Jaipur

kings

The royal astronomical observatory Jantar Mantar

Jantar Mantar was completed in 1734 by Maharaja Jai Singh II. Singh was a warrior prince who nonetheless preferred the cosmos to the sword

We met this man on the street and followed him down a dark alley to his shop for a private puppet show. Sounds like questionable judgment now, but the puppets were very persuasive

The largest man-made sundial on earth

A swimming pool hidden in the hills outside Jaipur

Amber Fort

It was three hours past nightfall when we stepped off our plane in Jaipur and, before it melted into a flaming plastic waterfall, the airport thermometer read 102 degrees F. The breeze on the ventilated shuttle bus was a heated hairdryer inches from our face. My eyeballs swelled. We were in the desert.

But what liberation to be out of Mumbai! The desert forts, palaces, observatories, museums, and hilltop temples of Jaipur filled us with wonder and soaked us in sweat, but much of the joy came from simply traveling again after weeks of stagnancy. We spent a few days exploring the city, drinking fresh lime sodas to cool down and doing our best to dodge the Rajasthani men and boys who, to totally generalize, were fucking dogs. Though they were beside the point. Freedom was harder to find in India and this was our time, brief though it was.