Cultural Excursion - Day Three

Up early again today, we made a quick stop at Hawa Mahal, which was built in 1799 A.D. by Maharaja Pratap Singh (1778-1803 A.D.). Known as the "Palace of Winds" or Palace of Breeze," it is a five storied building with two large courts. Its elaborate, decorative elements exist only on one side. We took a few quick pictures and were on our way.

Although we left the resort early in the hopes that we would get to the Amer Palace and fort complex in time to get elephant rides to the top, the line was already two hours long when we arrived.

Instead of waiting, we opted to drive to the top of the fort and ride elephants later.

The Fort was my favorite sight in Jaipur. The wall in the mountains that surrounded it reminded several of us of The Lord of the Rings.

 

We spent a great deal of time in the fort, climbing (sometimes precariously) into its less visited rooms before visiting the elaborately decorated courtyard/palace area. After taking lots of pictures and wandering around the complex a bit more, we drove back down the hill and on towards our elephant ride experience! 

Our cars pulled over near a large, nondescript building and as we walked inside, we were surprised to find that it was an elephant stable! Never having been really up close to an elephant, I was slightly unprepared for how enormous they are!

As elephants kept entering the stable, we were encouraged to climb a set of elephant-height, stone steps in pairs. When an elephant approached and stopped in front of the staircase, we then “simply” sat on the elephants back, a safety rail was put in front of us and off we went!

 

Although riding through the streets of Jaipur on an elephant was incredibly unique, I have to admit that there were a few moments where I was pretty concerned about falling off. It was probably a good thing that we didn’t wait to ride elephants up the steep climb to the fort earlier in the day! Nevertheless, our feet were soon on the ground again.

We got back in our cars to head to lunch and then the airport. The Lemon Tree was a welcome sight after such a long weekend, and we all turned in quickly to get a good night of sleep before beginning week number eight at the office.