Sunday, August 12, 2012

Jaipur

Today was probably my favorite day of the whole trip.  We are in Jaipur, which is one of the best cities to visit in India.  Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur are the three main cities that you should visit if you want to see beautiful and famous historical sites.  We woke up this morning and went to the Amber Palace.  We rode elephants up the hill to the palace.  It was so much fun, but it wasn't exactly the smoothest ride ever.  The palace itself was amazing!  It was built in 1558.  Look it up.  The history is really interesting!  Then we went to the Water Palace and we went shopping.  Then we went to the City Palace museum.  The City Palace is where the current royal family of Rajasthan lives.  The museum was just about the royal family and it's history.  Rajasthan is the state in India where Jaipur is the capital city.  The current king is 14 years old.  During the City Palace museum, we went to an observatory full of sun dials, and astronomical things that are used to tell time and where the sun is in the sky, and a bunch of other things based on the sun.  Then we went back to the hotel while my mom went shopping and got a massage.  It was great to just get some time back in the room to rest up and most of all BLOG.

Tomorrow we will be in Delhi and we leave for home tomorrow night.  I will admit, I am ready to go home.  I've been ready for a few days, but today was a great day.  Hopefully tomorrow will be as good as today.  I'm ready to be in my own bed again.  Goodnight!

Amber Palace

Jake and my dad on the Elephant

Me and my mom on the Elephant

Amber Palace

Amber Palace

City Palace

Amber Palace

Amber Palace

Amber Palace

Amber Palace Wall

Amber Palace

The "Welcome Window" (Amber Palace)

Snake Charmers


Water Palace

Sun Dial (Observatory)

Leo sun dial (Observatory)

Jantar Mantar (The Observatory)

City Palace (Private Residence)

Air Palace

Agra

We had a 7:00 a.m. flight out of Chennai on Friday morning, so we had to leave Rising Star at 3:00 a.m.  Friday was pretty much just a travel day with one sight in Agra.  We had a 2 hour drive from Rising Star to Chennai, a 2 hour flight from Chennai to Delhi, and a 3 hour drive from Delhi to Agra.

When we got to Agra, we checked in to our hotel and then went to Agra fort.  This fort is made out of red sandstone, so it had the nickname "The Red Fort".  It was built around 1500's-1600's by three Mogul rulers in India.  I'm not going to sit here and give you all a history lesson.  But what I will tell you is that it is beautiful, and you should look it up if you are interested.  This history is really cool stuff!  Then we went to a rug factory where we saw how the rugs are made in India.  It is all done by hand.  There are no machines involved.  Then, we went to a couple of shops for clothing and stuff like that.  It was a tiring day, so it was nice to get back to the hotel and sleep.

Saturday was a super packed day, as well.  We left the hotel at 5:45 a.m. to go to the Taj Mahal.  I'm glad that we went really early, because the lines get really long during the day.  When we got there, there was barely any line, so it was really nice.  While we were in the Mausoleum (the famous white marble building), it started to rain.  So, being the crazy teenagers that we were, a bunch of us from our group ran out and played in the rain.  We ended up walking around the whole building.  Some people who got caught in the rain and ran for cover outside even ended up taking pictures of us.  After the Taj Mahal, we went back to the hotel and had breakfast.  Then our family split up from the rest of our group.  They all went back to Delhi for shopping and some sight seeing.  They are all leaving a day earlier than our family, too.  After we split from are group, we drove to Jaipur.

On our way to Jaipur, we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, which is a city that was built in 1569 by the king at the time and was only used for 4 years.  If you want, you can look that up as well.  It was beautiful, but it was super hot!

It was a crazy two days!

Wild Monkey

Front gate of the Taj Mahal

The Mausoleum in the Taj Mahal

Camels as transportation

Fatehpur Sikri

Mausoleum at the Taj Mahal



Dancing in the rain at the Taj

The Mosque at the Taj

Fatehpur Sikri

Fatehpur Sikri

 Mosque in Fatehpur Sikri

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"Victory Gate": the tallest gate in Asia

Tuktuk


Fatehpur Sikri from far away

Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Me and Amy (a coordinator at Rising Star) in Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Great view of the Mausoleum in the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Agra Fort

Making a rug by hand