We stared the day with an early trip to Amber Fort. A massive fort in Jaipur that used to be the home of the King. There is a large wall surrounding the fort in the mountains that they refer to as the Great Wall of India. On our way, we stopped by Hawa Mahal, which is also called as ‘Palace of Wind’ or ‘Palace of Breeze’. It has 953 small windows called jharokhas decorated with intricate lattice work and was built in 1799. The bad thing about our group is that our bus has "TOURIST" plastered across the front of it, so wherever we go, the beggars and salesmen flock to us. People come up with these bags then opened them in front of us and start to charm cobras. Only seen that in movies, to see it live was pretty cool.
The Amber Fort looks big, but in person it is even bigger. The trip up to the top was pretty tiresome. Other tourists took elephants or jeeps up there. I wanted to take an elephant, but our tour guide said that he did not recommend it. The elephants are mistreated and even beaten during the walk with thick sticks. While the elephants were beautiful, I didn't want to be on one of those things when it finally had had enough and caused a stampede! When we got to the fort, we had a local tour guide show us around. One of the good things about this tour group that I am using, G Adventure, is that they only use local resources. When we are in a city, we use local hotels, local transportation, eat at local restaurants, and use local guides. They try to give back to the area in which we visit. The tour was very informative, and there was another fort behind where the king lived that housed the army. The whole place was truly amazing.
I must say that before I booked this tour, I seriously thought I could backpack India on my own. This country is such a mad house. I would have never been able to see all that I wanted to see and come out alive. The most helpful thing is that our guide knows these areas and knows the correct prices for the local transportation, warning us on the maximum that we should pay for certain distances. On such a long trip, saving a couple dollars a day truly adds up.
After we got done with the fort, we had multiple options to choose from to fill the afternoon. The two Norwegian girls wanted to go shopping to get some local clothes. I wanted to do something different than sight seeing, so I joined the girls. Also, the area seemed a little unsafe, so I wanted to make sure that they had an enjoyable and safe experience. We hopped in a tuk tuk and headed off to the local shops. It was really cool to see all the locally made clothes and bargain the prices down with the salesman. The girls found a couple skirts that they liked and bargained hard to get the prices right. Before we left, I was convinced to get a traditional male Indian shirt. Of course, they didn't have my size, so the guy had one handmade for me and delivered to my hotel later that day. It ended up costing me $14, not bad for such good quality.
That night, our tour guide, Yash, recommended that we visit the local night club called Back 2 Basics. Us four "youngsters" and one of the older guys, who was from Canada, headed out. The club was really fun, but small. It was full of locals, but surprisingly, all the patrons were very respectable. I was expecting us to have to protect the girls from the local guys harassing them, however, we didn't have one signal problem. One of the locals, unknowingly, dropped his phone while he was dancing. I picked it up and gave it back to him; he continually came up to me, shaking my hand and saying "thank you." It was interesting to see how the guys acted at the club, unlike many clubs I have been in, all the guys were dancing. They had some pretty elaborate dance moves and they were all on there own. It is hard to explain, but it was pretty funny to watch.
As the night came to an end, the Canadian left the club before us. When we all got back to the hotel, we went up to Yash's room for a few night caps. About an hour later, we got a call from the Canadian, he was lost in Jaipur; the tuk tuk driver had no clue where to go even though he had our hotel's card. Eventually he made it back and joined us for our last drink. We got to bed around 4am and we woke up for an 8am drive to Tordigarh, a small small town on our way to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is).
The day was long, but the memories are unforgettable.
(Still no pictures. No Internet in Tordigarh. Hopefully Agra will have some good speed!)
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