Jaipur explore

 This morning we had our buffet breakfast (love a buffet) before taking an Uber to Amer Fort, the largest and most popular in Jaipur. Upon arrival, you can see all the way up to the massive stone buildings, and tour guides haggle to get you to use them. We bypassed them and also past the people riding elephants up the very steep hill to the entrance to the fort. See images, it is amazing and my descriptions may not do it justice. We took photos and wandered in and out of the corridors exploring. A person approaches us and took us up to the highest point, beyond a broken wooden door that looked ominous. Were we being robbed? No, but he did ask for some cash for showing us a fairly unremarkable viewpoint. Meh, we can afford the like $4aud so why not. 

When we left the fort we went to the road where Ubers can come to pick up passengers but it was gridlocked. So we followed it down past basically parked cars filled with steaming hot tourists. And down, and down, and down. We’d walked so far we were basically on our way to our next destination - the famous step well Panna Meena Ka Kund. It’s strangely just in the middle of this town on the side of a road, but still quite the sight. It was tough carrying Ethan and it was very hot by this point close to midday. We photographed it and then found a taxi to take us to the water palace which was on our way back anyway. The view was only ok, it looks better in images where they are taken from the water. But still, a cool palace.

We stopped by a ceramics store where they used 21 villagers to paint very intricate designs, where many have a hidden figure within - like little eyes poking out behind some swirls. When we got back to the hotel we immediately got into the pool as we were all too red faced and probably dehydrated, and also had some snacks for lunch poolside. 

After a rest, we took a long Uber to the Jaipur branch of Jaipur rugs (which we’d seen in bangalore) and bought a rug by those same villagers I’d mentioned a few posts back. We now have a sentimental piece for our house - something important for our first visit to India. Then, it was a quick Uber to the Pink Bar at the Hyatt, which happened to be overlooking a very lavish wedding. We only stayed for a cocktail and some chicken tenders for Ethan before taxiing home. Ethan fell asleep in the car and while he rested on me, I thought about how to capture our car rides in this blog.

The traffic is like nothing else. Cars, tuktuk taxis, motorbikes, trucks, pedestrians, rickshaw salesmen, cows, dogs and anything and everything else all share the road. Everyone beeps their horn to let everyone else know where they are. It all moves fast and weaves past at an insane rate. And then it stops at a light for what seems like forever, and it’s hard and heartbreaking to look past the beggars and children living under bridges and on street corners. The lights from buildings whir past - upmarket shops next to run down shells of buildings, and street food pedlars camping out in front providing dinner to the locals. It’s all … a lot. I will try to capture a video of it on my instagram so you can get it, but it’s really like nothing else I’ve seen before. As is everything in India, so far. It’s exciting for sure!