The story of Jaipur is the story of its ruling family.- the maharajas, the Singhs. This region in present-day Rajssthan state. The two places we visited – the Jaipur Palace and the Amber Fort were the creations of the Singhs.

The region has been under Hindu control for a thousand years or more, dating back to before the Muslim invasion and continuing after. The Singh dynasty and those that preceded it were the nominal rulers but were pledged in service to the current Mughal emperor. That meant that the maharajas were duty bound to provide armies to fight in support of the Mughal wars. The Mughal hold on its territory was tenuous and depended on the loyalty – and the armies – of the many vassal states under its control.

Our visits were in reverse chronological order – the most recent first and the earlier last. That was to beat the crowds. I’ll talk about them in chronological order.

The Amber fort is located five miles or so from Jaipur. It was first built by Man Singh I in 1591. It served as the seat of power and home of the ruling maharaja until 1727, Each maharaja modified the fort to fit his needs, depending on the number of wives, administrative needs, etc.

The Ambe fort is located on a hill but is surrounded by a mountain range. A wall – the second-longest wall in the world, second to the Great Wall of China, surrounds the fort on the mountains.  It’s built with four levels and a man-made lake down below provides hot and cold running water to the 99 toilets located around the fort. We clambered up and down with a seasoned guide, one who normally guides only dignitaries, such as President Macron of France. He’s doing this as a favor to our guide, his fried Jai.

Sawai Jai Singh II lived there for a while but eventually decided the Amber Fort was inadequate. The population of Amber, the town had grown to large for the limited land around the fort. The water supply was inadequate. And, being a man of science and particularly astronomy, decided that a more propitious site was needed. He therefore built the palace of our first stop, the Jaipur Palace.

Not only did Singh II build a palace, he built a city. Rather than a city with narrow, winding streets like Agra and other old cities, Singh II designed a city with broad avenues laid out in a grid. There is a wall surrounding the city, with entry gates that defines what is today the Old City. Jaipur today extends beyond the walls and is in fact the fourth largest city in India.

Throughout this period, the Singhs were on the ins and the outs with the Mughal Emperors and particularly with Mughal Emperor 6, Aurangzeb, the guy who murdered his brother, chopped off his head and delivered it to his dad, whom he had locked up at Agra, thereby taking over the throne. Remember?

Aurangzeb was Emperor 6 out of 7. He was fighting what proved to be a losing battle to maintain the power of the Mughal empire. It was really a collection of kingdoms that had either been conquered or negotiated into a vassal relationship with the Mughal Empire. Those relationships, including the relationship with the Singhs, was coming apart. Aurangzeb commanded the Singhs to raise armies and fight wars from Afghanistan to all sorts of places in India. The Singhs sometimes did fight, often dragged their feet in reporting for duty and sometimes simply didn’t obey. The Singhs were demoted and promoted at the whim of Aurangzeb.

The architecture and decoration of the fort and palace is a blend of Hindu and Mughal influences. Limestone and marble are used extensively. Jai Singh II painted the palace a distinctive reddish color, giving the town the nickname of the Pink City.

Interestingly, the Singh family remains as the imperial family of Jaipur. At the time of independence (1947) the family’s income from taxes went away but the family was quite wealthy and today has the wherewithal to live the life of a king – polo and all the rest.

The current maharaja is quite young. The previous maharaja is the current person’s grandfather. The previous guy had only one daughter and the maharaja-ship goes only to males. The daughter had a son. The grandfather adopted his grandson and, viola, he had a son to be the heir to the throne. The maharaja’s mother is the force behind the throne, is an elected member of parliament and is a successful entrepreneur and business person.

Our “city walk” was called off due to rain showers; maybe tomorrow. Hence, nap time was extended until 6 PM at which time we left for our cooking lesson.

And what an experience that was. Our hostess was Kieran Rathore (instagram @karenskitchen.jaipur). She, with two sous chef assistants, led us in preparing seven different dishes in her home kitchen:

–        Indian Masala Chai

–       Lentil Pakoras (deep fried lentil dough)

–       Seafood Aaloo (potato in white gravy)

–       Shahi Paneer (solid cottage cheese in a tomato sauce)

–       Vegetable Pulao (basmati rice)

–       (Dal) (lentils)

–       Chapati (Roti bread)

One hundred percent vegetarian. Each dish incorporated at least six Indian spices. Most dishes included some “heat” but to my pallet, the level of spiciness was perfect. The heat was from intense flavors but not to a level that caused pain. Judy would probably opt for a slightly reduced level.

Karen, as is the custom here, moved into her in-laws house when she married. Her mother and father in law were present; her father in law was a professional golfer at one time.

Tomorrow we’re doing the city walk and a lecture by a local historian. Then it’s off to the small village of Pachewar.

