I RODE AN ELEPHANT TODAY!!!
I have always wanted to do this, it is literally on my list of things to do before I die and I did it! It was as amazing as I always imagined it would be. I’m not sure Rachel had such a great time—she was pretty nervous and kept feeling like we were going to fall off—but I was so excited and soaking all of it in that I didn’t even notice if we were in danger of our little carrier falling off our elephant. If it would have fallen off I probably would have just hopped right back on the elephant-I was having such a great time! It wasn’t a smooth ride, but it was very very cool.
I have always wanted to do this, it is literally on my list of things to do before I die and I did it! It was as amazing as I always imagined it would be. I’m not sure Rachel had such a great time—she was pretty nervous and kept feeling like we were going to fall off—but I was so excited and soaking all of it in that I didn’t even notice if we were in danger of our little carrier falling off our elephant. If it would have fallen off I probably would have just hopped right back on the elephant-I was having such a great time! It wasn’t a smooth ride, but it was very very cool.
Okay let me back up for a second. Our first destination of
the day was the on the way to the elephants—at the Pink Palace. Well we just
stopped in front of the Pink Palace. Jaipur is known as the pink city, because
there are certain areas of the city that have to be painted in a specific
“pink” color-no other colors are allowed. We ended up running out of time to
tour the Pink Palace, but the outside was pretty freaking cool.
Besides the Pink Palace, it is not hard to see why they call Jaipur the pink city......
Because Amber Fort is up and on the side of a big hill/mountain, the elephants were at the bottom of said hill/mountain and then you got to ride them up. We walked up to this little courtyard and it was packed with elephants. They were everywhere and big and decorated and I had the most happy goofy smile on my face. We walked up to the loading stand and then we mounted the elephant—hahaha. I knew they were big, but they seem a lot bigger when you are sitting on top of them. The view during the ride was overlooking the valley with a lake that had a garden in the middle of it, there was a nice breeze, elephants walking down the path on your other side, and it was just very surreal. I loved it. Every single second. The only sad part was getting off, and once you get off you don’t get to spend any additional time with the elephant—like take pics with it and such. But whatever, it was still really cool. Hopefully this won’t be the one and only chance I have to ride on an elephant in my lifetime.
And like most living things in India, they were decorated with different colors of chalk and ornate materials
This was the elephant that Rachel and I rode. When the trunk is up that means good luck. I guess she loved us. (All the elephants were she elephants because they are more predicable then the he elephants.)
These pics are blurry but I still had to post them because they make me happy
The Amber Palace was amazing—it was significantly more ornate then the
palace quarters on Agra Fort, but then again I only saw some of Agra Fort.
Maybe the places that are currently being used by the Indian Military are the
posher areas of the fort. Anyway, back to the Amber Palace, there was a whole
section that was for the queens/ladies in waiting that was ornate as could be.
Inlay work, mirrored mosaic work-you name it they had it. Besides looking
pretty, this palace was very logically planned out-with natural AC systems,
self watering gardens, etc. It was impossible to get a picture of it because of
the glass that was in front of it, but they even had one of the original princess
carts on display. Princess carts being what the princess sat in and was carried
from place to place in. Midway into our tour it started raining. It let up a
little bit for a minute, but that also happened to be when we were walking down
a hill of centuries old stones that were already smooth and because of the
recent rain, wet, obviously. I was being so careful but I apparently I wasn’t
careful enough because my left leg totally slipped out from underneath me
causing me to not so graciously fall on my butt while my right leg origamied
underneath/out to the side of me. I felt super awesome when that happened.
Super awesome indeed. Eventually, the rain started again, but this time it
RAINED! Like monsoon rains—which makes sense because we are now officially in
monsoon season. Everyone was stuck inside the palace just waiting for the rain
to lighten up for quiet a while—and it was interesting because I mean everyone.
The tour guides, the different groups of tourists, the locals, the palace
maintenance workers, etc. There was a group of local ladies that was sitting
across the hall from us that we started chatting with, the best we could
anyway. They were so nice and asking for pictures BUT no rupees in exchange
which is always a plus. One of the ladies had the hugest anklet around one of
her legs—err ankles. It was super thick metal and really heavy and molten
together so it is never coming off. It was so interesting to me. I like jewelry
and I’ll sport chunky jewelry pieces here and there, but I can’t imagine having
something that heavy and that large permanently on my ankle. They got a kick out
of me looking at it, but it really was amazing. One of my favorite things about
traveling is when real life happens—like with these ladies. Yes we were all there
as tourists (I think the ladies were tourists too…..) but at that point in time
we were all just women waiting out a rainstorm who decided to visit with each
other. Women simply like to talk, laugh and giggle with one another, no matter
their age, their race or their culture.
