Travel/Voyager/سافر/यात्रा करना: One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know. Groucho Marx

Monday, January 24, 2011

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know. Groucho Marx

Goodbye Udaipur, hello Jaipur. We arrived at our hotel, RamBagh Palace, which was originally built as a hunting lodge before being converted into a palace for the Maharaja of Jaipur. After traveling through India, I get the sense it was good to be a Maharaja. The best part of this hotel was the guy whose job is to chase the birds out of the garden and fountain. It's stuff like this that just make my traveling so unique and fascinating. Really, the jobs around the world you did not know even existed! I've seen pyramids, mosques, forts, but a bird chaser just stops me in my tracks.

"Hey Honey, how was your day?"
"I shooed away 16 parrots, but the pigeons were killin' me today!"

Off to the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds, then to Amber Fort, which is a beautiful fortified palace and once the capital of Jaipur. Next stop, a reserve where we rode elephants and had lunch. After a traditional Indian lunch, we headed to City Palace and Jantra Mantar, an observatory in the 18th century. There are 14 major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, and tracking planet & stars. It has, according to Guinness's Book of World Records, the world's largest sundial. The last stop of our very busy 10 hour day was a private tour of the Jal Tarang, which was very impressive.