October 5th and 6th, 2013
WOW! India continues to be fascinating. We left Agra with a guide and driver and began our 4hour drive to Jaipur which is in the state of Rajasthan. We don’t think words can adequately explain the sights, sounds and smells of our journey. A picture is worth a thousand words so please see our photos depicting what we saw and experienced on our drive.
When we arrived in Jaipur on Saturday, we threw our luggage in the room and headed for the City Palace where the 16-year old king of Jaipur resides. The king of Jaipur is called ” king one and a quarter”, which in Hindi is “sawai”, because a visiting emissary first called the king’s Father the number one and a quarter king to emphasize that he exceeded all other kings. The largest silver pot in the world is in the city palace. We also visited Mantar Jantar which is an observatory built by the king to observe the heavens, track time and follow horoscopes.
BTW… This is the biggest sundial (Samrat Yantra) in the world! It is in the Guinness Book of Records.
Jaipur is known as the pink city because in the old town all the buildings are painted pink. The king ordered them painted pink for a visit by Prince Albert from England. Jaipur was also the first planned city in India with streets intersecting at right angles.
In the evening, we listened to traditional Indian music and watched a traditional Indian dance performance.
On Sunday, we visited the Amber Fort, Palace of the a Winds, Samode Palace, took an elephant ride, rode behind a camel on a cart, and saw the Jal Mahal Lake Palace.
We opted for the cart instead of the camel, b/c it was supposed to be a 1 1/2 to 2 hour ride. Thank goodness it wasn’t that long at all! The cart was bad enough! Now we know why the guy WALKS the camel!
We learned that Hindu’s believe in three major gods. The gods are the “generator”, who made the world, the “operator” who operates the world, and the “destroyer” who destroys evil. We also learned why the women in Rajasthan wear such brightly colored clothes. Rajasthan is very dry and has little rain. Because there is no rain, there are no rainbows. Therefore, the women make the rainbows in Rajasthan by wearing brightly colored clothes.
Next stop is Udaipur, a 6-hour drive from Jaipur. Who knows what exciting things we will see on that drive!!
We love and miss you all. Norm & Rita.
Jaipur, India.. also called the “Pink City”
On our way these are some of the sights we saw while driving to Jaipur. Crazy stuff!
Just taking a walk down the road with my donkeys!
Can you believe they use bamboo for scaffolding and for support?
Yeah, Norm said this was our hotel!! Right….
They are all singing and going to temple.
See again, the women work hard!
Now this guy was coming straight at us!
This taxi has at least 35 people on it!
Again, just walking, just sayin!
Women work hard in India.
These gals kept staring at Rita, we said to the driver, it must be b/c of Rita’s blonde hair. He said, NO… it’s b/c she’s WHITE!! LOL !
Oh, Yeah.. we have to dodge Elephants too!
Fatehpur Sikri, an abandoned city near Agra we visited by tuk tuk.
Jaipur, India
Entrance Gate to the “Pink City”.
Just a couple guys hanging around inside the Pink City…
The women used to sit behind these windows and watch the action in the streets.
Jaipur City Palace
Largest silver pot in the world!
Another view of the Palace where the current king lives.
Aquarius!!
A few snake charmers.
This gal struck a pose for us! Wasn’t that nice of her? She is sweeping the palace dressed like that! Amazing!
This little guy won Rita’s heart for sure! He was singing in French, Italian, English, Spanish, and when we stopped to listen, he asked us where we were from, we said… USA… he then made up a song about us from the USA visiting his India home! HE WAS SO SPECIAL!
Photo of Elephant Ride.. We’re the ones on top waiving to you !!
This guy almost got kicked over by this animal! uh.. yeah Norm??
Bad picture b/c of the reflection of my blue pants ( Angela/Steph… blue pants??) anyway… the guy in white is a medicine man, if you have anything that pains you, he will heal it by rubbing his hand over the area and chanting. Been doing it for over 50 yrs in the same spot!
A former lake palace in Jaipur, they are turning this into a restaurant.
Samode Palace
The Samode Palace is currently used as a hotel.
This little guy does magic tricks and he should be on TV, he is soooo good!! Wish I could get him hooked up!
See… we are relaxing… Norm lost at Croquet! But we had fun!
Crazy gift from the maid! They are always monkeying around!
Yes, she is dancing and twirling all around with 6 clay pots on her head!
Rita’s favorite waiter… he has such a large… PEPPER MILL!!
Norm & Rita Globetrotters 
Well, Take care and try to overcome. I can’t believe some of the places you are seeing. They are truly unique and I am glad to find out about them. That Palace is incredible.
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Are you traveling in the inland area? I hope! Cyclone!
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Actually, we have been in Bangkok since Friday the 11th. It’s hard to keep up the blog (to the exact date) b/c we are 11 hours ahead of Indy, and 14 hours ahead of you. Right now it is 8:40PM here and it is only 6:40 AM in Seattle. Crazy schedule to try to stay ahead of. We got out of India just as the Cyclone was heading in. Good timing on our part. The flight was pretty good, but we did have to fly around the weather. I’ve been sick also, so the last few days have been a real struggle. I finally went to the pharmacy in Bangkok and bought a z-pak. Let’s hope it works. It’s hard to be an internet doctor and traveler! LOL !
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