The first place here is the Amber Fort.
Complete with snake charmer.
And miraculously it becomes two holidays for the price of one as The Great Wall of China is here too. Actually it is the fort wall.
The actual fort is higher up and we are not going there....
Nice views... Dates from early 11th century.
The garden shows the Persian carpet design, Arab influence again.
Our tour leader dons a turban.
One thing to note in India, with it's caste system still working in the rural zones, racism is blatant too. Everyone here as a tourist comments on this and it's a shame. If you are in a store say talking to the guy, an Indian can walk in, and all of a sudden you are dropped for the Indian. White skin not only gets you higher prices, but poorer service. If I was in the tourist industry, I'd suggest it's a problem.The reverse of this would be seen as racism, so I am sure the former is too.
Mind you, boarding a train, or any line up is weird too. While Indians are generally very warm, if you want to line up to board a train, a hundred with bags, big bags, will just push in in front. No shame, no hesitation. Is this the crush you get living in a nation of a billion plus? Or again, is it an Indian first mentality?
That said, there would have been far more push and shove without out guide Indu, so thank my lucky stars for that!
This castle in the lake looks cool but we are not going there.... Why I ask ?
Our hotel here is chintzy, it is full of odds and ends, some antique some not.
My bedroom ceiling has no mirrors but lots of paint.
Everyone wanted to go to a Bollywood movie, of the 3 who went before, 2 left to go on a tiger trail. little known to me until last minute, it is the same movie I saw before ! Argh.....!
I did not eat here, promise...
Look at this rock, can you see the star? Star sapphire....or locally, the Star of India. When the light hits from different angles it splits into stars.
Jaipur has a reputation of being a city of jewels, and you can count the number of jewelry shops on a few million hands. Some places small, some have many floors. Much of it is way out of my price range to buy anyone, but if you are in the market for nice gems, you could spend weeks here window shopping...
Inside movie theatre...
Ok, next day we were off to another fort. This one has a Maharaja in residence up there in the yellow bit.
Goats ride tuk tuks here too!
Be careful looking down back alleys - you never know what you will see...
The wind palace below was used to house concubines....what marvelous days those were..... :)
And finally carrots here are not orange they are deep red. this pic does not do justice to their redness, who knows what they use for fertilizer!
Later in the afternoon we had a 4 hour train ride to Delhi. Joel and Leah met us on that train and showed us the tiger pic the had hoped for. Glad they got to see one....
We arrived in Delhi around 11:30pm and after farewell rum and cokes in Indu's room, that was it. He left at 4am, so did Leah and Joel, I met some of the others for breakfast in the morning until the hotel manager asked us to be in an advertising video, at which point I slimmed out - and I got my ride to the airport at 11am. It's sad to leave them and it's sad my trip is so far along already! I did not see much of Delhi, but I should have a full day in old Delhi later in the week. And with that, next stop is Dubai!
- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on picture for larger image and gallery.
