11 kilometers from Jaipur is the ancient captial of the old Jaipur state, Amber. The fort-palace precedes Jaipur city, being built in 1592. There is a continuous precession of elephants taking visitors up the path to the fort. We took the back road, but still were unable to avoid the many touts that are only too eager to sell you something-anything!

The interior of the fort was maze like and would have been great for a game of hide and seek. Several rooms were decorated with thousands of tiny mirrors, illuminating the whole room despite the tiny windows. After visiting Amber, Janelle and I took a taxi to Galta, also known as the monkey temple. Not many people around as it was late in the afternoon. It's basically a gorge with a permanant spring that feeds two holy bathing pools (though the water looked pretty unholy). There are dozens of monkeys running all over the place getting up to all sorts of mischief.