Day 4 - Jaipur

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Usual start at 8.30am after breakfast. Seemed like we were the only 6 guests but a few more turned up as we were leaving.

First stop was Amber Fort, but instead of our mini-bus, we all hopped into a covered Jeep for the drive up to the Fort entrance. The old traditional method was riding up on an elephant, but tour companies no longer use this method because the elephants are badly treated. The Indian government does not allow any new elephants to be trained in this way.

Amber Fort was fantastic.
Located 11km from Jaipur, it was the old fort of the Kachwaha clan of Amber. The fort is built with white marble and red sandstone and many interesting parts to it, plus great views of the surrounding area.

After that, we stopped to look at the Summer Palace which was built in the middle of the lake.

Next stop was another factory. This time a textile/carpet one. We ended up buying a beautiful silk carpet, 2 tailor made shirts, a bedspread and 2 pants for Daisy. Nearly everyone bought a carpet and other items.

It was then time for lunch at a nice local restaurant then onto Jantar Mantar which is the largest of the five observatories built by a Maharahjah, Sawai Jai Singh. It is most famous for having the world's largest sun dial. Other instruments were for astrological calculations and calculation of longitude and latitude.

Close by was the City Palace which contained a small museum of clothing worn by members of the royal family.

We then visited a building for artists and watched another demonstration before purchasing a very nice small painting of Indian animals in procession for 5000 INR. Fortunately Daisy wasn't talked into buying more scarves.

We finished off the City Palace having a look at the Peacock Square. As we were leaving, a lot of work was going on setting up for a wedding, which looked amazing. Arjun found out that this wedding was costing over $130,000.

Final stop was a short walk to the main road to Hawa Mahal or the Palace of Winds which was constructed for the royal ladies to watch royal processions without being seen. I mentioned to Daisy that the good photos I've seen were taken higher up and she mentioned that to Arjun and he said, "we can do that". We saw some stairs which led to a rooftop cafe and the view was much better.

Then it was back to the hotel, just one hour before dinner. This time it was a buffet as we discovered a second Trip-a-deal group of 18 had arrived, so more than just the six of us were dining. Turns out it was pure luck that we are in a small group of 6 instead of 18.

After dinner, Robyn and Anne said they were going to the foyer shop and of course we followed them in and ended up buying a block print tablecloth and a shirt for Daisy.

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