Pink City

We rode down from Amber Fort in a jeep that was probably held together with string and bounced our way through the ancient village of Amber to a handicrafts emporium (government approved so we wouldn't be cheated ... ha!).

I really wanted to see the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing, which I've heard has great exhibits of hand block printed textiles and demonstrations of the traditional techniques. (Shout out to Mom: You'll want to make time for this when you're in Jaipur.) The museum closes for a few weeks every summer for maintenance, though, and our timing was a few days off.

We did get to see a small demonstration of hand block printing at the emporium, though. They use vegetable dyes and handcarved wood blocks to make the prints.

I've discovered something about myself in India, and that's a love of textiles. India has all kinds of beautiful art and handicrafts, but I always head straight to the textiles in any shop. I especially love the block printing and handloom weaving. I now own a lot of gorgeous fabric that I have no idea how to use. My sewing needs to improve a lot before I trust myself not to ruin some of this stuff.

We also watched an artisan work on a wool rug using what looks like a tall loom. He was using a paper pattern just like you might use to do latch hook or cross stitch. Our guide/salesperson told us about the different wools and silks used to make the rugs and that the finer materials require more knots per square inch and therefore much more time to make.

After seeing the demonstrations, we were led to the rugs first, where the salesman tried to pry open our wallets by giving us cold Pepsi (and mango juice for the kids ... their favorite). Just look at the different wools, ma'am, you don't need to buy, I'm just showing you. Just put your foot on this silk rug, ma'am ... what size did you want now? I kept trying to keep the kids from touching the rugs, but the salespeople just laughed at me and told the kids to take off their shoes and go for it. They did.

After leaving the rug salesman a little disappointed (Sarah did buy a small but beautiful silk rug), we headed to the textiles. I was much more comfortable here, because I feel like I know enough about the product to avoid being too easily cheated. (That probably means I'm getting cheated all the time!) I think this emporium's prices were pretty fair, and Sarah and I both picked up some nice hand printed fabrics.

By the time we left the emporium, the kids were really hungry and tired. It had been quite a long day already, and we still planned to see Jaipur's City Palace. We headed to lunch, passing the water-logged Jal Mahal (and here) along the way.

We ate lunch to the strangled strains of "Frere Jacques" (you read that correctly), played on some kind of traditional Indian stringed instrument by this smiling man. Sorry about the lousy photo, but I had to post a picture of this guy. Halfway through lunch I was wondering if his repertoire could truly include nothing but "Frere Jacques." I'll take anything! Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star! God Save the Queen! Anything! But no.

Everyone perked up with lunch, so we decided to go on to City Palace, where we saw a pair of giant silver urns that the maharaja used to carry Ganges water on his journey to England for Edward VII's coronation. He didn't want to drink English water and become a sinner, you see. The urns are in the Guinness Book of World Records because they're the largest sterling silver vessels in the world. The wonders you'll see in India!

Jaipur's City Palace was the home of the Maharaja of Jaipur, and descendants of the royal family still live in part of it. We explored a great armory (with incredible frescoes on the ceiling) and a really interesting exhibit of clothing and textiles (no photos allowed). Here are the kids in the Diwan-i-Khas.

One of the interior courtyards had these fantastic gates. Each of the four gates represented a season and was dedicated to one of the Hindu gods. This one is the peacock gate (autumn, Vishnu).

Here are the kids at the Green Gate (spring, Ganesha).

By the time we'd seen the Diwan-i-Am, which was used as a throne room, the kids were done and I was done with the kids, so we headed back to the guesthouse. On the way back to the van we saw this clan of monkeys climbing all over one of the palace gates. They look way tinier and farther away in the photo than they did in real life. Real life is so much cooler.

Driving to the guesthouse we passed the Hawa Mahal. Its windows are all latticed so the palace women could watch life out in the street without being seen.

I have to post this picture of Evie with the fort palace she built in our room at the guesthouse. She made it out of pillows, books and paper, and it even had a security area and a place where they'd "confiscate your biscuits." (This happened to us at the Taj Mahal. Tragic, I tell you. Nana did smuggle through some gum, though, and handed Samuel a piece toward the end of our visit to keep him quiet. I thought John was going to have a coronary when he saw Samuel with that gum. "What were you thinking! They'll throw us out! The sky is falling!")

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast before heading off to our next stop, Neemrana Fort Palace. I have to tell you, the chocolate banana pancakes at the Atithi Guesthouse were so good! It was a little piece of crepe heaven in the middle of Jaipur.

The guesthouse was great, but we did stick out a little. Most of the other guests were Indians or backpackers from the U.S. and Europe. John said he overheard a guy that he thinks was German say that Samuel was the smallest tourist he'd yet seen in India. Samuel had just come down the stairs wearing his little red backpack, all ready for adventure.

Then we were off on the road toward Delhi. We hit a little traffic jam on the way out of town.

The driver stopped along the road to point out this "blue cow." It's sitting among the trees behind the monkeys. It's actually an antelope, rather than a cow, but many Hindus consider them sacred. Our driver said that spotting one is supposed to bring you luck.

Coming up: Evie and Samuel saddle up ... on a camel! Mom's fear of smelly animals keeps her far from said saddle!

Amber Fort

We only had one full day in Jaipur, and most of it was well spent at Amber Fort, home of the Rajput kings who later allied themselves with the Mughal Emperor Akbar (by handing over one of their princesses in marriage).

The fort is on a mountain overlooking a lake, which makes for beautiful views from below and looking out from the fort. Here we are before making the ascent.

