Jaipur: Garrett's City

Our next stop was Jaipur, the largest city in the state of Rajasthan.  It is also referred to as the pink city due to the pink color of the buildings in the old section of the city.  But we decided to name it Garrett's City since he was the only one who got to experience it all.  The first day we arrived, we all toured Jai Garh fort, which sat high up on a mountain top and displays the world's largest cannon among other things.  One of our favorite highlights was a puppet show that served as entertainment for the kings and other royalty who used to live there.  That evening, we went to a light and sound show outside of Amber fort (just below Jai Garh fort) which gave us a good idea of Rajasthan's history, music, and culture.

During the night, Grant got sick (we're blaming it on the sugar cane drink in Pushkar, but who really knows for sure), so the next morning, Charlie and Garrett set out for a tour of Amber fort while Kim stayed back with Grant at the hotel.  We took an elephant ride to the top of Amber fort while Garrett donned his "prince turban".  The fort was like a maze and Garrett and I stumbled upon secret passageways, tunnels, gardens, and sleeping bats.  Then, Charlie got sick that afternoon, so Garrett and Kim went out for an authentic Indian dinner and entertainment that evening.  Thus, Garrett got to experience more of Jaipur than any of the rest of us.

Holy Cow! India won the Cricket World Cup!

This country is going crazy with celebration.  It has been 28 years since they won the World Cup and this is only the second World Cup win for the country.  Wow!  It's great to see and experience the enthusiasm!

Pushkar, Tents, Temples and Camels

Our hotel was a modified tent!  It was just like camping but it had a chandelier, a four-poster bed, wood floors, and a giant bathroom.  At dinner our first night, Dad accidently ate a super hot chili pepper. We think we saw smoke and fire coming out his ears! 

We scheduled a tour of Pushkar with a guide. On the tour we saw the only temple in India for the Hindu God Brahma who is said to have created the Universe.  We rang a bell to show respect and watched the local people do small ceremonies.  We then went to Pushkar lake where many people travel to take a dip in the water to wash away their sins.  Our guide included us in a ceremony where we wished for health, happiness and good fortune for all our friends and family.  We also got our first red smudge on our foreheads.  We also enjoyed a refreshing sugar cane drink mixed with rose petals and mint.  It was delicious, but we will come back to that later.  We had some Israeli food for lunch at the Third Eye restaurant. 

That evening we rode on camels!  The camels' names were Raja and Ramu.  We traveled around a village and watched the sun set.  As we rode through the village we were followed by several children who all said "hello", "how are you", "tata" and "good bye".  They were full of smiles, no shoes, and very interested in who we were.  Some even posed for a picture.  Several were interested in Dad's sunglasses.  We  were offered water by a village woman and watched cows, pigs and goats roam through the village. 

Destination...Jodhpur!

We arrived in Jodhpur and met our driver, Salim Malik who is going to be with us the rest of our adventure.  He took us to our hotel, Bal Samad Garden Retreat.  Our room used to be part of the water canal system for the Maharaja in Jodhpur and later his horse stables.  Sounds weird but the hotel and grounds were amazing! We heard peacock calls,which sounded like Kevin in the movie UP, and toured the grounds to discover more.  Oh boy, did we discover more!  We saw monkeys which were not afraid of us.  They even let us get close to them.  We also saw a tree filled with something we thought were either little monkeys or birds.  They were actually giant fruit bats!  Hundreds of them!  When mom saw the tree, she was so suprised it looked like her head was going to come off.  We really got into the wildlife.  We found vines from a Banyan tree and swung on them like Tarazan.  At the end of the day we went to Megh Fort.  We looked out and saw the entire city of Jodhpur, known as the blue city because they paint their houses a light blue color. We later ate dinner at the fort, on the rooftop, at night under the stars.   

Elephants, Spices, and Flea Market

On Tuesday March 22, we started the day doing a spice plantation tour.  Did you know that a spice called nutmeg can help you fall asleep when you eat it?  We also learned a ton about other spices like cinnamon, basil, coriander, vanilla, pepper, peri peri chili peppers (the smallest chili peppers in the world, the seventh most spicy chili in the world).  It wasn't just about spices.  We also learned a ton about cashew nuts, pineapples, bananas (in the grass family, not a tree), and coconuts.  After the spice tour, we went to go get an elephant bath.  That's when you sit on a real elephant and it sprays water on you.  We all got soaked, and afterwards we got to feed bananas to Mala, our elephant.  In the afternoon, we splashed around in the Arabian Sea and had lunch at Zeebop, an authentic Indian beach shack.  On Wednesday March 23, we went to the famous Goan flea market where we bargained for a lot of fun souvenirs.

We're Here...Happy Holi!!

We arrived in India and celebrated Holi, the first day of summer, in style. Celebrating Holi was the best introduction to India we could ask for.  People come and apply streaks of colored powder on your face and say "Happy Holi". Garrett says "Do not put paint on someone unless it's Holi!"  Grant says "Holi is when buckets of color is poured on top of you and you get soaked.  It happened to me twice!"  Mom couldn't stop smiling and Dad even went out and danced in the colors.  Happy Holi everywhere!! 

TRIP ON!

We are on our way to India for Spring Break.  Look for our adventures to Goa, Jodhpur, Pushkar, Jaipur, Ranthambhore, Agra, Delhi and Hyderabad.  More to come...!