The Pink City isn't actually Pink!

Interesting Painting at Amer View Hotel, Amer Jaipur

Rajasthani Dolls - Amer, Jaipur

Intense Wooden Carving @ Amer View Hotel - Amer Jaipur

I was up at 6 in the morning all set to go. We had stopped at the Amer fort last night to take some shots. It looked mighty impressive. The fort is situated in a valley and is the ideal point for holding the area. I found out that Amer is just outside of Jaipur and being in Amer gave me a sense of what it must have been like in ancient times. The city was really the size of a town that had few lights at night and few people during the day. It was located in a valley and the fort was just a little bit higher up the valley. There is a huge wall that surrounds the fort with viewing posts on the tops of the hills.

Raj Kumar, Our Guide for Jaipur

Anyhow, Anil the driver had gotten us a friend of his to guide us around. His name was Raj Kumar and he was about the same age as Anil; young. Very nice guy though. Anyhow by the time we got into the car it was close to 10 o clock. My sis wasn't feeling well the night before so we let her sleep in a little bit. Raj Kumar asked us if we wanted to go up Amer fort in an elephant ride! We all agreed to ride up in Maharaja style to the big gates of the fort. However, when we drove up to the fort, we were told that the rides for the day were over. They start at 7 am and end at 10 am. The government regulates the elephant riding to make sure the elephants aren't being overriden during the hot part of the day which starts at 10 am. Essentially they're looking out for the elephants. I was hugely dissapointed and vowed to myself when I come here next that I will take the elephant ride up.

Anil took us up the backway to the fort. This was old Amer. The streets were narrow, enough to fit an elephant or a chariot with cobblestone streets and miniture buildings. Imagine Disney's Alladin with the streets of Agrabah and you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about.

Close up of the wall Surrounding Amer Fort - Jaipur

When we got to the top of the road we were once again harassed by people trying to sell us stuff. They're really persistent. Raj Kumar, the guide quickly led us in and we bought our tickets and so started our magical tour of Amer fort.

View of Old Jaipur or Amer as it is called from Amer Fort - Jaipur

This fort was huge for being on a hill. You could see Amer town below and the viewing posts along the big walls on either hill to the sides from anywhere in the fort. It's hard to describe the fort itself. All I can say was it is probably my most favorite part of the trip. There were few people there so the earlier you start the better.

Amer Fort Sandstone Walls - Jaipur

Going up to the main part of the Fort - Amer Fort, Jaipur

View of the entrance to Amer Fort - Jaipur

Constant Renovations on Amer Fort - Jaipur

Entrance to the Wives Apartments and Bathouses - Amer Fort, Jaipur


Incredible Artwork on all of the walls at Amer Fort - Jaipur

The walls were made of yellow sandstone and laden with intricate hand carved designs.

Apartments for the Wives - Amer Fort

Rooms and Secret Passages line these walls at Amer Fort - Jaipur

Raj explained that the Rajput (king of Amer) loved the fort and had all of his 12 wives here. Raj took us up to one of their apartments and showed us that the apartments, while open were secluded enough that no other wife knew where the king was or who was with so the jealousy was kept to a minimum. Raj then showed us the secret passages that the king would use to get around Amer fort and to each of the wives apartments. I'll add here that Rajasthan artwork and history is laden with kings and their wives. I'll leave it at that lol.

Traditional "Jacuzzi/Bath/Shower" - Amer Fort, Jaipur

Area of Mirrors @ Amer Fort, Jaipur - You could light a candle at night and because of all the mirrors you could light up the entire area of the fort

Tiny Mirrors in the Area of Mirros - Amer Fort, Jaipur

Peeing Pigeon in the Queen's bathhouse - Amer Fort, Jaipur

We took one of these passages up to the bathrooms and various other parts of the fort. The history that was on these walls was breathtaking and it wasn't hard to see why Amer fort is revered for its beauty.

Workers renovating Amer Fort - Jaipur

Lady making noise because she was told to and she had no idea why she was doing it - Amer Fort, Jaipur

Raj led us down to the in house bazaar where I bought some souvenirs, including a rajasthani turban. There were ladies walking back and forth in the fort. Interestingly, there was a whole bunch of ladies clapping their sandals on a landing. We asked them why they were doing it to which they replied they had no idea and were asked to do it by the officials who run the place. We think it's to demonstrate that the sound travels all the way through the fort. Great acoustics.

