Monsoon Honeymoon: An Indian Travelogue: Part V: Jaipur Jammin' (Pomegranates, Puppets, and Pontifications)

Amber Fort

Friday, June 21: Discovering Jaipur, Capital of Rajasthan

On our fourth morning in India, we caught our breath.  We watched Lebron James and the Miami Heat defeat Tony Parker and the Cleveland Cavaliers at 8 AM in a welcome dose of NBA Sports Magic.

In the mid-morning we ventured to the train station to attempt to book onward tickets in Rajasthan.  Along with the English language, the train system may have been the British Empire's most positive legacy in India.  Stitching together the majority of the Indo-Gangetic Plan, and many of the cities in the Deccan Plateau to the South, this infrastructure provides cheap, reliable, consistent transport for people and goods within India.

However, tickets are sold out early, and as we discovered, there were no seats available for the next leg of our journey.  Slightly defeated, we traveled across town to the bus station, where we booked a ticket to Jodhpur for the following day.  Little did we know that this sole decision would be the closest we would bring ourselves to death. . .

Shazam!  It's Sham and his trusty auto rickshaw

With the morning's logistics settled, we jumped in the auto rickshaw of our local driver, Sham.  A genteel, sophisticated gentleman in his early 60's, Sham was clad entirely in white.  His auto rickshaw was decked out with fur seat covers, Hindu gods, fluorescent stickers, and style.  He navigated the chaos of a city of 3.1 million with the Zen control of Buddha, moving steadily through crushes of traffic, always smiling and waving his hand at passersby.

We puttered through the explosions of light, color, and heat swarming throughout central Jaipur, heading thirty minutes out of town to Amber Fort.  This place was beyond magnificent.  Commanding the mountainous heights of a narrow valley, the fort enclosed a lake, an island garden, and an intricate series of edifications, like a mini Great  Wall of China.  The ruling families here thrived between the 1500's and 1800's, and their Islamic faith meant that ornate mosques and fanciful prisons for the ladies were contained within the Fort's Walls.  We drifted for hours through corridors, chambers, courtyards, stairwells, lookouts, hideouts; armed security looked after this treasure, but Leigh and I often felt like we were exploring children set free in a fantastical palatial wonderland.

As we climbed back down the hilltop palace, we spoke with an Indian boy who asked us where we were from.  "Hawaii?" he commented. "That is a famous hill station!".

Time to make stew for His Highness

We energized with a saccharine lemon-lime Limca fizzy drink, and our Zen driver Sham ferried us back into the city to the Astronomy Museum.  The Summer Solstice was a serendipitous day to visit this expansive urban garden of larger-than-life sized astronomical measuring tools.  Towering triangles, gigantic protractors, curving spheres, recessed orbs: The mathematical sophistication of these people some five hundred years ago was startling, as they used sun shadows and star patterns triangulated with their measuring tools to estimate the location, distance, and motion patterns of the Sun and astral bodies.  Unfortunately my brain was melting in the Solstice heat, and I could barely wrap my mind around any of the math or science, except for the staircase that walked directly North.  That one made sense.

We tucked into a shady garden cafe for an Indian gustatory extravaganza and a restful recharge.  The dried pomegranate masala was the highlight here.

Pomegranate Masala and Stuffed Naan: Happiness

In the afternoon we toured the Prince Albert Museum.  This stunning two-story neo-classical building combines the arches, colonnades, and soaring domes of Greece with the colored marble, pink-paint, and precious stones native to Rajasthan.  Dating from the 1900's, this building was one of Leigh's favorites.  As she called it, "It's an antique building filled with antiques!".  We perused painting, tapestry, porcelain, weapons, sculpture, and most interestingly, miniature figurines of revered Indian yogis in contorted yoga poses.  Masterpieces hailed from Egypt, Japan, and of course India.  This was an absolute treat.

On the way home we stopped by the most famous Hindi Cinema Palace in the country.  It's true that Bombay is the home of Bollywood, but this theater was nationally celebrated.  We poked around the movie hall for a few minutes, but opted out of sitting through a Hindi romantic melodrama.

More quotidian activities (swimming, resting, petting a pug) filled the late afternoon.  After sunset I walked into a puppet show.  As I was walking from our garden lounge out to the street, two Rajasthani men beckoned me into a corner, where eight puppets sat on the ground and eight seats lay open before me.  Leigh looked at me skeptically, as if I were about to be hustled, but who can resist puppets?  Within minutes all seats were filled, and the barefoot grizzled man started banging his tabla drum.  The other man, adorned in fire red finery and a head-dress, began to blow a kazoo and dance handmade puppets before our amazed eyes.  We watched a clown act, a love story, and a randy old woman all dance on the puppet stage.  Of course I left with my own puppet in hand, a ravishing red puppet who we named Raj, and who will live with Leigh and me happily forever.

In the evening we rode with a manic little man with a figurine of Hanuman the Monkey on his dashboard.  His driving scared me.  We took dinner in a converted social club in a leafy neighborhood, where once again, the service, cuisine, and of course, the company, were par excellance.

Goodnight Jaipur

I am an Aries

Leigh is a Pisces