Celebrity Gods and more in Jaipur

Sunday 30 September: Royal Heritage Hotel, Jaipur

An interesting way to transport a ladder!

Another leisurely morning at our beautiful hotel, the Royal Heritage Haveli in Jaipur, before setting off by bus to the Krishna Temple to experience the Darshan ceremony. During the bus trip, guide Jessica gave us a Hindu 101 briefing.

There are over 330 million Hindu Gods. Many people have a personal god to whom they pray every day. They may also have a family god, to whom they pray several times each year. Idols are very important in worship and households may have their own shrine where the idol of their god resides. The idol is cared for with regular baths, offerings of food and rest periods.

Jessica told us about some of the more important gods. Vishnu is a vegetarian, rides a mythical bird, and his wife is Lakshmi. Shiva is not a vegetarian and rides a bull. Kali sounds fairly terrifying. She was created out of the energy of all the gods, to kill the buffalo headed demon. She managed this by drinking all of his blood. Krishna had over 5000 lovers!

Not sure if we should have felt reassured or
worried about this!

Spot the tourist: Linda and Jan blending into
the waiting crowd

We drove into the City Palace and then walked to the temple, arriving a bit before 11am. There was already quite a crowd, working into a frenzy about the anticipated appearance of the Lord Krishna idol. The crowd surged forward and the chanting increased. Just after 11am the curtain was drawn and there was Lord Krishna in all his glory. The crowd went wild! It was quite an experience.

Hands waving as the Krishna statue is revealed

 

And here he is!!! Sort of a weird character that didn't look familiar to any of us from all of our temple visits

One of the holy men performed a ritual to bless the Krishna statue using fire and chanting. 

Then he walked along the steps of the temple splashing as many devotees as possible with holy water. The crowd pressed forward to receive the water and some touched the holy steps for a blessing.

These peacock feather dusters
seemed a terrible waste of beautiful
feathers!

During the walk back to the bus Jessica pointed out shops where accessories for your home shrine gods could be purchased - different outfits, swings and seats.

We next visited a jewellers for more shopping. The gems were quite spectacular and many dollars were spent.

One very beautiful building.........

......and one not so beautiful -
 a very public urinal!

We returned to the hotel for an afternoon at leisure - lunch, massages and a dip in the pool were popular. Our clothes from the tailor arrived later in the day - there was a mixed reception with some items not as expected and requiring some adjustments. As we were leaving in the morning there was a flurry of activity at the tailors as adjustments were made and then all was well!

Dry roasting the spices

We had a cooking demonstration in the garden later that evening. Chef cooked up a chicken curry, dahl, tempered spice potatoes and fried garlic raita on an open fire. These formed the basis of a delicious dinner in the garden.  

He is going to publish a cookbook which would have been well-received by us. The management of the fire in the local version of a cooker was just as difficult as cooking the food he said.
The recipes were provided the next day so no excuses for any tasteless curries ladies!!

The completed chicken curry - delicious

Beautiful ambience! Hotel Basset Hound Julia joined us for the evening.

A relaxing day that enabled us to regroup for the busy last few days ahead.

Your guest correspondent

Linda

The other J city.......Jaipur

Saturday 29th September: Royal Heritage Haveli Hotel, Jaipur

We had a quiet start to the day: some 7 minute massages as a `taster' for the massages available, a dip in the very lovely cool pool and a leisurely breakfast for all.  Everyone thought their rooms were delightful and each room had a different feature colour. The hotel is a 350 year old royal hunting lodge and most of the buildings are original (although the pool was probably a later addition!).

We headed through the old city admiring the bus driver's skill in avoiding the noisy traffic. Lots of painting and tidying was happening in preparation for a major festival. A couple of camels were spotted, one of which was attached to a cart laden with building rubble: a sad sight.

We also passed the Palace of the Winds which is not actually a palace but a facade of many hidden windows. It allowed the women of the Palace to come and watch parades without being seen. It is on an 85% angle and the windows are latticed so the observers can't be seen by the masses. 

