Jaipur, India Amber Fort

February 9, 2003
Weather: high of about 80ºF and clear skies
Odometer reading: 3051 km


As one of our last site-seeing flings in India, we ride up to the Amber Fort near Jaipur. It is on a Sunday and the place is mobbed with tourists. In the festival atmosphere, the touts and hawkers have so many targets, we almost slip by. Thank goodness for well-dressed Japanese tourists... they draw all the hawkers away from us.


I was excited at first to visit the Amber Fort because I could ride an elephant here. But the guidebook made me feel too guilty about the rough life these elephants lead here. So I couldn't bring myself to pay for a ride. Actually, the elephants we saw didn't look so abused as all that.
The fort has lovely ordered gardens (a hallmark of the Muslim influence of the Mughal rulers).
Julie is a little disappointed at all the vandalism to the mirrored tiles.
Still, there are a few mirrors intact.
It was so busy that I got to see my first elephant traffic jam.
We were confused by the many signs banning hawkers and the many hawkers until we realized the ban only is enforced in one small courtyard. Probably to give the beggars in the courtyard more space.












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