Jaipur

This post was originally supposed to be named 'Pushkar' but we managed to miss our flight. For any readers that are just starting in the past month, you would think I am the most irresponsible traveler! However, this is my first career missed flight! We arrived at the airport 25 minutes before flight time; the counter closed 30 minutes prior. Completely inflexible. Policies are created for a reason, but the reason should be able to override the policy! We would have made that flight. Our best option was to take the same 6 AM flight the next day, but we would not be able to make the 3 hour drive from Jaipur to Pushkar and spent the day in Jaipur instead and made the best of a not good situation.

We headed straight to the Amer Fort. It was the last day of a Rajastani festival and many people were making pilgrimage to the hilltop temple 'that connects to the sky.' The area was abnormally crowded and there was a troubling bottleneck at the entrance to get in which swelled with people on both sides. The ascent was cathartic: one man fully pronated his way to the top - he lay completely on this front with outstretched limbs, while another man marked his finger tips with a line of chalk. He would then get up and put his toe tips behind the line and repeat. There was an overwhelming amount of beggars that lined the sides of the ascending stairs. There are always constant reminders that maybe your life's stresses, like a missed flight, are not as bad as they may seem.

The inside of the fort was colorful and joyous: music blared from speakers while pilgrims queued up for the temple accent. Vendors were selling sweet offerings to leave to the gods and food to throw the moat dwelling fish.

From the fort, we broke for lunch and head to the old city, nicknamed the "The Pink City" because of the ubiquitous red sandstone architecture. I can see why many don't like traveling in Jaipur: a common problem, the roads are very congested and there are no sidewalks. Interesting because urbanists consider Jaipur to be one of the best planned cities in accordance with Hindu architecture, a 9-part spiraling geometric principal called Pithapada. 9 is based on the numbers of perceived planets at the time (thanks a lot UB313;). The city was founded by an astronomy buff - we checked out his observatory, Jantar Mantar. It was full of enormous walkable sun dials.

We did make it to the city palace, appropriately next door to his observatory. There were great zeitgeist exhibits with textiles, weapons, and palatial adornments, and they were administered by traditionally dressed Rajastani men:

We hit up most of the other sites in the old city before relaxing for a drink but apparently, as I type this, realized that we missed the Hawa Mahal, so check it out if you go.