Clutching our credit cards, we arrived at Handcrafts Haveli and emerged a few hours later with them burning hot. Resolutions to resist temptation soon disappeared!

The first section was the carpet weaving: wool, silk, yak wool, camel wool and kashmir (cashmere) were used. The detailed  patterns and the multi-staged process, including hand-knotting, meant they were truly high quality works of art. We then experienced the usual `hard-sell`but it was a chance to feast our eyes on beautiful traditional and modern designs in a huge range of colours and  combinations. There was even a demonstration on how we could fold the carpet to fit in our suitcases!

Silk requires 850 knots to the square
inch so it takes several years to hand knot a rug

An 8' by 10' silk rug takes two people a year to make, and costs about $3000AUD.
 Seems very cheap for the amount of labour.

Next stop was the first floor and textiles. Everything was on offer from clothes to be tailored,  pristine white tablecloths, soft Kashmir shawls and throws, multi coloured cushion covers and doonas, patterned fabrics.....and so much more. With the promise from their tailors that we would be able to receive any new clothes by tomorrow night, we went wild! There was much discussion about styles and colours, dresses or jackets, formal or  informal etc etc. One thing about shopping with other women of a certain age means that strong opinions are expressed about whether your choices are right for you!!

If I'd won Tattslotto I would have taken
 this unique wooden girl home!

Somewhat exhausted from all of the decision making we had some samosas and fresh fruit for lunch before launching into the last part of the store, the antiques and statues department. A million elephants of all shapes and sizes, lots of Rajasthan figures, marble inlaid tables and many ganeshs were on offer and some of us were tempted.

Then it was time to resort to some history and inspect the beauty of the Amber Fort. Again it was perched across the top of a mountain so we were very relieved to see that we could reach the top in jeeps (phew!).

Jessica, our very well-informed guide, showed us the joys of the King's palace and the women's palace. The winter palace and the summer palace known as the Palace of Mirrors for obvious reasons were very ornate, built in local yellow sandstone with some pink and green trims. 

Enjoy those smiles: this photo cost Chris money!!

Man Singh One who founded the palace in the late 1500s was a smart man. He had 12 wives and built them 12 identical apartments around a central courtyard. Each apartment had a secret passage to his bedroom so that when the wife was called the others didn't know.

Looking towards the fortress wall and another fort to defend
 this fort and to provide an escape for the King through
 a secret passage

That dot in the middle of the mirror is me taking this photo!

The winter palace otherwise known as
the Palace of Mirrors

The 16th Century women's quarters decorated with
trees and flowers

There were lots of visitors and hawkers selling their wares so after we wandered around we were happy to get back into the jeeps, and the bus to go somewhere quieter.

This man was selling brightly coloured nuts and grains and then mixed them by hand with fresh salsa made of tomatoes and onions before handing them over in a paper cone. Looked and smelt delicious but we didn't try it.

Me and my new best friend!

The elephant and camel refuge we visited was a lovely surprise. The mission of Dera Amer is to rescue Camels used for cartage from work in the bus city, and to liberate elephants imported from south India for tourists entertainment. We had a great time feeding and watering two of the elephants Lakshmi and Sonya.

Chris getting to know Lakshmi

And a few had a ride on one of the elephants on a mattress on top (approved by the local version of the RSPCA). It helped provide some daily exercise for the elephant. Some others

had a camel cart ride.. and I'm sure the load was far less than the loads they are forced to carry when working in the city.

Then it was time for a G&T on the terrace accompanied by delicious pieces of chicken cooked in their tandoor oven and some potato croquettes...although the big winner was cubes of deep fried cheese toast! (Weight watchers here we come!)
But wait... there's more! Dinner was a fabulous selection of curries, dahl and naan baked in the very hot tandoori oven. It glowed a fearsome orange and the heat it emitted meant we all stood some way back.

Another dazzling array of curries!

 Back on the bus we had to cross town to our hotel amidst the Saturday night crowd. Entertaining and noisy, with everyone using their horns constantly. We were glad to get home in one piece! Your replete correspondent, Dianne

The Jaipur chaos