Golden Triangle Part II: Jaipur and Beyond

We traveled by car from Agra to Jaipur through some very rural areas. Even parts of the Agra itself had a distinctly rural feel: the goats, cows, women carrying grass bundles atop their heads, scattered lean-to like shops. But traveling between these cities allowed us to see some decidedly agricultural areas with a few towns scattered along the way. Coming from Iowa and spending my university years in Decorah, I thought I knew small towns, but these places in rural India were SMALL. I probably shouldn’t even use the word “town” to describe them; “village” might be more appropriate. Several of these villages seemed to completely revolve around marble and stone carving. Certain stretches of the road were lined with stone elephants, lions, vases and planters, and giant marble slabs. The people who do all of the cutting and carving, much of it by hand it seems, were all covered in a layer of fine white dust. They didn’t wear any protective gear, or dust masks.

It was lovely driving through the fields. I think most were planted with grass, or some kind of oil crop (though I can’t be sure). They must be heavily irrigated because the landscape itself is very dry and dusty. I can’t imagine how hot and parched this area must be during the hottest months of the year. But when we were there, the fields were the most vibrant, natural green that I’ve seen since arriving in India. And looking out over the fields, you see a brilliant flash of color, bright blue or yellow, or orange, a woman’s sari! The colors of the fabrics are amazing, and it was really a beautiful sight.


Jaipur

We spent five days in Jaipur which gave us a chance to see everything we wanted to in the city and do a couple of daytrips to the three area forts, and the towns of Pushkar and Ajmer. A friend of John’s and mine who grew up in Jaipur was kind enough to arrange for us to stay with his parents during our visit. It was awkward at first, but by the end of our stay we were all pretty comfortable around each other. My belly wasn’t all that comfortable though—our hostess, Bima, made delicious food, but her idea of hospitality was to feed her guests ridiculous amounts of everything. I haven’t been force-fed so much since my Spanish host mother was trying to fatten me up! It was nice to stay in a real home though, and it definitely made our experience in Jaipur a little more authentic. We saw most of the sites in the “Pink City” including the City Palace, built by Jaipur’s namesake the Maharaja Jai Singh. We did a lot of walking and shopping—the state of Rajasthan is famous for handicrafts, jewelry, textiles and traditional miniature paintings, so there was plenty of window shopping to do.


Pushkar & Ajmer

One of our day trips from Jaipur we hired a car and drove to Pushkar and Ajmer. Again, the car journey was an experience, and a good way to see the “in betweens” of the country, the places between destinations. I almost wish I had some video clips from the drive because I’m finding it difficult to adequately describe the things I saw. The descriptions from my journal that I jotted down during the trip don’t really convey the impact some of the images had on me. But here is a list of things I saw anyway:

Droopy-eyed camels pulling carts with wooden wheels

Three-wheeled trucks, their beds full of women in colorful saris, seated and shielding their eyes from the dust of the road

A young boy with a long stick, herding a group of goats across the road

Two old men sitting in white plastic chairs on the side of the road, legs crossed, reading newspapers

Children at a water pump, playing and washing each other

Men wearing white cotton clothing and bright orange turbans, their faces wrought with wrinkles

Anyway, after a few hours we arrived in a chaotic Pushkar, unaware that it was a festival day, though exactly what kind of festival I'm still not sure as we didn't encounter anyone who spoke enough English to explain it to us. Pushkar is a holy city with a holy lake. The site is where the Hindu god Brahma dropped a lotus flower, and where its petals landed water miraculously formed in the midst of the desert. This holy lake has always been a site of religious pilgrimage as people come to bathe in its water and do puja, a Hindu religious ceremony, at its stepped banks. Pushkar’s long history as a religious site and a traders’ hub has made it a bustling and entrepreneurial city. People have come up with all kinds of ways to make money off of the visitors as they wander the streets. The most common seem to be selling handicrafts or food, dressing in especially colorful garb and posing next to a cow for potential photos, and blessing people (whether they want to be blessed or not) and then asking for a “donation.” It makes for a place where you have to keep your guard up all of the time. I’m just glad we weren’t there during the annual camel fair when the region attracts tens of thousands of people!

All in all it was a good but exhausting trip. I never thought I’d say it, but I was actually relieved to be returning to Mumbai by the end of it!