Part 2: Heading Down The Home Stretch

19 September - Leaving The Shahpura Bagh Palace For Jaipur

RC:  We once again start our day at the crack of dawn, well okay, 0700, with a bird watching walk of the grounds.  There is a 1.5 mile trail that circles the grounds and mostly follows the shoreline of the lake.  It's mostly tree lined so it's shady and cool. The lake was beautiful that time of day with thousands of water lilies still open from their nighttime blossoming.  We managed to walk up on a peahen (female peacock) with 4 youngster (peakids??) with her. She took off with the youngsters in tow.  The females make a loud honking sound very similar to that of a goose. The babies hear that and they are off. About half way through the walk Sat caught up with us and gave us a briefing of the wildlife resident on the ground. The primary one of interest to us was the Indian wild cat.  It's slightly larger than a domestic cat with tufted ears and a light brown color that blends with the dry grass where they most often hunt.  Sat indicated they are rarely seen as they are very reclusive and primarily night time hunters. One of his favorite sightings was a female with two kits he saw at dusk.  The babies were playing and the mother hunting.  There are also jackals on the grounds.  We saw some footprints that were probably jackal, but no sightings.  We did see a variety of birds, peacocks, and a pretty green chested pigeon (yep, a pretty rat with wings). We then joined Sat and the dogs for breakfast before heading out to Jaipur (Ji pur).

Breakfast with Sat and Beanie's New Best Friend

The trip to Jaipur is about four hours on what are considered good roads.  Much fewer animals but very heavy truck and commercial traffic.  The countryside is not quite as pretty with  much of it through pretty industrialized areas. It's not without adventure as we came upon a produce truck that had been involved in some type of accident, spilling much of its load on the highway. This, of course, turned into a bit of a feeding frenzy for the cows in the area.  We arrived at the hotel, the Raj Mahal Palace, in the afternoon.  Not sure what all the historical poop is about it, but I suspect it belonged to a royal family.  I'll leave the details to Beanie cause she seems to really like the place.  BTW, nice to see the pride Indians have in their Air Force.

Not An F15, But Not Bad

20 September.  Just When You Thought You Couldn't Be Pampered Any More
 
RC:  Kicked of a little earlier than normal to beat the heat.  Jaipur itself is probably the most organized, tidy, and attractive city we've visited.  The population is about 4M, though it doesn't feel that large.  It was the first planned city in India.  The streets are wide, heavily treed, and actually have traffic lanes.  Nobody uses them, but they are there.  Our first visit was to the Palace of Wind.  No, that's not why it has its name.  The name comes from the 119 corridors designed to capture the breeze and channel them for cooling purposes.  It's in the Old Town portion of Jaipur.   It was basically a facade where the ladies of the palace could observe celebrations and activities in the city without being seen by the people.  Evidently being seen by the people was kind of a no no back in the day. 

Palace of Wind, It's a Facade, Behind Each Window Is A Long Corridor Leading Back To The Palace

We moved on from there to the Amber Fort, a very impressive building and engineering feet for the 17th century. It has a cooling system that's basically a swamp cooler cascading perfumed water down a slanted ramp that is fed by vents from the outside. It's built to sustain attacks by having multiple walls that when scaled by attacking forces basically puts the attackers in a "fish in a barrel" situation.  Additionally it's built into a mountain so the king's forces will always have the upper ground.  Lastly, according to Beanie, "it's pretty".  There are elephants available to take you up the hill to the fort.  With Beanie's back situation we had to pass, but they were impressive to see, very smart, backing into an elevated platform to load & offload passengers.  Lots of regulations in place to protect them, no more than 4 trips a day and no trips past 11:00 AM - I think they are union!!   

This Is Fort Amber, Home To Kuchwana Raiputs 1337-1727

22 Courtyard, Note Elephants Along Right and Back Wal

Elephants Loading & Unloading Zone

Elephant Express At Work

Gardens At King's Reception Hall

Inside The King's Reception Hall

Intricate Stone Inlay Art In Palace

Kings Gardens Outside the Fort

Imitation Cleaning Ladies - Sitting Around Looking Cute But Cost 20 Rupees To Take Their Picture

Stairwell To The Wall Around Fort - Well Is More Than Six Miles

Secret Escape Tunnel For Royal Family - Approx 2 Miles Long

New Selfie Buddy I Met In The Parking Lot - Beanie Is Both Jealous & Concerned

We spent a couple hours at the fort and then headed to Jantar Mantar, an observatory built in the 1700s to measure time and the earth's position in the universe at any time during the year.  The Hindu religion has its roots deeply embedded in astrology.  It guides everything from crops to marriage.  They had a sundial, one of the largest in the world that is accurate to 2 seconds.  They also had a separate station for each astrological sign.  It was pretty neat.  After that we headed back to the hotel to cool down and have a late, little lunch - well lunch.   BTW, the hotel is very nice and service was off the charts - but that's a story for Beanie to tell.

