Day 8

Today we had dinner and then set off, with our zombie of a mother, to the first stop of the day, City Palace. To tell you the truth it wasn't really City Palace but just the outer wall which the guide said was actually the only exciting part of it, well that and crossing the road to get a picture of it :). Then we went to Amber Fort which is in Amber town which is surrounded by the Great Wall of Amber. Now why does that sound familiar? We sat and watched a snake charmer with his cobra and then mum as she sat freaking out with the snake around her neck. Then we rode elephants up the hill into the fort, although I don't think I want to do that again because they kept thumping the elephants on the head with crowbars. The fort was nice, although mum in her weak state fell pray to the merchants and ended up buying two umbrellas, some jasmine perfume and a bag.

After we stopped for some pictures in front of the Water Palace, which as you may have guessed was a Palace in the middle of the water.
Then it was off to a small textile factory where saw how they did block printing, placing up to seven different layers of natural vegetable ink in all different colors and designs to produce a picture or pattern on the fabric. Then they would place it in a special oxidizing liquid to set the paint and let it dry out in the sun.

Our last stops of the day were the astrological museum and another history museum who's name I can't remember. We went to the history museum first and saw the different rulers throughout the ages, there different attires, weapons and such. We also saw the worlds biggest urns which at one point carried the drinking water from the sacred Ganges River of one of the emperors (Sorry but I have a really bad memory for names and I didn't think to take notes :)) which was the only thing he drank, and we saw the worlds biggest chandelier which was so heavy that to make sure the roof could support it they placed a baby elephant on the roof and because it could support the elephant, it could support the chandelier.
After we made our way across the street to the astrological museum which is now as of this year, a world heritage site. The museum was all outside and was made up of sun dials, including the biggest one in the world, to determine the time, date, lunar cycle, position of the sun, the zodiac symbols and more. I think the astrological museum might have been one of my favorite museums. (my favorite probably being the Ghibli Museum in Japan.) We wandered around the markets for a while and ended up buying a mini barbecue and a flat cooking pan, a little random perhaps but they were extremely cheap so why not?
We went back to the hotel and ordered room service because no one felt like going downstairs for dinner. Then we all hurried of to bed excited for the balloon ride the next morning.
-Chloe :)