From the Amer Stepwell our driver takes us to the upper parking lot, which is great as otherwise we know there is a long climb full of peddlers and hawkers. We ask him to pick us up at the upper fort, Jaigarh and he is a bit surprised but for once doesn’t push back. And then it is out of the car, a short climb and we are at the fort.
We arrive at the first of the many courtyards in the palace, the Jaleb Chowk which is where we buy the tickets. As it is before the entrance we cannot stop for long as guides and hawkers and “helpers” are everywhere. But at least there are lots of “Englishers” here so their attention is split so we can take a few photos of the controversial elephants. They are controversial as animal rights activists have determined they are mistreated and are pushing for tourists to stop using them. Just based on what we see the protest doesn’t seem to be working but one data point a good prediction does not make.
We then climb towards the second courtyard (which is called first courtyard sometimes) and enter through a magnificent gate, the Sun Gate. But before we look back once more at the first courtyard to see the elephants circling around and going downwards.
In this courtyard we have the first major attractions in Amber Fort. First it is Diwan-i-Am (the Hall of Public Audiences) a beautiful collonnaded building with a bonus of nesting swallows. But the major attraction here is Ganesh Gate, a quite delicately ornated gate that is the entrance to the next courtyard.
There are some great views of the city also from the parapets, you can see for miles, it is quite beautiful.
Here we also encounter a very annoying habit, couples with professional photographers taking over the best places and shushing everyone away quite aggresively. And this for tens of minutes if not hours, we never wait for them to finish as it seems unending. They have taken even Ganesh Gate and are blocking traffic to the next courtyard and of course in this case there are no guards in sight.
We discover a side path through the interior rooms and up the walls and it even has the bonus of some good views of the gardens and elephants climbing to the fort. We hope that somehow we will be able to breach into the next courtyard via this side path but we are not sure.
On the way we discover the baths, they were quite luxurious, as you would expect. There are multiple rooms some for towels some for steam and some for bathing.
We finally exit outside again and there is a great view of Jaigarh Fort but the good news is that it seems we are in the third courtyard so we bypassed the gate, probably.
And yes it is the third courtyard so we have to find a way down into the courtyard, all the stairs are crazy busy, this seems like a very popular fort.
And we do find a way down to probably the most well known location inside the fort, the Mirror Palace. This is one of the palaces you cannot enter but admire from different locations around the structure. It is quite special with the mirrored surfaces and ornate engravings., really worth seeing.
We take an especially close look at the mirrored walls, it is quite different from how the other structures look in the complex. The most interesting part is that one of the mirrored surfaces has been replaced (or always was?) by an actual mirror. Of course this is where a guard sits that asks “Britishers” to take their photo through the mirror for tips. Luckily after a few minutes he gets bored or needs to do his actual work and we can actually go and examine it ourselves and take photos.
We continue exploring trying to avoid the most crowded areas but that is not always possible unfortunately. Still there are area that are blessfully peaceful and free of photo shots.
We now enter the last of the courtyards with the delicately decorated Baradari pavilion in the middle. We are now in the private areas of the castle where the queens were sitting and living. Here we find also one of the few surviving paintings in the castle, the still is a bit naive but still nice.
We know return through the official gates including the Ganesh Gates ignoring all the enforcers cries that there is a photo shoot going on. We probably paid a lot more for the ticket and we just want to pass through and take a short photo not to take a 10 min video…
The Jaigarh Fort where we are planning to walk is still looking quite far and high compared to us and we wonder if there really is a path between the two forts, something we really hope for as we just sent our car to the other fort.
Exploring on the other side of the palace we look down and we finally see the tunnel that goes towards the other fort, quite cool especially as it was the escape route in case Amber Fort was attacked.
As we make our way towards the tunnel we pass through the Hall of Pleasure just opposite the Mirror Palace. We cannot decide which is the most popular, both are swamped but people but here at the Hall of Pleasure there might be more just because the exit is this way.
And we follow the way to the exit making sure that we do not actually exit and soon find the entrance to the tunnel that we saw from above. Luckily we know where it is and where it leads as the signs are not that clear. We take one more look around and then it is down into the tunnels and up towards Jaigarh Castle.
