
India celebrated Independence Day last Monday and for that reason we had an extra day to our weekend. We were invited on a trip to Jaipur. This city, which ended up being a very bumpy 7 hour drive away from Delhi, is also known as "The Pink City". The majority of buildings are painted in a pink hue (a tradition started in 1876 when the city dressed itself pink to welcome Prince Albert and Queen Elizabeth II).
Jal Mahal...a palace in the middle of a lake.
So many people...everywhere. I am so impressed with these ladies riding sideways on the back of these motorcycles in dresses.
Jaipur is an artist's dreamland. I didn't realize this before going but it is a hub for textile printing, pottery making, puppetry, carpet making, gem carving, paper making and probably much more! Wow.
We went to one pottery place and met the artist and her family. They had a fire kiln in their backyard and a room full of beautiful pottery for sale that their family had created. Very cool.
One place I would recommend to anyone visiting Jaipur was this funky Peacock Rooftop Restaurant. The atmosphere was great (I personally loved all of the artistic details) and the food was delicious and cheap.
Happy kids.....ahhhhhhh.
Bursts of color are everywhere in India. There are bursts of other things too but more about that another time.
Women around the world amaze me...and inspire me.

Burst of yellow...

The Hawa Mahal....which we began calling the "Hava Mahal".
Mahal means palace...as in the Taj Mahal.

This building was fascinating to me. It looks so much bigger than it actually is but it's really just a facade. It is tall but actually very narrow. It was built so that the wives of dignitaries could go up and peek out of the windows down onto the street below and not be noticed.
So, we hiked up and pretended we were dignitarie's wives. It felt like the rest of India had the same plan that afternoon.
Peeking down...

Tolan checking to make sure his sister's don't have a better view than he does. 

This place was built in 1799. It kind of felt like it.
Pretty view from the top...

After the Hawa Mahal we ventured on to The City Palace.
There are two huge sterling silver vessels of 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) height and each with capacity of 4000 litres and weighing 340 kilograms (750 lb), on display here. They were made from 14000 melted silver coins without soldering. They are officially recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest sterling silver vessels.[13] These vessels were specially made by Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II, who was a highly pious Hindu, to carry the Ganga river water to drink on his trip to England in 1901 (for Edward VII's coronation) as he was finicky about committing religious sin by consuming the English water.
The above picture is one of those massive vessels.
Just a few pictures around town...




Acacia in front of one of the doors inside the City Palace.

Another door...

Acacia trying out a puppet...
This is a place that David's Dad and Uncle would have found interesting.
The Jantar Mantar is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments, built by Maharaja (King) Jai Singh II at his then new capital of Jaipur between 1727 and 1734. It is modeled after the one that he had built for him at the Mughal capital of Delhi. He had constructed a total of five such facilities at different locations, including the ones at Delhi and Jaipur. The Jaipur observatory is the largest and best preserved of these. It has been inscribed on the World Heritage List as "an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period".[1] Early restoration work was undertaken under the supervision of Major Arthur Garrett, a keen amateur astronomer, during his appointment as Assistant State Engineer for the Jaipur District.[2]
Checkin out all that Jaipur has to offer...
The humidity is all consuming and unlike Doha...there are not air conditioners everywhere.
Waving at our girls...
Sugarcane juice...reminded me of Kenya.
No idea what these were....except another "burst of color".
Our last stop in Jaipur before heading home was Amber Fort...
to ride an elephant!
Pretty exciting...
So, this next picture should be of us on the elephant. I will insert that once we get it from our friends who took it from their elephant. 

David chatting it up with our friendly "elephant driver"?

What's ahead...
What's behind...(this tourist guy was taking a picture of us and I was taking a picture of them).
This guy was certain I wanted to buy this hat and followed us most of the way up the hill lowering his price with each step.

Former saffron gardens that were in the shape of little stars.

Our friends and their elephant 
These ladies were stunning in their blue against the brown backdrop. They were eager to take a picture with our kids....as is most of India I've decided. Not so many blondies here.
The amazing thing is that these ladies are the "cleaning crew" of Amber Fort. So beautiful.
They requested I take a picture of their feet.
Walking back down the hill with the elephants.
Thank you Jaipur for the weekend away and for allowing us to experience a little bit more of India.
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