This Is The Jantar Manta, Old Observatory - This Are The Astrological Sun Dials For Each Sign

Kathy:  Randy did a good job of talking about what we did and saw on our one full day in Jaipur so I'm going to tell you about the hotel.  Wow, the hotel, where to begin.  How about a little history?  The Raj Mahal Palace belongs to the royal family of Jaipur and was originally a garden retreat for the queen and her friends.  At the time it was built it was quite far out of town but it's now in the center of the city.  It's the oldest palace in Jaipur.  In 1821, Raj Mahal became the official residence of the British Political Officer in Jaipur and in 1958, it reverted back to the royal family of Jaipur and became the family's personal residence.  The royal family now lives in a different palace although the queen still occasionally visits and has functions at Raj Mahal.  Over the decades the palace has gone through many renovations and style changes.  The most recent renovation was completed just over a year ago after the king said he wanted a mix of heritage and modern design.  It's a first of it's kind in India and probably in the world.  Adil Ahmad, a renowned Indian architect, designed each room and is the one responsible for all the spectacular wallpaper.  No two hotel rooms or public rooms look the same.  Each wallpaper represents a different  story about the of the royal family and history of Jaipur.

The afternoon we got there, I was walking around the hotel taking pictures and got to talking with a woman going up the grand staircase while I was going down.  I told her I couldn't stop taking pictures.  She laughed and said she understood.  She's from the UK but lives in Sri Lanka.  She comes to India once a year to inspect the Sujan properties, which is a small luxury boutique hotel in India.  This hotel is only their fourth property.  I told her that we almost didn't stay here because the pictures on their website looked so over the top and almost garish, but our travel agent convinced me that we wouldn't regret it.  In person, everything works and is elegant and beautiful.  She agreed that she had the same feeling when she saw the photographs and completely changed her mind when she visited the property.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that the hotel puts her in one of their best suites.  I ask her what relationship the hotel has with Relais & Chateau which I had seen on their website and had also seen advertised for a few other international hotels during our travels in Asia, though not at any places we've stayed. She explained that Relais & Chateau is to hotels like Michelin is to restaurants.  Only the most beautiful hotels with the best service get credentialed by them.  They do no notice inspections every year.

Sugan Rajmahal Palace

Grounds of Hotel

Reception Area

Our Room - Very Cozy

And Of Course The Royal Bathroom - What Is It About Glass Doors On The Commode

Marble Staircase To Our Room - Note Piano, Marble is Fake

Marble Staircase To Our Room

Room Service, Gotta Love The Uniform

Sid, Sales Manager, Showing Us The Polo Trophy Room

Oriental Room, Hallway to Front Entrance

King's Bedroom

Pink Room, Named After Jaipur, The Pink City

One of Three Dining Areas - This One Overlooks The Gardens

According To Beanie The "Best Ever" Eggs Benedict

The hotel felt like living in a work of art.  There were fresh cut flower arrangements in all the rooms.  The entire hotel smelled wonderful.  There was artwork on all the walls, including the guest rooms, that included framed antique rugs, paintings of the royal family and black and white photographs in silver frames on tables throughout the hotel.  When I ask Sid, the Sales Manager, about a photo of Jackie Kennedy and her sister Lee visiting the King and Queen in the early 1960s, he took us to the patio to show us exactly where they had been standing in the photo.  Each suite (there are 4 rooms and 10 suites) are named after a famous person or dignitary that has visited from Queen Elizabeth to Jackie.  The waiters and bell captains wear gorgeous white uniforms and pink turbans.  The significance of pink is Jaipur is known as The Pink City due to the terracotta buildings in the Old City, though they look more orange than pink to me.  The hotel is definitely pink.

