Relic And Rogue

Day 13-
We headed out for our second safari, this time through the Bishnoi village. We were welcomed into a local home where we participated in an O***m ceremony with three little old Indian men, talk about a life changing once it a lifetime experience! They do these ceremonies for weddings, funerals, and any holiday so we got lucky that we were here for the biggest holiday of them all! We got to see how the poppies are harvested and what they look like before they’re made into O***m. They even use it in liquid form to give a tiny bit to babies when they have upset tummies (no psychedelic effects when it’s consumed in liquid form in tiny amounts). We visited a local potter at his home and watched him throw pottery on a hand spun wheel, which was so impressive! Turning clay on an electric wheel is difficult, I can’t imagine having the strength to also spin the huge stone you have to get moving before even starting the process! We watched him make a couple pieces and even got to try it ourselves! Then we started the actual animal portion of our safari and saw SO many cool animals up close and personal, I literally had a cow lick me… it’s insane how they are not at all phased by humans here! We got to witness a pretty amazing showdown between a couple blackbuck antelope right outside the jeep. After the safari, we took the jeep to a local family’s house and got to see how they live out in the country as farmers of that tribe, everyone was SO welcoming and sweet! We drove further out to the countryside and enjoyed lunch at an absolutely breathtaking villa and got to meet all of their horses which sister LOVED! We ended the safari with some shopping in the city. Diwali is the holiday for shopping and bringing all new things and good fortune into the next year so…. who are we to argue 🤷🏼‍♀️ We spent the rest of the night celebrating the holiday back at the palace with music, dancing, and fireworks that lasted until the sun rose! We will DEFINITELY be back again, what an amazing experience 🧡

Day 6-
We had breakfast at our hotel before our 4.5 hour drive to Jaipur. Thankfully the back seat is comfy and we slept basically the entire drive. We checked into our hotel at Rambagh Palace after the most beautiful traditional Indian welcome with music and dancing, rose petals thrown over our heads, and beautiful flower necklaces. We had a quick lunch at one of the restaurants there, Rajput Room, before visiting Amber Fort (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) a gorgeous fort on Maota Lake, it was absolutely beautiful (and the monkeys love it there too!) SO much detail goes into these buildings it is unbelievable, and what’s even crazier is that so many of them were built for just one family to occupy, it’s mind blowing! We spent our evening loving on THE ELEPHANTS!! This was the part of our trip I had most been looking forward to and it did not disappoint. We visited an animal sanctuary and had dinner with the beautiful female elephants who were rescued from the circus. We were able to feed and hug them and shared a beautiful dinner outside under a tent where we watched Naan made fresh in the tandoori oven!

Day 3-
Another 5am wake up 🤷🏼‍♀️ We had breakfast at the hotel (finally getting this down- we ate WAY too much the first day but we’ve got breakfast down to a science now, and their chocolate milk here is BOMB!) We headed out at 9am for a day exploring Old Delhi (not really that old according to our guide, Hem, only 350 years old). We visited a beautiful Mosque (Jama Masjid), took a tuk-tuk ride through the city center, and visited Gandhi’s cremation site (where we were bombarded by Bengali paparazzi who thought we were celebrities- which of course we loved😊). We spent the afternoon at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib Temple, a Sikh temple, and were able to help serve lunch which was amazing! (25-30 thousand people travel there to eat each day and 50% of the workers are volunteers) the kitchen has never closed even one single day for the over 500 years that the temple has existed and all food is free for anyone who wants to come. The temple was absolutely breathtaking, photos do not even come close to doing it justice. We enjoyed lunch at Tamra, a restaurant in the Shangri-La hotel down the street from where we are staying and then explored the Kahn market. Everyone in the city is preparing for Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights celebrating the victory of good over evil, so everything is beautifully decorated with flowers and lights. We headed back to the hotel around 4 to relax for the rest of the day since we’re heading to another state tomorrow (We learned India has 28 states). We ended our day with a private Henna artist at our hotel and had the most BEAUTIFUL work done! We ordered room service for dinner because we were lazy and didn’t want to get out of our sweatpants 😋 helllooo pizza and french fries 😍