Snake Charmers - Amer Fort

Snake Charmer (Mike and Carlos) - Amer Fort

Carlos being charmed by the music - Amer Fort

Carlos posing for the camera - Amer Fort

Invited over to sit with the Snake Charmers - Amer Fort

Petting Carlos, the King Cobra - Amer Fort

Wearing Carlos as a necklace - Amer Fort

All of us surprised as Carlos decides he doesn't want to be around my neck - Amer Fort

On the way back to the parking lot we ran into a snake charmer hiding out in a tiny alleyway of the fort. Snake charmers are banned in india, but here was one who invited me and my sis to come touch the cobra and wear it as a necklace. The cobra bit the charmer a couple of times in the process haha. It was a cool experience for sure and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Raj led us to a secret pasage way that was just being discovered. We took dank dark stairs down into a massive maze of tunnels. These tunnels were apparently used by the king to escape to safety if an attack occured.

New Passageway being discovered...Lazily - Amer Fort

Like I said, these passageways were still being dug out and discovered. So far the passageway leads to the summer palace aout 10 km away, and even further away to various other monuments. The passageway is wide and tall enough for a man on a horse, so he could get very far very fast.On the way back up, I spotted one of the dungeons used to keep prisoners. The prison was a 5 x 5 room with no access to any light and enough space for a full grown adult to sleep . It must have been horrible to be cooped inside of that.

And with that we headed back to the parking lot and were once again greeted with people trying to sell us stuff. They were more persistent this time thrusting stuff into our hands. Ultimately we bought a couple of things but told them to bugger off. What can you do? It's part of tourism.

Queens' Memorial - Jaipur

Queens' Memorial - Jaipur

The next stop was Jaipur city. We got off at a memorial for the wives of the King. This was a place with tombs spread across a lot of greenery. Very beautiful place.

As we drove further into Jaipur, Raj explained that one of the maharajas (when the Rajas were ruling the land) had the entire city painted pink to greet the British Queen's son when he visited. Hence the nickname "Jaipur, the Pink City". It's not actually pink, but teracotta. Some parts resemble more of a pink but it's mostly teracotta.

Sundial at Jaipur Observatory - Jaipur

Perpetual Weather Forecaster - Jaipur Observatory

Giant Sundial - Jaipur Observatory

Giant Sundial - Jaipur Observatory

Close-up of Sundial - Jaipur Observatory

We stopped at the Jaipur observatory which was a massive open ancient observatory that is incredibly accurate to this day. The observatory was used to measure the position of the earth, the time, where certain constellations were in the sky, and even forecast weather changes. This was all based on the sun and star movements in the sky using large sundials and large holes in the ground for markings of certain events during the year. The grounds are even divided into two halves with a big dial like device in each half indicating whether this half was accurate or the other half was accurate giving astronomers complete accuracy at all times. Once again this was based on the sun's position in the sky. This place was incredibly cool.

Jaipur Museum, a.k.a Pigeon Musuem - Jaipur

We next drove to the Jaipur Museum, which I nicknamed the pigeon museum because there was hundreds of pigeons calling the roof home. The inside of the museum was pretty interesting showing various paintings, texts, and lifestyle of the moghuls and rajas. Once again some of the paintings and texts were quite provacative. Some texts showed the rajas killing people and each other in the most brutal of ways. I.e. slitting throats and draining the blood into a golden bucket. These were warring times and every raja seeked ultimate control and power. We even got to see the art collected by the king and queens from ancient egypt (a preserved mummy), greece, bhurma, japan, and china. Very cool.

Hawa Malal - Jaipur

Hawa Malal - Jaipur

We drove by Hawa Mahal which was more apartments of the queens in Jaipur city. We didn't go in but it looked gorgeous from the outside.

Kulfi - Jaipur

We had lunch again at Gitz. This picture of a dessert called Kulfi, which is essentially Pistachio ice cream.

Jewellery Store - Jaipur

Pundit - Jaipur

Being told our life stories by the pundit - Jaipur

We then headed over to a Jaipur jeweller because they were supposedly the best in Jaipur. What we didn't expect to find was a pundit selling jewels who told us our life stories. Before we even told him anything, he asked for our date of birth, time of birth, and place of birth. From this he was able to calculate the correct stone for each of us and what we'd be doing and what we have done. He correctly stated that I was an engineer and that I was originally intending to be a software engineer. I called up Becca and got her info. I didn't tell him anything about her, but he correctly stated that she had an incredible interest in architecture and that it would be a succesful career for her if she chose to do it. He also told me that she and I are an incredibly good match. I won't say much more than that. We ended up buying our individual stones. Mine being a ruby that I have to wear as a pendant to give me my energy for my personality.

Amer Fort at Night - Jaipur

Amer Fort at Night - Jaipur

With that, we headed back to the hotel really beat and anticipating our long drive to Agra tomorrow.

Amer City at night - Jaipur