Jaipur the Pink City

 Our day and evening was filled with sites and shopping. I am going to go in order and cut and paste descriptions from the internet that explains briefly each site. I will be honest, I am not good at explaining  sites to the extent that John is, but I wanted to give you some context of our day of exploration in Jaipur.

We saw everything by rickshaw with our wonderful rickshaw driver Khan. He asked us if there were specific sites we wanted to see or if we trusted him to take us to all the sites and good shopping. I am sure by now you know what we chose. We just sat back and relaxed in the rickshaw and we let Khan lead the way.

1. Albert Hall Museum- Just clicked a picture and hopped back into the rickshaw. It is the oldest museum of the state and functions as the State museum of Rajasthan. It is an example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. We also knew that James and Ashram would not last if we went to every site and explored each one. I am not sure I would have lasted. So clicking a picture was just fine.

2. Hawa Mahal- is a palace. It is constructed of red and pink sandstone. The structure was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. We just clicked a picture and from the looks of it, that is what most people were doing. We thoroughly explored a palace in Bangalore, Mysore, and Kochi and I think we get the idea. They are palacious and ornate.

3. Gatore Ki Chhatriyan-is a complex of temples and tombs in the foothills of the Nahargarh (Tiger) Fort. It was the royal crematorium for the majestic rulers of Rajasthan. The beautiful edifice also has a cenotaph for each of the more famous maharajas cremated there. Engraved with beautiful Rajasthani carvings, the cenotaphs are one of the major attractions of the place. The cenotaphs are shaped like umbrellas (chhatris) and hence the place is called Gatore Ki Chhatriyan. Here we spent some time.

4. Amer Fort once formed a strong defense ring for the city. We took the trek to the top. It was fun to see how expansive the fort was and to imagine how this was built.

                                                                   

5. Jal Mahal is a palace in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake in Jaipur city. The palace and the lake around it were renovated and enlarged in the 18th century by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Amber. Here we would have loved to take a boat and explore the palace, but it is not open to the public so we just clicked a picture.

6. Shopping-- we were taken to 3 places. First fabrics and textiles and then handicrafts and lastly jewellery. W were told that if we were going to shop that Jaipur is the place to do it and so we did. We got to see how things were made and then taken to a wholesaler section of the store. The kids were showered with soda and chocolates so that John and I . could shop. We figured lets do it once and be done with so that we do not have to do this again with the kids. So we did it and 3 hours later we got all our shopping done for our friends and family.

We started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 6:30 p.m. and we all weathered through it. I think that the soda and chocolates helped the kids. But I was pleasantly surprised on how well they handled the whole day. We usually take a break in the afternoon but this time we just pushed through. I guess sometimes changing things up help too.

Now we are in Kolkata visiting family and spending every minute catching up with family. It has been 10 years since we have seen all of them. I could just sit and be with family all day. And that is exactly what we are doing here in Kolkata. More on family tomorrow.