My hotel.

Visit to Amber palace.

Today I went to Amer Palace.  This was the original palace of the Maharajah and his twelve wives.

Before we got there we stopped for some photos and a snake charmer gave me a fright when he sat down next to us and got out his snake.

To get to the palace we rode an elephant up the long path.

When we got off the elephant  we had a guide who was the grandson of one of the last soldiers to live there.
The two forts that we have already been to were protecting this palace and the wall over the hills.  When we got off the elephant we went into what used to be the stables and then went to a look out after that.  This is the palace the abandoned because of water shortage.
There is a very beautiful mirror palace that the maharajah built for his wives,  He shipped in the glass from belgium and bought over some Persian people who built it.  You can see their persian carpet designs in the walls and ceilings.  They crushed gem stones and used them in a gum paste as paint.  So the paintings shimmer and have never been retouched. The  Maharajah wanted his wives to always be able to see stars.  The would sit with candles under the mirror and glass and see thousands of tiny flame reflections like stars.

Then dad and me walked the secret path from the palace up the hill to the fort.  This was an escape route incase the palace got attacked.  Everyone could get up the hill to safety in the forts.

Back to Jai Mahal Palace.

I havent really said much about where we are staying. Heres a picture.

It has a pool, gym, tennis court - everything.  The staff here are amazing.  They know what I like to drink and eat and my name.

We had a day in the office away from the hotel where dad works with his group. I spent the morning in Prya's office reading my book and she wants to bake me a cake.  It's her hobby.  Prya is the general manager.
Then we had lunch and I ate some Indian food that wasnt spicey and there were big blocks of cheese in it.
Then after lunch me and prya didnt feel it but everyone else felt the earthquake.  Indians dont know how to handle an earhtquake!  They just ran out through all the glass doors.  You are meant to sit under the desk and wait before you run out.  But everyone was running out through the glass offices to the street where the power lines were.
The earthquake hit in Afghanistan and thats all of New Zealand away and we were on the very edge and it was huge for us.  When we went backk in the building I went and read my book.

This was in the papers:

More than 260 people have died, mostly in Pakistan, after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit north-eastern Afghanistan.

Tremors from the quake were also felt in northern India and Tajikistan.

At least 12 of the victims were Afghan schoolgirls killed in a crush as they tried to get out of their building.

The earthquake was centred in the mountainous Hindu Kush region, 76km (45 miles) south of Faizabad, the US Geological Survey reported.

The death toll is set to rise as the most severely affected areas are very remote and communications have been cut off.

After we got back to the hotel I had my palm read. Apparently this is my life:

Independant, optimistic good communicator adventurous romantic swimmer clever emotional professional.  Would be good in marketing sales banking it tradeand after 33 everything will be successfull.  Apparently i will only have one boyfriend and he will be the one!   (Mum says He is saying that because he is indian and that is the way for indian women.  She thinks I will have 20).

Tiger Safari

It was an early start today so we could go in the jeep and see the Tigers. Because the best time to see them is first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon or early evening.  

There are zones 1 to 13 and they randomly select the zones you get to go into. We got zone 6. It was a bumpy ride to get to the place where we got our guide.The reserve is so huge that it can be up to an hours drive between entrance gates to get in.

You have to sign a piece of paper saying that is anything happens to you its not their fault.

Then when we got through a pink gate our guide instantly saw tiger foot prints that I just thought were puppy paw prints.  They were really fresh and the guide got really excited.

We followed it to an area that looks like a swamp, but unluckily for us we didn’t get to see it.  But we knew it was there because a deer was saying it was.  It was probably because everyone else knew it was there and there were big big trucks without roofs there.  And the people were making too much noise so the tiger wouldn’t show.

We hired a private jeep so we could get a chance to see the tigers.  But no one saw a tiger today.  There are fifty five tigers in the park cause it cant support any more.

We saw three different types of deer.  Sambal deer, spotted deer and Indian deer.

We also saw monkeys.

We saw a spotted owl.

When we stopped for the toilets one Indian said could I have a photo with you and then other people started to come and ask.  But appearently when they say one photo they mean a thousand photos.  I felt famous.

The town we had to drive through to get to zone six  has a lot of camels.  Everyone thinks of camels as pains in the arse because they spit but when you are there with them they have their head held high and they look like they think they are better than us.

The cows in India are very holy.  In fact on our drive to the reserve there was a very holy cow that was hitchhiking a ride.   It was actually in the trailer being driven.  They sit in the middle of the road and walk accros knowing they wont get hit cause they are holy cows.  And some sleep in the middle of the road.

We went back to the hotel and then went on our next safari in the afternoon.

The next safari was a really long drive and was bumpy and windy.  We were driving to zone 8.  The road went through a village.  We saw more cows.  There were a lot of women walking to get water and there was a pump that they were using to get the water.  They were also doing washing around the pump.

We got to the gate of zone 8 and got our guide.  We drove through and there were heaps of monkeys and deer at a water hole.  And I think there should have been a tiger there.

This landscape was really different to the morning one.  It was dryer and had trees that weren’t so green and was a lot bumpier and steeper.  We went right up the top of a mountain and by the time we reached the top we realized how high we were when we looked over.

There were animals everywhere because they tigers don’t hunt at this time of day.  It was about three in the afternoon.  But our safari went to six oclock and it was dark when we finished.  I thought the view was spectacular.  There were less people in this zone and and there were no big trucks.  The only access was for the jeeps.