Picture of Jackie Kennedy In Reception Area During Her Stay At The Rajmahal Palace

Place Where Jackie Stood For Picture Above

I have to talk about the service.  We have never experienced this level of service before.  We felt like we were in an episode of Downton Abbey and I must admit I now understand how a person can start to feel entitled like Mary in Downton Abbey or many of our politicians.  Here's a few examples of the service but I'm forgetting many more:  Every employee of the hotel addressed us by name, granted there are only 14 rooms and suites but still.  The sales manager of the hotel gave us a tour of the hotel when we got there and then we had high tea (complimentary) with him.  There is no coffee maker in the room.  Sid said this was done on purpose because it's not how the royal family lives.  Instead they bring coffee and tea to you when you call on a silver tray and tea service, again complimentary.  There are three dining rooms and you can eat in any of them any time of day and order off of any of the menus (breakfast, lunch and dinner) any time of day.  At breakfast one morning, I ask if they could wrap up the rolls and croissants we hadn't eaten so we could take them on our long drive to Agra.  It came back in an elegant bag with their logo, in two different boxes, they had included some fruit and 2 bottles of water.  The GM personally greeted us when we arrived and their was a hand written note in our room with his cell number to call whenever we needed his assistance.  The first night at turn down service they left us a wrapped present of a canvas bag with their logo.  The second night there was a small white marble elephant.  Laundry service is complimentary (we knew this ahead of time) so you know we saved up for it!  Our laundry came back beautifully wrapped in tissue paper.  Anytime we had a request (and Randy would say by the second day I was routinely making requests - not true!) they did above and beyond.

Laundry Wrapped In Tissue Paper, Just Like Home

A little about the car in the photos.  It's a 1960 Thunderbird, 352 V8, and the king's pride and joy.  Eat your heart out Clell.  There were only 6 like this made and the king's was the first off the production line.  Note the license plate - Jaipur 1.  When the family moved to the new palace, the king decided the car should stay at The Raj Mahal to be enjoyed by the guests that stayed here.  Sid loves the car.  Twice a month as part of his job he drives it, but only twice around the circular drive in front of the hotel.  The only time it is driven in town is for a car show or for very special occasions. When it is driven in town, in goes in a convoy and the traffic bureau is instructed to make all the lights green.

King's Classic 1960 Thunderbird At Front Entrance

King's Classic 1960 Thunderbird - Check Out The Tag

Okay, I'm done.  Hope you made it through that okay!  Next on the agenda is a long drive to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

21 September - Okay, We're Off To Agra and We're Winging The Blog

RC:  Hey there.  With our laptop fried, we're gonna try going live with the blog.  Normally we try to polish (for us that means not too many misspellings and no upside down pictures!!) the blog entries off line and paste into the online version.  Now we're just using a house computer in Varanasi at the hotel to see if we can catch up.  Okay, Agra, and here we go.

The drive to Agra was pretty uneventful.  Roads were a mixture of decent highways and not so decent smaller roads.  Our Guide 2.0 told us the traffic in Agra is worst in India.  After the drive back to Delhi and in Varanasi, I will respectfully disagree.  More on that to come later.   Along the way we stopped at Fort Fatehpur Sikri.  Ends in pur so it's a Hindu place. Fort Fatehpur Sikri This fort was built by King Akbar The Great (I know, it sounds like some Klingon bad guy) Fort Fatehpur Sikri took 15 years to build, but the king only lived there for 2 years.  It was abandoned due to the quantity and quality of the local water supply. Shame as it is a truly striking fort. King Akbar the Great is considered one of the truly great rulers of India.  His claim  to fame, other than being a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, was the unification of Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities under one king.  He did this several ways.  First, he took three wives, a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Christian.  For the record though, since he was a Mogul, he was Muslim.  He also created his own religion, probably closer to a cult called Din-i-Ilahi.  It didn't go anywhere but it served the purpose of combining the traits of the major religions of the day to form a solution that everyone seemed to be able to accept.  He was very clever.  He issued a mazhar (kind of decree) that granted Akbar the authority to interpret religious law, superseding the authority of the mullahs and declare his interpretation as infallible.  I could see how that could help.  In the end his progressive acts didn't work out too well as one of his sons (the one the king did not select to succeed him) ended up imprisoning his father for eight years and killing his brother, the one the king wanted to succeed him. 

