Okay okay I know, you are wondering what the heck has taken me so long to get back on the blogging horse here. Well, you just try to fly back from India, collect a toddler then fly 5 more hours home and tell me how you feel! Lets just say it was really hard. But afer almost a week at home I think I am pretty much back to my normal self. 
So where was I when I so rudely stopped blogging? Ah yes, Jaipur and the Amer Fort. I will try to be brief so as to get on to the main act of the trip, the wedding. But when we were in Jaipur we did see a lot of really cool stuff so I do not want to ignore that corner of the "Golden Triangle". The fort that we rode up to on elephant back was perched on top of a hill with a Great Wall-esque wall reaching and dipping over the hills all around it for protection. Built in 1592 it is really an amazing feat of engineering and of decorative work. First of all, for all of you who have ben to Versailles
outside of Paris, The Amer Fort has a hall of mirrors that will kick the French's butts. Instead of being just a big ol' room with lots of boring old flat mirrors the indian version is a floor to ceiling mosaic of teeny tiny hand blown glass mirrors that still manage to shine all these centuries later. It is awesome. There was also some of the most
incredible "latticework" on some of the windows that allowed the women to watch the goings on outside while still observing the practice of purdah (covering of faces). The screens are amazingly detailed and each one is different.
Okay, one more thing about the fort that was incredibly cool....literally. Back in the late 1500's they had air conditioning. No kidding! On one side of the fort there were pipes that carried water up to the roof level. The pipes then had little teeny holes in them that allowed the water to drip out of the pipes onto grasses that were woven into a fan-like structure that hung from the pipes. Then the mountain breezes blew down across the grasses and ta-da! air conditioning! On the other side of the building water was piped up and scented with rose petals before it flowed down a channel that was cooled by air the blew into special slits in the building behind it, this time creating scented air conditioning. Imoressive, no?
Well, that is all we have time for tonight folks! I guess I am still pretty tired because here it is, 9:15 p.m. and I am falling asleep. More tomorrow!
So where was I when I so rudely stopped blogging? Ah yes, Jaipur and the Amer Fort. I will try to be brief so as to get on to the main act of the trip, the wedding. But when we were in Jaipur we did see a lot of really cool stuff so I do not want to ignore that corner of the "Golden Triangle". The fort that we rode up to on elephant back was perched on top of a hill with a Great Wall-esque wall reaching and dipping over the hills all around it for protection. Built in 1592 it is really an amazing feat of engineering and of decorative work. First of all, for all of you who have ben to Versailles
outside of Paris, The Amer Fort has a hall of mirrors that will kick the French's butts. Instead of being just a big ol' room with lots of boring old flat mirrors the indian version is a floor to ceiling mosaic of teeny tiny hand blown glass mirrors that still manage to shine all these centuries later. It is awesome. There was also some of the most
incredible "latticework" on some of the windows that allowed the women to watch the goings on outside while still observing the practice of purdah (covering of faces). The screens are amazingly detailed and each one is different.Okay, one more thing about the fort that was incredibly cool....literally. Back in the late 1500's they had air conditioning. No kidding! On one side of the fort there were pipes that carried water up to the roof level. The pipes then had little teeny holes in them that allowed the water to drip out of the pipes onto grasses that were woven into a fan-like structure that hung from the pipes. Then the mountain breezes blew down across the grasses and ta-da! air conditioning! On the other side of the building water was piped up and scented with rose petals before it flowed down a channel that was cooled by air the blew into special slits in the building behind it, this time creating scented air conditioning. Imoressive, no?
Well, that is all we have time for tonight folks! I guess I am still pretty tired because here it is, 9:15 p.m. and I am falling asleep. More tomorrow!
1 comment:
Awesome about the eco-friendly air conditioning. I wonder if we can do that with canal water? I'll ask Dan the Handyman...
So glad you're continuing to post your adventures, can't wait for more!
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