A TRIP TO DELHI, RAJASTHAN AND AGRA part 2

The train arrived in Jaipur early in the morning on Mar. 2 and we were awakened periodically by announcements of other train arrivals and departures. We had a nice breakfast and left for the city. Our first stop was a famous place where we are told that the royal Mughal women would be to watch ceremonies down below. They were not allowed to be seen. The place is pretty, but you are not told ahead of time that you do not go inside and the street outside is very congested and noisy. We stayed only a short time and then boarded our small bus to go off to Jaipur Fort. They called it the Amber Fort. Possibly because of the yellowish tint, but perhaps for another reason. This is a big place and we road elephants up to the fort- this seems to be a custom here, though many do not. The ride was not all that comfortable and while the ride was paid for, everyone expects tips too. We like to think the elephant got a bit more food. We road elephants in Thailand a bit more than a year ago, but there we road in the driver's seat and got our Mahout training certificates. We toured part of the fort and found it interesting at the time, but now we don't remember what we saw inside! We left the fort by riding in an old jeep that seemed more risky than the elephant, but it was fine. We found our bus, but while waiting there we were briefly entertained by a snake charmer who quickly put the basket lid back over his cobra after he got his tips.
We then went to the city palace of Jaipur. The Maharaja of Jaipur was apparently one of the wealthier ones, but the Maharajas no longer have much power, though they have some wealth and influence. Most palaces are now used partly or wholey as hotels, restaurants or tourist sites. The city palace has some good restaurants and we ate in one of the more private areas and had live music that was quite good. The RROW arranged for good and simple entertainment. After lunch we toured a bit of the city palace and saw the giant silver water vessels that the Maharaja took with him to England back in the early 1900's. In late afternoon we visited the Observatory. Here are a number of astronomical instrument of very grand scale that were built for the Maharaja long ago. They are very impressive. They include sundials that are supposed to be accurate to about 20 seconds and one that is basically 10 x larger that is supposed to be accurate to about 2 seconds. There are various instruments for each sign of the zodiac as well. This was interesting and we wanted to know more but the book shops charged an astronomical price for the astronomy books and we didn't have time to look at other places. These were two themes for this trip- not much time and too high prices! We did visit some shops, but not many. Jaipur is known as a huge center for crafts of various kinds, but we only had time to visit one place that specialized in rugs and hand printed fabrics and another place that made jewelry. Both were very nice but a bit expensive. We had dinner on the train as we left for Jaisalmer.
We liked Jaisalmer. The train arrived in the morning and we took a short ride on the small bus that drove overnight to meet us in order to visit an old man made lake- Gadisar Lake- that now has a number of shrines around it. The lwater level was low and we saw sands blowing in the wind on the far end of the lake- it made it clear that this is desert! The lake is full of catfish and when you throw in some bread as offerings to them, they swarm around the food. People apparently do not take the fish because this place is some sort of shrine, but it seems like it might not be a bad idea to lower the stock some. There is a nice view of the fort from close to this lake.
We then went to the fort which is heavily inhabited. We later heard that the fort is endangered due to some sort of drainage issues. We did not see a lot inside the fort. We did see a couple very nice Jain temples and then went to see some "Haveli's". These are rather nice homes made of stone where the facade is, normally, heavily carved to essentially turn the stone into screens that allow air to flow through while keeping birds and many insects out. The quality and quantity of workmanship is astounding! One place is partly a museum which was mildly interesting. Another place is owned by descendants of the original owner, but they have less money now so part of the place is a very nice craft shop. In this place we could feel the breeze coming through the house. We were also told that two men were responsible for building the place and they had free hand to do what they pleased in the way of decoration. The result is that one side of the place has a different style of decoration than the other and they two meet in some of the rooms. Both side are quite remarkable! In one book we read that a "Haveli" is, essentially, the large home of a merchant. One of our guides said that a group of Haveli's once belonged to some brothers who made their money in the Opium trade.
After we left the fort we went back to the train for lunch and rest during the hot afternoon. At 4PM we left in our bus to go out west of the city to see more desert and to take a camel ride. This was more fun than we expected it to be. The camels were well behaved and we just went for a short walk out on the sand dunes. We could see camels being ridden all over! After our little adventure we had tea and then roa dback to the train to clean up for dinner. We left the train for a very nice hotel and had some local musicians, singers and dancers perform. This was good and simple entertainment, though it was a little marred by complaints from a tour guide for a larger group of French tourists. We did not understand what the complaint was about the French were fine and seemed to enjoy the show, but the guide was obnoxious. We returned to the train after dinner at the hotel. The train left for Jodhpur.