Feb 24: Jaipur Fort and Palace

Full day out exploring Jaipur Fort and Palace. A bit of a drive around the city sights including the Palace of winds.  Traffic is pretty hectic due to a new Metro station being built near the old city.  Julie wanted to do some shopping so were taken to a Jewelry store where I bought my India Black star ring then got carried away to get matching earrings.  Alan also treated me to a sapphire ring for my birthday.  Rajasthan is renowned for its semi precious stones.  We were then swept away to a textile store - the guides often earn commission on these stops, so we made it worth his while.  Still, this gets shopping out of the way all in one major hit.  Don't think we had better mention the word "shops" again this holiday!  It's getting to be an expensive exercise now the government is slapping on all sorts of taxes.

Elephant ride in the evening at dusk.  We were served food under the stars around a fire cos it was a bit chilly by then.  Main course was a buffet under a thatched awning.  Quite amazed that this exotic location existed out in rural fields outside the city boundary.

The elephants are rescued city elephants.  We saw many elephants in the city doing tourist rides over paved roads.  Not only are they a long way from their natural habitat of southern India, the climate is even too dry fro them to reproduce.  These city elephants usually never leave the city streets and are never rested.  We never saw any of the highly jeweled depicted on the postcards!