India. . . Days 7 and 8

Today we started off on a journey to the Amber Fort, the ancient capital of Rajasthan.  On the drive there we stopped off on the side of the road where a local snake charmer and also a boy and his elephant were.  I was the only one brave enough to snuggle up to a 7 year old (baby) elephant . . . it was so totally worth it!  I was one happy girl . . . couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face.

From there we continue to the Amber Fort and my smile turned into jumps of glee as I found out we were to ride elephants up to the fort.  It was amazing!  We even bartered from the back of the elephant for an elephant throw blanket.  The fort was impressive to say the least . . . but boy was it hot!!  The fort was begun in the 17^th century and is perched atop the Arvalli hills overlooking the Moat Lake.  The Sheesh Mahal –Hall of Mirrors-was most beautiful!

(beautiful Amber Fort. . . you can see the elephants accending if you look closely.  They are the red dots)

 

 

(our ride on the elephant)

 

After the Amber Fort we were taken to a jewelry store in Jaipur where we were able to witness the process of taking rock and making them into beautiful jewels.  We then went to the City Palace Museum and Jantar Mantar (the largest of five observatories founded nearly 3 centuries ago.)  The observatory housed 14 massive masonry instruments that were used for measuring times, predicting eclipses, tracking stars’ location as the earth orbits around the sun, ascertaining the declinations of planets, and more.  We were then allowed the evening to stroll through the streets and bazaars, however by this time Clayton was feeling quite sick (we weren’t sure if it was from dehydration or something he ate) so we opted to return to the hotel.  By 8 pm I joined him in his sickness and by the next morning we felt as if we were dying in a foreign country and would not make it back to the states.  We discovered that others in the group were sick as well as we boarded the bus for the 10 hour trip back to Delhi.  To add to the suffering, the AC in the bus went out 3 hours away from Delhi . . . the bus did not have windows. . . once again we weren’t going to make it back to the states. . . . Harvey and Percival were wreaking havoc on our bodies. . . 

Somehow we found the strength to endure and boarded the plane at 12 a.m. to begin the 14 hour plane ride back to the states.  We almost kissed our U.S. customs officer as she welcomed us back home.  It was a magnificent experience . . . but we pretty much decided we saw enough of India to last our lifetimes.