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Jaipur up and out by 8:30. We were off to see the Amber palace. Like every indian city the traffic was chaotic and it was a mission to get out of the city. The Amber Palace is huge place built on a ridge outside of Jaipur. As you drive to it you're struck by the size. Above the palace is a huge fort and around on the side of the hills are what I imagined were the town walls. Thereare three ways to get the palace1. Walk 2. Elephant 3. Car. I decided to walk I needed a bit of exercise a it only takes 10 minutes. A pleasant walk later ip the ramp to the palace dodging the elephants with the tourists I arrived in the crowded court yard.
That same feeling of this was a bunch of rocks came upon me. However, I thought, "Now that I here I might as well see it." and went and bought a ticket and one that allowed me to get into other monuments,not sure why as i knew I was getting bored with this type of sight seeing, even though it was cheaper.
I had no guide, nor and audio-guide so I just walked around. I was now familiar with the layout if the palaces in Rajasthan, so with the signs I could fill in some of the details and not feel I was missing out on the something. The cool thing about this palace was that it was all open to the public so at least I had fun exploring the labyrinth of corridors. Randomly going left and right up and down stairs. This kept me entertained a while.
Left there and got my driver to take me to see the elephant stables nearby. 100 rupees later I had seen an Indian elephant up close with the photos to prove it. The elephants are a lot bigger than the ones we rode in Laos. The eyes of the elephants seem to transmit a wiseness. I just hope they are treated well.
Hopped back into the car and went to see fort Nagha, I was already bored of palaces and forts but I had paid the ticket. It was on a hill over looking Jaipur, from here you could see the size of the city huge. In the car I didn't really get the feel of it. Up there it just spread for miles. Here, I took the photos and got out of there a total of 20 mins. I am getting efficient.
SP then took me back into the town and dropped outside the City Palace and said if I didn't need anything we would meet up the next morning to go yo Puskar. I immediately entered the palace hired the audio guide and started my tour. I regretted it straight away, I started the audio guide and realized I couldn't care less about the history of the palace, it was pretty enough but I had reached the limit with palaces. To top it off my audio died. I almost ran out of the place.
Just around the corner was the Jantar Mahar, am astrological observatory built in 1724 by the Maharaja of the time. Now this was worth it it was different. In the complex were various astronomical instruments. There were large sun dials, 1 was accurate to 20 seconds, another larger one was accurate to 2 seconds, other instruments to measure the angle of the sun, charts of the constellations all very cleverly done and need to be seen to be believed. My guide was a friendly chap and was learning Spanish do he asked about Spanish courses in Spain, how much etc. I suggested South America might be an easier option for the visa, who knows. I wished him well in his endeavors and left to see the bazaars.
The rest of the afternoon I wandered about entered a couple of shops chatted and had dinner with one of the owners. I even entered a couple if the temples and saw a real ceremony in one.
At about 9 I was back in my hotel room ready for the next stage off journey to Pushkar.
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