Our trip to Jaipur (Rajastan)

December 20, 2007: Hey guys and females! This is Josh with the blog for our final stop of our north India Tour! Our last stop was at the city of Jaipur, also known as the pink city (more on that later). It all started with our car ride from Agra. The distance between the two cities is around 250 km, and it took us five hours. In case you aren’t getting this, it’s like going form Raleigh to Greensboro in five hours. Five HOURS! The roads, needless to say are in deplorable shape. Jaipur is in the province of Rajasthan, one of India’s largest and poorest states. The land is flat and almost barren with a few scattered trees and hills. We drove by taking in the sights of Rajasthan which were quite interesting. We saw many “Rajasthani helicopters” as the locals called them. Camels. Lots of camels. Since cars and trucks are too expensive most people rely on camels to transport all their goods. We passed lots of camels and not much else. After a grueling ride we got to the city limits. When you first enter the city the first thing you see are mountains. Were all the rest of Rajasthan is flat, Jaipur is nestled between two mountains. From the van we could see temples and mosques high on mountain tops. We got out of the van to do a little shopping to stretch our legs. We went inside a little textile shop that our driver recommended. The girls had a field day. They went crazy with their shopping. We left kinda late, so we didn’t do much sight seeing. Our driver took us through Jaipur’s most famous attraction: the pink city. Every building and street was made of pink sandstone. The city was pink! We happened to be in rush hour traffic so we were stuck in the city for a good while. At the hotel we got to see a Rajasthani puppet show with traditional Rajasthani music. Alyssa and Mom got to try their hand at puppetry; that was a hoot. We grabbed some chow, hit the hay, and woke early to see some sights. The first thing we saw was the Water Palace. It was a medium sized palace right in the middle of a man made lake. We couldn’t go inside so we stood on the shore and admired it. Our last stop was Amber palace. This palace was on a high mountain ridge and was a beautiful amber gold color. We were barred from entering once again, so we took some photos and headed back to Delhi. And that was the city of Jaipur! Talk to ya’ll later!