Jaipur

Some of the Staff and I decided to take a little weekend trip away to Jaipur. Jaipur is about a 5 hour train ride south from Delhi. We Left around 4 am on Friday to arrive in the morning and enjoy a full weekend away.
I notice that the air is cleaner, i can see blue sky and it is more sunny and hot here. I know right away i am going to Love Jaipur!
We get to our hotel and are pleased that we have real showers and hot running water! YAY! Friday we just roamed the pink city, taking pictures to try to capture the essence of Jaipur's charm. The ancient city walls is what makes up the Pink city, lined with bright colored spice and fruit stands. We stop to eat fresh fruit for lunch, being stopped every now and than by gawkers "Hello, Hello, where you from!?" As we browse the crazy markets we were stopped by music, we looked over and it was a snake charmer, I was so excited to see something so Indian Esque! We stopped at the Wind Temple, a huge wall apart of the ancient city that is full of little windows. They believe the windows were for all the Maha Rajah's Concubines to see out into the activities below. Later that night we went to what i can only explain as an Indian Fair/Circus. We paid like 6 bucks to get in and there were puppet shows, Dancing, Hand turned Ferris wheels, Elephant, camel and horse rides, Boat rides, Giant slides from trees and most importantly the best traditional meal ever! we sat down on cushions and were given scoops of all sorts of different tasting Indian food with non-stop Chapatti (Indian Bread, kinda like a quesadilla) and Rice. It was a night to remember for sure! We tired ourselves out acting like children and went back to out Hotel listening to Bollywood songs the whole way back.
Saturday we planned to go to the Famous Amber Palace! Our rickshaw driver there was a pretty friendly guy and when he asked if we wanted to try driving his ricksahw we jumped on the opportunity! We were screaming and having lots of fun until the other people who were with us stopped us and informed us that by doing so we were basically telling the driver and everyone else around us that we are "easy" Ooops! As a female in India you just always have to be thinking about whats appropraite for the culture, just sitting in the front seat with another man can be taken the wrong way, Which is really quite sad. Although the rest of the ride up to Amber Palace was a little awkward when we made it to our stop we were blown away. It was so stunning, we all felt like we were straight out of Lord of the Rings! There were walls that went in all directions from the temple that looked like mini great walls of China. The Palace itself was Magnificent, and riding huge Indian Elephants up the ancient cobble stoned streets made it that much more special. I had to pinch myself, not believing that i am actually in India! No picture could capture this beauty!
We explored the inside of the temple, one room was filled with tiny little mirrors, each one individually placed into beautiful artwork, A whole room! Walking through the maze of hallways and rooms, two of the other girls and I got lost and wound up on the very top, no one else there to bug us as we soaked it all in. We slowly made our way down from the Palace and got a ride to another palace on the water. Although the Palace was amazing we were all more focused on the little boys who were trying to do magic tricks in front of us as their pimp bragged to us about how good they were. We were so disgusted, here is this Pimp exploiting these innocent boys as two cops walk by knowing exactly what is going on and just smiling and just loving this pimp. We all were getting so worked up about it that we decided to leave before we caused a scene.
Riding in rickshaws all day to get places we learned to pack some fruit so when the little boys and girls come up asking for money we can pass out food instead of money going to their Pimps..
That night we all went our separate ways and the girls my age and I went out for a drink. Thinking a glass of wine would be a nice way to end off a perfect day we find out that it is a Dry night, No alcohol is served in memory of Ghandi's Death. Darnit Ghandi!! We settled for mocktini's on our open rooftop restaurant. It was such a good night as we sat under the stars having a girls night, smoking from an Indian Hooka. (not drugs don't worry, Flavored tobacco out of a standing Indian style Pipe.)
As we made our way into the night to find a rickshaw back to the hotel we managed to flag one down who didnt speak an ounce of English. Two surprisingly nice guys tried to help us give our driver directions and after some difficulties it seemed like he knew where we were going. He was definately not the best driver we had experienced and at first we thought it was pretty funny because he was so goofy looking and drove pretty goofy aswell.. But as we nearly got hit several times and were actually screaming we realized he was Drunk as a Skunk! How Ironic that he is drunk on a Dry night... We stopped to get a new driver and get directions disoriented and adrenaline running from almost dyeing. We were well aware of our vulnerability; 3 girls alone at night, lost but we found the kindest guys who scolded the drunk driver, found us a new rickshaw and gave him perfect directions to our Hotel. We were so lucky to have found such nice men, for once not greasy, rude or vulgar.
Sunday, the day we leave was a day for relaxing! We did some quick shopping than made our way to a garden to eat our lunch and spend the day in the sun reading and hanging out. The garden we went to was the Kings (Maha Rhaja?) Wife's sleeping quarters, which she demanded to have if she was to marry him. Heck i would marry any guy who built me a palace like this one! Not only was her living quarters magnificant, but the surrounding garden and little Gazeebo type structures lining the garden were breathtaking. I spent hours reading and soaking up the sun (i am still so pale) taking breaks to glance up and imagine what this palace once looked like in its prime.
What a great way to end off the Perfect weekend. I had so many great experiences, and memories in such a short period of time. The people i travelled with to Jaiper were the best, we all got along so well and I really connected and made strong friendships with the girls.
A long train ride back home to a house full of girls with Chicken Pocks and Lice.. to top it off they have Exams stressing them out.. Its going to be one busy week.

Sorry to everyone i keep telling to skype with me, i never really know when i will have a chance to use the computer.
Love you all!