Last night the plan was to find a protected bay or cove on the Antarctica peninsula, hunker down for the day (I.e. today), and sail toward South Orkney, which is more-or-less on our course to South Georgia Islands the following day. Overnight, the team found the coves they had in mind too stopped up with ice. New plan: sail through the weather and head directly for South Orkney Islands, an unplanned stop. So that’s what we did today: sail through the weather, not around it. 

They say the weather today wasn’t all that bad, well within the Ociana’s capabilities. But it’s been somewhat rougher than the Drake Passage was the other day Today, 20-foot plus swells and wind gusts topping out at 70 knots. 

And while the ship had no problem, the same can’t be said for your faithful scribe. I did ok until  we sailed beyond the protective land mass of the Shetland Islands. I applied a patch and chewed a Bonnie but not until the horse had left the barn, if you get my drift. But this evening I’m doing fine. 

So it’s been a slow day. Breakfast as usual, two backgammon games ( I finally won one) and then , for me, eyes glued to the horizon until mid afternoon. Judy frequented the mess hall as usual. I got up at 3:00 PM for a quick demo of happywhale.com, a fun app to track whale tail signatures. We did the 5:30 briefing, had a drink in the bar and then dinner. 

The evening talk was on  citizen science and Antarctic phytoplankton and diatoms, microscopic organisms that feed krill, which feed whales, seals and whatnot. Citizen scientists on cruise boats, including ours, gather samples that help build a global data set that real scientists can use in their research. 

The final activity, coming up in 15 minutes, is a sighting of the largest iceberg in the world, A32a, three times the size of New York City. It broke free from the Filtchner ice shelf in 1986. It was stuck until last year when it started on its journey to who knows where. Other icebergs have held the record but they’ve broken up with A32a now wearing the crown. 

We anticipate arriving at South Orkney tomorrow afternoon. Landing s aren’t allowed but we’ll get a zodiac ride in the afternoon. 

Well the first A32A sighting has been pushed back an hour with pass-by at 12:00 – 2:00 AM. They served Bailey ‘s and banana foster to celebrate A32a so the failed 10 o’clock viewing wasn’t a bust. If A32 happens by on our starboard side I might get up to see it. Otherwise, I’ll swipe a picture off google and post it here. You’ll never know the difference!

Update: we went for the 11 PM viewing. I succumbed to a patch-enabled sleep before midnight. Judy got up to see what could be seen at 2 AM

but it appeared they were still backing up. The berg is big and it’s best to give it a wide berth since 86% of the iceberg is underwater.

The morning after the bouncing day before: At this morning’s briefing, the crew estimated we sailed most of the day at Beaufort Force 8 – sea wave height 18 – 25 feet, winds 34 – 40 knots. Earlier that day wind speed was somewhat higher. Chris, the most senior of the expedition team said he has sailed on more than 50 ships and none of them would have handled the sea conditions better than Octantis. I’ve added a video clip showing the waves outside our stateroom window. It may take a while for it to download, so beware!

One disappointment in the Viking cruise system is that when it came time to book shore excursions, most all were fully booked. There’s a pecking order in which those booking expensive suites get preference over those of us in steerage. We hit the Go button at the appointed day, hour, minute and second to no avail. Now I know how the second-class passengers on the Titanic must have felt even before hitting the iceberg.

All we could book for today was the “included” (that is, free) two-hour visit to the local museum. No helicopter ride, no visit to the WWII airfield. We had thought we’d spend a few minutes in the museum and then head out on foot to tour Darwin on our own.

The morning came with rain. We’d done what turned out to be a walking tour of all the spots the bus driver recommended yesterday evening after the Crocodile tour. And, much to our surprise, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory is a gem. It has three main areas of focus:

• A display of indigenous art that resulted from a competition sponsored by Telstra, a local cell phone company, called the 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Art Awards. The artists are from the various aboriginal communities scattered across the Northern Territory, many amateurs or “emerging artists,” some professional. I’m no art critic but I found the art to be quite good and certainly interesting, most of it impressionistic with a few photo and video pieces included. Many used local materials and pigments.

The equally interesting part of the art exhibit is the artists statements posted next to each piece. In each statement, the artist describes the experience in their community that inspired the work. “My grandmother told me the story of . . . “; “When I explore around my community, I find . . . “; or, “I’m inspired by this aspect of nature.” These statements, taken together, give a sense of what aboriginal life is like today and was in the past.

I asked our bus guide, who confessed to being a fill-in commentator, how many aboriginal groupings and how many languages exist in the Northern Territory. She said, “Oh I have no idea. Countless. And a countless number of languages.” One source I found on line lists 16 languages and 56 communities but warns it’s not an exhaustive list. Some communities use more than one language. The Northern Territories is said to be the most linguistically diverse places on earth. It makes me worry about how long these languages, and the cultures behind them, can survive in this modern world.

