After visiting the Taj Mahal, we went back to our hotel to pack up and eat some breakfast. The offerings included oatmeal, fried bread, hard boiled eggs, curry, rice (with peanuts!), cereal and mango juice.
Grandpa and Sarah enjoying their breakfast.
Grandma and Matthew.
Megan and Me.
We joke about the Taj Mahal being the one building in India because it's the only building we see photos of. Well, the breakfast bar at the hotel took this to a new level. They had not one, but 15 photos of the Taj Mahal! Here's a panoramic followed by close ups of the photos. There are some really pretty ones!
Once we checked out of our hotel, we went to an artisan location to see them do marble inlay work. These people are descended from the people to did the initial inlay work on the Taj Mahal and they are responsible for its upkeep.
This table shows the different steps of the inlay process.
A couple of men working on the inlays.
Beautiful piece with lots of teeny tiny pieces!
The slate shows the progression of putting together a piece like the one in the above photo.
This small piece is actually composed of 12 smaller pieces!
Of course, they wanted to show us their wares. There were lots of incredible pieces including full-sized tables. Matthew wanted to get an end table. Sarah wanted a pendant. We bought a set of coasters as did my parents. Here are a few photos of their pieces.
We then drove to Fatehpur Sikri. It'd been an early morning so we got some rest with Grandpa and the kids all taking naps.
Fatehpur Sikri was built as palace for the Mughal emperor Akbar. He helped design the planned, walled city that was to serve as his capital city. It took fifteen years to build and eventually was only lived in for four years. It was abandoned when they ran out of fresh water. The city has been remarkably preserved since it was abandoned.
A panoramic of an interior courtyard
The Diwan-i-Am
The Diwan i Khas
The Diwan i Khas was a council room and had very ornate carvings
Emperor Akbar had Muslim, Hindu and Christian counselors and the carvings in this chamber were done in styles from each of the cultures. In particular, this center pillar was carved with sections devoted to each of the religions and their artistic styles.
One nice thing about having a guide is that they can take pictures of your whole group for you.
A giant parcheesi board built into the stones of the courtyard. The emperor would play here with living people as his pawns.
This is a stage in front of the emperor's palace. He regularly had entertainers here to entertain himself and his court.
More shots of the emperor's palace. There would have been rugs and drapes that would hang in the arches to close it off.
Most of the decoration we would see on buildings was carved but here you can see the remnants of a painted wall with an elephant.
Even the ceilings are intricately carved.
This building in particular had incredible detail everywhere.
Look at these troopers!
Akbar had a home built for each of his wives here. He had one wife from each of the religions. It was fairly obvious from the size of the homes that he had favorites. The Muslim wife's home was three rooms. The Christian wife's home was larger and had five rooms. The Hindu wife had two palaces (one for summer and one for winter) that were across the courtyard from each other. They say she was the preferred wife because she's the one who finally had a son.
From inside the Muslim wife's home. You can see all the geometric patterns that it is decorated with. We were told these were Islamic patterns.
Walking through the courtyard.
The Christian wife's home had a lot of painted walls and ceilings. It was also laid out as a cross.
Details of the paint in one of the Christian wife's rooms.
The home of the Hindu wife.
To the left, the summer palace with the back wall facing north. The winter palace was a mirror image but its back wall was to the bakeries.
Inside the winter palace.
Several of the small spaces had bats living in them.
After we toured the palace, we then went to the mosque that was part of the complex. Because it is in use, it has been kept in good repair. However, the mosque wasn't our favorite part. A lot of that had to do with the fact that it was full of people who all wanted to sell us things. Many of them would follow us around to try to make the sale. It was pretty, but the palace was much more peaceful.
Standing outside the gate of the mosque.
A view of the interior courtyard.
Lots of tombs. There were some places where it was difficult to walk without stepping on any.
Beautiful screens separated different sections of the mosque.
A view of another one of the gates.
These seven arches made a great picture.
On the way out we had to go to the market to see our guide's "family" and the wares that they were selling. There were a lot of people trying to sell us things. All of them started at "twenty" (dollars, not rupees).
Since we had to take off our shoes to enter the mosque (you pay someone to watch them for you), they had carpets spread out for us to walk on. This was good because the stone was very hot on bare feet.
We had a long drive to Jaipur. There were lots of bright colors on the women in Rajasthan, the state in which Jaipur is located. We saw more brick factories as well as lots of places selling stoneware.
Colorful women working on the side of the road.
Want any stoneware? There are lots of opportunities to buy.
Another full vehicle, this one with some people on top.
We saw a bus that was completely full of people inside and had a bunch of people sitting on the roof. Megan, who was very concerned, said, "They could die! People could fall off of there! They are crazy! They are breaking the law!"
By the time we finally arrived in Jaipur, it was dinnertime. We picked up some food at McDonald's on our way to our hotel. McDonald's in India is quite different since they don't do beef and they do spicy. Still, the kids ate it fairly well and probably would have been fine going to it again.
Our hotel, Umaid Bhawan, in Jaipur was very fancy. Everything was tiled and painted. Of course we weren't actually staying in the hotel but in an apartment in the building next door. We came over every day for breakfast though.
View of the hotel. It's very beautiful.
Gate into the hotel.
Views in the courtyard.
Small Ganesh temple/shrine.
Lobby by the reception desk.
Our apartment was very spacious with a large sitting room,
three bedrooms with king size beds,
a dining room and a kitchen.
It was a great place to stay and we would recommend it to anyone staying in Jaipur.
