Day 9 -- Amber Fort, Floating Palace, carpet and textile factory
Heading out for sightseeing, we see this group of monkeys at the local high school.
Today's sightseeing includes the amber fort, named for the sandstone color.
Yes, the snake charmers actually do exist.
We take jeeps up the hill to the fort. The line for elephants is 200 people long.
The elephants are also slower, and the guide says they haven't been well-treated lately.
Raj waiting for the group to catch up.
Inside, the fort is a whole city.
Like most of these, the picture cannot do justice to the intricacy of the work.
The "Great Wall of India" is an outer fortification around the fort.
As in China, there are guardhouses with drums to alert the approach of enemies.
A view down onto a lovely geometric garden.
Many of the forts had open courtyards for receiving visitors during hot summers.
The detail inside one of the archways...
...and on the ceiling.
Down into one of the formal gardens.
The women would watch the proceedings from behind screens.
Us in front of one of the screens.
This wall has a metallic cast to it...
...plus mirrors to help amplify the torchlight or candlelight.
The ceiling is a magnificent set of reflectors that must be beautiful in candlelight.
Close up, we see the etched mirror below, and the color still on the stone carving above.
The moghuls brought back arts from elsewhere, including stained glass.
Making our way back to the jeeps to get back down the hill.
This is the "floating palace", a hunting lodge for royalty, now not in service.
The next stop is for carpets and textiles. The guide shows us a block stamp for coloring cloth.
Hand-knotting carpets. They sing the pattern to help keep it straight.
After the rug is tied, the person at the top using a long awl to separate the fibers, and the person
at the bottom rakes up and cuts off loose threads.
The back is fired to get rid of loose threads and give it some gripping texture.
Then the carpet is cleaned.
The showroom before the unveiling...
...and after.
Three workers holding up carpets for one of our group to choose between.
Next we move on to a factory that carves semi-precious stones.
Why would we have an electric motor on this grind wheel, when a stick / string / pulley works as well?.
Our guide holding up one of the stones under the light.
All kinds of beautiful things, but everyone is a little burnt out from shopping.
In front of a beautiful Ganesh statue for luck.
In the evening, we are taken to have dinner with a local family. It turns out to be different than
expected, as the local family actually runs a bed-and-breakfast, so they are equipped to handle a
group of 30, where a true local family would not.
The food was excellent, though, as the wife that runs the bed and breakfast has been written up in
several newspapers for her cooking skills.
Another wedding procession comes by as we are getting ready to check into our hotel.
A quick last shot at the airport, where McDonald's doesn't serve any beef. Instead, you have the Vegetarian
Maharaja Mac, the Chicken Maharaja Mac, the Masala Grill Veg., the McSpicy Paneer, etc.
