I polished off my sightseeing this morning. I hired a rickshaw driver for the day to take me to the center of Pink City where I could check out the City Palace which is cool but not super impressive after seeing so many other Rajasthani palaces. What was impressive was the Jantar Mantar. Maharaja Jai Singh was really into astronomy and astrology so he built parks full of astronomical observation devices throughout his empire. This was the most complete and well preserved of these. Skip the audio tour, it was so bad I gave it back after about 10 minutes and sprung for a private guide instead. You really do need a guide to decipher these arcane structures and it was money well spent. These are a series of very large and very accurate measuring devices. One of them is the largest sundial ever built. The reason it's so big is that it's shadow can show the time to an accuracy of two seconds. You can see the shadow moving as you stand there.
The Rishaw guy then took me to his favorite spot in Jaipur, the royal mausoleums. It was as stunning as you would expect and also nice and quiet because it's a bit out of town. There were some serious steps, about a foot hight each, leading up to a ridge and then a further ramp with sweeping views of the city which is an interesting mix of domes flat roofs and cell towers.
We rushed back to the post office so I could mail back the extra shit I've been carrying around. I packed way too heavy and shipped more than half my stuff back to my aunt's house in Mumbai. I realized that I just completed the major stuff-buying state in India and barely bought anything, just a couple of set of clothes and a duvet cover which I probably won't use. I guess I'm over my knick knack shopping phase. I was around a lot of markets but never was inspired to really get into them.
Wow Pushkar is awesome. As soon as I arrived it felt immediately calmer and more pleasant than big city Jaipur. A tiny town with over 500 temples surrounding a small lake, it's the only place in India where Brahma, creator of the universe, may be worshiped. It's a major pilgrimage site among Gujratis. Meat, alcohol and drugs are strictly forbidden but hashish and bhang are acceptable. But late at night, walking down the street I was offered a full menu of drugs by a very friendly group of young people.
There is also a noticeable white tourist population and a LOT of shops catering to their buying needs. By noticeable I mean maybe a couple dozen but it's a small town. The white folk here are different than the other quick stop town all over India. They look like burners, certainly influenced by the sadus. Women dressed in flowing scarves and bells and long dread locks. These are the Indianest white people I've ever seen. And they speak fluent Hindi.
The Rishaw guy then took me to his favorite spot in Jaipur, the royal mausoleums. It was as stunning as you would expect and also nice and quiet because it's a bit out of town. There were some serious steps, about a foot hight each, leading up to a ridge and then a further ramp with sweeping views of the city which is an interesting mix of domes flat roofs and cell towers.
We rushed back to the post office so I could mail back the extra shit I've been carrying around. I packed way too heavy and shipped more than half my stuff back to my aunt's house in Mumbai. I realized that I just completed the major stuff-buying state in India and barely bought anything, just a couple of set of clothes and a duvet cover which I probably won't use. I guess I'm over my knick knack shopping phase. I was around a lot of markets but never was inspired to really get into them.
Wow Pushkar is awesome. As soon as I arrived it felt immediately calmer and more pleasant than big city Jaipur. A tiny town with over 500 temples surrounding a small lake, it's the only place in India where Brahma, creator of the universe, may be worshiped. It's a major pilgrimage site among Gujratis. Meat, alcohol and drugs are strictly forbidden but hashish and bhang are acceptable. But late at night, walking down the street I was offered a full menu of drugs by a very friendly group of young people.
There is also a noticeable white tourist population and a LOT of shops catering to their buying needs. By noticeable I mean maybe a couple dozen but it's a small town. The white folk here are different than the other quick stop town all over India. They look like burners, certainly influenced by the sadus. Women dressed in flowing scarves and bells and long dread locks. These are the Indianest white people I've ever seen. And they speak fluent Hindi.
1 comment:
gorgeous sunset- thanks
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