{"id":853,"date":"2012-09-17T16:40:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T16:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/?p=853"},"modified":"2012-09-17T16:43:13","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T16:43:13","slug":"honk-honk-zoom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/?p=853","title":{"rendered":"Honk, Honk, Zoom!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re back in a big city. \u00a0Jaipur, known as the Pink City, we&#8217;ve decided is actually more of a tera cotta color, but that&#8217;s ok. \u00a0Yesterday, after an absurdly awkward switch in drivers, we are now in better hands. \u00a0Not only does this driver speak English, he offers tidbits of information while driving, he drives safely, he honks his horn minimally, and he answers questions. \u00a0Man, we&#8217;ve missed out. \u00a0If he had been our driver from the start we would have had a much better experience. \u00a0Oh well, what can you do?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, we started off by seeing the City Palace in the Old City. \u00a0It really is pink (or terra cotta). \u00a0Though it was a pretty complex with intricate designs on the ceilings, we&#8217;ve seen so many that we&#8217;re overloaded. \u00a0But, this palace had attractions! Heh\u2026 I finally got henna. \u00a0So, I walked around the palace trying desperately not to run into anything. \u00a0The highlight of the city palace were the giant silver urns that one of the maharajas had made to bring holy water from the Ganges on his trip to England. \u00a0They were huge!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"jaipurPalace.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/jaipurPalace.jpg\" alt=\"jaipur Palace\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"berkleyHenna.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/berkleyHenna.jpg\" alt=\"Berkley gets Henna\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"hennaHand.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hennaHand.jpg\" alt=\"henna hand\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just outside of the City Palace exit was the actual highlight of the day. \u00a0There was a snake charmer with two real live cobras. \u00a0I&#8217;m not afraid of snakes, but cobras are venomous. \u00a0So, I was a bit nervous getting near them. But, this guy was confident and they seemed still enough for the tourist before me. \u00a0They were pretty still while he played his horn like instrument, but then they got feisty.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Berkley Cobra\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/49591497?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"sethCobra.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/sethCobra.jpg\" alt=\"cobraaaa\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After the city palace we came back to The General&#8217;s Retreat (our hotel\/homestay) to do some internet chores. \u00a0This is the first hotel on our tour that actually has functioning internet. \u00a0And it&#8217;s pretty fast. \u00a0It&#8217;s much appreciated.<\/p>\n<p>In the evening we went for dinner at yet another Lonely Planet find, The Peacock Rooftop Restaurant. \u00a0It was really delicious. \u00a0We ordered the vegetarian thali (remember, that&#8217;s a set meal) and it was huge. \u00a0That alone was enough for the two of us. \u00a0But, we didn&#8217;t know that and ordered Chicken Tikka Butter Masala as well. \u00a0The sauce was really tasty, but you really can&#8217;t beat the protein in the US, the chicken was ok. \u00a0That&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve been mostly vegetarian here. \u00a0With our meals we drank our honey lassis, and they were excellent.<\/p>\n<p>Today, we went to the Amber Fort. \u00a0Yet another fort. \u00a0This one didn&#8217;t have much to look at inside. \u00a0It was mostly empty, but cool to wander around. \u00a0There was an ancient underground tunnel that turned out to be filled with bats. \u00a0We smelled them before we found them. \u00a0But it was really neat.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"berkleyElephant.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/berkleyElephant.jpg\" alt=\"berkley elephant\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Afterwards we went for lunch at Natraj. \u00a0Seth has been searching for dosa since we went on the food tour in Delhi, and we found it. \u00a0Seth ordered the Dosa Paper Masala, and I ordered the Dosa Paneer Butter Masala. \u00a0God those were good. \u00a0Seth&#8217;s was long like a tunnel, and mine was in a triangle shape. \u00a0We ordered well, because I preferred mine, and Seth preferred his. \u00a0My paneer was the consistency of scrambled eggs and it was so delicately delicious. \u00a0We had daal (lentils) and a coconut curry concoction to dip the dosa into. \u00a0Seth really enjoyed the daal, while I really liked the coconut.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"dosaWhole.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/dosaWhole.jpg\" alt=\"India Small 16\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"dosaDead.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/dosaDead.jpg\" alt=\"dosaDead\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once our bellies were full, we ran some errands and came back to the hotel, because we had a cooking demonstration. \u00a0Because it&#8217;s the offseason, there was no proper cooking instruction available, but the wonderful women at our hotel offered for us to watch as the cooks made us dinner, and they would explain the process while it occurred. \u00a0We decided that with the right spice kit, Seth could make delicious Indian food.<\/p>\n<p>On a side note. \u00a0All of the beggars call out to Seth his actual name. \u00a0They say, &#8220;Seth, Seth, Seth!&#8221; \u00a0True story. \u00a0The coincidence is that seth in Hindi means wealthy person. So, Seth keeps getting distracted and creeped out when people tap on the window at stop lights and call out his name.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"sethSethSeth.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/sethSethSeth.jpg\" alt=\"seth seth seth\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re back in a big city. \u00a0Jaipur, known as the Pink City, we&#8217;ve decided is actually more of a tera cotta color, but that&#8217;s ok. \u00a0Yesterday, after an absurdly awkward switch in drivers, we are now in better hands. \u00a0Not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/?p=853\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,172],"tags":[420,191],"class_list":["post-853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-india","tag-india","tag-jaipur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=853"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sethandberkley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}