Jaipur/Agra trip photos

Man, did we ever take a lot of photos on this trip! Lots of photos of US, too, as per several parental requests. I've spent hours sorting through and resizing them, and am less than halfway done, but I figured I'd put them up in installments instead of waiting until I had them all done. So I've uploaded the first 80 photos to our Flickr photostream - they'll take you through the first day and a half of our trip. My account of the events of the trip will differ a bit from Jordan's, because he got the events of the first couple days mixed up chronologically. But, I have photos, and they were in order. So yeah.

So on our first day, we ended up getting to Jaipur later than we planned, and we didn't have time to do of the sightseeing that was planned for us. Instead, we went shopping in Jaipur for a couple of hours and then headed back to the hotel. I wish we'd had more time to go shopping in Jaipur - though kinda touristy, they actually had some really high quality stuff. Jaipur is famous for its blue pottery and its enamel work (jewelry, vases, sword hilts, etc.), and I didn't have enough time to buy any of either. I did get a sweet pair of earrings, though. And we can always go back, since Jaipur's not very far from Delhi. We took a couple of photos while we were out:





This is the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds, so called because of the way the wind whistles through the honeycombed windows. Even though it's a palace, it's right off a busy street full of shops, which is kind of a weird juxtaposition.

As Jordan said already, our hotel was ridiculously swanky. After spending a month on hard beds with no air conditioning and inconsistent power and water, the level of luxury at the hotel seemed absolutely absurd. We had a Sony Bravia flatscreen TV in our room, for god's sake. Ridiculous. Here are some pictures:





I know you guys don't care about the hotel, but it was a huge deal to us. HUGE. We had AC for three whole nights! And real, thick, soft mattresses! And delicious buffet meals!! It made me realize how much luxury I'm used to living in back home, that I've become accustomed to doing without.

Anyway, the next day we went out sightseeing in our giant tourist bus (it literally says "TOURIST" on the front in huge letters - not very subtle). We stopped briefly at the Hawa Mahal again to see the outside, but we'd already seen it the day before. What was new, though, were a couple of snake charmers sitting on the sidewalk:



They ended up inviting us to come sit with them and pet the snakes and stuff, which I didn't, but a few people did. We have a few more pictures of this on our Flickr photostream, and a video on our youtube channel.

After that, we headed off to Amber palace. We stopped a distance away from it to take pictures before we headed up to the palace itself:



Then we all rode elephants up the hill to the palace, which was fun. Here's us on our elephant:



The palace was beautiful, and full of intricate carvings and paintings.







The walls of this building, the Hall of Private Audience, are totally covered in mosaics made of tiny mirror shards. Back when the palace was still in use, the floors were covered in colorful carpets, so the colors were reflected throughout the hall.

While we were in there, some people came up to us and asked to take their picture with us. We agreed (as we usually do), and took a picture with them. Then more people wanted to take their picture with us, and more, and we kept taking pictures with people as a crowd gathered. So, we ended up like this:



After Amber palace, we went back to the hotel for lunch, and then set off to the City palace. But I haven't gotten through those photos yet, so I'll have to write about that when I finish with those. More to come!

We made a new set for this trip on our Flickr photostream - please please go look at it, as there are way more photos from the trip so far, with beautiful art and architecture, and of course, more pictures of us!