Last of the three 'J' cities...

         It was catch-up sleep time after last night’s 12 hour journey on Indian railways from Jaisalmer. My hotel, comfortably and quietly situated up an obscure lane, not far from Jaipur city centre, afforded me 10 straight hours of sleep—blissful and needed, after two weeks pounding the India tourist circuit.

View from Hawa Mahal.

 

          Jaipur, capital of the state of Rajasthan, 3.7 million population, (slightly more people than Toronto/GTA) is feted as the “Pink City” of India. Colourful, chaotic as described in Lonely Planet, with streets clogged with camels---did not personally see a single camel! Can report however, that they do keep the cows in better control than in other north Indian cities visited do far, being mostly corralled into small city parks to chew the scanty grass. Cows and the deafening racket of city traffic just do not seem to me to be natural companions.

             The plan of campaign today was to visit the two most well known land marks—:1. Hawa Mahal and  2. Jantar Mantar, first of which defeated me in yesterday afternoon, due to the length of the queue, the scorching sun and the inefficiency of the one man ticket booth. The second of the two is a 7 storey mosque minaret—well worth the climb to the top for the scenic views of this pink city. Monuments in India tend, like most everything else, to be rather dilapidated and run down. Entrance prices for foreign tourists at monument/museums etc., are (brazenly) typically 10 times the rate for locals—I paid a $1 to go in both of these locations---small potatoes, but I suppose it’s the message it sends as to the official welcome policy to overseas tourists. India received in 2012, 5 million tourists, (likely mostly the Indian diaspora, China 58, and France (ranked #1 for tourists) 87 million.

Jantar Mantar--I climbed it...!

              In 1727, the Jaipur city fathers determined that in order to grow, a new city had to be laid out symmetrically and built along- side the old town. The main drag, Nirwan Marg, runs due east and west, in line with the movement of the sun. The government bureaucrats also determined that in order to spruce up the old town, every building had to be painted pink---the traditional colour of hospitality. In 1876, the city was again bathed in pink for the visit of King Edward V11.

            Satisfied, & with these two ports of call completed, headed back to my hotel room, a refugee from the heat---pushing 38C, traffic noise and a pollution level enough to make eyes burn.

              Short stay in Jaipur -- tomorrow all is set up to take the 8.30am express to Delhi, capital city of the Nation.