India Day 5

We left our Fort accommodations around 8 a.m. to tour the city of Jodhpur.  Our first stop was at Fort Mehrangarh atop a sandstone hill overlooking the indigo coloured city below.  This fort is the largest in India.  It is made of of many palaces and apartments because it was built in 1458 for the Brahmins who were the important scholars and priests of the time.  The Mehrangarh Maharaja would sit and discuss life with these important people in his pearl palace room.  This room had walls made from shells, gold filigree ceilings, oil lamps glittering, and stained glass windows.  His queens would hide behind lattice screens high above the floor and eavesdrop on the conversations.  My favourite place in the Fort was the Palace of Flowers.  This was a very exotic room with candles, poets, musicians, dancers, paintings, and mirrors.  The maharaja would take all his lady friends there for much pleasure.  (use your imagination).  After lunch at the Rockhut restaurant in the city, we began our long journey across country for 8 hours passing many decorated trucks, tons of families all riding without helmets on one scooter, and hundreds of cows meandering down the middle of the roadway.  We arrived at our new destination of Jaipur, the pink city.  Tomorrow we ride the elephant so stay tuned.