when i woke up, i sat in the courtyard outside my room and read up on the sights while soaking in some sun. yes, i said sun. jaipur's weather is so beautiful, it's like the perfect spring day: sunny and warm. i noticed a girl opposite me, doing the same thing, so i went over and asked her if she was alone, and if she was planning to go into town.
long story short, off we went into town, the american girl, the dutch girl, and the manchester guy. naturally, it is a really nice city, much cleaner and much less hassle from anyone. being a lot smaller and less touristy than agra and mumbai, it is also calmer. we let mr. manchester do the map-reading and he directed us to the sights, although the poor guy had just become ill last night and all day was making visits to the toilets.
i cannot say enough just how much i love this city. the city's center is enclosed within these walls that are lined with vendors- all of which i plan to visit tomorrow, especially because jaipur is known for my favorite of all indian things: JEWELRY!!!!! as a matter of fact, everyone here has been complimenting me on my necklace and asking what stone it is--- they're big on gems here, so everyone notices it. and so far, the prices being thrown at us have been a lot cheaper than in the other cities. my haggling skills are incredible. i get everything for about 25% of what they ask for. at the end of the day, the $2 that we argue over really isn't fair, but it's just the principle of not being ripped off. as my tuk tuk driver told me, "the indian ppl see the white skinned ppl and they think they are money machines." the people are also really nice and they genuinely just want to say hello. all the children will wave and yell "hello! how are you!?" and if you smile, they smile back-- unless they didn't smile first.
we saw the hawa mahal, the city palace, the janta mantar, which is this really amazing place astrological measurements are taken. for example: they have a sundial, and all these structures to tell the zodiac sign and alignment of the sun, etc. it was really interesting to visit, and dutch girl and i are inspired to go get our palms read now. we then took a break for lunch where i finally felt well enough to have curry again and luckily had THE best curry i have ever had. we ended the day at the amber fort which is just breathtaking. we got a tuk tuk to take us up there, and stayed until sunset. it is there that you can ride an elephant up to the fort instead of climbing the stairs. i didn't actually ride one, but i photographed them just as well.
i'll let the pictures do the talking, as everything here is so lovely. speaking of pictures, i think between the tall blond, and the light skinned brunette, we ended up in every indian's mobile phone photo album today, it kind of got annoying at one point.
this evening we were tired but unwilling to pay our hotels' 100 rupee/hr fee for the internet, so we decided to be adventurous and venture out to find an internet cafe. haha after 20 minutes to god knows where and being really nervous about it, we ended up hitch hiking on the back of someone's motorcycle to come here. and it is well worth the 15 rupees/hr charge! plus, now we have a story that goes with it!
and all that said, since i love it so much, i've decided to stay an extra day. the weather is perfect, i like the city, and there's plenty to do here. tomorrow i'll be visiting the monkey temple where 10,000 monkeys reside, and i am really interested in going to a local place for music and entertainment, should be nice.
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