India: Jaipur

Our wake up call was at 0600 and we had to be ready to leave at 0730. The sad thing was that this was sleeping in for us. I got up a little before 0700 to shower and grab some breakfast before the long day ahead. Lydia was a little late getting down to the bus, I tried to get her to get up when I left, but I could only do so much. I’m not her mother.

We headed for Amber, the former capital. We stopped at first to take pictures of a palace in the city. We were going to go up the big hill to the Amber Fort. We got there around 0830 to get in line to take elephants up to the top. We had to get there early because each elephant is only allowed by law to make 3 or 4 trips a day. There were a ton of elephants there. The line was huge, apparently people start lining up there hella early to ensure that they can get on an elephant.

The elephants were painted with makeup paints. Vanessa and I shared an elephant up to the top named Pinky! Pinky was a female baby elephant, she was so cute. There was a platform on Pinky’s back that had a cushion and bars on it so we could sit comfortably without falling off. We got some great pictures as we went up. Bea and Victor took pictures of us from their elephant. I can’t wait to see those. It was about a 15 minute ride. We rode Pinky into the fort and got off at a platform and waited for the rest of the group. We were guided by our guy around the fort. It was incredible and so expansive.

When we finished we walked down against the flow of the elephants coming up. We had spent a good amount of time there and the elephants were still going strong. I was beginning to wonder how strictly they followed the government’s regulations of 3-4 trips per day. It wasn’t looking like they were following it at all. I was beginning to feel badly for the elephants.

Next we headed to back to the Water Palace. It was located in the middle of a lake. It was like a square palace had been dropped in the middle of the lake. There was no platform around it at all, just the palace itself. It looked really cool and we took a bunch of pictures of it. The only way to get to it was by boat. There was a tiny island next to it which a few low lying plants and a few cows. I’m really curious how the cows got there. The water looked pretty shallow, so I’m guessing they just walked there.

We then continued along to a rug-making place. They showed us first how they use different stamps to make patterns on cloth. This was actually cool. Then they showed us how they make all their carpets by hand in this store and perfect them. They’re all oriental rugs, or at least that’s what we call them at home. They took us downstairs to a show room full of hundreds of rugs in all shapes, sizes, and patterns. It was air-conditioned and there were seats. They gave us free drinks and showed us their rugs. Another infomercial. I thought it was cool up until the point where they started pushing for us to buy carpets. The worst part is that they ended up convincing a few people to buy them for themselves or their parents.

Sorry Mom and Dad, I did not buy you a carpet. I remember how long it took you guys to pick out that really nice carpet in the living room. It needed to be the perfect size and pattern to match with everything. Plus everything was wicked expensive. We spent forever at this place. I was over it by the time we left.

We headed to a local restaurant for lunch. It was pretty nice and we had it almost completely to ourselves. The food was delicious, again. There was more of the crazy white vanilla ice cream for dessert along with fried dough balls covered in sugary syrup. This is huge to us because restaurants in Vietnam and China would serve fruits for dessert. This was a huge improvement.

After lunch a bunch of people left our group to go do their own thing aka go lie by the pool at the hotel. I’m all for lying by a pool or the beach, but not when there’s limited time in a country like this. Plus, if you’re really trying to understand the Indian culture, going out in a bikini is not the way to effectively make a good impression. Our group lost a good amount of people, which made it better.

We went to the Observatory. I had no idea what to expect here. I wasn’t aware that it would be completely outside in the blazing sun. There were a few different sundials, including the largest sun dial in the whole world. It is absolutely enormous. There were all sorts of other instruments throughout this park. Our tour guide explained how they all worked and we wandered about.

Next we went to the City Palace. This was really pretty. We wandered around and saw the different parts of it. In the center of it were a group of women and their daughters. They were doing henna and teaching their daughters how to do it properly. When we finished looking around we went over to find out if they’d do some for us. They all got really excited at the prospect of making money. They weren’t hired to be there, they had been praying earlier and then sitting around with each other. A few of them were really aggressive about getting clients. Bea, Vanessa, and I found a woman who was seated patiently waiting. We went to her and she was by far the best of all of them. She was gorgeous and smiled quietly up at us while she worked quickly. It cost about $2 USD. I have a flower pattern going up my left hand from my index finger to my elbow. It’s amazing. Everyone has been commenting on it and complimenting it. And by everyone I mean a bunch of the Indian men. They don’t seem to be mocking it either, so it’s pretty sweet.

A bunch of the girls got henna and even one of the Life Long Learners got it. She was so excited. When we finished up we got on the bus for the final parts of the day.

We were stopping by a jewelry store. We didn’t really want to go, but we agreed with our tour guide that we’d stop by for a little bit. I was feeling bad at the idea of not going, because they were planning on us being there. Most of the jewelry was too expensive for any of our budgets. I found a pretty silver and blue ring for about $20 USD that I bought. I love rings and I’ve bought one in every country except Vietnam.

When everyone was finished up we headed to a market place. It had everything in it, but we only had a little bit of time there. I looked around quickly, I was looking for a sun face and some genie/parachute pants. Shockingly, I found a sun face. I’ve literally looked in every country and keep thinking each country will have one. Finally, India is that country. So, Dad, I have found you a sun face. It took me almost 2 months, but I did it. I’m so excited.

We took the bus back to the hotel. It was early evening and dinner wasn’t until 1930. I went and took a shower and laid down for a little bit before dinner. Dinner was at the restaurant and the same as the night before for the most part with a few new additions. It was delicious. Victor, Bea, Nick, Vanessa, Lorrie, and I ended up staying at dinner and getting dessert and talking until almost 2300. It was probably a good thing we didn’t go out; we had to be up wicked early the next morning for our flight to Cochin.