Salt Plains and Flamingos
We left Pushkar early and drove through the salt plains of Sambhar Lake, India's largest inland salt lake and a Ramsar-protected wetland. Salt has been farmed here for about a thousand years. We stopped at the Naliasar pond, where we saw both greater and lesser flamingos, plus a mix of ducks, waders and herons. The flamingos looked mostly white, with a faint pink tinge on some. Their colour comes from pigments in the algae and plankton they eat, and greater flamingos are naturally the paler of the two. We were also early in the season, which runs from about November to March. 🦩
Highway King Lunch
Before Jaipur we stopped at Highway King, a big highway hotel-and-restaurant complex with shops, in the middle of nowhere. Lunch was good but ginormous, which is why we only needed snacks for dinner. ☺️
The Pink City
Jaipur is another big city, and by now we're used to them. Its nickname, the Pink City, is real. The old city was painted pink(y red) in 1876 for a visit by the Prince of Wales, and the colour is the traditional one for hospitality. It stuck, so everything has a pinkish-red tinge. We also saw black kites circling overhead, the world's most abundant bird of prey in their family.
🏙️
Jantar Mantar
We read up on Jantar Mantar on the bus, then walked through it. It's an astronomical observatory built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the founder of Jaipur, between about 1724 and 1738. It has 19 instruments, and UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 2010. The 27-metre Samrat Yantra is the world's largest stone sundial and is accurate to about 2 seconds, while the smaller one is accurate to 20. Another instrument, the Jai Prakash Yantra, is a pair of bowls that map the sky, and a small one called the Dhruva Darshak points to the Pole Star. I bought a book, because my photos couldn't do the structures justice. 🔭
The City Palace and Art Deco
Next was the palace, and once again some parts were closed or under renovation. What we saw was impressive, including a museum shop and an art gallery.
An Evening on the Roof
Our hotel is a new one for Jane, and it's impressive, apart from loud street noise, so my earplugs need a workout. We had snacks and drinks on the rooftop.
No comments:
Post a Comment