The artists’ statements speak of the concept of Country. Here are some quotes from a web site I found that helps me to understand what the artists are trying to express in their work https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/welcome-country

‘Country is everything. It’s family, it’s life, it’s connection’. — Jude Barlow, Ngunnawal Elder

‘Being welcomed to Country means that you are talking to your spiritual ancestors and you’re saying just let this person come through. We trust that they’re not going to do any harm on this Country and so do not harm them.’ — Jude Barlow, Ngunnawal Elder.

“Acknowledging when you’re on the land of Traditional Owners is a sign of respect which acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ownership and custodianship of the land, their ancestors and traditions. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can show this form of respect.

Only the traditional owners can speak for and welcome visitors to Country or give others the authority to do so.”

Our bus guides have opened their talks with an acknowledgement that the aboriginal people of this area, the People in the case of Darwin, own and are custodians of the Country on which we are traveling. Such deference is of course a recent development. Aboriginal people were treated as subhuman by early European settlers and as second-class citizens until recently.

• Another section of the museum consists of natural history displays of all sorts of flora and fauna. The displays are very nicely presented and detailed in explanations. We didn’t spend as much time, preferring to focus on the art.
• The third section of the museum focuses on the December 25, 1974 Cyclone Tracy and its impact on structures and people. Driving around Darwin confirms that this is indeed a modern city. It has, after all, been virtually destroyed to the ground in 1942 and 1974.

In the Bicentennial Park that we visited last evening is a memorial to ANZAC – the Australian New Zealand Army Corp which landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915. ANZAC’s objective was to take Constantinople from the Turks. After fighting to a stalemate over eight months, the Allies withdrew. ANZAC lost 10,000 men. April 25 is a day of commemoration in both New Zealand and Australia, honoring those who died in all wars. When in New Zealand in 2016 we visited a museum with a very moving ANZAC display. Australians clearly hold ANZAC day as sacred as do the Kiwis.

We’ve shoved off from Darwin and will be sailing the Arefura Sea to Thursday Island, which we will reach day after tomorrow, November 26. Tonight we’re dining in the special Italian restaurant.

First week in Melrose

Week Ten May 18 – 27, 2020

Wednesday was our first day in Melrose.  It is so different to be here and not set foot in Rebecca’s house.  We have decided her family will use the sunroom and we will use the basement for now.  So here we are and how is this new social distancing in Melrose going to work?

Mid-morning Grandpa asked Griffin if he would like to go for a walk with us and Doby (our grand-dog).  Griffin is wonderful at Social Distancing.  He wore his mask and walked on the other side of the street most of the time.  He is very conscious of keeping his distance.   At lunch time we asked Esme and Griffin if they would like to have a picnic in the backyard.  Yes!!  So, they went and got their food and we got ours and we sat on opposite sides of the back yard.  After we ate Grandpa and Griffin played kick ball not touching the ball.  Esme did cartwheels.  It was fun to all be together in the back yard even if we cannot hug.

Thursday, Bonnie and her boys came over and did their schoolwork in our back yard.  Bonnie’s family was on one side of the yard and Esme on the other side.  Griffin was inside.  They worked until noon time.  I am thinking it might have been this day that Grandpa helped Griffin with his schoolwork.  Griffin was at the table on the sunroom that is outside our door and Grandpa sat inside the door. 

Friday, we ordered a pizza and went to pick up everyone’s.  As I walked inside with my mask on, I noticed the tables were all stacked against the counter so no one could get near it.  The guy behind the counter asked my name, where the car was and told me to go back to the car and he would bring it out.  We had a fun time visiting with Bonnie, Tim and their boys.  The kids were on separate blankets that were at least 6 feet apart.  After the pizza the Moms took their own computers and started a movie for the kids to watch.  It took a few times, but they managed to get the computers starting at the same time. 

Bonnie was a teacher and she has been helping Esme and Griffin.  She does some Zoom sessions and has put together packets for them.  She also takes them for hikes and bicycle rides.  I am not sure if that may have just started last week.  I have been crocheting a blanket for their family and was able to give it to them that night. 

Saturday we went to Hampton Beach area in NH and met Jeff for my much needed lobster roll and then Jon’s ice cream.  The place is now operating as it normally does.  You order, pick it up and the picnic tables are now available to eat at.  The tables are being cleaned immediately after people leave them.  It was very pleasant to sit by the ocean, eat favorite foods and visit.  We had also visited Jeff on Thursday in our back yard when he brought Jon his new computer.  Yes, he did finally have to give up and get a new one. 

We have taken walks with the grandkids, Doby and by ourselves.  We visited with Mark, our nephew, wife and kids a couple of times.  They were playing in their front yard about 5 blocks away from our house. 

The social distancing is working alright with the grandkids.  Actually, it is not as bad as I thought it would be.  We just can not be in each other’s houses and can’t hug but we can chat with each other from our door or in the back yard.  Jon has helped the kids with some of their schoolwork by taking a picture of their computer screens with his telephoto lens from our door.  He can then read the screen and help them.   We have been able to have more time with them than I thought.