Photo post: forts, vegetables, independence

I’m trying to avoid typing too much as my arms hurt lately, but here’s a quick blog post ofsome recent sights. Last weekend we took a tour of the three major forts in the Jaipur area. This photo is on the road to Amer Fort:

Apparently you can take an elephant ride up to the fort, though we were such a big group that this was not an option for us.

The forts are, as usual, breathtakingly intricate and beautiful. If only we could rent one of these for our wedding reception! (Actually, we could, it’s just prohibitively expensive…)

India has such beautiful old buildings. Hundreds of years old, crumbling, and lived in. They’re fascinating to look at. I think I could just look at old buildings all day.

From Amer fort there is an old wall that extends around what used to be the capital of Rajasthan. It reminds me of the Great Wall of China except, well, smaller.

Beautiful.

Old, old, OLD paintings in the fort:

A view from the top of one of the forts out over the city of Jaipur:

I just liked the little turret thingies:

I was telling my friend Bill the other day that I’ve gotten rather fond of the fruit and vegetable carts that are pushed around the streets every day. We ran into this fellow outside our school one day:

On August 15th, India’s independence day, we went out shopping. We saw some people celebrating on the street. Ironically, a number of people wished us “Happy Indian Independence Day.” In English.

Okay, back to work! I’ve got a ten-page paper due tomorrow and I’m only on page 6!

I’d hate to see what the Harlem of Jaipur looks like

First, an apology: I managed to get sick. AGAIN. No stomach problems this time, just an intense fever and general aches. It’s passed now, but it kept me busy for a while. (Meaning: it kept me buried under multiple blankets in 84-degree heat for a while.)

Second, some appreciation: Last week I received a care package from Matthew and some letters from my mother and it was wonderful. Both of them sent pictures and cards, and in the box from Matthew there was home-baked cookies, lots of dried fruits, Nutella, and SOFT TOILET PAPER. Now I know I am loved. And as Matthew pointed out, I’ll think of him every time I wipe my butt with the plush goodness that is American toilet paper.

On the afternoon that I was walking home from school with that package, it had just rained and the streets were wet and puddley. There is a corner by our house where there is a community piss pot, I think I’ve mentioned this, the olfactory nightmare in which men pee at all hours of the day and night. Next to this is a dumpster, whose trash is more often on the ground than in the dumpster, and around which dogs, pigs, and people tend to gather, picking through the trash. As I walked pass this corner on the day that I received my present in the mail, I saw a puddle from the recent rain nestled in the midst of a rather wide pile of trash.  And in the middle of this filthy puddle, with garbage floating all around it, an enormously fat pig was wallowing gleefully. The scene was perfect: the heavy stench of urine and waste and largest pig I have ever seen wallowing in filthy water surrounded by garbage. I thought to myself, This is India. My entire trip can be summed up by this one scene. And I still regret that my hands were too full to get out my camera and take a picture.

In one of our dinner conversations about how we don’t really have to worry about terrorist bombs, someone pointed out that our school and our house is in the “Fifth Avenue” of Jaipur. Or the “Upper East Side” of Jaipur. We apparently live in a classy neighborhood. Who knew? From the harassment, stench, filth, garbage, human waste, poverty, beggars, dirt, dust, trash, and sewage, I would not have imagined our neighborhood to be one of the upper-class neighborhoods of Jaipur. I will never, ever, EVER take for granted again my nice clean street in Madison, with its functioning sewer and water, electricity that runs consistently, and a notable lack of livestock roaming the streets. Never.

picture post: hawa mahel, snake charmer, city palace, jantar mantar

I’m trying to cobble together a picture post here; let me know if you can’t see them. It’s been a bit of a tricky process.

Yesterday we went to the Hawa Mahel (literally, “Place of winds.”) It’s a one-room deep giant wall that was built so the “ladies of the royal household” (read: harem) could watch street events without being seen (I believe they were under purdah). It’s tall but only one room deep, so it looks rather a bit funny, but the architecture is really detailed and beautiful:

I was a bit surprised at how small the rooms and hallways were, though:

This is the view of the back of the Hawa Mahel. We were on top of a little turret-thinger (I don’t know what it was used for) when I took this one.

This is a picture of some of the scaffolding used in construction on the Hawa Mahel. All the scaffolding here is like this. It looks like trees tied together.

Here’s a picture of the front of the Hawa Mahel. Beautiful, no? You can see all the little rooms with their screens and windows that the ladies would hide behind.

From there we went to the City Palace. On the way into the city palace we passed through several bazaars, one of which was a bazaar of lots of different types of grain. We stopped to talk to one of the grain sellers (he was impressed that we all were learning Hindi, of course) and there were hundreds and hundreds of pigeons on the ground behind him. I got out my camera to take a picture of them, and before I knew it, he clapped really loudly and they all took off at once:

Outside the City Palace we met a snake charmer. Yes, that’s a real snake. And yes, it would try to bite him when he wasn’t playing. But the snake had (in theory) all of its poison removed, so it was not too much of a danger. He asked if I wanted to get closer to it, I could touch it if I wanted, he said, but I politely declined.

The entrance to the City Palace is a road with a series of gates with beautiful detailed architecture and paint. This is just one example of the side of one gate:

Inside the palace, there are many beautifully decorated doors and gates. There are beautiful rooms, too, but they were closed to the public when we were there. This is a photo of the top of a pretty famous door there, the peacock door (yes, the peacocks really are 3-D!):

Also, we found some lovely elephant statues next to another gateway.

And finally, after lunch (we had tasty Indian food and giant bowls of ice cream), we saw a band of monkeys hanging out on someone’s roof!

Also, since I haven’t posted a cow picture yet, here you go. We saw these cows just outside City Palace. They really do wander all over, and cars really do have to veer around them.

And finally, here is a picture of our school. Yes, our school is in an apartment building, but it works really well that way. There are a lot of bathrooms, a lot of rooms, and we have our own kitchen which means we can have the staff make lunch right on the premises.

After City Palace, Clare and I did some shopping in the bazaars. That was an adventure, and after I make sure these photos post successfully I’ll write about that too.