Another early start, back downstairs by 8:30 for a quick bite of toast before piling onto a big bus which would take us to Amber (or Amer) Fort. We picked up our guide for the day, Sanjay, and set off. We stopped briefly at Hawa Mahal (the Wind Palace), an incredibly beautiful building designed to allow the royal ladies (who were not allowed out in public) to watch Royal or religious processions, and look over the every day goings on of the street below. Just a very expensive people-watching perch, really.
Next we paused at Jal Mahal (the water palace), a now-abandoned palace situated in the centre of a grand lake. Sanjay told us that there were no rooms inside, and that the only thing left was a roof garden. This building is one of only two like it in country. This one used to serve as a summer home for royals, and the other one has since been converted into one of the best hotels in the world.
After another short stint of driving, now up windy hillside roads, we arrived at the base of the hill on which Amber Fort sits. There were many hawkers, and as Sanjay described, they were particularly 'Sticky'. We walked quickly through the entrance gate and headed for the stairs. A ten minute walk up a ridiculous number of stairs later and we were there, in the first courtyard of Amber Fort. This is were the general public would gather in times of war or crisis.
Sanjay walked us through, offering brief explanations of each area.
There are four parts to Amber fort; the public section, the general meeting section, the royal living section and the wife and concubine living quarters. The royal section in particular was stunning, with marble inlays and mirrored mosaic adorning the walls and ceiling.
The final area, where the women lived, was very plain but also very interesting. They each had their own room, and above the door was an illustration from the Karma Sutra to remind the King where he was. It was designed so that he could visit whoever he liked, whenever he liked, without the others knowing.
At the time when the fort was built, royal women were not allowed outside, and so the whole place is a maze or corridors and grated windows. Even though they weren't allowed to participate, they could watch everything that was going on through grated windows.
This was also the period during which women began to wear veils. Before then, women followed the '40/60 rule', covering 40 per cent of their body with fabric, and 60% with jewellery. This proved too 'enticing' in a time of constant war and invasions, and so they were made to cover up.
After a tour of Amber fort, we traipsed back down all the stairs and back onto the bus. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the edge of town, which had drawn curtains and no lights on when we arrived. It seems to be pretty common practice for restaurants and stores to turn everything off until a customer arrives, to save power and keep things cool.
As always, the food was incredible, but there was far too much of it, and so Debbie and her parents offered to take everyone's leftovers back to the hotel for dinner.
The rest of us were dropped near the observatory, and after a brief kerfuffle with finding the place and buying tickets, we we inside. It looked like a sculpture garden, full of sandstone shapes which looked like modern art. We found a guide, and he walked us around, explaining each of the instruments in turn.
This observatory is roughly 300 years old, and is host to a number of incredible astronomical and astrological tools. We were shown some sundials, and an instrument which predicts where the planets are so you could find them with a telescope. There was also two concave domes, with stripes of etched marble inside. If put together, the marble would form a complete dome. There was a metal ring suspended at ground level above each one, and the shadow it cast showed the star sign of a baby born in Jaipur at that exact moment. In India, astrology is considered very important, and babies are given a star sign accurate to their place, date, and time of birth almost immediately.
This observatory is also host to the largest sun dial in the world, accurate to within two seconds (even more impressive when you remember how old it is!). There were also small sun dials dedicated to each star sign individually, and an instrument for working out the trajectory of the sun.
After a fabulous walk around the observatory, Gabby, Tye and I headed back toward the Wind Palace to explore some of the stalls along the sides of the road. There was all sorts of beautiful jewellery, clothing and nicknacks on show. After a while, we all started to get a bit over the heat, and so we flagged down an auto (tuk tuk) and went back to hotel for a rest in our air conditioned rooms.
Half an hour later, Amie (Debbie's mum) popped by to let us know that there would be a yoga class at 5. Debbie, Amie, Arpi, Kirstie (the younger British woman) and I were met by a man who had been practicing yoga for over 40 years, and he walked us through a number of techniques for relaxation, posing and breathing, and the importance of each. It wasn't a typical yoga class (much less movement), but if anything it was more interesting to hear first hand why certain things are incorporated, and a little bit about the history of the practice.
We had a quick meeting about the following day's itinerary, then I ate my cold curry (still delicious) with some fresh garlic naan from the hotel's restaurant and went almost straight to sleep.
