August 19 – The Road to Jaipur

"Rest area" on the road to Jaipur

The road south from Delhi to Jaipur was definitely better than the route to Rishikesh and we arrived a mere 4 hours and 45 minutes after leaving Shafi’s home. Of course, since we are officially “the bringers of rain”, as soon as we got into the city the monsoon downpour began and flooded several roads almost immediately. I will never use the term “monsoon rain” lightly again! But we had Mintu on our side and we made it safely to our beautiful hotel in time for dinner.

Camels along the way

We are staying at Mahal Khandela, a Heritage hotel, in Jaipur. The Heritage hotels are former residences of the noble families who couldn’t sustain these luxury residences after the Indian government abolished royal titles after India gained independence in 1947.



Keith and Mintu

"Mahal Khandela " was the town home of Rajkumar Jait Singh, 14^th descendent of Raja Raisal & a cadet son of Raja Sajjan Singh, the last ruling chief of Khandela before the agrarian reforms were applied.  Thakur Hanwant Singh the present incumbent, now has "Mhal Khandela" a hotel with the ambience of a lived-in home of a Rajput family. It is built in the traditional medieval-style, a synthesis of Hindu and Mughal architecture.

We had a really wonderful Indian dinner and then were treated to a traditional puppet show in the courtyard. The puppets are a unique craft in this area of Rajastan and are really beautiful. The show was accompanied by a couple of musicians playing a dholak, a two-headed Indian drum. Of course, there was a “sales pitch” at the end of the show, but it was still a lot of fun.

 

After a little planning with Mintu about what we’d be doing the next day, we all retired to our rooms for the evening.