We drove from Agra to Jaipur for about 5 hours. Rajasthanwas ruled not by the Mughals, but by a succession of kings called Mirajahs. Theold part of the city is completely pink colored and was named the Pink City byPrince Albert. We first looked at a citywall that was a mirage of a palace called The Palace of the Winds or Hawa Mahal.It is just wall but was built to fool people of where the actual palace was. Wethen went to Amber Fort for an Elephant ride. This was how Royalty entered the palace;the view was breathtaking with the monsoon mist falling on the hills. There wasa surrounding wall of the fort on the hills, which gave the impression similarto the wall of China.There were exquisite gardens everywhere. Traditional music played as we entered the gates, it felt surreal. Unlike the forts in Agra, this one retained much of it's beautiful paintings on the walls and entry ways to the courtyards. The Mirajah that built this, Mon Singh (those of you who know Mr. Harv Singh, this is a royal family name of the warrior caste). He had 12 wives and 20 concubines. each had their own apartment with secret passage ways to his room. There was a very cool water cooling system which held water above the main living room and poured it down the wall with a screen blowing air on it. the water traveled through the floor and the cold was trapped in the room by Persian curtains. The Mirajah was friends with the Mughals who gave him tons of marble to build this fort. Millions of mirrors were also sent from Europe for the Mirror palace section that was amazingly beautiful. Many women work here carrying plaster and water on their heads. I stealthy took some photos of them, because they charge money for pictures. One took my broken shoe from me and fixed it so I had to pay her.
There was a Hindu temple here owned by the royal family for Kali, the warrior goddess who is known for killing and wearing the heads of daemons. She has many arms full of weapons and is Shiva's wife. The Mirajah family was the warrior caste, so this goddess was very important for them. I got to part take in part of the rituals for praying and got a red dot on my forehead. :)
One of the Mirajahs was an expert astronomer who built an observatory containing the largest sundial in the world. It was cool to see. I got to learn more about horoscopes and zodiac signs, because there was an instrument for every sign. I found out that the place of birth matters in zodiac star placement. The stars are aligned differently in every part of the world so basically everything with horoscopes in America is completely wrong. Zodiac signs are tied very closely to Hinduism. People cannot get married if they do not share more than 23 stars, because it is bad luck. Certain people are stronger in different talents according to their zodiac sign and which stars are strong with it. This was pretty interesting to hear the background behind so much superstition.
We saw the royal museum at the City Palace afterward. The clothing of the Mirajahs were amazingly huge and his wedding gown was pink with crushed gold beetle wings. I personally loved the arms gallery which contained some of the rarest weapons in the world. There was giant daggers with pistols connected, secret swords that worked as a belt, and HUGE guns. One gun needed three people to hold/fire it. Many of the guns worked like cannons an had to be mounted on camels. I wish I could have taken pictures in this museum. My dad would die to see all of this stuff.
There was a police strike outside my hotel that sounded pretty rowdy when we left for the train, and our driver was stopped by a cop because his license plates said Agra instead of Jaipur. The cop told him he went through a red light and was going to take him to court. Our driver was going on a green, but had to pay off the cop to avoid court. Human rights here don't exist unless you are rich.
The train stations here are literally insane, think of New York City subways sped up 10x. The people move fast and it is easy to get lost, you have to pay attention to not trip over people sleeping as well. I used the restroom here which was a little shocking. There was urine and blood everywhere and I was scared to death by a giant rat crawling up the pipe in my stall. I know there will be worse places though. I met a new friend on the Train back who was giving me great tips. He is Indian but lived in California. He was helping me figure out the tipping system and told me never to eat fish in the summer because it comes from the Indian ocean all the way in the heat. He also said that the Indian people will always help when a foreigner is in trouble, they will always stop what they are doing. That was good to hear, he gave me his number and now I have about 4 others from Indian people I have met so far. I feel pretty safe. :)
One of the Mirajahs was an expert astronomer who built an observatory containing the largest sundial in the world. It was cool to see. I got to learn more about horoscopes and zodiac signs, because there was an instrument for every sign. I found out that the place of birth matters in zodiac star placement. The stars are aligned differently in every part of the world so basically everything with horoscopes in America is completely wrong. Zodiac signs are tied very closely to Hinduism. People cannot get married if they do not share more than 23 stars, because it is bad luck. Certain people are stronger in different talents according to their zodiac sign and which stars are strong with it. This was pretty interesting to hear the background behind so much superstition.
We saw the royal museum at the City Palace afterward. The clothing of the Mirajahs were amazingly huge and his wedding gown was pink with crushed gold beetle wings. I personally loved the arms gallery which contained some of the rarest weapons in the world. There was giant daggers with pistols connected, secret swords that worked as a belt, and HUGE guns. One gun needed three people to hold/fire it. Many of the guns worked like cannons an had to be mounted on camels. I wish I could have taken pictures in this museum. My dad would die to see all of this stuff.
There was a police strike outside my hotel that sounded pretty rowdy when we left for the train, and our driver was stopped by a cop because his license plates said Agra instead of Jaipur. The cop told him he went through a red light and was going to take him to court. Our driver was going on a green, but had to pay off the cop to avoid court. Human rights here don't exist unless you are rich.
The train stations here are literally insane, think of New York City subways sped up 10x. The people move fast and it is easy to get lost, you have to pay attention to not trip over people sleeping as well. I used the restroom here which was a little shocking. There was urine and blood everywhere and I was scared to death by a giant rat crawling up the pipe in my stall. I know there will be worse places though. I met a new friend on the Train back who was giving me great tips. He is Indian but lived in California. He was helping me figure out the tipping system and told me never to eat fish in the summer because it comes from the Indian ocean all the way in the heat. He also said that the Indian people will always help when a foreigner is in trouble, they will always stop what they are doing. That was good to hear, he gave me his number and now I have about 4 others from Indian people I have met so far. I feel pretty safe. :)
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