Jaipur (the first part)

Last weekend Cindy's mom Smitty arrived from home. Now we had 4 kids and Smitty for almost a week. Cindy had planned a trip to Jaipur, Agra (Taj Mahal), and back via Delhi.

We caught a flight from Bangalore to Jaipur via Mumbai. We almost didn't make it because the first leg was delayed, but they got us on another airline and everything went very well. I have to say Jet Airways managed the whole thing very professionally.

We arrived in Jaipur on Sunday night. Monday morning our guide, Shankar, met us. The minibus had already picked us up at the airport, and would stay with us for the whole trip. Anyways, we started off the morning by stopping by the pink palace to take a picture in the morning sun, and then going off to the Amber Fort. We wanted to be there early so that we could take one of the elephant rides up to the fort. They only operate early in the morning, I suppose because of the heat. We got there, and fortunately there was not much of a line to get on the elephants, and they were all lined up in waiting for the trip to the top. We got to go up two at a time, except for Isha who was odd woman out... It was grand getting into the main fort area, but before that, we were accosted by vendors the whole way up, as well as musicians and others who were trying to make a living by getting something from the tourists. The view along the way was grand. When we got to the top, there was this high platform which the elephants approached so we could get off. We really felt like royalty riding up on those grand beasts. Maya and Ari got the most for their money. I think they left first, but were the last to arrive at the top. All of our elephants passed them on the way up.

The fort was built by one of the Rajputs who, as the story goes, was robbed coming through on the major road through the area. He realized that it was likely a rich area as the robbers had an excellent location, so he came back, conquered the town and set up his dynasty there. It was used by the Rajputs from 1037-1728 while Jaipur was the center of their kingdom. The architecture is a combination of Muslim and Hindu architecture. It was fun to take a lot of photos, but our guide had to deal with seven people, carrying 6 cameras (plus 1 on Cindy's phone). So, it was I'm sure a bit of a challenge for him. Here are some examples of the beautiful architecture.
Particularly look at my flickr site for more of the hall of mirrors. It was done so that even when the entrances were covered in winter, if there were oil lamps around the walls and ceiling would fliker with the reflections and it would look like stars in the night. I can imagine it would be beautiful.

Somewhere along the way, there was a group of ladies who got it in their heads that they would dance for us. They did, then Smitty joined in. All of them had a good time. It was fun. We constantly meet people who want us to photograph them, or want to be photographed with us etc. I love this country.

We must have spent a couple of hours at the fort, then we decided it would be good to head back to town, and feed the hungry ones. On the way we saw the floating palace. And we stopped by the local observatory which was set up hundreds of years ago to study the sun and indicate to the astrologers when the zodiac signs were aligned with the sun. There was an interesting sundial which was sloped down on one side, and up on the other. It works year round by allowing the sun to shine on one side during the summer and the other side during the winter. Remember that the sun is North of us here in India during the summer.

After lunch we went to see the palace in town.