India: An Architectural Point of View

Day 6- The elephant ride that did not happen
Bradon Loya
I woke up in the morning ready for one thing: riding an elephant up to Amber Fort. We were now in the Pink City, Jaipur. The city was named the Pink City because all the houses and structures are painted pink. The story goes that they painted everything pink because they thought it reduced the heat of the sun. We went to the Pink Palace first. By this time we had seen so many structures that these were nothing special. If we came here first I may have thought more of it. The most interesting part was the weapons gallery.

Next we went to Amber Fort. The fort was an amazing site, my favorite so far. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It reminded me of the Great Wall of China with the forts walls extending up mountains and valleys for miles. The entire group was excited as we came closer. We all wanted to ride the elephants up to the forts entrance. Unfortunately, the elephants were no were to be seen. They had closed the fort in honor of a death of some important official. We were all so disappointed that Dr. Aranha promised we would come back in the morning to see the fort and ride the elephants. We called it a day and went to the hotel. We eat and played games all evening. I am really enjoying parts of the trip.