Jaipur

Known as the pink city, Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan. The nickname comes from the color of the old city and it has been that color since 1853, when the Maharaja painted the city pink as a symbol of welcoming for a visit by the Prince of Wales. The colour is more of an orange, which covers many of the buildings, gates and walls of the old city. Before the capital was moved to its current location, it was located in the Amber Fort, which lies just north of the current city. Above the city is the Tiger Fort, which is tactically built on a easily defensable hill above the city, but appears to have served the purpose of defending the chastity of the Maharajah's nine wives. The ladies lived in a palace overlooking the city with nine identical apartments surrounding a common courtyard. In the old city there is the obligatory city palace, but more notable is the large Observatory, one of five the Maharajah built across India, which is also the largest and best preserved. In addition, the observatory is home to the Guinness Book record for the largest sun dial. There is much more to the city than this, but these are some of the main attractions I visited during my stay.

In the old city we walked the markets several times and it was interesting to see the shift in crowds and number of open store fronts from day to day. One day it would be packed with people and all the stalls seemed to be open with merchandise flooding out into the sidewalks and street and the next day only a few stalls were opened and the steets seemed nearly abandoned. On our last night, we attempted to take a rickshaw through the city and the streets were so packed the few kilometers took an hour to travel and the amount of exhaust fumes we inhaled probably shaved five years off of our lives.

The traffic jam appeared to be a combination of several factors. First, Indian drivers as well as pedestrians believe orderly lines, queues or traffic lanes are much less efficient than anarchy and will attempt to pass and/or fill every inch of road available until they have achieved complete gridlock, which they believe they can sort out simply by laying on the horn. Second, the pedestrians, bikes, cows and anything else trying to cross the road does so at will, rather than waiting on lights or commands from traffic police. Third, in Jaipur, they have built small shrines IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, which happen to be most popular at rush hour. Fourth, the road narrows from two lanes, which are treated like four, into a single lane through the city gate. And fifth, a guru of some kind was having a street party just outside the city walls and had a semi trailor parked in the outside lane and hundreds of followers dancing in the streets... What they really need is an urban planning guru to sort the whole mess out.

Fortunately for us, we had a entertaining rickshaw driver that refered to himself as James Bond and even had the 007 stitched into the back window of his cart. He was an avid fan of Hollywood films and rattled off a collection of favorite films and actors and even sang us a tune or two along the way. He acknowledged his singing was a little off key, but he made up for it with heart. I only wished his rickshaw had a turbo and he could have gotten us out of the traffic jam like the one in Octopussy.

The last thing to note from Jaipur was our experience going to a Bollywood film. We arrived at the theatre and found the foyer looked more like that of a posh opera house than movie house. It had glittering chandaliers and grand staircases to the entrances into the movie hall. Due to security concerns pictures were not allowed, but plenty of tourist were trying to sneak photos anyway. In the center there was a small display with quotations from famous people and polititians in referance to the impressive foyer as well. We were expecting a Bollywood musical packed with songs and choriographed dance routines, but ended up with a suspense/who done it film, 8x10, about a Canadian Forest Protection Service Ranger that has the ability to see the past by looking at photos of time in question. The film stars were Indian as was the dialogue, but it was filmed in Canada and had English words scattered throughout the dialogue. The plot had the FPS Ranger trying to determine who killed his father shortly after a photo of his father and three friends was taken on a boat just before he fell off the boat to his untimely death. In the end it is the son's twin brother (who was kept out of the film until the end) that planned the murder along with the Ranger's fiance, who was actually in love with the twin. The twists were outrageous/ hilarious as were the action scenes, like the game of chicken between the star on foot and and SUV (the SUV chickens out rather than running our hero over). Two tour groups went to the film, but one bailed at intermission because they expected a musical, however when we recounted the second half's outrageous twists, they regretted leaving.