We began our day with a drive through the old city on our way out to see the Amber Fort. This fortress-cum-palace was the traditional home of the King of Rajasthan. The current king now lives in an adjacent fort, that looks less grand from the outside but probably has furniture and modern bathrooms!
To our delight, we rode up the path to the fort on elephants, whose trunks were beautifully painted with multicolored flowers. Alex even bargained for a hat while on top of the elephant, though on her first try she was given one that would comfortably fit a toddler. After dismounting in the outer courtyard, we entered the fort at the main receiving area. Within this courtyard, was a covered open-air pavilion, with richly carved columns. The other beautiful part of the receiving area was the stunning 70ft. tall gateway to get into the rest of the palace, whose inlay designs were still gorgeous and intact. The top part of the gateway was a carved wooden screen, from behind which the women of the harem could look down on the receiving area.
We entered what we assumed is part of the palace center, which was dominated by a large veranda, whose walls and ceiling were covered in carved glass designs embedded in the sand-colored stone. Though there was some colored glass, most of the designs were perfume-bottle shapes formed out of the mirror, which had a beautiful sparkle. Less beautiful were the red and gold "turbans" worn by the middle-aged Swedish men in an adjacent tour....
Most of the palace is a rabbit warren of branching hallways and small nooks, but we made our way onto the roof, which had more than one open-air chamber with the same carved screen...the site of illicit night-time activities (the room could hold more than two people...)! There was also a great view of the surrounding area, which was mostly parched, but rolling hills. The palace is surrounded by a massive pit, which in wetter days was a moat. That day, all we could see was a small figure in a bright orange sari walking around a fire. We also saw the courtyard where the king's wives would dance for him. The king's viewing area has secret passages to each of the wives' rooms, which were off this courtyard, so he could sneak off to his mate of choice after watching the dancing!
On our way out, Dean broke his own cardinal rule of the trip and bought something from a vendor, causing 10 others to surround him and follow us all the way back to the bus....
Returning from the palace, we stopped by a jewelry store and got to see how the workers polished the stones. We spent a long time in the store, browsing the beautiful, but expensive, jewelry. Thankfully for our wallets, we were loaded back onto the bus and taken to a (cheaper) marketplace! Today was one of our heaviest shopping days, haggling for brightly-colored scarves and genie pants (store-keepers are nice to the blondes!). We were all steered to take a look at the Palace of the Winds, which has an eye-popping four-story facade.
Our day ended with a trip to see Raajneeti, a new political movie from the non-musical side of Bollywood. The theater experience itself was a trip; the giant inside resembled a giant cream puff and Indian movie-goers think nothing of answering their cell phones mid-movie. Strangest of all, half the cinema got up 15 minutes before the end and left to avoid the crush of people! Raajneeti, though quite a fascinating film, was "interesting" for a few reasons: one, there were no subtitles (the one English phrase in the film was the random, "19th century Victorian poetry"!), two, it was extremely violent, and three, there was much more sex than we'd expected (though very discreetly filmed). However, there was only 2 kisses in the whole film (compared to 15 violent deaths). The story was dominated by car bombs, assassins, bludgeonings, shootings, and love triangles. Apparently, the ideal Indian film!
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