Today we drove from Jai Mahal Palace to The Tiger Den Resort in Ranthambhour.

We are at Ranthambour because it is a four hundred square kilometer UNFENCED Tiger reserve.  So yes the tigers could just walk out into the streets but they don’t.

Tigers are an endangered species and so we are going to help them.  The town of Ranthambhour exists so tourists can come and see the tigers in the reserve.  In their natural habitat.  This has made the tigers special to the locals. The idea is they can make money off the tigers and don’t have to put money into the tigers.  Because they have three types of deer on the reserve to eat.  And the people don’t have to help the deer.

It took us three hours to drive here.  We all played eye spy on the way and struggled to find different things to see cause it was all the same.   What we did see was cows pashmina goats, camels, cows haystacks and pimped tractors with big speakers on them.  And it was de ja vue cause it all just repeated.

I saw pashmina goats and we bought some pashminas.  Pashminas are made from goat wool.  They are fluffy looking.

Today we went to the observatory and the City Palace.
The Observatory had twelve different sculptures that looked a little like Dr Seuss.
The twelve signs of the zodiac looked like sun dials.  In the month you are in you stand by that sculpture and it points you to the star sign in the sky.
The observatory also had the worlds largest sun dial and and it is bigger than your house.  It tells the time up to two seconds from the clocks.

Then we went to the city palace. Half of the Palace is for the public and half is where the Maharajah lives.   Pink is public and yellow is for royalty.
There were pictures of all the Maharajahs and one was four foot wide!!!  His clothes were on display but we werent allowed to take photos.  But he was huge.  The other Maharajah that played Polo and was the worlds champion was handsome.
The fat guys wife had to get pregnant really fast cause he died at 42 with no children,   His wife was found to be just pregnant when he died so there was no civil war.
There was a big area where balls were held and there were four doors representing the four seasons.

 Wow is that three me's?????



There was a wedding tonight at our Palace we are staying in.  Six hundred guests and lots of dancing and singing.  They lit up all the trees and ponds - it was beautiful

We had a day in the office where dad has been working and met the people he is working with.  Their names were Shubham, Prya, Ravi, Akhalesh and Gaurav. Most of the day I read my book and then mum wanted to go out shopping because the software wasnt working on her computer to work.  When we got back apparently five minutes after we left it had been working on her computer.
We went to an Indian mall where Indians shop.  I was pouring rain and it was kind of like a tent cause water was dripping through.  Here's something about India,  when it's not raining it's super dry but when it does rain the roads are flooded.
Then we went to the bazaar at night.  Its a huge market.  Mum and dad agree with me that the bikes were going to fast.  There are no pedestrian crossings you just walk through the traffic.   Dad nearly got us hurt.  You couldn't get killed cause they are not going fast enough.
We saw the Wind Palace again which is the facade for the princesses to look out.

There were beautiful designs every where, lots of colour as well in the market.
We walked through a printing and book area and they had big machines printing.  Then we were in a sari area.  So the shops are kind of connected cause they are all the same which i think would be really annoying cause you are right next to your competition.
Then when i went to buy some bracelets mum didnt do a very good job with the haggling and we paid more than we should have.

We thought it was going to be very late when we got back but it wasnt.  We rode in a Tuk Tuk back to the palace.

Today we drove through the Pink City to visit some forts.  Jaipur is known as the pink city and there is a wall that surrounds the city from when it was first built.  As you drive along you can see parts where the women of the palace were allowed to look through small windows onto the street below because they weren't allowed out.  The Maharajah used to have twelve wives but he only has one now.  There were about 150 little windows.

The pink wall is still there surrounding the old city but there are lots of buildings growing outside the walls.  Jaipur is huge.  It has as many people living in it as the whole population of New Zealand.
This is a bit of the Pink Wall.

There was a Palace called Amber Palace where the royal family used to live but they had to move the palace down into the flatter bit because they ran out of water.  So the real palace is now called the city palace and it's right in Jaipur.  But Amber Palace you can go and walk through and see where they used to live.  Today we went and looked at the two forts that were built on hills around it to protect it.  The two forts and the palace had a 32 kilometer wall around them to stop any one attacking.

Its like the great wall of China!!!

The first fort we went to was called Jaigarh Fort.  It took about three generations of royals to build it and it was huge.  We walked around it for ages.  There was a huge cannon that was only fired once.  There was a small water lake behind where they fired it and the men had to jump in there and go under water so they didnt get deaf,  I personally think it is too big.  But at least it kept everyone away.

There was also concrete small roads that made water flow into an area so that they had water to drink.  A big irrigation system.  But when we got here it was empty because there hasn't been much rain this year and we thought they had drained it but they hadn't.

There were holes in the walls for the soldiers to shoot through and pour oil down from to stop any one trying to get in.  This one is a bigger one for a cannon to shoot through.  And down in the corner of this photo is where they poured the oil.

 Then we went to the second smaller fort called Nahargarh.  This was nicer but not as big.  The view was amazing out over Jaipur though and you could see everything.  This is the palace on the water.  It was the summer holiday place for the royal family.  The lake was man made around 1720.

After the forts we went to a fabric shop and we bought some pashminas and saris and material.  I got an umbrella.  It was all amazing.  We got a bit toooo carried away in that shop.   They give you chai tea and you sit down and its like being in their house. I think it would be a little bit nice if we had that in New Zealand but on the other hand it is nice in New Zealand cause it doesnt take so long to shop.   We were there for ages.  We came back to the hotel and i flew kites with the staff.