I loved Amber Fort, but I have to say that the hawkers there were the most annoying I have ever encountered, and that's saying something. They were even more annoying than the crazy necklace woman who nearly climbed into the car with us on our first trip to Mahabalipuram. Our van hadn't even stopped at the ticketing area before we were swarmed by people selling hats, umbrellas, miniature paintings, batteries, and I don't know what else because I was busy trying not to make eye contact.

Sarah hadn't learned yet that saying "No, thank you" is taken as an invitation to start haggling. One guy selling umbrellas followed us all the way up to the fort, lowering the price from $20 (ridiculous!) to 300 rupees ($6 and still ridiculous, as we didn't WANT an umbrella). We didn't buy the umbrella, but Sarah did get a hat that has come in very handy.

You'll be more impressed with the fact that the umbrella salesman followed us all that way to the top when you learn that we were riding on an elephant. These guys were actually throwing hats and umbrellas up at us. I couldn't stop laughing. Insanity!

John took these photos, so here's the view from the back of his elephant. He rode with Johnny and Evie.

These formal gardens are in the middle of the lake.

You are now about to see far too many pictures of us riding elephants. I couldn't decide which to post, so I'll just throw them all at you.

I wish you could have seen Evie's face. It was the perfect mix of terror and excitement!

Riding the elephant was really fun, but, let's be honest here, it wasn't very comfortable. I had one arm around Samuel and had the seat in a death grip with the other hand. I kept feeling like I was going to slide down the elephant's side, and let's not talk too much about the smell. Once I was up there it was fine, but waiting to mount is another story. I don't want to cast aspersions or anything, but get a few dozen elephants together and you'll be smelling it for days.

I also found myself wondering about what kind of care the elephants get. I know that temple elephants and some elephants that work for the forestry service or in the logging industry are periodically sent to camps for a little R&R. I couldn't find a lot of information specific to the Amber elephants, but this woman's opinion is pretty interesting, and I did discover that there is an elephant village there where the elephants are cared for by their mahouts and volunteers.

I'm including this next one of us in the fort's main courtyard (where returning armies would parade around with spoils of war) because of the pesky umbrella salesman, who is still trying to sell us an umbrella. Be gone, umbrella man!

Sarah does look great in the hat, though.

Last one, I promise.

After freeing ourselves of beasts and hawkers, we climbed the stairs to the main living areas in the fort. The first courtyard was the Diwan-i-Am (hall of public audiences), and is dominated by this incredible gate that leads into the palace. The window in the center arch (the arches covered with carved screens) is the "welcome window." The women of the palace would stand there to welcome the kings when they returned from war. The gate is called Ganesh Pol, for the Hindu god Ganesha, and is painted with vegetable dyes. Our guide assured us that the paintings are original. Do I believe him? Sure.

The Diwan-i-Am is made of white marble and sandstone. Indian tourists took almost as many pictures of it as they did of Samuel! This proves that it's impressive.

Can I just say again that my kids are such troopers! We really do drag them all over the place, and they seem to love it. That's not to say we don't get tired and cranky, but on the whole they did a great job on this trip.

Here's the main courtyard as seen from inside the palace.

The fort has a wall running over the hilltops that looks like a mini version of China's Great Wall.

Amber Fort's palace is really impressive. It's all marble, ivory, sandalwood and pink sandstone, and the courtyard gardens are beautiful. One of the rooms had a channel that used to carry water through the room to cool it down.

Here are Johnny and Evie overlooking the zenana, or women's quarters. Our guide told us that the collection of wives and concubines in a Hindu palace was not a harem. I'm not sure I understood the distinction, but he was kind of insistent on that point.

The zenana was really interesting. Each wife had her own apartment that looked out onto a common courtyard, and each apartment had a secret passage through which the king could come for a visit without any of the other wives knowing about it. We also learned that the zenana's guards were all women (rather than eunochs, as the Mughals used) and that any man caught in the maze-like passages around the zenana (aside from the king, of course) was killed instantly.

Check out this 16th century indoor toilet! The Rajputs were all about luxury ...

... and even had hot and cold water in the loo.

I still think these screens are gorgeous, but the knowledge that a primary use was to keep the women out of sight has spoiled them a bit for me.

In the Jai Mandir, or Hall of Victory, the marble is inlaid with thousands of mirrors. Oooooo! Sparkly! Walking in here at night with a candle must be like living in a disco ball. It's really spectacular and must have taken forever to construct.

The exterior of the Jai Mandir is decorated with these marble reliefs of flowers and bugs. The kids were more interested in a real bug, or rather slug, that they found in the courtyard so I only got a quick look at the marble panels before they dragged me off to see the creepy crawly.

Here's the courtyard (without a view of the slug).

Then it was up to the rooftop courtyards for more spectacular views and rising blood pressure. My kids have no fear, but it's OK because I have more than enough for everyone.

Sarah, John and I were at a Bollywood movie Thursday and one of the songs was filmed right at this spot! Another brush with fame! We're so cool. If you don't want to watch the whole dance number (but why would you not?), the shots in question start about a minute 40 seconds in.

Here we are peering out the welcome window.

This is where our lousy camera died and we had to switch to John's Blackberry for the rest of the trip. Hasn't this happened to us before? Isn't it time to get a new camera?

One of our last stops was the bathtub, which was right next to a steam room. Those luxurious Rajputs! Did the Europeans have it this good in the 16th century?

Coming up: The kids kick off their shoes and try out rugs while a shopowner woos us with cold Pepsi. The life!