Jaipur, Rajastan

cows in india are happy 'cause they can relax on the street without fear of being eaten








The first city we went to in India was Jaipur, which is about 4.5 hours from Delhi in the large state of Rajastan. Its a pretty touristy place, and the primary attractions are the Red Fort (which has elephant rides!) and the palace. Also in Jaipur we did some shopping for carpets, textiles, art, and jewelry. For these first two days, Jumana and I were with her sister Dina and Dina's friends from the Doha Asian Games Organizing Committee: Natalia, Anthony, Khalid and Marlen.






Khalid, Jumana, Marlen, Dina, and Natalia with a Hindu god statue.



The view of the Fort and the Old Treasury building above it from the elephant taxi stand








And the elephant taxis with their drivers. Some of their owners had painted their trunks for the diwali festival that was just finishing when we arrived.








The palace that the Maharaja of Rajastan still lives in. Even though all of his real power has been replaced by the secular, democratic government of today, he still holds symbolic power (sort of like the British monarchy).

Anthony and Khalid check out the snake charmer that was outside of the palace. We all got to hold the snake, which we were assured had been "de-poisoned."

The view of Jaipur from the top of the Fort, and a much closer view of the streets... the chaos is hard to portray in a still photo, it was the craziest driving I've ever seen.