387388 4 Location 462992 <p>A word needs to be said about the harassment at each Indian tourist attraction.</p><p>You first become aware of it in Delhi and by the time you traverse the rest of the 'Golden Triangle' you become to dread it. It happens outside each attraction and can range from "Sir! You want to buy this postcard!" to strongarm tactics where they nearly get you in a headlock to get you to buy their wares.</p><p>At the exquisite Jantar Mantar it reaches epic proportions. The hawkers spotted me as I approached and I was harassed by autorickshaw drivers and children shoving postcards in my face and it reached a crescendo as I reached the kiosk and the man wanted to charge me 50 rupees for a camera permit. I felt so stressed I blasted the poor man and he let me off. Its a good job I have a car and a driver. Can you imagine the attention a tourist gets just walking the streets of Jaipur?</p><p>But the Jantar Mantar is kind of special once you have got inside. Built in 1728 by Maharajah Jai Singh as an open-air observatory. The instruments tower over the tourists like a surreal theme park and they are astrologically aligned at the heavens and contain slants, circles, brick curves and pillars. They are like bizarre props from a science fiction movie.</p><p>The biggest is a 60ft sundial which resembles a ski-jump. Its positioned so that its shadow will fall on the other instruments. My favourite instrument were to two hemisphere buried in the ground called Jai Prakash Yantra. Each hemisphere carved with centuries old zodiac signs.</p><p>But the best thing about it was the views to the Aravalli mountains where the Amber Fort drapes itself langurously across the spine of the hills looking like some gothic fantasy mixed with Rajasthani elements.</p><p>Thats where I am going tomorrow. The Amber Fort.</p> 2008-02-16T21:32:10-08:00 285212702 2000-05-30T17:00:00-07:00 0 16 172122 6559716 387388 0 143978 0.0 2000-05-30T17:00:00-07:00 Published 0.0 2008-02-16T21:32:10-08:00 60714 0