The Road to Jaipur

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Today we left Agra behind and headed for Jaipur. I found the journey very interesting .. as the little video clip shows .. (with gracious acknowledgement to my technical guru Srini, who showed me how to make the video clips - Thank you Srini !).

I had only ever seen Camels in the zoo before and hadn't regarded them as working animals, but in the dessert of Rajasthan, the camel is just the job, and we saw them doing all kinds of work today, pulling big carts of hay, moving people about, and generally acting like we'd use horses or trucks in the west .. wonderful .. it made my day.

There was only one main sightseeing stop today and that was not far from the begining of the journey, at the Fatehpur Sikri Royal Palace. This is a magnificent structure built by Akabar in 1569. It was built as a celebration for the birth of his son. Akabar had 3 wifes, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian. None had borne him a son. The story is that when returning from his victory over Gujrat, Akbar visited the Sufi Saint, Sheikh Salim Christi, who was famous for his holy deeds and asked him to intervene and bring about the birth of a son. It is said that the Sufi Saint sacrificed his own son to provide the soul for Akabar's newborn son, who was born to his Hindu wife, Empress Jodha Bai. The son was named after the Sufi Saint, Mohammad Salim and he ascended to the throne as Emperor Janangir (the father of Shah Jehan who built the Taj Mahal .. got that now ? !!).

Akbar considered the new town to be very lucky and named it 'Fatehpur', the town of victory, after the conquest of Gujrat. The small village of Sikri, where the new town grew up was home to some stone cutters and their work is evidenced all around the Palace.

The Palace is wonderfully elaborate with 3 place of worship, one for each of the wives, including the very large Hindu temple, a smaller Mosque and a very small Christian church. There were even 3 different kitchens to provide for the different food traditions.


This ostentatious stage surrounded by a large pond of rose water was for the muscians to amuse the Emperor and his wives.
Our visit to Fatehpur Sikri was quite early in the morning and there were no crowds at all, so it was a very comfortable visit.

On to Jaipur itself, where I checked into the Mandawa Haveli, a wonderfully traditional building which has been converted from a Maharaja Palace to a hotel. Many of the Palaces have now been converted to hotels, as the Royal family have had only an honorary role in Indian society, and therefore no income, since Independence in 1947, when a democratic state was founded.

After settling in, it was off to dinner and a special kind of Fun Fair at Chokhi dani (an ethnic village resort). It was a really great evening. I didn't see any other foreigners, so it's obviously a place for locals or visiting Indians. The fair included games for children, rides on Elephants, Camels, Donkeys and oxen, Palmists, stalls selling local crafts (and blissfully no hassle from the traders !). The dinner was fantastic (once you got used to the seating style on the floor !). It was traditional Rajasthani food, which I really liked, quite spicy but not overpowering.

Here's some of the action from the fair ...