India #7 Elephants

 March 17th

I managed to spend yesterday afternoon in the greenhouse, sowing my veggie seeds. It's a little late but that can't be helped and I feel so much better for ticking that job off the list.

Friday's trip to the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) was not without incident. It was here that I had an encounter with the 'psycho-monkey' that seemed to take objection to the stripy trousers that I bought in Glastonbury! We were exploring behind the facade and I was slightly ahead of the others. I went round a corner, realised that there was no exit that way and tried to turn back. I then heard a snarling sound and spotted a monkey crawling down the sloping wall between me and my family. I swear it was glaring at my legwear! I tried to hurry past but that only made it more aggressive. I called to R who started heading towards me and that wound it up even further. I began to imagine having to go for rabies shots! Eventually, I managed to scuttle past but, as we turned to leave, it leapt to the ground and followed us teeth bared and growling. R turned and clapped loudly and it backed off, but only momentarily before chasing us again. This time R clapped louder and shouted and, thankfully, it finally disappeared.

Hot on the heels of the monkey incident was the toilet rat! Needing the loo, I found some and entered, smiling at a group of Indian ladies standing chatting outside. As I went in, a rat emerged from the squat toilet and ran across the bathroom. Well, I was out like a shot, mere milliseconds after going in and I can just imagine the Indian ladies shaking their heads, thinking that the English can't cope with squat toilets! It was nothing of the kind, I just didn't want to avoid being savaged by a monkey, only to then be bitten on the bottom by a rat living in the loo! :O)

Finally, there was 'Creepy Man', as L dubbed him. This was a little different from the usual attention that we received, in that he didn't ask for a selfie. We just became aware that this man was following us VERY closely. Initially, we assumed that it was just because we were following the same prescribed route and it was crowded, but after a few sneaky attempts to outmanoeuvre him, it became obvious that he was in fact trailing us. He was wearing a stripy green shirt, was carrying something in one hand, and had a facial characteristic which made him very easy to spot. When he started getting a bit touchy feely, rubbing up against us, we made a more concerted effort to lose him. It worked for a while and we managed to shake him off for a bit. There was, however, only one route out and inevitably he found us again. Here's the weird thing though, he had now put another shirt (presumably the item he had been carrying), over the stripy green one. Bizzare though it seems, it was undeniably him. He started with the touchy feely again and this time L turned round and asked him directly what he wanted. He looked a little startled to be confronted but it took R telling him to go away in no uncertain terms for him to finally disappear.

Despite all this, Hawa Mahal was lovely. It was constructed as part of the Women's section of the City Palace. The facade seen from the street is effectively a screened porch, 1 room deep in places. The 5 floor exterior has 953 small windows decorated with lattice work, allowing the Royal ladies to observe events in the street without being seen themselves. It also allowed cool air to pass through, ventilating the interior. The facade that you see from the street is actually the back of the palace.

When R mentioned going to see some elephants during our India trip, I didn't really think too much about it, just a vague 'yes, that would be nice' kind of thing. When the car arrived to pick us up for a trip to the 'elephant village', I still hadn't given it much more thought and it was only when we arrived and saw the place, that I began to have some misgivings. It's not that the elephants were badly treated in any way, far from it, they appeared to be well looked after and loved by their mahouts. It was more an air that they were there for the benefit of tourists, rather than the well-being of the elephants. It made me very uncomfortable; animal exploitation isn't our thing - hey, we're vegan after all. If, like the sloth bears, they had been rescued and were living out their lives in a protected environment because they weren't adapted to life in the wild, it would have been a different matter. Questioning revealed that they weren't. It is not a sanctuary; the elephants were there because we were there and the fact that these people were able to provide for their families off the back of it was irrelevent. By being there we were exploiting these beautiful, magnificent creatures and it upset me greatly. I'm posting these photos as an accurate record of our holiday,  they are not something that I look back on fondly. Much the reverse, I look back with a sense of shame and the memory that we couldn't get out of there quick enough.

A breakfast of straw wrapped about with alfalfa:

Pyle having her breakfast:

.... and then a little drink:

Saying hello to her best friend, Tara:

Moving on. Our driver took us to Jaipur's Stepwell. The advantage of a stepwell is that it makes it easier for people to access the water and maintain the well:

Adjacent temple ruins:

Gobar cakes made from cow dung and used for fuel:

Meera Krishna Temple:

Our last stop of the day was to the Amber (Amer) Fort, also known as the Amer Palace. Constructed of red sandstone and marble, the palace is laid out on 4 levels, each with a courtyard.

Sheesh Mahal (Mirror Palace) - they were filming here:

The views were magnificent and there was a subteranean passage connecting it to the Jaigarth Fort, allowing the Royal Family an escape route in times of war. The King had 12 wives, each had a room, connected via a staircase to the King's room upstairs, however, the wives weren't allowed to climb them! We also found more bees!

On the way back to the hotel, our driver was persistent in wanting to take us to a handmade rug workshop. We had declined all his other offers - jewellery, textiles etc. but we did need a new rug for our living room - the old one was fraying badly after years of abuse by Hamish. We agreed to see the rug making. We were shown the various processed involved - the hand knotting, the washing, the cleaning, the trimming ...... and then the finished products. They were beautiful and (after a lot of bargaining!) we brought one home. I love it and hope it will last for many years to come.

Dinner was back at the hotel. I was again feeling unwell and actually went back to our room for a bit of a lie down, leaving L to finish our Mai Tai (rum, orange and lime). It scored a mere 2 on the cocktail scale. Not up to Gimlet standards!

Toodle pip for now. x