We just finished up 3 fun days in Jaipur, otherwise known as the Pink City. We headed that way after Agra and made a quick stop at Fatehpur Sikri. This area was founded as capital of Mughal Empire by Emperor Akbar, but pretty quickly abandoned due to lack of water/resources. The palace, halls, and entertainment areas were beautiful. We had fun playing on his life size “chess” board too.
Fatehpur Sikri
One of the Queen's bedrooms.
The King's area.
The King's bed.
Our journey continued towards Jaipur. We entered through the gates (Jaipur is surrounded by walls). The first thing that we noticed was that we did not consider color of the city to be pink, but rather an orange color. We twisted through the streets and ended at the Colonel’s Homestead, a cute bed and breakfast. We rested up for the night, ready to take on all the tourist sites!
Colonel's Homstead from the roof.
There were peacocks throughout the backyard.
We woke up the next morning to the sound of thunder, and experienced our first rain storm. Luckily for us, it did not last long and we were still able to go sight-seeing without buying new umbrellas. The first place on our list was Amber Fort, built by Raja Shri Mann Singh Ji I in the 16th century. Amber Fort is located on a tall hill outside of Jaipur and is the third largest wall in the world. Inside the fort we visited the Sheesh Mahal (Mirror Palace) and the Singh Pol (Lion Gate), as well as the king’s quarters and the apartments for his 12 wives. The front view was pretty breath taking too.
You can get to the palace by car, walking, or elephant!
View from back of palace overlooking garden.
Garden within palace.
Mirror Palace.
Window in the Queen's Yoga area.
The first Queen's Jacuzzi
Overlook of 12 queens living area.
Our Jaipur adventure also included views of the Water palace, the Wind palace, and the King’s palace. We were surprised to learn Jaipur still has a royal family, and that the current king, Padmanabh Singh, is 19 years old. At City Palace we learned about many different generations of the royal family. We also were able to see the traditional dresses (yes dresses) that the kings wore.
Wind Palace.
Water Palace (currently closed)
King's Palace (notice the pink color).
Where the King lives (he is only one able to have yellow building and has the tallest building in the city).
We also went to Jantar Mantar Observatory near the palace created by one of the Kings, Jai Singh II! It was really interestsing to hear all the forward science inventions and implementations of the time (1734 was completed). There are 19 instruments.
First sun dial we saw.
Look for shadow at birth to tell you the astrological sign.
Largest sun dial in the world.
Another tourist site that we saw was the Monkey Temple (sorry no pictures because it cost money and we are still under-funded medical students). The temple was pretty abandoned, but greatly inhabited with monkeys running around. Some people were feeding them and letting them climb on them. We were not that adventurous, and probably know a little too much on all the possible diseases and bugs to be contracted, let alone the risk of being pick-pocketed by a monkey (which we did see happen).
Don't worry we didn't steal a picture this is from Amber Fort.
We were told one of the main things to do in Jaipur was shop, which we did (for all our lovely family/friends because as aforementioned although we are lacking funds we are still willing to buy everyone gifts). We went to a lot of shops and street markets and had a fun time bargaining and talking with the local vendors. Altogether we really enjoyed our time in Jaipur and thought it was a pretty, interesting, unique, and fun place to visit.
Back to Delhi we go!