Relaxing at the Ranthambhore hotel waiting for my fellow travellers/coach to start our next leg.
Our next stop was Jaipur, about 4 hours drive away - a few random shots either from the window or taken on a "comfort" stop.
The Sujan Rajmahal Hotel in Jaipur is just beautiful and was once a Maharaja’s Residence
The ‘suite’ I stayed in was fabulous; a large anti-room and then a circular bedroom.
We were later shown the royal rooms and they were HUGE, apparently Charles & Diana stayed here at one time. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos.
This evening we went “off piste” for dinner and went out with Mahvi our guide to a local restaurant where, after much consultation, it was confirmed that the chicken in my chicken tikka would be just breast meat – sadly it was gristle, wobble and bone once again. But I wasn’t charged for it because I left it all!
Jaipur is the largest city in Rajasthan and is known as the Pink City as it was repainted specially for a visit by the Edward, Prince of Wales in 1876. Repainted annually, it looks more orange to me now.
Unfortunately I'd woken up with the tell-tale gurgling in my tummy (chicken last night - mistake!) and as we were going across town to visit the Amber Fort I checked with Mahvi that if need be I could come back on my own. On the way to the Fort we stopped outside the Palace of Winds, which although huge from the outside is actually very narrow and was simply for the upper class ladies to watch what was going on without being seen. Nevertheless, an absolutely beautiful façade but taking the photo was quite precarious as I had to stand in the middle of the road to avoid getting too much traffic in front.
Located about 11kms outside Jaipur the Amber (Amer) Fort is huge and very impressive (coach deliberately included for scale!).
An elephant ride is a popular way to reach the top, but we were bundled into jeeps and driven up (probably best as friends who visited several years later were held to ransom atop their elephant and not allowed to get off until they'd paid a ridiculous "bonus" to the mahoot).
As it turned out, I was hardly able to see any of the Fort as my stomach deteriorated rapidly and most of my time was spent in the loo – luckily western style – being sick and ................. When the group had finished looking round we all went to a shop emporium and I was whisked back to the hotel by cab. By then I had taken 4 Boots tablets and 2 Imodium instants and was starting to feel slightly better, however I went to bed and slept. Luckily I hadn’t booked for the afternoon trip but I decided to miss the evening Sound and Light Show back at the Fort.