Tucson twin city!

After our tour today, it has become apparent that Jaipur is very like Tucson -- similar landscape with the desert shrubbery and dunes (though no cacti), similar weather, and a focus on gem stones (people here know of Tucson because of its Gem and Mineral show!). Tucson, sadly, doesn't have pretty ancient forts.

We got up this morning and I just wasn't ready to face the day, so after breakfast, I went back to bed and Mu went to the Central Museum (itself housed in a beautiful building), where he took a million pictures for me. :) The highlights, according to him, were the ancient graphic novels. I also liked the pictures of sculptures in yoga poses. There was also a mummy, which Mu said wasn't very exciting, but he did learn the weird fact that British aristocrats used to purchase Egyptian mummies for their homes and then have unwrapping parties. This sounds creepy and gross to me, but I'm not a British aristocrat.

After the museum, they (Mu and the cab driver, that is) came back for me and we went to Amber Fort, which is a grand fort and palace about 10km outside the city. It has a wall that's 12km long around, and a palace to house the maharaja and his 12 wives (along with a secret passage from the maharaja's room to any of the wives' rooms so that he could visit one without the others knowing. There was also a mirror palace section with awesome glass work, and gardens that look like persian carpets! Our guide took a picture of us in one of the mirrors, but it came out weirdly spliced, for reasons that are unclear to me. I'm including it anyways, because it's cool and ridiculous. There was also an underground tunnel leading to a different, even more secure fort. One could also hike up to the fort above ground, but we chose not to because it was a very steep hill.

On the way down, we stopped at a place that did old-style prints, by using stamps dipped in vegetable dyes (green from mango leaves, yellow from turmeric, red from henna) to decorate fabric. I got a little square with a pineapple/vase on it from the demo. And then Mu bought me a shiny! Since Jaipur is famous for gems, I had told him that it would be nice to leave here with a shiny object, and he delivered. :) I now have a beautiful silver bracelet with iolites, purple stones that are very similar in color to tanzanites, which is what's in my engagement ring. It's so pretty! I don't often specifically request shiny things, but it's rather nice to get one occasionally.

On our way back to town, we stopped at Nargarah Fort, yet another fort with a palace (for a different maharaja, with 9 wives). This one also had a gorgeous palace, and beautiful views of the city. We also took some photos of the Water Temple, a temple that is in the middle of a lake. Weird. It also appears that Jaipur has fancier restaurants than anywhere we've been, because we ate at another fancy-ish one tonight.

Now we're about to check out and go to the train station to head to Jaisalmer, and camels!