.....and in conclusion

We've been back a few days now, and India still dominates our thoughts!  An incredible variety of sights and experiences, a number of mixed feelings, and no doubt done in far too little time, but on the other hand, a lifetime probably wouldn't be enough to do the whole country justice.   Our short trip will have to suffice for us.   However, I do propose to re-read Holy Cow. 

My sleeping patterns are still disrupted, far more than I would have expected a 5½ hour change to cause.  Moreover, it was only after I'd been back for a day or so that the effects started to manifest themselves.  I think there's an age factor in play here.

I'm also conscious that a number of my posts glossed over some of the sights that we saw.    Originally, I thought I might go back over some of the posts (done "on the run") and expand on them, but I'm not sure that this would really be productive.

There's one exception.   In my earlier blog post, I didn't do justice to the Jantar Mantar at Jaipur.   As I said then, this is a historic observatory at Jaipur, with large astronomical instruments.     I see from Wikipedia that it's a collection of nineteen architectural astronomical instruments, built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II (who laid out the city of Jaipur), begun in 1727 and completed in 1734. It features the world's largest stone sundial, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  There were five Jantar Mantar monuments in India;  others are at Delhi, which dates from 1724, Varanasi and Ujjain.  The fifth, the Muttra observatory, is gone.

We had a local guide take us around, and I'm sure his technical explanations were good.  At first, the observatory seems to be just a curious collection of sculptures, but each construction has a specific purpose such as telling the time and measuring the positions of stars and planets, altitudes and calculating eclipses.    I fear that most of what the guide told us was rather lost on our group! Just the same, the fact that so much detailed technical knowledge existed in those days was amazing in itself.

I won't attempt to describe the function of each instrument shown in the images below!

So, that's it for this blog.   I'm going to give blogging a rest for a little while, but I anticipate resuming my day-to-day blog (or a successor?) shortly.

Back to Delhi

We made an early start for the nearly 300 km drive back to Delhi, or more precisely, Gurgaon, which appears to be a recently developed precinct and technically is just outside the Delhi urban area (it's in the state of Haryana).    However, for all intents and purposes it seems to be part of the Delhi urban sprawl, and is connected to Delhi by the new Metro train.  The airport is on the same side of the city, so being here should facilitate our departure arrangements late tomorrow.

Apart from a short "shopping opportunity" at a carpet factory and a coffee stop, we headed straight up the highway.    This was dual carriageway for most of the way, and has a couple of toll points.   But toll roads here aren't limited access!   You still pass through towns of various sizes, and there are roadworks and slowings for no apparent reason (sometimes with humps in the road!), as well as various traffic issues, such as slow moving trucks, tractors, auto-rickshaws in the towns.....whatever!

It was nice to get to our accommodation in time for a late lunch.  This evening we head out for dinner and a "Bollywood" show (whatever that means!).

Anyone for a carpet?  (Yes, a couple of our group made purchases)

Modern buildings at Jaipur, not far from the shanties

Toll point

Typical truck - peripheral vision for the driver apparently isn't required!

Jaipur

Jaipiur as a city was somewhat of a disappointment.     Yes, the hotel is lovely (the best yet, but located a distance from the centre), and the Divali dinner last night was great, but I expected more from the old town, described as the "Pink city".   In fact, it's all rather shabby.    We drove past the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds), and continued to the Amber Fort (named after its location, not its colour).   This involves a jeep ride for the climb up the hill;  an interesting experience.  The Fort is, as we've now come to expect, a series of chambers and courtyards, and quite impressive in its own way.

This was followed by a "shopping opportunity" (featuring semi-precious stones, for which Jaipur is traditionally noted), lunch and then a visit to Jantar Mantar, a historic observatory  and the City Palace.   The observatory was fascinating.  A guide explained how each of the large instruments was intended to operate, but since I'm not an astronomer, I couldn't really follow the details.

Dinner in the evening was at Ikaki Niwas, a B&B operated by a Rajasthani family. It's operated by a husband and wife couple, and as is typical, the house (a large one) is owned by the husband's parents, who also live there.  The husband spent some time working for a large US company and both he and his wife speak excellent English, yet the family arrangements are still very traditional.   We were briefly introduced to the mother.   Dinner was preceded by a cooking demonstration, mainly conducted by Devika (but the husband took over briefly when she went to settle the 3 month old baby!)   At dinner I sat next to Devika (the wife), and the interesting discussion around the table covered matters such as arranged marriages (as hers was), big weddings, family life, the prevalence of mobile phones in India (even amongst those who at first sight might be thought to have other prior calls on their means) and more.

Palace of the Winds

Gateway, Amber Fort

Decorative detail

One of the courtyards

View into chambers

Looking out from Fort

Elephants to take tourists up and down (optional!)

Observatory instrument

Part of City Palace

Shabbiness, Jaipur

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Agra to Jaipur

It was Diwali, and we had a long and very full day travelling from Agra to Jaipur across the flatness of Rajasthan.   So much to fit in!   I can't do it justice in this post, so may have to come back later with more details.   We explored the deserted (but very well preserved) palace of Fatehpur Sikri (occupied only for 14 years by Emperor Akbar), had lunch at the Raj's palace at Bharatpur (now as luxury hotel), inspected the Chand Baori Stepwell at Abhaneri before arriving in Jaipur to a lavish Diwali Festival dinner.

Bus decorated for Diwali

One of several courtyards at Fatehpur Sikri

Detail in the stonework

Stepwell

Welcome to Dewali dinner!

Fireworks for Diwali, and then more fireworks!