Doing it Properly: My Second Day of Touring About Jaipur

After the the disappointing day of touring around the sights of Jaipur with Ali, well some of them anyway, I was faced with a decision. I could either head on to Agra and leave Jaipur behind as a somewhat disappointing destination, or I could stay on for another day and see a few more spots, chief among them the rest of the spots on the composite ticket. I didn't want to leave Jaipur with that kind of sour note, so I decided to stay on for one more day. I really did want to go and see Nahargarh Fort, sitting as it was in such a dominating and imposing spot atop the hill above Jaipur's Old City.

So I got up and out of the hotel considerably earlier than I had with Ali. I left right about 9 am. I first headed into the old city to have a look at the site called Hawa Mahal. I walked to about the white tower and then started hunting around. I thought it might be down a street nearby, so I headed down there. But I wasn't really sure where exactly I was headed, so I stopped and asked a police officer. I read somewhere that they are quite friendly and helpful to tourists in Jaipur. And they were, at least the few I had consulted so far had been. The officer I asked happily pointed me in the right direction to reach Hawa Mahal and sent me on my way. I followed his directions, hoping I was doing it right and reached the spot easily. I arrived at the outside facade of the building. It is a beautiful pink sandstone facade.

But there was no ticket spot. So I wasn't sure if I had maybe followed the officers directions incorrectly. It clearly said on the composite ticket that it was included in the sites one could visit. Yet there seemed to be no place to get it punched. It wouldn't make sense to include it if it was free, so I figured I must have missed something. I started asking the people around if there was a way in. One taxi guide told me it was in the back (just as I noticed a sign pointing the way into the ticketing area), and then he told me that it wasn't worth going into. I told him I was going to go anyway as it was part of the ticket, and he smiled his understanding. I headed in and became glad that I wasn't really going to listen to his advice. It was a very interesting building with five levels. It had nothing inside it by way of furniture or other items that weren't walls or doors, but it was quite a nice building anyway, and it had a great view from the fifth level, the level that gave the building its name.

I also figured out what an even bigger idiot Ali was as I looked out from the top of the Hawa Mahal at some of the astronomical instruments of Jantar Mantar practically right next to Hawa Mahal. I got really annoyed with Ali right then, even though I couldn't call him out on it at all. I just had to hope that he started getting people giving him more of a hard time about his “skills” as a driver.

Then I set out to find the way up the mountain to Nahargarh Fort. I had seen the path to walk up on Google Earth. And I knew roughly where I would find it, but I didn't have a clear idea how to get to it. Luckily one of the guides outside Hawa Mahal had a good sense of humour about people who didn't want guides. He also wasn't particularly bitter about it and gave me excellent directions on how to get to the walking path to Nahargarh Fort. I found it easily.

And I headed up. It was quite steep and, in the growing heat of the day, it was quite a workout.

I hadn't been particularly surprised to find that the entry fee for Hawa Mahal was 50 rupees. It was just a small building with nothing much inside it. It wouldn't have been worth a lot more than 50 rupees to anyone. But I thought that the Nahargarh Fort would have a larger entry fee, 100 or maybe 150 rupees. I mean it sits like some sentinel over the city. I figured it would have a good number of visitors and be quite busy. I was wrong. The entrance fee was only 30 rupees. And it was almost empty, except for workers who were doing restoration work on the fort. Clearly this was not a high priority tourist site for the city of Jaipur. I don't know if it was the long road to get there by car or rickshaw, or the strenuous hike to get up the walking path, but it is not very well touristed. Whatever the reason, I was very surprised. It has such a commanding presence I would have thought that there would be lots of people visiting, at least Jaipurians if not tourists.

I think they are preparing it to be a more important tourist draw as they are putting a lot of work into restoring the structure of the palace.

Another hindrance to that palace becoming a big tourist draw is its size. It's not a very big palace and there is not really much to explore. The palace/fort grounds are large with the whole mountain being enclosed inside a protective wall, but the palace itself is really only nine royal apartments strung together with an entrance gate to protect them.

There are a couple of other buildings in the immediate area, but none are particularly large.

The inside is quite well-preserved, or maybe it's restored.

And the palace does give a nice view down over the city.

I did feel very sorry for this poor fellow. He was cowering in an ever-shrinking bit of shade.

Then it was on to another site at the top of a different hill. I was hoping against hope that there would be some way around the top of the hill on which Nahargarh was located, and that I could get to the Ganesh Temple without having to climb all the way down the hill and then all the way up again. Alas, it was not possible. If I wanted to visit the temple I had to make another climb.

But the Ganesh Temple was supposed to be quite nice, from what I had heard, so I thought it might be worth it. So I headed up the steps, the steep steps, the seemingly unending steps towards the large temple at the top.

Finally I reached the top, only to find that it was closed. It was closed between noon and 4 in the afternoon. I wish they had a sign at the bottom announcing that. So I watched the goats walking around at the top for a while. I wasn't the only one who was disappointed though. There were a couple of girls from Portugal climbing up as well and they felt like I did. Sigh!!!

Back at the bottom after spending a few minutes near the temple, I headed for a final spot. Back near the center of the city was a place called Albert Hall. This was a place that was built in honour of a visit by Britain's crown prince Albert back in the early 1900's. Now it was a museum and heritage building. I ended up being too bushed to try and figure out its location by myself, so I allowed myself to be stopped by a pedi-rickshaw driver and taken to Albert Hall. He was actually a somewhat handicapped man, both mentally and physically, but he had a really nice feeling about him. I enjoyed that ride very much.

He dropped me off at the hall and I went in. Albert Hall was the final spot on the composite ticket, and I had half expected it to be another kind of nothing place to visit. After Nahargarh Fort was empty and neglected and Hawa Mahal was a small place also. They both seemed to be somewhat like relatives you really don't talk about. I imagined Albert Hall to be in the same vein. In fact, it is a very interesting museum. Much thought and care went into its construction, although its original purpose was unknown. The ruler who commissioned it for Prince Albert's visit, in what the audio guide commentator called a funny story, died suddenly (I'm not sure the principals would concur that it was a funny story) and the successor wasn't sure what to do next. But the architects and planners put together a beautiful building that used styles from all kinds of different cultures and regions. They even pioneered a new style, but the name of the style passed too quickly for me to hear it properly. It was something like Mugho-Saracenic. All over the outside there are frescoes from Indian, Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese, Japanese, and other cultures and societies and myths. It is amazing.

Inside there are collections of things from all over the world as well. It is not a really big museum, but it is very well presented. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

During my visit, I got the audio guide there as well to listen as I walked around. One of the attendants for the audio-guide booth approached me and wanted to take me home to meet his family. I don't know why this is such a thing to do in this country, and this city in particular. I had been invited to people's homes four or five times in my three days in Jaipur. I didn't really want to as I was getting quite tired from a long day, but I eventually agreed. It could be nice. I went to the coffee shop and waited for him to finish work. Then he brought me to his house to meet his family. We spent an hour and a half chatting and eating snacks. He has a nice family. They are Sikhs and his father works in a bank. They want to emigrate to Canada, and his father thinks he has enough points to get the visa. They were very nice to me. Then Raman took me to the bus stop and sent me on my way, reluctantly. He asked me over and over again if I was really going to leave Jaipur the next day. And over and over again, I kept saying yes, it was time for me to be moving on.

It was time to leave, having gotten a better impression of Jaipur than Ali had left me with.