Ami and Ashley’s adventures in India - last days

A drink at the Polo Bar at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur

A drink at the Henry Lawson Club - Australian High Commission, New Delhi

Ami and Ashley’s adventures in India – Jaipur (the City Palace)

The next stop in Jaipur was to the City Palace, the seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur:

The girls with our driver for this trip, Amarjeet

This is the famous Hawa Mahal of Jaipur

Getting a bit of Henna done

The finished results

An elephant going home from a hard day of walking tourists up to the fort

Ami and Ashley’s adventures in India - Jaipur (The Amber Fort)

Ami and Ashley’s adventures in India – Jaipur (the Amber Palace)

First stop for our second day in Jaipur was “The Amber Fort” – we got there nice and early to beat the crowds. As it turns out, our hotel is on the Amber Fort side of town so we got there even earlier.

It was a beautiful sight to see the fort in the morning sun.

Doesn't it look amazing in the morning light ??

As it was morning, elephants would take us up to the top of the fort complex. Ashley and Tania went on one elephant while Ami and I went on another. Ours had to be the slowest elephant walking up to the fort – I swear it was if it was still waking up !!

The elephants lined up to walk up to the fort

It's a dog's life indeed

I like this photo

Ami and I on our (slow) elephant

Negotiating the narrow passages with the balloons

The procession of elephants going up to the fort

If you’re wondering what the deal is with the balloons, it’s a running joke that the last time Amarjeet drove Tania and friends around, one of the group had a birthday. So...he turns up the next day with balloons for the birthday girl.

The tradition continued this time around even though it was no-one’s birthday – Ashley got stuck with the balloons this time.

Ami and Ashley’s adventures in India - Jaipur (the hotel)

Our hotel in Jaipur was a place called “The Raj Palace” – as the name suggests, it was a former palace that has been converted into a hotel.

It’s a pretty amazing place – here are some photos:

That's the driver (Amarjeet) on the left

It had this great chess set in a Mughal theme that we would’ve loved to buy (or take home !!):

We had dinner at the hotel the first night – a typical Rajasthani feast, complete with musicians, dancers and fire eaters:

Whenever we were in the wifi spot, everyone would fire up their devices and frantically post updates on Facebook (as these photos show):