Namaste! and City Palace, Jaipur

Hello from Gurgaon, India! Much to my surprise, it turns out that I travel quite a bit. Since it's 2014, this means that now I'm a qualified blogger. So, this is my blog.

As you may know, I'll be working in Gurgaon and sightseeing in India until November 7. In this blog, I'll be focusing on non-work-related aspects of the trip. I should mention that because I will be sharing this blog with both work and non-work friends, I've set up the comments to be moderated. I should be able to review comments rather quickly, so please comment away. Also, I'm thinking I will jump around a bit chronologically. Without further ado...

Jaipur, nicknamed Pink City, was the second stop of my first weekend trip. A co-worker and friend, Shweta, was kind enough to organize this trip with her husband Praveen, and cutest three-year-old ever, Tuk Tuk. More on them later. For now, know that they are INCREDIBLY GENEROUS AND KIND. My weekend travelling companions. Tuk Tuk weathering a tickle monsoon here.

Below is a city gate in Jaipur. Notice the color.



Hawa Mahal, or Air Palace, so named for its many windows.



This is the gate before coming to the City Palace in Jaipur.



Below is the gate to City Palace. The proper palace was built in 1732 and the surrounding buildings completed in the 20th century. It was commissioned by Jai Signh II, who ruled the Amber kingdom. (I won't be going into too much NatGeo factology because you can wiki these things. Read about why the city is pink here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Jaipur#History)

Marble elephant sculpture outside the City Palace gate.

The palace itself is below. It is still inhabited by the Singhs. The current king is not of Singh blood. The previous king did not have any sons. His current wife has an adopted son, who is now 17. He is the current king of Jaipur. So, ya know, there's still hope for those of us single people without royal blood to become kings and queens.

This is a door to one of the buildings, I'm not sure which. The palace grounds are expansive and the buildings are numerous.

 The king's public court.

Inside the court are two gigantic silver vessels for holding and transporting water by boat, to and from Britain, among other places. These were made from silver coins.

Vintage percussion instruments for sale on the grounds.

Vintage sitars for sale. The store proprietor said the good ones sell for around $200 U.S.

Near the entrance there was an exhibit devoted to transportation. Buggies on wagon wheels to be pulled by white horses (only the Maharaj was allowed to use white horses). Cabs that went on top of elephants and camels (not sure what these are called.) For elephants...

A stuffed cloth saddle for horse? Camels maybe?

A buggy for horses or camels?

There are quite a few buildings in the palace grounds where photos are not permitted, so I'll tell you about some of these buildings and exhibits instead.

One of the many buildings was devoted to a weapons collection. Bow and arrows, crossbows, turtle shell shields, swords, swords within swords (as in the sheath itself was a sword), knives, camel-mounted guns, rifles, pistols, spears, maces, crowd control devices for when the Maharajas would travel (picture a double-ended knife that you put your hand inside--talk about getting stabby), chainmail. You name it, they had it.

Another building where photos weren't permitted was the king's private court (below). The king ruled the court and settled disputes there. This building had beautiful ornamental designs, painted ceilings, and murals in gold, silver, and copper throughout. Entire chairs, frames, and tables were made of gold and silver. Also the worlds largest crystal chandelier. The paintings of the various rulers since the 18th century were marvelous. Eventually these paintings transitioned to photos. One photo was somehow captured in some type of 3D rendering. I'm not sure how they accomplished this, but it was amazing to look at. The royal family appeared to embody everything you associate with a royal family. Quite simply attractive, dignified, solemn, ostentatious, and noble, of course.

Another building that we were unable to photograph contained clothes and fabrics worn by royalty. One member of their family was 7 feet tall and 500 pounds! I wish I could've taken a picture of his clothing (sherwani?). It looked like a beautiful, enormous, gold picnic blanket. This same building housed an exhibit detailing the family's absolutely outstanding polo tradition. As a sportsman (I love that word), I found this fascinating. From 1930 to 1938, the city of Jaipur's polo team was undefeated. This includes international tournament matches. Incredible! And they looked good doing it, too! (I'm trying to find a digital image of the photograph of the polo team that I saw in this building. Definitely worth a thousand words.) The king of Jaipur is known as a Sawai. This means that he has one quarter more strength and intelligence than his contemperaries. It's hard to argue that the king embodied this impossible quality considering his outstanding polo record! I hope I can be a Sawai someday. ;)

As I write this, the monsoon begins. It is 12:51pm on Wednesday--which has new meaning for me, since I now equate it with actual, live camels. The Delhi area hadn't gotten much rain before I showed up, which is odd for monsoon season. Now? It rains everyday. I joked that I am the Rainmaker. Of course, this isn't true because Minneapolis was bone dry before I left. After this afternoon's rain it will most likely be HOT.

Alright. I have to get ready for work so I'm ready for Rajinder, the driver. I'm sure I'll pick the blog back up tonight. Until then, forgive me for my grammar and spelling. Peace!