The road from Agra to Jaipur has a couple of amazing stops en route. The first, Fatehpur Sikri, is a palace and city that was constructed by the Mughal Empire. This was their capital for a short 30 years as they built it in an area that suffered from drought so they quickly abandoned it.
 |
| Lake at Fatehpur Sikri |
 |
| Rob at Fatehpur Sikri |
The second, possibly less well known stop is a temple called Galta which is an (actual) monkey temple. We hadn’t really figured this out going up to it and we were a bit surprised to be offered monkey nuts for sale by the hawkers. The temple, in the middle of nowhere, requires you to walk through a village and up a hills worth of steps and then all of a sudden you’re in monkey town.
Thankfully we met “the monkey man”, a lovely fellow who has apparently been on National Geographic a couple of times. As I understand it he is the custodian of the monkeys and we were just lucky to meet him as it was feeding time. He gave us a quick tour which included getting up close and personal with some of the locals. This was amazing – monkey hands feel like (strong) little people hands when they grab you, it’s a very strange sensation. Also, when they start fighting over the food that you have in your hand it all gets a little freaky but “the monkey man” knew what he was doing:
 |
| Feeding the monkeys |
 |
| It's a monkey's life! |
 |
| Monkey Business! |
 |
| Rob & The Monkey Man |
 |
| Can I take my photo with you |
Jaipur itself has retained an incredible amount of its history. It apparently never fell to an enemy once the city walls were built and in modern times the Jaipur Raj’s formed a healthy alliance with the British when they arrived in India. The Jaipur regional royal family seems to be revered by the local population and they claim some notable achievements in fields such as astronomy and modernising India.
The city walls encircle the hills that surround the city and would make for beautiful days of hiking in the Indian winter time. At 40+ degrees Celsius though, we just looked and enjoyed the views. The forts along and inside these walls are grand with a different fort for war time, peace time and a summer palace in the middle of a lake – not a bad way to live.
 |
| Jaipur City Walls |
 |
| Hawa Mahal - Wind Palace |
The wartime fort houses what is apparently the largest free standing cannon in the world (Note: I don’t actually believe this). It required 4 elephants to maneuver it and it was such a deterrent that its services were never required in anger. The Raj’s of Jaipur also have an excellent armory museum where photos weren’t allowed. The highlights include some very fancy looking scimitars and complicated hand weapons. My favourite was a dueling sword with a small pistol cleverly hidden in the sword handle should your opponent happen to get the upper hand.
 |
| Cannon at Wartime Fort |
Along with all the palaces the same dynasty also built an observatory called Jantar Mantar in the 18th century. You’ve got to go there in the sunshine to see most of the equipment in action (telling the time, lines of latitude & longtitude, relative locations of heavenly bodies etc…). It’s a world heritage site and you can see why. It’s amazing what these guys came up with without the technology we have today.
 |
| Jantar Mantar |
Jantar Mantar was tough going in the high forties as there’s no shelter for obvious reasons but the ladies cutting the grass didn’t seem to mind. These ladies can be seen everywhere there iss grass and best I can tell, they cut the grass with a scythe, carry it on their heads to the nearest livestock and sell it to the owner for food.
 |
| Grass cutting at Jantar Mantar |
As our time in India came drew to a close, we thought about all the crazy and amazing things we had seen, a lot of which we haven't even written about as it would take up so much space. It really is an incredible country, but one I think that you have put a lot of effort in before you get something back. We wondered whether Thailand would produce similar feelings...
 |
| Goodbye from India! |
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete