India: Jaipur - Jal Mahal and Amber Fort

After a slightly later than usual start to the day of 8:30am we head into the [faded] pink city of Jaipur.  The streets are lined with back-to-back stores, stalls and peddlers, and the ground is a layer of sand and dust.  The air is also a layer of sand and dust.  My pants are also a layer of sand and dust.  

That's "international" pants by the way.  Not "English" pants.  My English pants are a layer of something else...

We set off for Amber Fort and the road takes us past the water palace Jal Mahal where the royal family would live during the summer heat.  The lower section of the palace is submerged in the water (the lake was artificially created in the 16th century which is pretty impressive in itself...) and in the heat of the day the royals would hang out in the cooler lower levels of the palace, moving up to the rooftop lounge in the evening to chill out with some music and hot babes.

Snoop Dogg was likely there too...

We join a 40 min long queue for an elephant ride up to Amber Fort - an extremely picturesque pink fort on the side of a mountain.

If I was Raj I would have called it the  "Fantabulous Pink Fort".

There are a hell of a lot of elephants carting the tourists up the path to the palace, and after the fun but brief ride to the top, the driver [rider? sitter?] gets angry that we don't give him a tip.  I point at the multitudes of signs at the elephant exit point saying "strictly no tipping drivers", but he just gets angrier and threatens to not let us off.  I don't mind sitting on the elephant for a bit longer as elephants are kinda fun so he's not winning that one.

You're trying to get me to pay to get off this ride?  Look how much fun everybody is having!

The Amber palace itself is pretty fun to wander around in.  It's many courtyards, corridors and tunnels weave in and out in a seemingly random fashion and you can easily spend an hour or two exploring every nook and cranny.

And using the royal facilities...

India: Food, Flies, and the Dead.

Well there's a dramatic title if ever I saw one.  

We continue driving toward Jaipur, and eventually stop at one of those typical tourist bus rest stops for a bite to eat.  The driver insists that the food is good.

Sure enough, there are a bunch of whiteys from tour buses eating in there, and the meals are rather expensive (250 rupees plus per dish). Even a bottle of water is 60 rupees (the going rate for tourists on the street is around 15 rupees).  So we wait until the driver has finished his meal in his little segregated employee area, and then ask to be taken further down the road to somewhere else.

We pick a random food stop a short way down the road, and get two curries, a pile of chapatis, and a bucket of lassi for only 60 rupees.

And all the complimentary flies you could possibly want.  (I'm not kidding.)

Further down the road we come across one of India's shocking statistics - it's high road toll.

It wasn't the first road accident I saw, nor was it the last - but it was definitely the one that looked the most like giant novelty spaghetti.
A woman fell off the back of a motorcycle and went under the wheels of a truck.  She was split completely in two pieces and lay in the middle of the road - one half head, shoulder and arm, the other... well - the rest of her.  We actually just missed witnessing the accident, but saw the guy on the motorbike screech to a stop and look back in shock.  It's not a pretty sight but we can't look away as we slowly drive by...

I present you this picture of lunch to take your mind off it.

The "chef" and his dad chillin'

This cool mofo strolled up and was eager to show off his little dagger.

Another different accident.  A reasonably normal sight on the roads here....

India: Prince of Persia (Fatehpur Sikri)

Early in the morning we head out of Agra, and visit a place called Fatehpur Sikri.

Fatehpur Sikri was built by Emperor Akbar in the 1500s (well he told people to make it - I don't think he built the whole thing himself...) over a span of 15 years to be the new capital of the Mughal Empire.

Trivia: Akbar upgraded his title from Admiral after he lead the coup against the Rebel Alliance

It was designed in fantastic Persian architectural style and all of the palace buildings are made almost entirely of red stone.

He certainly had style....

but was later sued by Jordan Mechner for stealing the designs from his videogame Prince of Persia.

Akbar had some great architects and craftsmen, but being the manager of the empire he probably didn't understand why the civil engineers weren't so enthusiastic about the site, while at the same time getting excited by the marketing guy's hype and so pressed ahead regardless.  Upon completion of the new capital, somebody realized that the area didn't have enough water and so the site was abandoned.

"Oh fuck," the Emperor said.

Oh well, we can thank that monumental fuckup for giving us one of the best preserved pieces of Mughal architecture in the country - and I must say it's definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

"Meh," the goat said. 

Behind the fort is there is also a rather nice and large mosque that's worth a look around,

Worth a look

and has some nice city views out the back.

And now you're going to start thinking that I like goats.

Near the entrance there are tonnes of very pesky children asking you for your entrance ticket in order to on sell them to locals (or so they say).  Even if you don't have a ticket they like to follow you for about 5 minutes saying "Give me your ticket.  Give me your ticket" constantly.

Strolling down the hill back to our car we come across some kids playing a grame of cricket in the middle of some dilapidated ruins, so I join in and have a go, meanwhile forgetting to take a picture *sigh*.

The road to Fatehpur Sikri

It's a pool yo

Persian architecture

DJs beware

Nice lines

View out the back

Inside the Mosque

Mosque Tombs

Mosque Gateway

Saying prayers

Mosque

City views

Entrance to the mosque

Fatehpur Sikri

Men pulling a cart