Elephant rides and shopping in Rajasthan
Trip Start
Oct 08, 2006
1
6
Trip End
Nov 12, 2006
Jaipur, India
Saturday, October 28, 2006
That being said, it was a good trip. I went to Jaipur last year with Todd and Pam, and we saw many of the forts and things, so Robin and I didn't feel the need to do those things really. (You can read out Jaipur city and the stuff we did last time in my other travel log... It's a fascinating place of history!!) However, last year we went on some festival holiday, and the elephants that you can usually ride up to Amber fort were on vacation for the day. (So while I got some good pictures of them, I didn't get to sit on one!) So the first thing we did was drive to the fort for an elephant ride. (Actually, the first thing we did was go to an ATM machine so we could pay for the elephant ride, and then to a roadside stand to buy batteries for my camera, since mine were dead. THEN we went to ride the elephants.
Riding an elephant to the fort/palace (which is up on a hill) is as much a part of the whole experience as riding the monorail is at Disney. It's just what people do. So there was a queue for it, naturally, just like at Disney. :-) To get on the elephant, you climb the stairs to a platform (vs. it kneeling down for you to climb on and then standing up with you on it... which I've heard is quite an interesting experience). On top of the elephant is a little "platform" saddle that you sit on, and the driver, who straddles his neck, directs him to go. I have 2 main comments on elephant riding in Jaipur:
1. It's not a smooth ride. Evidently, elephants sway a lot when they walk. The whole ride was a constant back and forth rock, with an uphill slant. It was not the most comfortable ride ever, and very hard to take photos while atop it.
2. Had I known how they "guide" the elephants, I would never have supported it by paying for a ride (550 rupees, plus 50 tip ... about $13). The drivers carry what look like iron fireplace pokers, and poke the elephants behind the ears to make them go, turn, or if they misbehave. As we went along, I could see sores and bloody spots behind the ears of many of them, and even witnessed one of the drivers furiously poking one, who then squealed from his trunk in protest! I felt very bad for them. I'm not sure how else you control an animal that size... But then I thought, they aren't really meant to be controlled, I suppose.
We didn't actually go into the palace/fort, but instead walked back down to drive into the city. On the way down, we stopped to have someone take our picture, and in the handoff of the camera back to Robin, it was dropped. It broke. Needless to say, I was quite upset, but I handled it well, determined to not let it ruin our trip. However, I have no other pictures of our time in Jaipur to share, so I'll have to use word pictures!
We did some shopping at the street market during the day. I got some good haggling in and got a great deal on a beautiful bedspread and shams, and some cool shoes and jewelry. But after a few hours of shopping and haggling, we were ready to fall over. So we checked into a hotel for a nap, before heading out to Chawki Dhani. (sp?)
Chawki Dhani is a "village" in Jaipur that is meant to look like a historical Rajasthani village. You pay about 250 rupees to get in ($5 or so), which includes your food (a buffet style cornucopia of Rajasthani favorites) and you get to walk around and watch the people dance and do puppet shows and stuff. There's a market and you can ride various animals. It was pretty neat. It's only open in the evenings, and there were tons of people there. I was glad to go, since I missed it last year.
Some other things I saw in Jaipur, and wanted to remember (even without pictures):
Pigs - There were groups of pigs (packs? herds?) all around, in piles of trash, snorting around.
Camels - One of the things I really like about Jaipur... there are camels everywhere. I know they are dirty and smelly, but I find them so cute, with their knock knees and big eyelashes!
People squatting - Everywhere you go in Jaipur, people are squatting on their haunches, lower legs perpendicular to the ground, doubled over with their rears pointing down, as if there is a tiny chair in the inch or so between their butt and the ground. They sit like that, and they even "walk" around like that, sweeping or laying things out on the ground. It amazes me that they can stay like that for so long!
Red hills and buildings - Jaipur is called the pink city because all the buildings in the city are painted a pinkish red. But even without paint, most of Rajasthan is red rock/sand anyway. The western part is all desert, and the part where we were had lots of red rock hills, dotted with some green trees.
Overall, despite our lack of sleep and tiredness, it was a nice road trip. But not one I'd do again without a good night's rest!!
Comments
Jaipur
Thank you for your blog on your day in Jaipur. We will be visiting Jaipur in a few weeks and do want to ride on an elephant, but now wonder if there are other options for an elephant ride than at the Amber Fort where they were cruel. Also, do you know if we could plan to ride a camel? Thank you for the note about chaqk dhani we might have missed that and it sounds interesting...suzz
Re: Jaipur
Yes, there were camel rides in Jaipur also. I'm not sure where now, but if you ask around there, someone can tell you. I believe they had some at one of the other forts. I don't know of any other place, though, besides Amber fort to ride the elephants.
Enjoy your trip!