The Pink City
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2005
1
34
103
Trip End
Jun 24, 2006
Jaipur,
India
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Miles travelled: 24735
We're in the "Pink City", so named because the entire town was painted pink in honor of a visit from the Prince of Wales in 1876, and it's been tradition ever since. The traffic here is even worse than Delhi, with large buses, cars, motorized rickshaws, pedal rickshaws, camels, people, and even elephants competing for the road. We visited the Amber Fort, which was the palace of the king of Rajasthan, and were especially impressed with the "hall of mirrors", where tiny and not-so-tiny mirrors in the stonework give it the appearance of encrusted jewels. We also visited the astronomical observatory built by King Jai Singh, for whom the city is named. The observatory contains a number of sundials (including one of the largest in the world) and other stone instruments to measure azimuth and elevation of stars and planets. The City Palace also has elaborate frescos and paintings, as well as collections of art and textiles (unfortunately, photos weren't allowed inside). We also got accosted by a snake charmer, so we both got a chance to pet a couple of king cobras (gulp).
From here, we head to Ranthambore National Park where we hope to catch an appearance of a tiger! Here, kitty kitty .....
