds and clicking cameras. It was one of those miracle destinations where the hype doesn’t surpass the reality of the site, and the aspect of tourism doesn’t take away or inhibit the experience from being awe-inspiring. Way to go, Amber Fort, you did it.
In the dead heat of the day, we dropped into the chaos that is Jaipur’s jewelry market, a strip of infinite shops and outdoor informal gem trading that had me thanking my lucky stars I don’t wear jewelry. It’s well known and apparently worthy of hype, but I saved my money and moved on to lunch and the most hilarious movie I’ve never witnessed in a theater. Bollywood, you complete me…
The City Palace in Rajasthan
So much about Delhi intrigues me.
The spice markets and the grand monuments. The tree lined roads and innumerable modes of transportation. I have friends in Delhi and enough knowledge of certain neighborhoods to make me feel somewhat comfortable with this harsh environment. I can’t say I enjoy the street side groping (by any stretch of the imagination), which occurred to me twice on this trip, but I take pleasure in being in the city nonetheless.
But we moved on for a new, and arguably better, state where history slaps you in the face and leaves you twitching in awe. Our whole group seemed pumped for Rajasthan and with reason. The last 12 kilometers of our full day drive towards Jaipur revealed the beauty that is Amber Fort, a scattering of structures that span very dry mountaintops and calls to mind the Great Wall of China and Indiana Jones movies. We would experience that wonder the next day, so we headed to our lush hotel and the palaces of the city.
We took an audio-guided tour of the City Palace, which is never as satisfying as the hopeful tourist anticipates, but upon finishing the succession of numbered stops and enthusiastic explanations, I plopped down at the gate to view the outside world for a bit.
Upon entering the City Palace, we were bombarded with hawkers and beggars who were enthusiastic and as forcefully pitiful as was humanly possible. As I watched them from afar, away from the baseball-cap-wearing, touring public, I saw them in their element: eating popsicles and giggling around the street, relaxing at the nearby drink stand, enjoy the balmy weather and watching the birds dart around the sky – Hitchcock style.
One baba in brightly colored cloth tried to make eye contact with me for some change, the kind of eye contact that makes you think he’s trying to suck out your essence with his optical powers. Freaky. But it was another world away from foreign eyes.
The nighttime brought a buffet of good smells right to our noses in the beautiful courtyard of our hotel. A vocal performance and puppet show following the meal and we truly felt like we were “on vacation.” Though we were paying a hefty price for the meal and encouraged to tip the puppeteer like Rockefellers would, our entire tour group could be together without the hassle of avoiding skewed restaurant suggestions, transporting everyone on the cheap, and searching for high quality, semi-authentic entertainment.
Sometimes going with the tour flow ain’t so bad.
And then, the following day, we saw Amber Fort. Wow.
