Jaipur

Hey sophia, it seems you're the only one following the blog. We left Agra and visited Fathepur Sikri...the fort built by Akbar (from johdaAkbar). it was amazing, massive, and full of palaces. The guide said that it once contained over 100 palaces... not anymore though. We only saw about 25% of the place because the rest was being used by the military. we took pics of the Akbar's wife's palaces...jodha's palace is the largest.We also took pics of where they did that dance in the pardes movie. Then we left for Jaipur, they have some kind of political issue going on so they closed the main highway....geez, we have had to put up with airline strikes by lufthansa pilots, volcanoes in iceland, and now rajasthani road closures. the good thing is that as a result we had to go through small villages and dirt roads to get here. the countryside is beautiful, the children very friendly (waving at all the cars). We stopped at one village and gave shampoo,conditioner etc. they were so thrilled. We arrived in Jaipur, and hit the fabric district. they charge $10 for a sari blouse! (inlcuding fabric amd stiching). Fong is a rip. anyways, we almost got mugged at bapoo bazaar. This is the main bazaar in Jaipur and it fel like all 4 million people in the city were crammed into this one street. No deodorant, and no manners. We almost ran into a cow on the street. We had lunch at a place called copper chimney, it was awsome, we hade manchurian chicken, khadi bhajia, and daal makhani. talk about variety...as usual. It is really hot here in Jaipur...the driver said it was 43.6 degrees. saima almost passed out at Janther Muntar...astrology site. We also visited the Maharajah's palace (called city palace). the highlight of the day was visiting Amber fort and the elephant ride. Our elephant was called lucky and he kept spraying us with "his" water. Saima was grossed out and ran to the bathroom as soon as we got off the elephant. Apparently, the "public" bathrooms are manned by local lower caste women which, i think, ensure that only toilet, sinks, and soaps that work are the ones that are manned by them which you have to tip. That was rather annoying. Next stop was Hawa Mahal, which is what the picture on this page is of. It is not a reall building, only a wall. The entire city including Hawa mahal was painted pink by one of the Maharajas of Rajestan as a way of welcoming the British. Directly across the street was a local street vendor with a shop called Rajan Enterprises so naturally Azam took a picture (now Saima is writing the blog).

The hotel is beatiful, pool is great and we just finished breakfast. We are going swimming and I (Saima) will try to do the yoga class. We will then go to the airport this afternoon and head to Hyderabad. We are looking forward to the Muslim influences there, Hyderabadi Biryani and ofcourse JK.

Take care of yourself, have fun in Toronto, and for those still in Calgary, BUNDLE UP!!

Love and miss you all!

Saima and Azam