Udaipur

Pushkar

We left Jaipur and traveled to Pushkar for one night. This was a beautiful old hotel and it felt like we were staying at a spa. It was calm and peaceful which gave us a nice reprieve from the noisy streets. Although we did walk to the ghats one night to experience the spirituality of the place. We went down to the water and we were told to take off our shoes and sit by the water. Then we had a ceremony where we had a brahma blessing with flowers and rice. He said some things that we did not understand in Hindi and then we were asked to think of our families. Then we were told to make a wish and throw our flowers into the water. Afterwards I had to throw rice behind me and Troy and I had string bracelets tied to our wrists. Then Troy had to sit and hold a coconut while he contemplated how much of a "donation" to give. We hope it went to the poor as we were told that it would. Either way, it was a beautiful ceremony and all of us except Jaden left with bindis on our foreheads. They stick rice in your bindi too so it felt a little weird walking around like that but it was one of those great experiences of life.

More of Jaipur

The next day we went to the Amer Fort. We traveled up to the fort by elephant. All four of us were on the same elephant on Christmas Day. It was the most enchanting fort that I have ever seen. I stood looking through the windows of the fort with the elephants, the noise, and all the color around and I was absolutely enamored. There were amazing views, artwork on the walls, silver on the walls, gardens, hidden paths, a puppet show, and of course the tourists. You would think that we were the tourists, but Indian after Indian came up to us and asked for photos of our kids. We thought it was funny at first and then by the twentieth person grabbing Jadie's cheeks and asking for a photo was just too much to bear. I finally started carrying her and when someone came up and asked, I just let her hide her face in my shirt. Everyone was very nice, but I guess that they are not used to seeing blonde babies in India. This was by far one of the most amazing days that I have had so far on our trip.

Driving in Jaipur

Here is what it feels like to be in a street in India!

Christmas in Rajasthan

We traveled for our Christmas vacation to Siliserh Lake and Jaipur in the state of Rajasthan, India. We went to see tigers but they have all been poached so we got to see tons of crocodiles, peacocks, wild boars, spotted deer, antelopes, and monkeys. We went on a three hour safari in a jeep. We also stopped to see a Monkey Temple where the monkeys run wild and you have to be careful not to eat in front of them. We found that out when Ali was eating a sweet as we were driving off and a monkey jumped on the back of our jeep. Troy had to kick it off with his boot and we had to throw out our food to save ourselves from the onslaught of other monkeys. Then we traveled to Jaipur where we saw elephants and camels every other thirty seconds walking down the street. It was so much fun to watch from the rooftops. We saw kites flying everywhere and the forts are huge here. We got to travel to a one thousand year old fort called Jaigarh with amazing views of the countryside and other forts.