Less that 24hrs in Jaipur

Jaipur. I've been hearing about Jaipur for weeks now and with no real plan in place, Megan and I bought bus tickets for a 5+ hour bus ride into Rajasthan Friday night. A moment about the bus stop; it is a stretch of road about 3 blocks from our house that looks exactly like every other stretch of road in India. And when we were standing on this stretch of road, all we had for guidance was that we were to get on 'the Volvo.' Luckily we also had a co-worker to help guide us.

We arrived in the middle of the night and all Megan and I wanted to do on Saturday was shop for textiles in the Pink City. I know shopping is not the best mission when in the middle of a state with an incredibly rich history with amazing castles and elephants and tigers and cannons, but that was really our only ambition.

So with no plan in mind, Megan and I were lucky enough to get a fabulous tour from our co-worker Palavi. We went to the City Palace (where the 11th King of Jaipur still lives!) and really had a good time in the textile museum. The palace guards had great uniforms as well.

Then we headed for the hills to the Jaigarh Fort where we saw the worlds larges cannon and then down the hill to the Amber Palace. These two stops are rather touristy but well deserved. They are totally impressive, massive buildings nestled into the hillside and each of them are large enough to house an entire city. I have finally gotten used to the labyrinth of rooms in these palaces and it's fun to climb the towers and turn corners and unexpectedly find another huge courtyard. In Jaigarh we followed the sound of music to find a puppet show....along the road back to the Pink City I finally saw elephant and camel traffic (very cool!).

After a quick delicious meal, a Lassiwalla and a fervent hour of bargaining for textiles we were heading back to Gurgaon on the 7.30pm bus. I'll be returning to Rajasthan a couple of times but I doubt I'll be able to cover as much ground in such a short amount of time.