Though it somewhat belies the title, I write this entry from my Home Chennice Home. Partly because I'm still in "holiday" mode, partly because I am neurotic and want to record systematically and report equally. So before I get to uploading photos and crafting captions that will never be adequate, I remember the golden hills of Rajasthan:
Jaipur. Another city-love at first sight. Well, my first sight by daylight. After a long delay and a choppy train ride, I did not have a lot of love for the streets anywhere at 4am. But when Joey and I awoke to a cool breeze wafting its way through the cracked shutters and wandered out to the garden for homemade french toast and chocolate-banana crepes, I knew Jaipur would live up to my expectations. Our time was short but sweet, and my expectations were exceeded.
After chatting with the lovely husband and wife owners of Krishna Palace -- the heritage homestay we stayed at and enjoyed many delicious meals at -- Joey and I bargained with an auto rickshaw driver to be our tour guide for the day. We departed our quiet, peaceful neighborhood and entered the traffic. The traffic: the usual tour buses, trucks and lorries, junk cars and luxury automobiles, cows pulling carts, plus bicycle rickshaws galore, really tall, snooty looking camels pulling carts full of assorted goods and people, painted elephants carrying passengers and mostly young boys with reigns (whips), scrawny street dogs fighting swine and dirty piglets for trash lining the alley shortcuts our auto driver took at breakneck speed. A crazy city.
In the 11th century, Jaipur was known as "Amer," an imposing military town. Today, the Amber Fort remains an impressive testament to those days gone by. We loved walking around the seemingly empty palace -- plenty of ruins to explore without other noisy tourists and many unlocked doors and halls that didn't have signs posted that we should not enter, so we obviously took that as invitation to enter. Amazing views of the surrounding city of Jaipur below -- a mix of modern buildings and regal, Mughal towers, domes and mosque minarets, separated by lined streets and joined by thick, pink arched gates. A city of past and present.
Satisfied by the palatial ruins of the Amber Fort, we were not expecting to be so wowed by our next historic destination: the Sun Palace. AKA Monkey Temple. Our auto driver dropped us off on a desolate side street; a few guys selling chai and tacky bangles etc, plus some cows munching refuse and, as we had hoped to discover: monkeys. But oh so many more monkeys than we had hoped for! We walked up the rocky path, unsure which way to go because there were no signs anywhere. Not many people either. We continued to climb, pausing now and then to point and photograph the increasingly amazing view of Jaipur below and beyond. Then we turned a bend and came upon a few abandoned houses, stores, temples? A few men with magical white beards and red paste and tumeric smeared on their wrinkled foreheads peeped out at us. I surmise they are Hindu priests or spiritual gurus perpetuating the mysteries of the bizarre, wonderful city. One was singing, chanting as we walked by. A clear, deep voice that commanded rapt attention precisely because it sang to no one at all.
We stumbled up and down the uneven path, feeding monkeys from our hands -- tentatively at first and then (Joey) tauntingly. We passed a few women with a bundled baby and baskets of cobras (yes, real live cobra snakes they swatted casually then shoved towards us, asking for photos and rupees). The sunlight started to dance on the rocks, growing taller and wider around us. And then we reached a well-preserved ancient, tiny town. Or maybe it was once a single large estate that housed the temple dedicated to monkeys. A young man bathed in a square pool of dirty standing water, some sort of ritual observed by a small group of family members. Another small group of foreigners were finishing up their tour of the otherwise non-touristy town. Joey and I examined frescoes of Hindu gods and ancient legends; ornate doors and beautiful archways painted once-bold, still-beautiful shades of green, teal, burgundy, orange. We walked into one of the simple, amazing temples and discovered the courtyard was empty but for a small room -- where a dozen or so young students sat on the floor reciting Sanskrit for their instructor. A secret city.
In addition to the stunning architectural details and vistas from several almost too-good-to-be-true vantage points, I loved Jaipur for the craft she has generated over the centuries and now revived: hand block printing. Essentially, it is a method of printing cloth with handcrafted wooden stamps using vegetable dyes, over and over and over, to create a patterned length of (gorgeous) material. Perfect for wearing or furnishing or simply looking. There is more love for Jaipur, but I think I need more time to find the words.
Rather unfortunately, Joey's experience of Jaipur was halved by a nasty stomach bug he's still fighting, mightily. Not sure if it was the spicy crunchy snack mix we ate out of a cone of newspaper from the man in a turban on the side of the road, or a virus completely unrelated to foreign food. On the bright side, of all the places we stayed, the Krishna Palace really was the most delightful place to suffer from fever and migraine. As we said sad goodbyes to Jaipur for the airport (with Joey still feverish and full of only four pieces of small toast plus some Advil), Nicolette and Magda called to propose a revision to the itinerary: skip Cochin and head back to Chennice instead. As last minute things sometimes do, the plan worked out perfectly. Although I guess the perfection started after we had survived a night spent in various positions of uncomfortable at the Mumbai airport (in my attempt to be both adventurous and stingy, I'd purposefully booked an overnight layover to save on a six-hour hotel stay. Bummer.) Needless to say, we are glad to be home and enjoying a day of rest.
I know I will need many more days to reflect on the complex beauty and astounding history we glimpsed -- and experienced -- in our whirlwind travels up North. I'll try to post a few of those thoughts here.
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