Delhi

On Friday, October 5, I left school at 8:00 A.M. for the bumpy bus ride to Coimbatore. Once at Coimbatore a short taxi ride had me at the airport just in time to check in at 12:40 P.M. for the 2:10 P.M. to Delhi, via Mumbai. With carry-on luggage no time was lost getting out of the airport and into the waiting taxi to the Panicker's Guest House.

On Saturday, October 6, the alarm went off at 5:00 A.M. and after a quick breakfast it was to the bus for a 6:00 A.M. departure for Rajasthan. Our first stop was the Amber Fort. The fort at the top of a hill was started by the Maharaja Man Singh in 1592.



The Diwan-i-Am (Public Audience Hall) features a row of columns and latticed galleries behind which the wives could watch the proceedings below.



The Jai Mandir (Hall of Victory) featured inlaid panels, and a multi-mirrored ceiling with both concave and convex mirrors. One candle was reflected in hundreds of directions.

From here we went to the Jantar Mantar (Observatory) which was built in 1728 by Jai Singh. The largest piece is the sundial with a 27 metre high gnomon which is accurate to 2 seconds.




On to City Palace (Maharaja's palace) and its various buildings. The first was the Maharaja Sawai Mansingh II Museum with its collection of royal costumes and shawl's Sawai Madho Singh I's clothing is there. He was 2 meters tall and 1.2 meters wide and weighed 250 kg. The welcome to the armoury was spelt with ceremonial daggers. This former women's palace still had some of its mirrored and gold inlay ceiling. It must have been very beautiful! The last hall visited was the Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience) with its large silver vessels, each 1.6 tall. The Maharaja Madha Singh II, a devout Hindu, took holy water from the Ganges with him on his visits to England. The vessels are supposedly the largest silver vessels in the world.






The last visit on Saturday was the Birla Mandir Temple. the building speaks for itself.