Jaipur
We began our day with an outing to Galtaji Temple, also known as the “Monkey Palace.” It got the name for obvious reasons… there are monkeys everywhere!
The monkeys are actually living in a priestly compound. There are several temples on the grounds. We gave our devotions in two of the temples and spent the morning enjoying the grounds.
Our next stop was the City Palace. The first thing to notice was that the Royal flag was flying over the Palace, that is a sign that the King is currently in residence. The city Palace is in the heart of Jaipur. From the outside, it doesn’t look all that imposing. Once you enter the palace grounds, you are greeted by a huge expanse of courtyards and buildings of various purposes. One of those buildings is a museum. The museum houses many royal artifacts, including the king’s throne, which is still used on occasion to this day. Probably my favorite artifact was a suit of armor worn by an elephant during the age when they were used in combat.
Elephants use their head for ramming. The spikes on the door are to protect the palace from enemy attack by elephant.
After our visit to the city palace, we had lunch at a street side cafe. The order of the day was Dosa. My first. Dosa is a very thin crisp crepe like pastry served with dipping sauces. It contained a filling that appeared to me to be potato based. The entire meal was very tasty and satisfying. After our late lunch some of us (myself included) returned to the hotel for some rest while the remainder of our group went shopping.