Rambagh Palace Jaipur

Since my first comment on Indian drivers("they're ****ing nuts"), we've had two more major drives. Maybe it's because the roads in the north are somewhat better, maybe because I've developed supreme confidence in our driver, Vijay, but I haven't felt as if every oncoming truck will be the last thing I ever see. That's not to say I feel totally secure, rarely on an american road will you see a car or truck coming directly at you at highway speeds, getting remarkably close before somehow findin...

We're in Jaipur, the pink city, our final stop in Rajasthan. Once again, the hotel is spectacular. The hotels from here on out should be wonderful, but tonight is our last night in a former palace. Jaipur is home to over 3 million people, the largest city in Rajasthan. Its most famous destination is the Amber Fort, located a few miles outside of town. This is the part of the trip that Annette had been looking towards with the most trepidation, I had been looking forward to it with quite a bit...

Sightings Checking into the Rambagh Palace Hotel in Jaipur, India, Hollywood mogul Jeffery Katzenberg traveling with reality TV guru Mark Burnett.

3/28/05 Jaipur was built from 1727-1733 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, its grid system and wide streets a fine example of a planned city. It is called the "Pink City" because of the color used to wash its prominent buildings in the old town. Despite the fact that it was the capital of the region and is now the capital of the state, we found some of its most important monuments in a sad state of disrepair. We stayed at the Rambagh Palace Hotel, originally built in 1856 as a garden pavilion fo...

We left Agra for Jaipur this morning. We left around 9:30am and arrived at the Fatehpur Sikir about 2 hours later. We played chicken with several large trucks and busses along the 2 lane undivided highway along the way. I feel lucky to be alive. Fatehpur Sikir is a city built by Akbar and served as the Muhgal captial from 1571 until 1585. It was abonned due to lack of water and the capital was moved to Agra Fort. The area enclosed by the wall is 4 square miles, but we only saw a fraction of t...

We were up early Friday morning to catch an elephant ride to the the Amber Fort in Jaipur. Lucky for us, the these wasn't much of a crowd and we only had to wait about 5 minutes to board our elephant. We had the slowestest elephant there and we were passed several times on the way (maybe that means I need to go on a diet ;-) ). Once at the top of the fort, we hade a beatiful view down on the city of Jaipur. The fort was built by Raja Man Singh who came into his riches as commander in chief of...

India has got it going on!!! Today we flew from Delhi to Jaipur, the Pink City. We are staying at a palace that was built by a former queen for her maid. It was later a hunting lodge for the maharaj princes and then in 1957 it was turned into a hotel. It is very cool, with canopy beds and a great indoor and outdoor swimming pool. When we arrived, they put a red dot on our foreheads and gave us a yellow flower necklace made of marigolds. This afternoon, we drove out of Jaipur to play Elephant ...

Today was another amazing day in India. This morning, we drove to the Amber Fort. Amber means "tall" and the fort is on the top of a mountain. It was built by the Maharaj Man Singh, the commander of Akbar's army, in 1592. Majarajas are kind of like the shoguns were in Japan. There is still a Maharaja in Jaipur and our guide for today, Mr. Singh, is on of his personal assistants. To get to the Fort, we rode elephants up the hill. It was very bumpy on the ride up, much bumpier than elephant pol...