Jaipur sights

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Today started with a tour of Jaipur, consisting of the Amber Fort, The old city of Jaipur, the tower and the astronomy/observatory centre.

The old city was very good and very pink, given its name is the pink city! Lots of small alleyways mix with a huge long road through the centre. The tower in the centre of the old city provided an amazing view and it is the tallest point there. WE then drove past the city palace and the home of the Rajasthani royal family. Next stop was the astronomy/astrology/observatory?? place featuring the worlds largest sundial and many other instruments for telling the time, the lat/long of the sun/moon the twelve signs of the zodiac and their fortunes and another sundial which had an accuracy of within 2 seconds, although it was only working for 2 minutes each day at 12 o' clock. All the instruments were amazing to see and the construction was astounding!!

Next on the agenda was the amber fort about 20 km from the old city. Elephants seemed to be the preferred method of transport to get to the massive hill top fort/palace. After a very bumpy journey and the inevitible hassle for tips the elephants dropped us inside the fort. Again our guide provided insight into when the fort was built and exactly what it was used for and it was worth the trip to see!

Mark insists on writing about lunch, which was had at a local restaurant and was excellent! A great Thali was served and we congratulated ourselves on starting to feel slightly 'local'. A thali consists of a selection of dishes served together on a tray with naan, papad (poppadums) and rice. Great way to taste loads of different dishes.

Next was a quick photo stop at the water palace, a palce in the middle of a man made lake corrently disused but being turned into a restaurant. Then on to a textiles and gem factory to see the process, which just ended up as being a tourist stop and the usual hassle. "You want this crap?" No thanks!!

After the hardships of the day we went to a revolving restaurant in the centre of 'new' Jaipur which, whilst being more expensive than others, offered great views of the city and live music. the food was rated very highly!!

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Photos

Ollie on a Rickshaw
Found this on the road...My new Job???

Jaipur Restaurant
Revolving restaurant in the centre of Jaipur