The ride to Jaipur was really smooth. They served us tea and breakfast while we waited to arrive which was actually pretty good. I was the most impressed by the tea which was delicious. After a few hours of nodding off and BSing we made it. The temperature was in probably the lower eighties, so it was hot but not unbearable. We needed to find a driver to bring us back to our hotel and surprisingly there was one that just started a conversation with me as we stepped off the train. He was a really nice man, spoke English very well and offered us a good deal to bring us back so we were in. It was a 5 minute drive for 50 rupees, slightly less then a dollar. The place we were staying at this time was rated over 90% in more then one thousand reviews. It was more expensive relatively. Actually it was about 15 bucks a night. It was located on a quiet street which was a perk for us compared to the last place we stayed at. As we walked up, it was clear that the yard was carefully up kept. The floors were clean and the staff welcomed us as soon as we walked into their atrium. The whole building was decked out floor to ceiling in white marble with the appropriate Indian accents. Our room was on the second floor locked with a brass deadbolt that went across the two inward opening stained glass and wooden doors. The room was very clean, which sounds like it would be a no brainer, but was something we looked for after our first experience. We dropped off our bags and we headed up stairs and had lunch in the open air restaurant on the roof. We hammered out the details and headed out. Our plan was to head to Amber Fort which was located a little ways outside the city and walk our way back. We were gong to have our train station tuk tuk driver take us there but he wanted to give us a tour and bring us everywhere for a steep price but our hotel guy let us in on the gig so we were no dummies. We walked by him and all his friends to the bus and paid 15 rupees each instead of 1,500. Driving around in India is nothing like the states. There are motorcycles, scooters, tuk tuks and cars everywhere. People honk 100x more then the do back home to let the other drivers know they are there. I would say its controlled chaos but I don't even know if its that. Every man for themselves but it does seem like the drivers look out for each other if they're being over taken so there are no accidents, none that I've seen anyways. The bus rolled up and without even stopping we hopped on and it took off through the hairy mess of traffic. It was hard to notice where the stops where because people keep jumping on and off. The ticket man would be very careful in remembering who paid and who didn't. Amber Fort, our stop, came up and we had to squeeze through everyone to get out. I got stuck as Patrick got off and the bus started to speed away. I had to shove my way through and leap off with grace on to the ground that was moving at least 10 miles an hour in reference to me. After the excitement, I looked around to see where we were at. It was magical. Straight out of a movie or video game. Where we stopped it looked like some sort of guard tower that went along the wall that sat on top of the surrounding mountain range. This wall was constructed on top of the natural mountain wall surrounded the biggest, most brilliant castle type building I've ever seen, and I can say that with confidence. Across the street the light brown clay/sandstone bridge led across the man made lake and led up to the same material and colored fortress that sat nestled in the mountains. It really is difficult to put into words and I'm not sure if my camera did it justice either. We stomped it up the steps and the ramps that led us eventually to the inside which was no less impressive. They had rooms for different events and and entertainment and as we climbed up we could eventually see over the walls and to the view surrounding this place. It was just amazing. I found a new standard of that word. Amazing. There's a tunnel about a half of mile long leading out of the Amber Fort to our next stop, Jaigarh Fort. This was seen as the strongest fort of the three we would be looking at since it had the most view of everything. Also, this fort was the home of the worlds largest cannon which as one testified once and it shot over 20 miles. We walked around here and took some great shots of the Amber Fort and some surrounding areas. After this fort, our plan as just to hoof it the last fort in the list, Nahargarh Fort. Our hotel guy told us it was like a 25-30 minute walk but it ended up being over 5 miles and we took our time and it too us much longer. We stopped at an unidentified tower, by us anyways, where there was an old bum sleeping and woke up when he heard us get close. He invited us in as Patrick shook his head and went up to the top. The tower saw everything that was happening in Jaipur I'm sure of it. I got some great video and pictures. I also came close to jumping out of the tower when a peacock landed on top and it sounded like the whole thing was coming down. It scared the crap out of me. I got a video of it hoping for it to show his mug but. I was recording it took off and gracefully flew in a long loop down to the bottom, all while I was recording. We pressed on passing seemingly every form of wild life in India minus tigers. We saw wild cows peacocks, monkeys, parrots, horses and dogs. All just walking along the path or just off of it. The sun was setting as we made it to the last fort. We were pretty tired and thirsty walking around in the heat and made our way to the restaurant they had there. We sat up top open air again and as soon as we took our seats it was sunset and all the mosques in the area began tossing their prayer across the city. One at a time, each one had a Muslim chant coming from the loud speakers on their walls. And each one was different. It was haunting and gave me chills. It was just the scene seeing the pink city in its pinkest form due to the sunset. Along with the jumbled mess of prayers that I wouldn't be able to understand if it were sang one at a time, but with dozens of prayers playing at the same time, I'm not sure if anyone could understand it from where we were sitting. After finishing our beers, it was basically night as we made our way down the ridge back into the city where we could find a tuk tuk driver to bring us back. Our legs were sore from the climbing and the descent but we knew we were close. We took the path that led down following someone else heading down and matching there speed. We took a break out front of their house and chatted with them and his family as we recouped before finally making it to a tuk tuk. Back at the hotel we got some food and lazily ate it. It was a long day of traveling starting at 5:30 am and getting back at around 10pm and we were done.
