With the downtime we had in Jaipur, Rakesh and Sonali were so incredibly sweet to take me around Jaipur to show me all the cool places. Jaipur is known as the "pink city" because it has a ton of ancient palaces, and an old part of the city that are all made from a pinkish material. Many kings of the past have lived here, and have fought battles from way up in the mountains from huge fortresses. The world's biggest cannon is actually in Jaipur. There were some really beautiful, extravagantly designed palaces that we visited.
We also went to this one place at night that was designed to recreate ancient parts of the Jaipur culture. It was a blast! I rode an elephant and camel, and we took a little wagon ride behind a bull. There were Rajasthani dancers and food that kept the place alive all night. One day we even took a train ride to the Taj Mahal. This was the hottest day I've ever felt in my life. The heat index was 150, and from that day forward I was really sick because of the heat. I remember just dumping a huge bottle of water on myself in the middle of a public walkway, and not caring at all. You do what you gotta do. It's cool to say I've been to the Taj Mahal, but it was kind of anticlimactic. It is really beautiful but it takes just a few minutes to see it and you're done. I wouldn't recommend anyone traveling across the world just to see it. The details of the construction are very impressive though, it's know for being a wonder of the world because of the flawless, intricate inlayed stone work that make up the mosaic design inside and out. Despite the heat that led to a spontaneous nosebleed one time, we had a great time hanging out together!
