JAIPUR

We are staying at the Hilton Hotel Jaipur. This is the view from our room.

Our room

The foyer

Our room is very nice. The service here is tops. Everyone treats us like Royalty. Not many our colour. They can't do enough for us. When we got back to our room this afternoon the little boy who did our room did so much extra. Left the towel elephant on the bed. Laid out my makeup,  hair brush,  toothbrushes etc out on a little mat on the vanity all in perfect order. Even put our shoes in a straight line on a little mat. We certainly get treated well. Guys rushing over to open doors etc. Great life I will expect all this when I get home.  We have had great weather but it gets very very very hot.

This morning we were met at 9.30am by our new guide for Jaipur who was waiting for us in the foyer. Then he rings the driver next thing our car arrives at the front entrance. All this guide / driver deal really works well. Everything is so organised for us. This would be the best town so far as in cleanliness of the  roads and green areas in the New Town. We saw the first hills today as Delhi and Agra are all flat. Today we started our day going straight to the old Town where all the buildings are painted pink/terracotta colours. The King wanted all the buildings to be pink which means welcome or greetings. It is nicknamed the pink city. The above is one of seven gates to the Old Town which is a walled city. First sign of the colour which you don't see in the new town.

Now inside the old town our first stop is at the Hawa Mahal Palace, constructed of  red and pink sandstone. The lattice design over the windows was to allow royals ladies back in their day (1700 hundreds) to observe every day life and festivals in the streets below to look out and not be seen.

We are now arriving at the Amer Fort situated up on a ridge just outside Jaipur in the walled Town of Amber. The driver fortunately could drive us right up to the Fort. We were asked if we would prefer to go up by elephant, we declined that. Glad that we didn't have to walk as it was a lot higher than it looks. The Fort is constructed of sandstone and marble as you see by the photos below

Just inside the Amber Fort climbing up the stairs from the courtyard.

In the courtyard are the elephants arriving from the bottom of the hill bringing people up into the Fort. 

From the top of the stairs up into the living quarters looking over the courtyard.

First room we went into. All the ceilings all have very different details.  

Looking from the upstairs courtyard over the valley. On the ridge of the hill on the left you can see the Fort wall.

PT looking out over the hills. 

Looking over from the top floor watching the poor elephants climbing up the hill to bring people to the Fort. Poor things as it is so hot. We really feel so sorry for the animals over here so many stray dogs etc.

We are still in the Fort. We are always taken to forts and you would think, not another Fort but they are all fantastic all so different and so much fine workings on the walls and ceilings. We love them.



Walking across the upstairs courtyard through to a different part of the complex.

Just look at this beautiful ceiling so much detail and it was all very sparkly.



These different rooms just keep coming. All this beautiful work.



Just love it all. I love the colours, all different from room to room.

This is a closeup of the fine work on this wall.

The gardens in one of the upstairs courtyards.

This is the quarters of the kings twelve wife's. The first wife to produce a boy gets to be the kings favoured wife and gets special treatment. The railing where people are looking into is where the favoured wife bathes in a big tub.

So much to see in this large Fort it just keeps going forever. This is just another outside covered area. Every minute spent here is so amazing, hence so many photos.

As we come down from the Fort we passed the working elephants that took people up to the Fort. They had finished for the morning and were on there way home to rest. They won't let them work after  eleven thirty in the morning due to the heat. Poor things

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We have stopped to see the Water Palace which sits in the middle of the lake. It was completed before they made this man made water trap?



We were then taken to a factory to see how they print their fabric. 



These blocks above are all different designs of part of the elephant and they use different colours and layer the different designs on top of the previous print and hit it with their fist. To hard to explain, but the previous photo shows the out come.



Now a visit to the Jantar Mantar Observatory which is one of the most fascinating sites that features giant instruments which helps in measuring time  all done by the sun. Above tells the time

This is part of the layout set in this observatory. The structure on the left is the worlds largest sun dial.

Our next stop is a visit to the City Palace. Another amazing site with all its finer detail.

As we were going in I had a chat to Mr Camel

The City Palace is a complex of courtyards.

And fine detailed pavillions.

PT and the guide chatting under the archway. We have had excellent guides in all the different cities and our driver is very good, considerate and careful






Another courtyard

Beautiful fine artwork



And yes another courtyard and still in the complex of the City Palace. Really shows how the maharajahs lived. Another amazing place. The two flags above indicate that he is in residence. (But we didn't see him)

The white Temple made of marble. This city just keeps amazing us.

This little Fort is just up behind the White Temple.

Another big day in this severe heat, so much water has been drunk. Just love this place. It's so fascinating. We were out for about six hours today visiting the above but that's about the max we can take in this heat. It's nice to have time out in the cool of the hotel for the rest of the days. We are off to Pushkar tomorrow just for one night. It was nice to see hills again as previously it has been all flat. Must say it has made our long driving days a lot easier being so flat and straight good motorways. They are tolled so not too busy.