Jaipur, Beautiful city in Pink

1/14/2012 Tons of pictures are on their way! Yesterday was a long day as we had an 8 hour car journey from Udaipur to Jaipur, the Pink City of Rajastan. Only got about 20 minutes at the hotel before we had to jump back in the car for a mini tour and shopping excursion around the city.  Today is the Kite Festival, a day when everyone rushes to to the city's rooftop terraces to fly kites, trying to cut each others down and collect the most kites as the end. Our city tour started at 8 am at Amber Fort, a beautiful palace in the nearby mountains. India has surely been testing my extraordinary fear of heights as we took an elephant ride up to the palaces courtyard, up the cliff of the mountain. The pictures of the palace will speak louder, but before heading in, I went to a small white marble temple on the side of the palace. Unfortunately for you, I couldn't take pictures, but the intricate marble carvings of the walls and columns were amazing! I did have to drink holy water and holy wine which I am hoping will remain calm and holy in my body, but that's another story. Did I mention that I also have learned the ways of snake charmers!?! So not one of the calmest moment of my life but I did make a cobra dance and attempted to have it wrapped around my neck... I'm thinking the holy wine gave me a burst of courage...  Moving onwards, we headed to Jantar Mantar, the awe-inspiring outdoor observatory designed by one of the Maharajas in the early 17th century. The park holds the worlds largest sundial which tells the exact time, within 2 seconds, as well as other astrological tools and sculptures. Then we moved onto the Maharajas city palace and got a secret visit to the palaces rooftop terrace, closed year round except for today in observation of the kite festival. Only locals really know about this so our sneaky guide was able to take us up so we could have a birds eye view of the courtyards below, and the amazing city skyline filled with kites. Before an afternoon break, we got to walk to the boardwalk in front of our hotel where the city set up a festival area for kite competitors, dancers, and other kinds of entertainment for locals and tourists. Now for the pictures...