Jaipur Jules - a dangerous woman!

Jaipur Jules - a dangerous woman!

January 15, 2015

We (my husband Douglas and I) had missed seeing the Amber Fort-Palace on our last trip to Jaipur, so it was on our ‘definite to do’ list this time round.  As it’s almost 10 km north of Jaipur, and the local buses looked over-stuffed, like ancient ill-used rolling couches, spilling their guts – in this case humans – out as they careened around corners, we decided to hire a Jaipur helicopter, aka auto-rickshaw, to deliver us there and bring us back.

Driving in Jaipur is much less hectic than Delhi or Jodhpur.  The streets are wider and for some reason there are fewer cows ambling aimlessly along, oblivious to the traffic, which they appear to know, from centuries of experience, will avoid them.  So we were able to enjoy the ride, apart from having to struggle to hear, over the racket of the engine, our driver’s helpful commentary about the various Jaipur sights we were speeding past.  At one point I’m pretty sure he said: ‘and this is the ramalingapurabatrayashikmanihoopla…’.  We nodded, smiled, and said ‘very nice, very fine’ when it seemed appropriate.

As is often the case, the Fort-Palace is situated on a hill-top, accessed by an interminable set of stairs built more for horses or elephants than humans.  Just west of the Fort-Palace, and on an even higher rocky ridge, sits the impressive Jaigarh Fort.  The two forts are usually visited together, and most tourists choose to be driven to both.  But it didn’t look like it was that far from one to the other, so we decided, after being informed by our driver that we could walk to the Jaigarh Fort on a trail from the Amber Fort-Palace, that we’d do it on foot.  We asked him to wait in the ‘parking lot’ (aka side of the road) at the bottom of the Amber Fort-Palace. 

And we started our upward climb, one step at a time.  We were passed by beautifully dressed slow-moving elephants, making their lumbering way down after having carried groups of tourists up to the Fort-Palace.  Their skirts said ‘Help the Elephant Owners’.  Hopefully that also means helping the elephants, but nothing can be assumed here in India, and no one will give a straight-forward answer to a question if asked.  For example, the question ‘are the elephants well-treated?’ might be answered with ‘oh yes madam, very fine.  You must ride on an elephant while you are here in Jaipur.  Only 100, or 200, or 300 rupees.’  We walk. 

Along the way we are accosted by young and not-so-young men trying to convince us to buy typically Indian prints of Hindu gods and goddesses, elephants, peacocks, flowers, etc. on cushion-sized pieces of fabric (‘silk’, nylon?).  As we already have enough momentos from India, including many bits of fabric just like these, we said ‘no thanks’ to each and every one of them – and there were several, at each turn in the staircase, each small landing.  Most of them needed more than one ‘no thanks’.  Some needed a ‘no, please go away’.  Dealing with the craft-sellers was more exhausting, and certainly more aggravating, than climbing the hundreds of stairs.

But the Fort-Palace, once we got there, was splendid, and worth the climb.  A multi-level honey-comb of halls and rooms, some with elaborate carvings, some with beautiful murals, some mirrored.  

From the ‘roof’ of the Fort-Palace we got a fabulous view of Jaipur, the lake and the Lake Palace, the hills and ridges, and a very impressive stone wall that snakes up and across several of these ridges – glowingly referred to as the ‘Great Wall of India’ by our auto-rickshaw driver.  We could also see at least part of the trail to the Jaigarh Fort.

As it turned out, the trail started off as a tunnel, the old secret escape route from the Fort-Palace.  The guards at the tunnel entrance who were, in typical Indian style, sitting on their ample back-sides with nothing much to do, informed us that the trail was two kilometres long.  And mostly, of course, up-hill.  The tunnel was relatively short, coming out into a walled road, and then a more open road.  It was a steady, but not too steep, up-hill hike.  The landscape was interesting – mostly various shades of dun and brown with many scrub trees and what looked like old orchards with trees likely more dead than alive.

Jaigarh Fort is less splendid than the Amber Fort-Palace, as its purpose was more military than residential.  But the beautiful red stone of its massive walls have a solid, glowing, and enduring quality, which make it in a way more impressive.  It also has a honey-comb of halls, rooms and courtyards that invite games of hide-and-seek, or just endless wandering in circles until you find your way out.  We were looking for the ‘Dinning Hall’ that was listed on an official-looking sign as one of the features in the Fort’s interior, hoping to find a bite to eat.  It was past 2 pm and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast.  More importantly, we had also run out of water.  The ‘Dinning Hall’ turned out to be a display of not one but two ‘dinning halls’ – one for the men and one for the women.  Inside the glass-enclosed halls we could see life-sized mannequins in typical dress of the time, eating what looked like large thali meals – six or seven small bowls of meat, veg, pickle, sweet and roti or naan bread – on circular trays in front of each seated ‘dinner’.  All of the ‘dinners’ were seated cross-legged on the floor.  Only the servants were standing, waiting to jump to the requests of their superiors.  We meanwhile, were still hungry.

Back at the main entrance to the Fort we did find a refreshment stand with drinks and a few sad-looking potato-filled samosas.  Given our hunger, we decided they weren’t bad.  

And after a brief sit-down we pushed on to the last ‘sight’, which was a walk out along one of the walls of the Fort to a point overlooking Jaipur where the largest cannon in the world is on display.  It is a behemoth, requiring 34 oxen to pull it along on its massive wooden cart.  (Of course it hasn’t been moved for years, and now likely never will be.)  It’s just been fired once, a test fire.  The cannon ball travelled over 30 kilometres, and Jaipur legend has it that women (or a woman?) miscarried her baby as a result of the deafening sound. 

Our last sight seen, we started back along the trail to Amber Palace-Fort, wishing we had instructed our rickshaw driver to meet us at Jaigarh Fort.  Fortunately the walk was almost all downhill, and very pleasant in the mid-afternoon sun.  But we were tired, and once we reached the Palace-Fort and were on our way down the stairs, I was in no mood to deal with the fabric print sellers who again accosted us at each turn in the staircase.  I kept walking, saying ‘no thank-you’ as I went.  But one man was not taking ‘no thank-you’ for an answer and kept dogging after me with a ‘madam, just look.  Only 10 rupees for five pieces.’  This of course is ridiculous, and I knew it would end up at 50 rupees for one piece, but in any event I didn’t want any pieces.  I wanted to get back to the rickshaw, and back to the hotel, to put my feet up.  So I said ‘no thanks’ again.

Bu he kept on pursuing me (they tend to go after women more than men).  Finally I’d had it and I turned, looked at him very directly, and said ‘no’ rather emphatically.  (Actually quite emphatically.)  He got the message.  And as I walked away he took Doug to one side and said: ‘that woman, very dangerous!’

‘Very dangerous’ indeed, a woman who dares to look a man in the face, not keeping her eyes downcast as a ‘proper’ woman should, and who dares to stand up to him, to disagree, to ‘disobey’.  Just call me Jaipur Jules, the ‘dangerous woman’.

Jules' usual head gear - the 'dangerous' look

 For more information on the Amber Fort go to:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Fort