JAIPUR - AMBER FEBRUARY 7

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This morning, we are driving to Amber Fort. On the way, we stop at Hawa Mahal, .to admire its beautiful façade. It is situated on a busy street of Jaipur. Then, we continue to Amber, 11 km away. From the distance, we can see the beautiful palace on a hill and the Jaigarh fort above it, on a higher hill. The whole place has something of the Great Wall in China.

We can ride up to the fort from the base of the hill on elephants, but we drive there by car.

The Ganesh Pol ......with its beautiful paintings, carvings, ceilings, and the ..

Hall of Mirrors are worth the visit. ...We spend a few hours in the palace, where there are numerous halls, courtyards,...............rooms, corridors, balconies, stairs, one can easily get lost here.

When leaving the palace, we come to the path where the elephants ride up and down, carrying tourists. They are beautifully decorated. I feel sorry for them. I hope that the people take good care of them. I always have the feeling that they look so sad.

We drive back to Jaipur and Christine and I stop at Hawa Mahal, as we want to walk in the city this afternoon. Jocelyne and BB drive back to the hotel. We’ll meet them at 6 pm in front of the Raj Mandir cinema.

Christine and I stroll around in Jaipur, discovering markets..., ..buildings....old houses (electrical wires hanging everywhere)......, colourful shops, bazaars….... so much street life with crazy traffic, cows.............or goats in the middle of it, monkeys… There is so much to see and the prevalent colour is pink/orange…... ................There are also many food stalls on the street... Cheese, chapati bread, cakes, fruit...

As we walk on the street, we are approached by a beggar, a woman and her son. We give her some food, but we just can’t get rid of her. Suddenly, Christine tells me my backpack is open and then, we see that hers is open too. We think that the little boy did it, he was the one who came very, very close to us. Fortunately, nothing is gone, so we deicide to put the padlock… We’ll have to be cautious in the future. I would say that India is safe, but of course, pickpockets can be everywhere.

At 6 pm, we meet BB, Jocelyne and Jessy in front of the Raj Mandir cinema, as we are going to see the movie “Sunday”. The main hall of the cinema is beautiful; it looks like a wedding cake. We can’t take photos inside though. The movie is fun. We don’t understand everything, as it is in Hindi without subtitles, but we more or less understand what is going on. There is the good, the bad and the beautiful girl, with lots of action. We do have a good time and Jessy enjoys it very much too.