The main courtyard of the fort (aka where the elephants dropped us off).
Looking down into the valley below. The emperor, who was Muslim married a princess that was Hindu--so he made sure that there was both a mosque and hindu temple in his city. He placed them right by one another to signify the unity of all people, regardless of their religion.
They had a protection wall built around their boarders-much like the great all of China, just on a smaller scale. And not in China--obviously.
Entering into the palace from the court yard.
The red stone is common in Hindu architecture, while the while/yellowish marble is common in Mughal (Muslim) architecture. Like the mosque and hindu temples that were built next to one another, this palace was a mixture of the two cultures as well.
There were so many people who wanted to take pictures with us--I thought the people in Northern India would be a little more use to seeing white skinned people, but apparently, I was wrong.
This palace was SWEET!
Original artwork from the 1600's
The mosaic mirror quarters
Another picture request. You can't see it super well but the little girl's eyes have dark eyeliner around them. This was everywhere in Northern India. Their parents put it on to help ward off evil spirits.
An original bed from the 1600's
We grabbed some lunch and then visited a fabric printing shop. The owner gave us a demonstration on how it was done, and he “let” us have a try at it
ourselves, but was sure to take back over after we touched the stamps for even
a second. It was cool to see how many different stamps and different colors
were used to create a single image on a piece of fabric. And it gave me a new
appreciation of how a lot of the fabrics and clothing are created here. And you
know I bought some hand printed fabrics to make a quilt with when I get
home—which may or may not cut in front of other quilting projects I have/or am
in the middle of. I’m just securing a healthy outlet that will get me through
the missing India days that are bound to happen once I'm home.
After the fabric shop we made a couple of different stops around the city-one to see this temple that appeared to be floating in the middle of the lake, and another to this astrology observatory. I don't remember the exact dates but this observatory has been around forever--and had a lot of things figured out as far as clocks, mathematics, sky maps, etc. way before the rest of the world caught on. A person's horoscope is a huge deal in India. As their parents are discussing possible matches for their sons and/or daughters, one of the first things they do is gather their birth information and present it to their religious priest. The priest will then dissect both person's information and tell the parents if they have selected a good match or if they need to find someone else for their child. There was so much information thrown at us here (well everywhere to be honest) that it is hard to keep it all straight and accurrate. My brain was kind of mushy by the time we got here so I'm going to have to do a lot more reading on this place, but the gist of it was that it was absolutely incredible and mind blowing, all spot on and thought out everything was at this observatory. It really made me feel like if it is read correctly by the right person, who has the in depth training and correct understanding of it all, that your astrological sign and overall general horoscope can be pretty freaking accurate.
Our guide kept climbing over all the barriers. One time a little kid got after him for it-but he kept at it anyway. hahaha
The worlds largest sun dial
These guys were staring and waving at us like crazy so we went and got a picture with them, but then I asked if I could take a picture of just them. They are part of a certain sect of Hinduism (Im pretty sure it starts with a J...) that makes the daughter in laws cover their entire face with a veil. I need to know more about that for sure, but I found it so interesting. They were really nice.
Despite our tour guide insisting I was a Libra, I found the Scorpio monument. They have built all the different sign monuments in such a way that the sun will only shine on the monument who's time frame it currently is. So I would have to visit during the Scorpios time (End of October through most of Novemberish time) to see my astrological sign illuminated by the sun. Seriously, the details that went into this place are insane.
Being a scorpion--duh (Although I'm not so sure scorpions laugh.....)
This is just a cool pic I took as we were walking back to the van. It makes my heart hurt that there is a homeless child in it, but it is so India that I just had to take it.
After the observatory we drove up into the mountains some to visit the monkey temple. It is built to Hanuman (the monkey god) and typically has around 500 monkeys in it at all times--suposedly. There were not that many when we went, but it was still really cool. It is probably for the best the normal amount of monkeys wasn't there considering my tainted history with those furry critters. I still think they are so awkwardly cute though. Through out our time in Jaipur (as well as in the other cities) we have seen groups of people walking with water buckets attached to both ends of long sticks that sit on their shoulders. According to the tour guide, this month is a/the holy water month. As a result there are groups of people that have collected water from holy locations, such as the Ganges River and apparently the monkey temple. I don't know if this was just a holy water resting place on the longer journey to wherever it is they end up, but I was glad they happened to come and rest at the monkey temple. After watching them walk (most of the time away from us) through out the city it was cool to see them coming and being in the same place as us for a bit. Oh and the mountain drive to and from the temple was really cool. It reminded me of home some. I even saw a couple a peacocks in the woods.
Hanuman the Monkey God
Mama monkey showing baby the ropes
The reason these guys wanted a picture was because, and I quote, "We want a picture with the one in the blue because she has the same coloring as the monkeys."
