So after resting for a bit at the train station we head to our hotel. Luckily we find someone who knows where our hotel is (we would find out later that this was not really true when trying to get from places in the city BACK to the hotel). An unfortunate thing about living in India and THEN going on the touristy tour is that we knew when we were getting ripped off. Boo. Anyways, we finally get to the hotel and just chill. The owner had a yellow lab and he was such a pushover. I petted him while we waited for our room to be ready.
We decided that since we had had such a rough start to the day it might be easier/better if we tried to keep things down to a minimum for that day. So we showered, took a nap and then decided to go out to see City Palace. It was a little interesting since our auto blew a tire on the way there and we got to see a peddler fix it.
But we got to City Palace and I'm glad we did! It was a lot of fun and just the right amount of seeing the city on the amount of sleep we had.
The main courtyard of the palace
One of the parts of the palace- this architecture was quite common in Jaipur
Gorgeous colors
With some of the guards
Proof we were there
It was fun walking around and we actually got some really good deals on souvenirs. It was funny seeing the merchant's faces as we bartered. They don't usually have tourists barter and we threw them for a loop. But we both ended up happy, we got a good deal on some things and they got a sale.
Jaipur is in the state of Rajasthan and it is where a lot of princely maharajahs had their domains. It was able to have really intricate buildings and was (and is) quite wealthy.
After touring around the City Palace, it was starting to rain and so we decided to see the water palace on the way back before relaxing and having an early night.
The Water Palace- where the maharajahs used to keep their harem to ensure that only they could access them
The next day was absolutely amazing! We decided to rent a car for the day to go around to various forts and to see a temple a little ways outside of the city. Our first stop was Amber Fort/Amber Palace. It was SO gorgeous.
Amber Fort/Palace
A couple of monkeys near the entrance
And I got to ride an elephant! It was funny because I had read EVERYWHERE that PER ELEPHANT it was a certain price. Even our guide had told us that. But then when we got to ride the elephant that price was PER PERSON and not per elephant. I got so mad and was arguing with them but there were so many people in line that I just finally agreed and we got to ride the elephant. (It was on my bucket list for India and it was the only place on our journey that I knew for certain we could have that experience) But gosh darnit I got all worked up. I hate getting ripped off. But I super enjoyed it and I have pictures from it. :)
The line of elephants!!!
The path up to the fort
The lake and land in front of the fort- that's a man-made lake.
So after about ten minutes of riding the elephant up and getting haggled by vendors, we finally made it to the fort.
Our wonderful rider and elephant
And then we went and explored Amber Fort! It was really neat to explore and we kept finding different places to go. At one point we thought we had gotten lost and couldn't figure our way out. But we made it out just fine.
The entrance- I thought it was cool with the guard in the front
some of the detail work on the palace
view of the palace and the city behind it
the main courtyard overlooking the palace
It was nice to see Amber Fort when we did. It is the most popular attraction in Jaipur and we had gone relatively early in the morning. Even still it was fairly crowded. We lucked out in the rest of the day by going to less popular (but arguably more fun) places.
To be continued!
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