Our first full day in Jaipur sees us heading back the way we went last night, but past the turning for the ridge, and on to Amer Fort, often known in English as Amber Fort, it has no connection with the semi-precious stone of the same name. Here we do a little snake-charming before we swap to a Jeep.
At the foot of the fort’s impressive entrance we swap to our next 4×4, this time organic. Our transport is called Monica, and she slowly takes us to the upper entrance. We are bombarded with photographers and salesmen, it’s quite a thing here despite signs everywhere saying they are forbidden. Pretending we cannot speak English doesn’t work as they simply switch to French, Spanish, German, whatever to get that sale made!
Built from 1599 over a period of nearly 200 years by successive Maharajas, it’s also connected by tunnels to the two adjacent forts which are there just to hold the military. Surrounding it all is a wall not unlike the Great Wall but only two horses wide.
Once inside the fort we’re spared the hawkers and can move on to explore this incredible place.
We enter through the Sun Gate, where armies assembled to display their recent bounties and perform celebrations after a campaign. Meanwhile through the lattice work above, the wives and other womenfolk could watch on anonymously.
We view the sauna and baths, the Royal toilet and various elegant rooms on this level, much favoured for pre-wedding photography, including the glass-tiled starlight room.
We take the Ganesh Gate to an inner courtyard where the Maharaja would have held court, and then on to subsequent areas for living and entertaining his wives and concubines.
We return by Jeep, having run the hawker photographer gauntlet repeatedly by this time. Now we’re heading to a carpet / textiles co-operative. It’s set up as a demonstration room but the wares that are sold are from the collective‘s three hundred or so members.
We get to see carpets being woven, in either camel’s wool or silk, plus the additional processes from trimming to washing. Mark tries his hand a block-printing, another local trade. We get an opportunity to buy a carpet, see some fabulous designs and even get offered reasonable prices, but not only do we not need one, theres no way we would buy anything without our interior designer’s permission anyway!!
Instead we ordered a couple of made-to-measure shirts, which will be done within the day and delivered to our hotel.
We stop for a photoshoot, not sure which stole the show! Then it’s a late lunch, and off for a massage. Although it was good I don’t think it was incredible, and our ladies we used to go to in Barnsley – Claire, Helen and Beth – were just as powerful.
I follow all this with a few hours working on a server problem, and before we know it it’s time to shower and dress for dinner.