Needless to say it left me pretty speechless. Really, what do you say to that?
After the monkey temple we went to a jewelry store, which are EVERYWHERE in Jaipur. I
miss my jewelry making tools/working area so bad! The owner of the shop offered to
give me stone cutting and metal smiting lessons. Unfortunely, I would need to
be in Jaipur much longer then the 12-ish hours I have left. One day, I'll learn
how to do that. Here is an interesting fact about Jaipur—they say that 1 of
every 2 gemstones/precious stones in the world comes from Jaipur. I had to come
visit Jaipur. It just makes sense. It’s like I made a stone and jewelry
pilgrimage to the mecca of the jewelry world.
The observatory
Our guide kept climbing over all the barriers. One time a little kid got after him for it-but he kept at it anyway. hahaha
You can see the back of the pink palace above the observatory wall
The worlds largest sun dial
These guys were staring and waving at us like crazy so we went and got a picture with them, but then I asked if I could take a picture of just them. They are part of a certain sect of Hinduism (Im pretty sure it starts with a J...) that makes the daughter in laws cover their entire face with a veil. I need to know more about that for sure, but I found it so interesting. They were really nice.
Despite our tour guide insisting I was a Libra, I found the Scorpio monument. They have built all the different sign monuments in such a way that the sun will only shine on the monument who's time frame it currently is. So I would have to visit during the Scorpios time (End of October through most of Novemberish time) to see my astrological sign illuminated by the sun. Seriously, the details that went into this place are insane.
Being a scorpion--duh (Although I'm not so sure scorpions laugh.....)
This is just a cool pic I took as we were walking back to the van. It makes my heart hurt that there is a homeless child in it, but it is so India that I just had to take it.
After the observatory we drove up into the mountains some to visit the monkey temple. It is built to Hanuman (the monkey god) and typically has around 500 monkeys in it at all times--suposedly. There were not that many when we went, but it was still really cool. It is probably for the best the normal amount of monkeys wasn't there considering my tainted history with those furry critters. I still think they are so awkwardly cute though. Through out our time in Jaipur (as well as in the other cities) we have seen groups of people walking with water buckets attached to both ends of long sticks that sit on their shoulders. According to the tour guide, this month is a/the holy water month. As a result there are groups of people that have collected water from holy locations, such as the Ganges River and apparently the monkey temple. I don't know if this was just a holy water resting place on the longer journey to wherever it is they end up, but I was glad they happened to come and rest at the monkey temple. After watching them walk (most of the time away from us) through out the city it was cool to see them coming and being in the same place as us for a bit. Oh and the mountain drive to and from the temple was really cool. It reminded me of home some. I even saw a couple a peacocks in the woods.
Hanuman the Monkey God
Why wouldn't the monkeys love living at this place
Mama monkey showing baby the ropes
The reason these guys wanted a picture was because, and I quote, "We want a picture with the one in the blue because she has the same coloring as the monkeys."
Needless to say it left me pretty speechless. Really, what do you say to that?
And because riding one ginormous exotic mammal and hanging out with others in a single day
simply isn’t enough, we stopped for a night time camel ride after leaving the
jewelry shop; it was obviously a double check off on the bucket list day for
me. I don’t know how I got so lucky. The guy who was put in charge of pictures
was REALLY struggling—but we managed to get at least a few good ones. Pictures
or not, it was really neat. I felt so tall (something that never happens for
me) and it was much more comfortable then riding on an elephant. I was actually
able to hang out with our camel for a minute after. He/she didn’t even spit on
my face so I’m convinced he/she liked me. It did suck on my hand though. Note
to self, camel fur/mouths STINK and it's the kind of stink that doesn’t wash
away very easily. Defiantly not with one or even two washes. My hand added an
extra little scent to dinner tonight-which we ate at the same restaurant as we
did last night because it is SO good. Sadly, our confidant puppeteer was MIA, but all was well because we had plenty garlic naan to drown our sorrows in.
Obviously Rachel and Alex didn't get the memo that we were all taking a pic
Our escorts gave us these flowers--mine would not stick on for the life of me. Or for the life of Treg.
The whole gang
Camel bonding time
After dinner we said goodbye to our Jaipur tour guide. He was very knowledgeable, flirtatious and openly opinionated on a variety of different subjects which made for some funny moments through out the day. Oh the memories.
Our escorts gave us these flowers--mine would not stick on for the life of me. Or for the life of Treg.
The whole gang
Camel bonding time
After dinner we said goodbye to our Jaipur tour guide. He was very knowledgeable, flirtatious and openly opinionated on a variety of different subjects which made for some funny moments through out the day. Oh the memories.