Fadehpur Sikri.  The Column Shape Is Based On The Lotus Blossom

King's Quarters at Fatehpur Sikri

Agra is the home of the Taj Mahal.  Everything in the city centers around that fact.  In 1999, the government closed down all industrial businesses within 60 miles of the Taj to reduce the erosion effect of any business that could impact the marble of the Taj Mahal. Hundreds of brick factory kilns were closed.  The result is the city is primarily a tourist based industry.  We're bunking at what is without a doubt the finest Marriott Courtyard in the world.  It would put most JW Marriotts to shame. The room is a nice, simple, but very nicely appointed suite with a large, spa like bath.  Lots of room. The manager compt us happy hour and dinner for our Platinum status and Beanie got us breakfast as part of  our room rate.  The bartender at the happy hour was a young Indian, maybe 25-30, very witty, and fun to chat with about anything from Cricket 101 (what I've learned about Cricket since arriving in India - it's not quite as dumb a game as I previously thought!) to sport cars. We spent a bit of time with him followed by the dinner buffet.  The buffet is seriously good, international cuisine as well as a good selection of Indian food.  I found one or two Indian dishes I had yet to try. 

Most folks get up pretty early to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.  We're just not those people.  We jumped up at the crack of 0700 and elected to visit when the early risers were on their way out.  It worked out pretty well as the morning was overcast and we would have missed sunrise on the Taj anyway. The grounds surrounding the Taj are almost equally impressive as the Taj itself. There are huge gates on the North, South, and East sides with the West side backing up to the Yamuna River. They are all made of red sandstone heavily inlaid with black marble for the many scripts (Muslim) written around the arches and other colored marble for decoration such as flowers.  It's probably a 1000' from the gates to the Taj itself. The Taj is magnificent, huge corner towers tower hundreds of feet, all built with a slight inclination away from the Taj itself to eliminate the optical effect of the towers leaning towards the tower and making the Taj look smaller.  The center dome is almost 600' with the classic mosque like dome.  The entire memorial is built of translucent Indian Marble to allow the maximum amount of sunshine to penetrate into the monument itself.  It's heavily inlaid with precious and semiprecious stone typically to illustrate flowers, vines, and lace like accents.  The detail is really impressive to the point that green leaves have a slightly different color stone inlaid to the spine of the leaf versus the leave itself.  The inside is probably equally or even more impressive, but unfortunately, we couldn't tell.  There is no interior lighting and with the day being a bit overcast there was little light penetrating the walls. Flash photography is prohibited, but the guides are allowed to bring small penlight type flashlights inside.  When those flashlight were touched up against the stones, it was like the stones were lights themselves.  Pretty neat. There was no way of viewing much of anything above 6-8 feet as it was far too dark.  Another interest thing we saw was the Taj is in the process of getting its first bath in centuries.  The difference between the areas that have already been cleaned and those yet to be cleaned was pretty striking.  All in all it was a pretty good adventure.  We headed back to the room for a quick breakfast before heading out to the Agra Fort.

Taj Garden & Water Feature

The Taj Entry With Our Guide Reis

Stone Inlay On Taj Exterior Wall

Some Would Call This "The Idiots Abroad"

The Agra Fort was built by King Akbar The Great, the same king that build Fort Fatehpur Sikri we visited the day before on the way to Agra.  It's a World Heritage Monument.  Like Fatehpur Sikri it combines Islamic and Hindu architecture. 

View From Fort With Taj Mahal In Background

Fort Agra.  These Are The Queen's Quarters

Stone Inlay At Fort Agra, Almost As Good As The Taj Mahal

The Prettiest Girl At Fort Agra.  Check Out The Matching Handbag & Arm Bling!!  Two Snaps!!

Kathy:  It was along drive from Jaipur to Agra but lots of interesting things along the way including camels. Randy talks about Fatehpur Sikri, where we stopped outside of Agra.  I'll just add that it is blend of Islamic and Hindu architecture, the first of it's kind in India.  We had intended to visit an elephant sanctuary next but when we realized it would mean another 2 hours in the car we decided to head to the hotel.  That being said we did see a couple interesting things.
 

This Vehicle Is Rated At 1 CP (Camel Power)

Just A Couple of Geeky Tourists

The next day we visited the Taj Mahal.  It's beautiful, of course, but for some reason I was underwhelmed.  Maybe it was because it was an overcast day, maybe I was tired, maybe it was the scaffolding, maybe I had seen too many pictures of it and my expectations were too high, who knows........ The inlay work wasn't as extensive or elaborate on the outside as I thought it would be and like Randy said, it was hard to see it on the inside because it was so dark.  But I'm glad we got to see it.

We enjoyed our stay at the Agra Courtyard.  The room, the service and the food were all excellent.  A highlight was spending some time getting to know the young Indian bartender.

Tomorrow we're off to Delhi to catch a domestic flight (IndiGo Air) to Varinasi.  Should be interesting.