The Tour Continues: Jaipur and Ranthambhore

After our wonderful sleep at Diggy Palace, we headed to the Amber Fort and Palace. This building, Hawa Mahal, was on the way. This is in the old part of Jaipur where most of the buildings are a pinkish colour like this (the picture looks more brown, but it is really more pinkish). The royal women from long ago would sit in these windows, veiled from the eyes of the public. The Muslim era influenced the culture, which called for the veiling of the women. From their vantage point, they were able to see everything that was happening on the street below.

We made our way to the impressive and massive Amber (or Amer) Fort and Palace. We were definitely impressed with it. It was built in 1592 by Raja Man Singh and is located in the town of Amer, which is about 11 km. from Jaipur. Actually, we never realized we had left Jaipur. It seemed all part of the same city.

The fort sits majestically on the top of a hill. The palace is located inside the fort. The architecture is influenced by both the Hindu and Muslim traditions. We entered the fort through the Sun Gate.

To get to the Sun Gate, we took elephants up to the fort. Here is King Elder Tiefenbach a top his royal ride. Only two people are allowed on each elephant, so Elder Tiefenbach volunteered to go by himself.

Here are the Royal Princess Carma and her Princess daughter on the way up. 

Prince Danny and Princess Krista had the most beautifully painted elephant. Even the back end of it was painted. What a ride!

 The last to arrive at the top was Queen Sister Tiefenbach with her Princess granddaughter.

This is outside the palace. We loved the architecture, the carvings, and the art. The columns and archways were spectacular. We were definitely in awe.












One of our favourite parts of this attraction was the Crystal (or Mirror) Palace.

 The walls and ceilings are inlaid with precious stones and convex glass, creating a wonderful light reflective effect. We could imagine the lights dancing on the ceiling and walls reflected from the burning oil lamps of old. Unfortunately, our pictures of inside the Crystal Palace are on a different camera, so we borrowed a few pictures from our daughter, Krista.












The Mughal architecture of the Amber Fort and Palace provided another favourite part of this attraction. We loved the beautiful archways. What was life in India like back in the 1600's? Certainly, it was grand in the palace. The palace and fort were filled with all kinds of up-to-date technology for their time. We were impressed with the knowledge the people had at the time that allowed for a form of running water and natural coolings systems.




Fortification walls stood boldly on the hills that surrounded the fort. We could imagine the soldiers looking out over the land, always prepared to defend their king. The rambling wall reminded us of the Great Wall of China.











The tourist van on the right was our vehicle. Our tour organizer, Benson, is behind Danny on the left. We used this van for all our travelling from Jaipur until we ended in Delhi.

This was an interesting sign we saw in our travels. Notice the spelling of breakfast and dinner.











In Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, we often saw carts drawn by cows or oxen on the roads and highways, but in the state of Rajasthan, we saw a lot of dromedaries. They have only one hump, but they are part of the camel family.

From Jaipur, we travelled to Ranthambhore National Park. Here we were given garlands by the staff as they welcomed us to the hotel.













The hotel, consisting of several two-storey buildings that each housed four hotel rooms, was situated in beautifully landscaped grounds. We felt we were in a tropical paradise.

Here we are waiting outside our hotel for our safari vehicle. We waited for a long time, but it eventually came. Apparently, the safari company got a few things confused and had to get a bigger vehicle. But, they eventually got everything straightened out.








This is the entrance to the safari. We were excited and wondered about whether or not we could be able to spot a tiger in the wild.

Well, we didn't see a tiger. In fact, none of the people doing safaris that day saw a tiger. That made our lack of a tiger sighting not so bad. But, we saw plenty of deer.










This is the first mongoose any of us had ever seen (to the right in the picture on the left).












Seeing MANY peacocks in the wild was fantastic. We felt we needed to pinch ourselves to make sure this was not all a dream.











This was the stopping point or end point in the safari. After this pit stop, we headed back the way we had come. We knew at this point that we would not see tigers. You can see by the pictures that the area was very dry.









We were in an open vehicle for the safari. It had room for about 20-22 people. The ride was bumpy, and we had to hold on tight at times if we didn't want to be thrown from our seat. It was more fun than an amusement park ride!









This body of water had a covering of what looked like red algae, creating a beautiful red sea.











The forest (jungle) had a lot of banyan trees. They are amazing to see. The entire cluster in the foreground of this picture is all one tree. Apparently, banyan trees are a type of fig tree. They grow on other trees. The seeds fall in the branches of other trees, and when they sprout, they grow down to the ground and take root again.






As we left the tiger reserve, many monkeys gathered on the wall and the trees by the road to bid us adieu. They sat there peacefully, watching the people as they went by. It was a though we were their evening entertainment.

Our tour is not yet finished. We will continue later where you can feast with us on our travels to Agra and Goa. This picture was taken in Bangalore, but it reminds us that we need to feast on all the experiences and opportunities that the Lord provides for us. The memories and experiences that we have shared are examples of things Jacob says to feast upon when he said, "feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted" (2 Nephi 9:51).