The Amber Fort – Jaipur

Traveling to the Amber Fort – Jaipur… Since we arrived so late into Jaipur coming from Agra after a long drive, we didn’t do too much the first night other than check into a hotel. The following morning however, we had a lot planned for the day. Jaipur is home to 3 million and you never realize how big the city is until you’ve spent some time trying to get from one end of it to the other. Our first stop that morning was to go to Amber Fort which is located just on the outskirts of Jaipur.

One end of Amber Fort – Too big to try and fit it into one shot….

It was built in the late 1500’s and is probably the main reason most tourists visit this city although there is a lot more in Jaipur to see.

The other end of the Fort

Driving up to the entrance at the base of the fort, you are given a couple options to get up the hill and into the front gates. You can take a car, a jeep or an elephant.

Yep, this too could be your ride the front gates…

For some reason, our driver wouldn’t let us just walk and since we didn’t really need to be riding an elephant right now, we just got dropped off at the entrance. And of course the first thing we noticed were the monkeys running around on the fort walls.

Some monkey business going on in every town

So far in India it seems every palace and fort comes equipped with its own clan of monkeys. It seems to be the standard. Only these monkeys were a bit different. I believe these were ‘Langurs’. They had white colored fur with a dark, almost black face and were a bit bigger than the ones in Agra as well as the ones I’d seen in Nepal.

Central Courtyard in the Fort

One of the interior living quarters

We spent around a couple of hours inside the fort and eventually got a bit lost in some of the maze like rooms and hallways that fill the upper section of the fort.

Squirrel or chipmunk… I’m not sure but it wasn’t too worried about the tourists around.

From there, we were headed to see the ‘water palace’ which was on Lake Man Sagar. The palace, built from red sandstone in 1799 for the royal family, has 5 floors of which 4 remain under water when the lake is full.

Jal Mahal in Jaipur

We didn’t stay long. In fact, we just stopped to take a couple pictures and while we might have liked to spent just a bit more time there, you really can’t just stand around on the sidewalks in India without getting bombarded by locals either trying to sell you a tour, a watch, a drink, or a whole bunch of other stuff you just don’t need. You can’t blame them for trying to sell you but their persistence can wear you out pretty quickly.

“Highly Inflammable”? Should we increase our distance?

Some others may approach you for photo opportunities. After breaking out of what quickly became a hot mess of locals surrounding us, we headed over to the center of town where we were told there was a large tower where we could walk up for an overlook over Jaipur. We eventually found it and sure enough, the view was amazing even though it was a bit hazy that day.

Overlook of Jaipur

Masala Dosa…. a.k.a. Masala Delicious

Much of the rest of our time in Jaipur was spent walking the streets and the markets and just taking in the craziness of India. And trust me, after just a couple of hours of walking the streets, you will no doubt be in need of a break and some peace and quiet. Heading into the markets whether to buy something or not will wear you out quicker than anything. You just can’t seem to just ‘browse’. As a tourist, that is not allowed here, at least not in Rajasthan. If you pass an open air shop and so much as even glance inside the store, you will quickly be yelled at to ‘just have a look.’ After traveling through so many other countries, I’d definitely have to say that India has the most aggressive and persistent salespeople. Everyone jumps at the chance to ‘help you’ find something in hopes of earning a commission from whomever or wherever they take you. It’s amazing.

We ended up back at our hotel that night and there just happened to be an Indian party rocking on the rooftop next to our hotel. Feeling pretty good about our westerner superstar status in India so far, we decided maybe we’d just ‘drop in’ for a quick beer and maybe stick around as the surprise mystery guests for the evening. Within a few minutes of showing up, my suspicions were confirmed, we quickly became the life of the party.

Wait, all of a sudden I’m not sure who the bigger rockstar is? He has stolen our superstar status!

We did manage to get a few other ‘westerners’ over to the party from next door but basically it was my friend and I and a huge drunken mess of Indians dancing around to some of the best Indian reggae I’d heard yet. Needless to say, the night was memorable!

The next day, we didn’t do too much. Maybe it was a result of the Indian party madness from the night before but all I had planned for the day was to sort out a train ticket to the next town. I had previously bought a ticket bound for Jaisalmer a couple days prior but was still on the ‘waiting list’. Apparently there is so much demand for the trains in India that they allow them to become overbooked and then you get put on the waiting list in hopes that a seat becomes available from others canceling their reservation. Well, I was number 57 on the list. Obviously not too promising. In 3 days, I had only dropped to number 32. Since we had to leave that night, I decided to just go to the train station early and see what options I had for actually getting onto a sleeper train that evening.

I call SHOTGUN!!

After showing up to the wrong section of the station and having someone try to pickpocket me while standing in line, I later found a lady that would offer some help. I ended up having to cancel my original ticket, buy a new one and hope for the best when I got onto the train. If I remember correctly, it was about a 12 hour train ride and it would be a long night if I didn’t have a seat…. however it all worked out in the end and I was soon on my way to the desert sands on the Indian-Pakistan border.