Woke up sometime around the crack of dawn this morning to get ready to head to the Amer Fort, and we were lucky enough to grab some breakfast at the hotel before leaving. Once we got there, after disembarking from the bus, we got in line to ride elephants up to the actual fort.
While we were in line, we saw a lot of hawkers selling their wares, especially to tourist-y looking people, much like our group. Hah. Most of the hawkers were turned down or ignored completely, which left us wondering how much money they could earn realistically, which we assumed had to be pretty low. Our assumptions were proven wrong quickly enough when we found out Alex and Thomas had gotten themselves hats from said hawkers for 200 rupees (US$4) a piece. Wut. Jarred and I were convinced that we could have gotten a better price, and before I knew it, we were bargaining with the exact same hat seller, with me posing as Jarred’s wife. I felt like a baller. Trufax. We got him down to 100 rupees for the same hat, and Jarred had a good time rubbing it in Alex and Thomas’s faces. And now I have a hat.
In any case, the elephant ride up the hill was legit. Arjun, our guide, had told us to prepare a tip for our elephant guide once we had gotten up the hill, but right before climbing up our elephant, Jarred and I noticed a sign that instructed us to NOT pay the guides tips. Sketch.
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| Wut. |
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| Hill climb. |
By the time we finally reached the top of the hill, our guide started asking us for tips. I understand that it’s the culture here, but it can be so frustrating because it almost always spoils the end of an enjoyable experience. Meh.
In any case, the general consensus was that the Amer Fort put the Agra Fort to shame. The architecture and intricacy of the designs and paintings and structures were phenomenal.
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| Imagine this. Times a million. |
The group finally found a way to let us kids have enough roaming time while making sure we returned to group meeting points punctually, which was super exciting. Before, Arjun would give us these super long spiels about certain monuments and then give us 20-30 minutes of time to walk around and that almost always ended with us getting lost and/or being late. Now, Arjun takes us to points of interest around the monuments, gives us shorter spiels (and holds our attention for longer periods of time) and then gives us 5-10 minutes to walk around and take pictures, which keeps us focused and works a lot better.
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| And allows us to locate the royal bathroom. For Alex. |
Before leaving the Amer Fort, we took some pictures with some snake charmers and that was pretty cool.
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| Boom. Tourist stereotype now complete. |
We took the jeep down this time, and made sure to take plenty of pictures.
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| Actual jeep. |
After the Amer Fort, the group headed to a nearby market for precious gems. I learned today that Jaipur is home to some of the most beautiful and decently priced precious stones in the world. Ballin'. We had the opportunity to meet with the owner of Meenu Sharma, just one of the many jewelers in the neighborhood. Truly, unless you knew just where to go, you’d never find these wonderful holes in the wall.
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| Precious gems live here. |
There was a full-blown jewelry polisher and store tucked away in this quiet little neighborhood.
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| Quiet little neighborhood with bamfs, apparently. |
In more ways than one, I’m glad that American-level commercialism has yet to rob India of her quaintness and quietness. After going on a brief tour of jewelry polishing activities, we soon went to the store, and of course, had a jolly good time picking out stones and trying jewelry on.
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| Stone polishing process. |
I helped Alana pick out a sapphire for her dad, and then helped Seth pick out his engagement ring (!!!), which was absolutely gorgeous.
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| Puurrrrtttyyy. |
I promised myself I wouldn’t buy anything here, but I haven’t earned this trip's moniker, “the shopper” without merit, and naturally, I bought three pairs of earrings – one for my mom, one for my sister and one for myself. Eventually, our professors scooted all of us out of the store (I’m sure they made a ridiculous amount of money today), and we headed for lunch. Lunch was delicious, as expected, and we soon departed for Jantar Mantar after.
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| Proof of awesomeness. |
We weren’t given much idea about what to expect about the monument except that it had something to do with astrology and the like, so needless to say, we were all intrigued. Once we got there, we enlisted the help of a local guide who talked us through most of the structures that were there.
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| Time predictor thingy. I don't even know. |
There were sun dials and instruments and objects that could be used to predict the emergence of constellations, or predict lunar and solar eclipses…the only way I could do that TODAY would be by using Google, and there were Indians who managed to figure it out hundreds of years ago. It was pretty incredible.
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| Time machine. |
One less tasteful experience that happened in Jantar Mantar - Ariel and Alana were creepily followed around by a pack of Indian men. They didn’t do much except take weird pictures and videos of the girls…the boys stepped in to protect them of course, which was very sweet. I guess being white or of fairer complexion in India can be a double-edged sword.
In any case, we eventually made it back to the hotel and very soon after left for Choki Dhani. Again, Varun and Dr. Anand stayed back, which in retrospect was an incredible idea.
Note to self: Start trusting the two Indians on the trip.
Choki Dhani was LITERALLY one of the most ridiculous experiences of my life. I literally, cannot stop smiling and giggling just thinking about it. The ENTIRE time, I felt like the experience was akin to tripping on acid. Choki Dhani is almost like the Indian version of Silver Dollar City. There are a lot of booths and exhibitions and other areas where “park” employees dress and act like ancient Indians did, apparently. Dinner was, to say the least, another interesting experience. We had to take our shoes off, walk in the mud, sit on the ground and eat with plates and bowls made of leaves and drink from “flower pots” as Senad called them.
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| Yeah. |
About ten minutes in, we were convinced that we were on an episode of Punk’d or Candid Camera. I became the official taste-tester for my side of the table and made sure everything was edible. Yeah. We move on.
So, after dinner, we go to take in some of the performances that are going on all over the place, and before we know it, Pree, Alana and Honey are dancing while Kevin has strapped on a horse/cow suit and has started bopping along to the music. It was ridiculous.
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| Idk. |
The last straw was when we bypassed this man-made pond structure with fake plants and animals, and there was an audio track of dinosaur roars playing on loop in the back. I just about died. Choki Dhani is a MUST-VISIT for all first time visitors to India. May they be as traumatized as we were.
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