From Amber Fort there is a “secret” route to Jaigarh Fort that towers over Amber Fort that we found about while researching the fort. Very little is written about it and it is not advertised but the few people that used it said it is safe so we decide to try it out. It starts near some huge kitchen pots and descends into a long tunnel. There are very few people here in contrast with Amber Fort so we wonder if it is really all the way to Jaigarh, but why not try?
At least it is well lit and we feel better when we notice that there are guards from time to time even though we do not trust the guards here either necessarily.
And then the tunnel ends and we exit on a pathway between the walls. We cannot see outside but also no one can see in which we assume is the point as it was supposed to protect the royals that were refugiating to the Jaigarh from Amber in case of attack.
There are only two other groups of people making the climb, groups of young males as usual which we really do not want to meet in the solitude and crampled space of the path. So we are happy when we finally reach the end of the path with a nice view of Jaigarh and notice we already did half of the climb, cool.
In fact from here we climb on an access road to Jaigarh but for official vehicles only. It is wider and you can avoid other groups easily which is good as we want to enjoy the views on the way.
The only trouble her are the monkeys, but they are the black faced ones which are considered more friendly and we have no trouble from them luckily as we pass next to their playground.
The views are quite good from up here and we can see Amber Castle in the valley and the protected path we took up from the fort. We are now close to the entrance to Jaigarh and wonder how it will work, is there a gate here do we have to go around to a main gate, something else?
We shouldn’t have wondered, of course there is a gate to collect money and we wait in line to pay for the overinflated foreigner price to enter an area with no signs and no directions. Both we and the Indian group that entered before us are quite lost but in the end we find our way to a busy central path with lots of workers carrying implements in one direction. We soon guess there will be a party going on and of course that rich person rented the whole palace.
We walk in the same direction as the laborers, that is the direction towards the heart of the castle and we hope we can visit it fully even though the wedding preparations are in full swing.
But of course it doesn’t work that way. At some point the way is blocked by guards and even though Indians can pass freely we need an “escort” for the area behind. As such we cannot visit in peace as we get whisked from location to location with a short explanation, however what can we do?
At least we get a few seconds to enjoy the views from the parapets that surround the main courtyard where the wedding will take place.
It will be quite an extravagant wedding with hundreds of fireworks and probably thousands of attendants. At least we get to see the preparations and the area is not closed completely.
There is one major viewpoint here and we get some extra time from our escort to enjoy the views of Amber fort and the surrounding city before being whisked towards the entrance.
We visit also a few rooms in the palace including the toilets and some more ornate rooms that allow us for some good views of the surrounding area.
And then we take a roundabout way and are back at the guardpost and escape our escort after paying a “gift”.
We then visit the fort museum which has a small armor exhibition. In typical Indian fashion the armors are laid out in a slightly weird format especially if you are used to European exhibits. However it allows you to view all parts of the armor so it is just unusual for us but not worse in any way.
There is also a short exhibition of the local Rajs with photos of multiple of them which allows us to see how each of them looked like throughout the years.
We then meet our driver who entered the paid area and takes us towards the major attraction in Jaigarh, the Jaivana cannon. On the way we pass the water reservoir, which here is inside the fort as this fort was more important strategically defending Amber Fort from above. Then our driver directs us towards the cannon and lets us explore the nearby temples and enjoy the views from the parapets as we make our way to the cannon.
Our fort ticket works also for the cannon but the setup is weird. You can look for free from the surrounding area but to get close to the Jaivana Cannon you have to pay. The cannon is famous because at the time of its manufacture it was the largest cannon on wheels in the world and it is really huge. It was fired only once and supposedly the cannonball flew about 35 km.
Then it is time to return to the car and then towards the downtown area. We plan to visit a famous lake on the way and the driver promises to take us to his special spot nearby so we are looking forward to it.
