Listening to: My daughters and nieces playing
Jaipur was easily my favorite part of our trip.
Fatepur Sikri
We left straight from Taj Mahal and drove an hour until we
reached Fatepur Sikri, a dead city. Our guide
met us in the parking lot and walked us around, telling us about the history and
some of the unique sites. One of the neatest things for me was the combination
of religions in the architecture. Akbar, the builder, had 3 different wives
(one catholic, one Hindu, and one Muslim) and incorporated elements of all of
these religions into the buildings.
After we got into Rajasthan, we stopped at another tourist
trap for lunch. This food was really good. We got Lal Maas, which is a peppery
Rajasthani curry with more naan.
This was our room
This is a snap of the hotel
Another hour and we
had reached Jaipur. Our hotel was: the Dera Rawatsar. This hotel was also my favorite also. It wasn’t really even
a hotel, it was a bed and breakfast. There were a couple little courtyards,
Indian art on the wall, and a huge room with arches and curtains, a window nook
big enough for the kids to sleep on, and colorful bed spreads. I could go on
and on about this. We ate at the restaurant that night. Unfortunately, the food
was awful. It is totally geared towards western/European palates and has
absolutely no spice. Indian food without spice is not Indian food.
Hawa Mahal
Jai Mahal
Amber Fort
The next day, we ate breakfast and met our guide. She
brought us past Hawa Majal. You can’t go inside, but we saw from the sidewalk.
We drove out to Jai Mahal – the palace on the water, and then drove up to Amber
fort. I enjoyed Amber fort a lot too. It
had a totally different feel than the other fort and tombs that we saw. Totally
worth seeing again! After that, the guide took us on a driving tour of the city
and pointed out that it was a planned city on a block system. We drove through
the old city, enjoying the gate, walls, brightly colored saris, and bazaars.
Totally romantic and I think I’m in love. We stopped for lunch in another
tourist place where the food was just so-so. We went back to the hotel for a short
nap and then headed out again. We drove out of Jaipur and into the countryside
to a farm type thing called Dera Amer. The hosts met us at the door and handed us bananas and
asked us to feed them to the elephants. The girls loved it. We then climbed up
onto a high perch and on top of the elephants. Two mahoots (the guys who steer
the elephants) rode on the elephant’s heads. The eldest daughter rode with me,
the youngest with the husband. We took a good hour long lumbering ride on Hema
and Lakshmi, the elephants. It was wonderful. It was dusk and we saw different
birds, rodents, and such. After the elephant ride, we went for dinner across
the lawn, which I’m told can be rented for elephant polo matches. 9 elephants
lumbering around on a lawn. That is beyond awesome. Anyhow. They seated us
around a fire and gave us assorted bits of grilled meat. After that, we went into the big, open tent
and sat down. They fired up two huge open fireplaces because it got quite
chilly. We ate, buffet style and then stuffed in some dessert too. It was
wonderful. We headed back to Jaipur and
went to sleep.
Elephant Polo Yo. That's just awesome!
One of the elephants
The next morning, we ate slowly, lounged around, and then
caught our flight to Bangalore.
A note on Jaipur: Jaipur is a pretty with it city, even if it still is one of the more conservative places in India. The women still walk around with their saris draped over their faces. They also use a lot of saffron yellow dye for saris, so lots of bright yellow clothes. Tourism
is a major source of income here, so they really do see a lot of different
people. Rajasthan is such a romantic
place. The women with their bright saris, all of the beautiful mirror worked
clothes, umbrellas, purses, etc. I will definitely be coming here again!
You see women like this everywhere
No comments:
Post a Comment