India: Amber Fort and Hawa Mahal

View of gardens and surrounding scenery outside the Amber Fort.

Amber Fort's Ganesh Gate.

View of bus driver from my seat.

I was awoken at 5 a.m. the next morning by the Muslin call to prayer. Since I was on vacation, it felt exotic and I appreciated it. If I lived there all the time, I'd probably lose the appreciation, but I'm guessing I would also just grow used to it and ignore it.

I met up with the Brazilian couple the next morning to visit Amber Fort. We braved the local bus system, which was quite the experience! The buses were crammed full. Because we were women (or tourists), they had us sit up front on a little bench by the driver so we were out of the major crush of bodies, but it was still crowded and HOT. (I was in the desert at this point so it was probably 90+ degrees Fahrenheit and few places had air conditioning.)

I argue with a saleschild that I don't want his hat.

In typical Indian fashion, as soon as the three tourists got off the bus, a crowd of children selling souvenirs surrounded us. This was a pretty pushy group. "No," doesn't get them to stop. In fact, one boy basically put a hat on my head. I said "no" and handed it back, and I practically had to drop it before he would take it.

The fort was huge. Its construction began in 1592 and later extended. You could take an elephant ride up the slope to the entrance, but we walked instead and spent some time around the gardens and watching some monkeys. The mirrored Jai Mandir (Hall of Victory) was my favorite part, but there were so many different areas to see.

Workers clean mirrors in the Hall of Victory.

Inside the Hall of Victory. It must have been gorgeous with candlelight bouncing off all those mirrors.

We took an auto-rickshaw back, and I stopped to visit Hawa Mahal, which was built in 1799 to allow ladies of the royal household to watch the city (from behind screened windows so they couldn't be seen).

Front of Hawa Mahal.

Peeking out one part of Hawa Mahal onto the back of it.