Day 10, Jaipur

When we arrived in Jaipur at perhaps 8pm, we were all starving. We drove to our “hotel” which was really sort of a very quaint bed and breakfast.  In the middle was a courtyard, covered with a net but open to the air otherwise.  Surrounding the courtyard were beautiful columns with covered coves, at the back of which stood intricately decorated wooden doors to our two rooms.  Inside each room were two beautiful wood framed beds and ornate furnishings. 

As I mentioned, we were starving.  Benson ordered food, and it was ready in a few mintues.  It tasted heavenly, with complicated tastes of spices in the dishes of lentils, okra and paneer tikka. 

You may have seen "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."  Dumb movie, in my opinion, but it was set in Jaipur, and the footage felt exactly like what we experienced--right down to the side-to-side head bobble of the locals.  

After a decent night’s rest, we arose fairly early and we were off to Amber Fort.  Our guide, Bikay, had a very thick accent, but he knew everything about the places we visited that day.  In fact, he apparently trained most of the other tour guides.  We started by getting in the queue for the elephant rides up to the Fort.  The Fort sits majestically on the side of a mountain, overlooking a manmade lake.

The Fort itself was really quite amazing and beautiful.  The walls were painted with gemstone dust, and the colors remain vibrant after 400 years.  The main rooms were decorated with gems and mirrors on the walls and ceiling.  Absolutely beautiful.

On our way back from there, we got an insider’s opportunity—to feed and pet a baby elephant. The girls loved this!  He had the most beautiful brown eyes!

Later, we visited the Jaipur City Palace and Observatory.  I was fascinated by the gigantic sun dials and astronomical “instruments” which were constructed in the 1700s.  The City Palace is actually where the royal Singh family (the line of the kings of Jaipur) still lives, but some of it has been opened to the public to tour.

Everywhere we went (especially the Fort) there were hawkers and vendors shoving things in our faces.  We also saw many beggars and several very crippled people.

It was remarkable how many domestic tourists wanted to take pictures ("take a click?") of us…well, of Lydia. On this particular day, Lydia decided to take a break, so her sisters and Mom filled in as understudies.

Mercifully (as we were all pretty exhausted after all of that touring) we returned to the hotel for about an hour of rest.  

We were then off to dinner.  Benson took us to the outskirts of town to visit sort of a carnival. He spoke Hindi, or there's no way we could have navigated the scene. We saw folk dancers, a boy balancing bowls on his head while walking across a high rope, a boy balancing on his upper lip with toys on top, while using other sticks to maneuver the toy or shoot plates off the other sticks, etc.  Charity, Brianna and I had our palms read.  Elizabeth played a carnival game with a bow and arrow, trying to shoot a heart.

We ate at a buffet.  The ambiance was really fun—native music playing, people cooking over fires, lamps lighting the scene.  It was fairly warm, most people were domestic Indian tourists.

We returned to the hotel after 10 pm, again exhausted--but, oh my! What a fun day!