Tigers and India's Great Wall

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Our next stop was Ranthanbur for a tiger safari, which was fun and we were able to see many animals we thought were only in Africa, but no tigers. I would write more about it but were arrived in the evening, went on the safari in the morning and left by noon. We did hear may people saw tigers, but it's rare. Don't be discouraged, its still worth a visit. The landscape is amazing and not what I expected in India. It reminded me of an Indiana Jones film.

After Ranthanbur we headed to Jaipur a few days before Diwali. The city with a population of over 2 million was a bustle with holiday shoppers. The streets were lined with colorful lights and decorations and the shoppers were in full force. This was most obvious in the old walled pink city. It's called this because the walls and buildings are in fact pink. Traffic going into the city was madness. The city is entered through numerous gates as it has been for hundreds of years. The gates themselves are quite narrow and were not designed for car traffic. There was a constant flow of motor rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, cows, cars and pedestrians moving in and out of the gates. The sounds of horns blowing was deafening. Since we were walking we had to take care not to get hit by confidant unyielding drivers.

The only major site we visited while in Jaipur was the city of Amber. Amber is a large walled fort in the mountains outside of Jaipur. Jaipur was founded when the inhabitants of Amber left due to over crowding. Amber is set in mountains which are lined atop it's ridges with the walls from the fort. It reminded me of an arid, desert like great wall. Visitors have the choice to walk to the entrance or take an elephant up. The elephants are painted and decorated magnificently but how they are treated is questionable so we opted to walk. The inside of the fort is full of winding stair cases that lead to ornate sculptures and mosaics. Many rooms are designed with mirrors that look crystal like. Amber is an impressive site and one we didn't expect. to see.

We opted for a more quite place to spend Diwali and we heard Udaipur was a nice place to be. Plus the idea is to watch the fireworks from the roof tops over looking a large lake. Who could pass that up. I'll add this journal in a few days. Thanks for reading!

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