Chittorgarh Fort
First trip to India, January 2015
Getting to the fort turned out not to be such an easy task.
We left the hotel around 11 a.m., and right away a couple of tuk-tuk drivers ran up to us; they wanted 100 rupees per person to take us to the fort… We walked on, and literally a hundred meters later another tuk-tuk driver pulled up — he was ready to take us for 100 rupees for the two of us…. But we decided we’d go for 70. We kept walking, and near the railway station another tuk-tuk driver agreed to take us for 70 rupees. Off we go.
We arrive at some hotel, the driver asks something in Hindi — incomprehensible. We went into the hotel, where an unpleasant-looking Indian at reception barely speaks English. It’s not clear what they want or what the problem is. Either they don’t want to go one way, or they’re offering to drive us around inside the fort too… I’m trying to explain that we just want to get to the fort entrance…
Outside, the driver found some Indian guy, but a tourist. He was also going to the fort and could speak English more or less. We agreed that the three of us would go for 100 rupees, with us paying 70 as agreed and him paying 30. The tuk-tuk driver seemed to calm down — we’re off.
We got to the fort entrance. You can drive around the fort in your own vehicle or by tuk-tuk, but we decided to walk around it. At the entrance we bought tickets for 100 rupees; as it turned out, they allow you to enter Padmini Palace and climb to the top of the Victory Tower.
The fort left mixed impressions. It is definitely worth visiting, because I had never seen anything like it anywhere else. Across the huge territory are scattered temples with amazing stone carvings, ruined and restored palaces, and the remains of walls. What remains of the fort here are walls and gates of impressive size. We wandered among the ruined walls and climbed up onto the wall. From the wall, there is a very beautiful view of the old city — also, like in Jodhpur, all in shades of blue.
We found an abandoned little temple far from the tourist trail.
We went out to the other temples and the Victory Tower.
The Victory Tower was very impressive. It was built in the 1440s in honor of the victory of Mewar King Rana Kumbha over the Sultan of Malwa. You climb up a stone staircase to the very top, to the 9th floor. Inside, all the walls are covered with amazing carved patterns. The tower is built of red sandstone and white marble. Thanks to people, the walls inside are smooth, very beautiful.
Climbing to the top of this tower was my favorite part of the fort. Next to the victory pillar there is a temple and a water reservoir.
We came out onto the road and walked to a ruined building resembling a palace — with little balconies and towers. Nearby was, perhaps, the largest temple in the fort — Meera Temple.
There was noticeable activity here — there is a small bazaar selling jewelry and coconuts.
We decided to try a coconut. The vendor stripped the hair off the coconut, knocked off the shell, made holes in it, and poured the coconut milk into a cup, then split the coconut open and gave it to us to eat. The coconut milk turned out to be tasty. We also liked the coconut itself, though we only managed to finish half of it.
Next, our path led to Rani Padmini’s palace — a three-story building surrounded by water. To see it, you have to enter the palace, which consists of courtyards with flowers. From the palace balcony, you can see the lake with Padmini’s palace in the center. It’s beautiful and clean here. We climbed up the little stairs and had a snack of cookies on the terrace in the shade. We saw a beautiful bird with a long tail; we threw cookies to it, it would fly up, take the cookie in its beak, and fly away. Then it would come back for another cookie.
By that time, I was already noticeably tired. We wanted to see one more tower and Rana Kumbha’s palace.
On the way to the palace, we saw two more temples, one of them a Jain temple, vaguely resembling the one we saw in Ranakpur. All the temples here are very beautiful, but also very similar. So by the time you see yet another temple, you’re no longer as enthusiastic as before.
Rana Kumbha Palace didn’t impress us much from the outside. To get inside, you had to pay an extra 50 rupees per person; it’s a museum now. We decided not to go in. Instead, across from the palace, we drank the most expensive tea of our entire trip — 20 rupees each (usually a cup of tea costs 10 rupees). We never did figure out whether the tea seller cheated us or whether the fort simply has such a negative effect on prices... But arguing with him after the tea had already been drunk seemed strange... Unhappy about the tea price, we headed to the northern part of the fort.
Here it’s already completely non-touristy; Indians live in old houses here. Cows lie on the roads mixed in with dogs. Children play cricket. After thinking it over a bit, we decided to go home, especially since it was already around 5 o’clock. The tuk-tuk driver agreed pretty quickly to 70 rupees.
While we were being driven, we calculated that tuk-tuk drivers here earn well even by Ukrainian standards.
If in the morning you take tourists there, and in the evening take them back, and do nothing all day in between, you can earn at least 200 rupees a day, which is almost 70 UAH. And that means that every day of such simple, easy work puts 2,000 UAH in your pocket... Doctors in Ukraine earn less....
There’s really nothing to do in Chittorgarh besides the fort. The town itself is probably the most unpleasant of all the places we’ve been. I’ve never seen so many homeless people and begging children anywhere else.
So we spent the rest of the day sitting at the hotel again, and went out for dinner to the restaurant we had grown fond of
We tried “Indian pizza” — uttapam, which in both appearance and shape really does resemble pizza. Only pizza tastes better :)
