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.