Day #21 - Everest BaseCamp
Friday, March 11, 2022
Itinerary- Jaipur Day Tour
Final touring day for me on my Everest BaseCamp journey. I’ll be driving back to Delhi from Jaipur tomorrow. I’ll then be dropped off at the airport for my return flight to the US at 1:30am on Sunday (March 13th). I have a Covid-19 test setup for tomorrow morning - crossing my fingers I get that negative result which is required to board my return flight.
Today’s tour consisted of a number of temples and sightseeing in the city of Jaipur. After another great breakfast at the hotel - I met my new guide at 8:30am at the reception desk. Our first location was the Amber Fort.
A couple things I learned about Jaipur during our ride to the Amber Fort:
(1). King of Jaipur is 24-years old. Plays polo. Lives in UK most of the time
(2). Jaipur has 7 million people - 2.5 million in the old city. Jaipur is also called the Pink City - all the buildings have a pink/orange exterior color.
(3). Jaipur is the capital of this state.
(4). Famous location in Jaipur is the wind palace (Hawa Mahal). 953 small windows - designed so women of the royal household could observe the streets outside while remaining hidden. Hallmark of Jaipur.
(4). 3,300 temples in Jaipur
(5). Jaipur has never been attacked - diplomatic and get along with other leaders.
————-
Amber Fort was the capital of the state until 1728. It’s located high on top of a hill overlooking Jaipur. (I had an option of riding an elephant to the top - opted against it). We spent about 2 hours walking the grounds - viewing the king’s palace, etc. It has the largest mirror palace in all of India - with 800,000 glasses. The convex mirror design reflects the light. This was the sleeping quarters of the king in winter. It took 7 years to build this part of the Fort.
After completing the tour of the Amber Fort - we made a quick stop by the Water Palace (Jal Mahal). It’s a palace located in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake. It was primarily used as a summer palace for the king and also for some recreational duck hunting.
Next on the tour was the Maharaja’s City Palace. This is the location for the current-day king. This place was pretty interesting. I got to see a history of all the former kings - many of which played and excelled at the sport of polo. Each state in India has its own king. As a step further, within each state there are a number of kings (this part was a little confusing to me)
After the City Palace tour - we made 1 final stop at the Jantar Mantar. This was a collection of 19 architectural astronomical instruments built by Rajput King Sawai Jai Singh. This place consisted of a number of sun dials, signs of the zodiac, etc. Pretty neat stuff with how accurate these devices are when considering dates and times.
It was about 1:30pm by this time. We had been going hard for nearly 5-hours. We went back to the hotel for some lunch and I worked with the hotel staff to get my Covid-19 test set for tomorrow morning at 8am. They are telling me results will be back within 8-12 hours (hopefully). I will say that Covid has created a layer of stress when traveling internationally that I’m just not a fan of at this time. Setting up a Covid test in a foreign country within 24-hrs of flight departure is not easy. In Nepal - S2 Mountaineering made everything simple. Here in India - I’ve had to plead, beg, and pay for somebody to help me. It’s not been so smooth. I’m just hoping things work out in my favor
It was late afternoon after lunch and Covid coordination- I decided to stay in the rest of the day and get some rest.
Here’s to an incredible trip coming to an end. I pray for good fortune on my return travels. I’ll be writing up the blog at least 2 more days until I find myself back in Denver.
Keep the Faith! Here’s to safe travels and negative Covid tests in my future!
Safe travels back to the U.S>
ReplyDelete