India: Part II

March 15, 2012

Finally we get to "sleep in" until 6:30am. We left for Amber Fort where we were able to ascend to the top by Elephants. This was amazing!!! I loved it! The elephants were all painted in colorful designs. Although I do feel bad about the idea of the riding the elephants ever since watching "Water for Elephants," it was a great experience! This fort is perched on a hill overlooking the desert plains of Rajasthan.  The fort is a superb example of Raiput architecture 

After lunch, we went to a carpet/textile place. Lastly, stopping at the City Palace and observatory.  The observatory was designed by the astronomer Prince Maharajah Jai Singh, who founded the city in the 1700s. The palace is the home of Jaipur royalty, which houses a museum with an extensive collection. Outside of the Palace, there were more mothers and children begging for food. There was a boy who I could not believe could still be living. His legs were so skinny they looked like pure skeleton like bones with no muscle. He was sitting and when he stood up, his stomach looked like he was pregnant. Inside the palace area, we saw the'Gangajalis'which are the largest silver objects in the world (in the Guinness Book of World Records). Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II took these Jars filled with Gangajal (Ganges water) on his voyage to England to attend the coronation ceremony of Edward VIIth in the the year 1902. Close by, there were many Indian women gathering to give henna tattoos and singing. 

We were able to do some souvenir shopping and use some great bargaining skills in the market. They try to charge you 2,000 Ruppies, but you say 100 and they say no, you walk out the come after you and say okay okay. Jaipur is in the state of Rajasthan. Raj means King and so this is a state of the Kings. There have been about 8 kings from Rajasthan. The city is known as "The Pink City" because the whole city was painted pink for the king and all of the buildings are pink-colored sandstone.

March 16, 2012

Board the bus at 7:30am and head to New Delhi for 5 hours. I began to notice on all of the trucks back end, they say "Blow Horn" "Horn OK Please" etc.. The horn blowing is so obnoxious and overboard in India. Basically everyone is laying on their horns all the time and it takes many minutes and lots of patience for people to finally move to the side. They were very uncooperative of our huge tour bus. We stopped for lunch at a hotel and then proceeded to the airport for our flight to Cochin. A full day of travel!! 

March 17, 2012

The last day in India was a day of relaxing and shopping around Jew-Town. We took the water taxi which was so cheep-- 4 cents in American money. 

Our tour guide shared this quote with us! "In order to have a comfortable journey of life, reduce the luggage of desires." Thanks so much Mom & Dad, I am truely blessed!!!