Jaipur is part of a Royal Triangle Tour or something, where short-term visitors hop from Delhi to Agra to Jaipur, then back to Delhi and home. So it's a bit touristy, but nothing like Agra. It's called "The Pink City" because back in the day, one of the Mogul emperors who ran the town decided to have all the city walls painted pink. That's all in the older part of Jaipur now, inside the old city walls. But that's where all the main tourist shops and bazaars are held, so everyone gets to see the pink when they come to town. Our new friend Janis insisted that we stay at her favorite guesthouse, a European-style hotel called Arya Niwas. They had absolutely delicious Western food there. Ice cream, desserts... it was a nice little break in our Indian food adventures. She also referred us to an Ayurvedic massage clinic that she always goes to when she is in town. Curiously, Ayurvedic massage is most famously performed in the Southern state of Kerala, but these guys beat the pants off the masseuses down South. Of course, they were also from Kerala, so I guess they just moved up North to Jaipur to make more money. But they were very good. Amy and I both got slathered in scented oils and had full body massages on our second day in Jaipur.
Before we even got into town, Amy saw that there was an Astrological Institute in town, so she decided to get her star chart drawn up. These are very important in India, and are usually done right after a baby is born so that the parents can plan for their child's marriage. After all, it's tough to find someone to marry your kid if you have no idea who they're compatible with in marriage, how many kids they're gonna have, and all that stuff. As it turns out, Amy was checking a Tibetan astrology book while we were browsing the Tushita library back in McLeod Ganj, and we are one step better than mortal enemies. Compatibility score of -3 on a scale of -4 to +4. So no one's really sure why she was pursuing this astrology stuff after that, but Rob wasn't really going to argue. He didn't want to push us any further down on that scale... So we found the Indian astrology dude, who apparently has lots of degrees and awards for both his astrological talent as well as his palm reading skills. We ordered up the deluxe package for Amy, gave him her exact time of birth and location, and agreed to come back the next day for the results. Now Amy will tell you that the guy guessed a lot of things about her that he could not have possibly known, but Rob is pretty sure he heard some information being passed in conversation before the guy gave his predictions and palm reading. In any case, there were a few things he mentioned that were shockingly detailed and came out of nowhere, so Rob wasn't quite sure what to think about it. The astrologer did mention, however, that Amy is going to be Rob's sugar momma, so that was encouraging. But he also told her when she could expect to fight for her life and most likely die, so that was less encouraging. You take the good with the bad, I guess.
After that, we went to this corner of town that is close to the royal palace, where there is an astronomy park unlike anything we had ever seen. Hundreds of years ago, one of the rulers of Jaipur became very interested in astronomy, and contracted some of his subjects to go to Europe to study astronomy, then come back to teach him. They did that, and the result was that he ended up building astronomical measuring instruments out of stone and metal -- a giant observatory. The park is called "Jantar Mantar," which means something like "measuring instrument." They had a gargantuan sun dial that had a precision of 2 seconds, and they knew how to correct the reading for local solar time. Our tour guide was phenomenal here, and we learned that their obsession with astronomy was directly related to having a precise time measurement tool so that they could have more precise astrological charts for people. This was Rob's first exposure to the historical intersection of astrology and astronomy, and he was blown away by the mathematical precision of astrology. It was a really cool experience!
Before we even got into town, Amy saw that there was an Astrological Institute in town, so she decided to get her star chart drawn up. These are very important in India, and are usually done right after a baby is born so that the parents can plan for their child's marriage. After all, it's tough to find someone to marry your kid if you have no idea who they're compatible with in marriage, how many kids they're gonna have, and all that stuff. As it turns out, Amy was checking a Tibetan astrology book while we were browsing the Tushita library back in McLeod Ganj, and we are one step better than mortal enemies. Compatibility score of -3 on a scale of -4 to +4. So no one's really sure why she was pursuing this astrology stuff after that, but Rob wasn't really going to argue. He didn't want to push us any further down on that scale... So we found the Indian astrology dude, who apparently has lots of degrees and awards for both his astrological talent as well as his palm reading skills. We ordered up the deluxe package for Amy, gave him her exact time of birth and location, and agreed to come back the next day for the results. Now Amy will tell you that the guy guessed a lot of things about her that he could not have possibly known, but Rob is pretty sure he heard some information being passed in conversation before the guy gave his predictions and palm reading. In any case, there were a few things he mentioned that were shockingly detailed and came out of nowhere, so Rob wasn't quite sure what to think about it. The astrologer did mention, however, that Amy is going to be Rob's sugar momma, so that was encouraging. But he also told her when she could expect to fight for her life and most likely die, so that was less encouraging. You take the good with the bad, I guess.
After that, we went to this corner of town that is close to the royal palace, where there is an astronomy park unlike anything we had ever seen. Hundreds of years ago, one of the rulers of Jaipur became very interested in astronomy, and contracted some of his subjects to go to Europe to study astronomy, then come back to teach him. They did that, and the result was that he ended up building astronomical measuring instruments out of stone and metal -- a giant observatory. The park is called "Jantar Mantar," which means something like "measuring instrument." They had a gargantuan sun dial that had a precision of 2 seconds, and they knew how to correct the reading for local solar time. Our tour guide was phenomenal here, and we learned that their obsession with astronomy was directly related to having a precise time measurement tool so that they could have more precise astrological charts for people. This was Rob's first exposure to the historical intersection of astrology and astronomy, and he was blown away by the mathematical precision of astrology. It was a really cool experience!
