Travels in India - Jaipur

Hello! We have now arrived safely back in the UK having had an amazing two weeks travelling in India. As promised, we will post up a couple of extra posts for any of you who are interested in knowing what we got up to on our adventures!

Our first stop was Jaipur and, once we had met James in Delhi and spent a few days showing him our favourite sights there, we set off on our first Indian long distance train. We all quickly fell in love with Jaipur and had a few amazing days here.

The Old City in Jaipur is enclosed by huge imposing pink walls and is made up of a grid of enticing bazaars selling beautiful shoes, fabrics and gemstones - all things that Jaipur is renowned for. Also within these walls are many old and important buildings, our favourite of which was called the Hawa Mahal or "Palace of Winds", built in 1799 by the Maharaja at the time.

The Hawa Mahal

It was an extraordinary building, built over five storeys. Each floor had lots of hidden passageways, tiny rooms and hidden courtyards found down little corridors, miniature shutters, beautifully painted doors and windows with brightly coloured panes of glass, causing colour light to dance on the floor. Exploring the building we got utterly lost, and even when we thought we were heading back the way we came, we would suddenly stumble upon another courtyard or a hidden room! That was the joy of that building though.

Emma with some of the mini shutters

From the top, there were amazing views over Jaipur, and towards Tiger Fort - a fort on top of one of the hills around Jaipur that looks down on the city, and one which we were soon to visit.

Tiger fort on the hill in the background

Whilst in Jaipur, we had a whole day of visiting three different forts, which ended up being one of our favourite days of the whole trip. The first fort was in Amber - a city a short bus ride from Jaipur. When the journey to the fort is by elephant (which we can now confirm is the best way to travel) you know it is going to be a good day!

James and Michaela on their elephant!

Emma setting off on her elephant ride!

The weather was gorgeous that day, and Amber fort looked very striking, nestled in a valley which was surrounded by fortified walls in all directions.

It was a huge place, and similarly to the Hawa Mahal, had lots of rooms, courtyards and passages that you stumbled upon accidentally whilst thinking you were going towards somewhere else! There was a lot of beautiful ornate decoration including one hall where the entire surface of the walls and ceiling was made up of tiny mirrored tiles laid in patterns. There were also beautiful jaali (stone latticed windows), through which you could look at the ever impressive views over Amber. Throughout the complex there were many other exciting things to find, including a beautiful garden, a stunning gateway, at one point a very long water collection system complete with jars and cogs and even a holy basil plant.

The ceiling covered in mirror tiles

Some of the beautiful jaali

If we thought that the fort was beautiful, we had something even better waiting for us. After lunch we walked the kilometre long tunnel uphill connecting Amber fort to Jaigarh fort, on a hill above Amber. As we climbed, the view got more and more impressive. Once in the fort we went and found the highest point, and were greeted with this.

As well as a stunning view, Jaigarh fort also boasts the world’s largest wheeled cannon  - Cannon Jaivana. It was cast in 1790 and apparently weighs 50 tonnes! It did look pretty big, and I don't think it's been moved anywhere in a little while!

Cannon Jaivana

Views from Jaigarh Fort

After dragging ourselves away from these stunning views we headed back to Jaipur for our last fort of the day. Our excellent guidebook had told us that a bar terrace in Tiger fort was one of the best places to watch the sun setting, accompanied by a cool glass of wine or beer. It was another steep walk uphill, but we made it to the top just in time to witness this incredible sunset before the sun slipped behind the low clouds.

We then sat overlooking Jaipur watching the light slowly fade, and the lights start to come on in the city below. It got even more magical when all the calls to prayer started drifting up to our ears from all the corners of the city creating a wonderful cacophony of sound.

The last thing in Jaipur we will tell you about was the Monkey Temple that we visited. This was a Hindu temple, where we believe monkeys are encouraged to live by being fed, and it had certainly worked! It had a very strange feel to it - it almost felt like an abandoned film set that monkeys had come to live in. The temple was built into the side of a hill, and there were monkeys everywhere!

So, having thoroughly enjoyed our time in Jaipur, we set off on a very early train to Agra...watch this space!