On the fourth day of our Golden Triangle trip we had planned to visit some of the big sights in the city of Jaipur. The day started of with a visit to Amber Fort build by the Meenas king, Alan Singh Chanda. We all arrived in style; on the backs of 4 beautiful elephants, getting a good view of the fort from the outside. When entering we were so lucky as to get one of Amber Fort’s most famous guides, which prier to us, had guided amongst others the President of Turkey and the biggest of all Bollywood movie star, Salman Khan. The guide tock us through the exciting history of Amber Fort, showing us how the Indians already in 1592 had figured out how to create a jacuzzi and how they had built a 9 km long wall to protect the inhabitants from potential enemies. The next stop of the day was Jaipur city palace, an impressive building were we saw the exquisite garment warren by Maharaja Madho Singh II. On the other side of the street we entered the Jantar Manter observatory, which has been listed in the World Heritage Monuments list, by UNESCO, in 2010. The observatory consisted of fourteen major geometric devices where the Samrat Yantra is the largest instrument, whit its 27 meter of height, its shadow carefully plotters to tell the time of day.
As we carried out or walk through the buzzeling city life surrounded of goats, cows, people and the heat of the midday sun, we passed by the Albert Hall museum for a quick view. After a short brake with Baskin Robins Ice cream and the Indian specialty, lassie, we were ready for the last stop of the day; Hawa Mahal. Inside the Hawa Mahal we were able to see the city through the eyes of early royal ladies throughout one of the 953 windows designed to allow the royal ladies a view of everyday life in the street below, without being seen.
After a day of traveling through the great history of Jaipur city, we went back to our hotel filled with new great impressions. I think we all can agree that we had an exciting day and that we were now ready for are next big day of sightseeing; the Taj Mahal in Agra.