Jaipur Jaunt

So the next morning Manohar drives us back to Jaipur. We're staying at the Sheraton Rajputana. It's a beautiful five star hotel. You'll have to take our word for it, because there's only a pic of the outside and a banquet room on the internet. As this our belated wedding anniversary present to ourselves, we've booked a suite. No idea what this would look like either, but it's a suite in a five star hotel - how bad can it be?

When we arrive, an elegant lady in lehanga chunni performs a welcome ceremony, marking our foreheads with sandalwood paste. She then shows us to our room. This is not a highrise hotel, it's only four stories tall, built in a kind of square around an open pool area. We've the only room in our part of the corridor. No one ever walks past our door. It's the quietest hotel room I've ever slept in! We dump our bags and check out all the freebies we're going to take home (come on, everyone does this!). Then we head out to take in the sights.


Obviously just your typical street scene. Every time I go to cross a road I have to wait for a couple of motorcyclists and a painted elephant, don't you? We visit the Walled City (everything's painted pink, allegedly to cover up the poor construction techniques. It works. The pink is pretty gopping.) and the City Palace. The Palace has an Armoury filled with knives, swords and guns, if that's your kind of thing. Manohar also drives us up a windy hillside path (locals probably call it a road) to Jaigarh Fort. Rajasthanis were a fighting nation, and this mediaeval fort is almost intact. They took fighting seriously in Rajasthan, and you've got to suspect they were quite good at it. There are series of walls all over the countryside to hinder your enemies' approach. And Jaigarh Fort is home to the Jai-Ban, the largest cannon on wheels in the world. The front wheel is 9 feet high. Jai-Ban took a 50 kilogram cannon ball, and 100 kilos of explosives. It's range was 22 miles. It's only been fired once. They fired it, measured the range, and then told all their enemies. The press machine was so good that the enemies stayed away. I'm not sure if you call that money well spent or not?

Also at the fort were a number of school groups. A group of three schoolgirls decided to chat to Rod. I say chat, actually they wanted to play 20 questions. What was his name? Was I his wife? Where did we come from? Rod retaliated with a few of his own, and we discovered they were called Vanita, I've forgotten and Pretty. I have forgotten the middle one's name, so her parents don't call her that. The third one really was called Pretty, even though she wasn't, really... The schoolgirls proved to be much better at the conversation thing than the schoolboys. They asked Rod what his name was, and then asked if we'd give them some rupees... bet you can guess the answer to that one.

We also visited the Jal Mahal, a pleasure palace in the middle of a lake. There were lots of Indians sitting on the banks of this lake. As is typical, there was a large group of men sitting together, and a short distance away, a large group of women. As is also typical, they were all staring at us. Sitting with the women was a small girl, probably six or seven years old. Much bolder than her elders, she called out hello. I turned and waved to her, and all the women burst into applause. White woman waves! Clap now! Large hole in ground, open now please!!

We went to the bazaars but didn't buy very much, as the pressure to "come into my shop" was really quite extreme. Nothing keeps our money in our pockets more than the really hard sell. But I did spot these, which I thought could be useful for my husband, who often needs reminding to make sure his hair is tidy before he leaves the house. Shouldn't complain, I suppose, at least he has hair...