Reflections regarding Tuesday January 21, 2025 through Saturday February 22, 2025 moving from New Delhi, India to Mumbai, India
In India we went to so many places. These were my favorites.
Number 5: The Amber Fort. The Amber Fort is a huge fort that was built by Raja Man Singh, he started building in 1592 and Jai Singh I added to it in the early 1600’s. Over the next 150 years a bunch of other rulers added on to the fort also. The Amber Fort is in Jaipur which is in Rajasthan it is 3 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide. When we went to the fort it was a sunny day. There had been a big event there the night before so there was a huge stage setup and people were doing work all over to pack stuff up.
The Amber fort was ginormous!!! There were like fifteen floors (actually there were around 2 or 3 but 15 sounds cooler) There was a super cool mirror wall, which was basically a wall covered in designs made of mirrors. The fort was also on a huge hill so that they could easily defend from attackers. It was really interesting to learn about the fort.
Number 4: Jehangir Art Gallery. The Jehangir Art Gallery was really interesting because there were so many different types of art. There were paintings, statues, charcoal drawings, and many others. We went on Shabbat and it was free, there were four halls filled with art and we stayed there for around 45 minutes to an hour. My favorite painting was a picture of a bull that was drawn with charcoal. It was super realistic and it had a cool texture that made the bull look rough. It was really cool to see all the different types of art.
Number 3: The Kanha Tiger Reserve.
The Kanha tiger reserve is a national park that you safari in. You can see many animals but most people go there to try and find a tiger. We went on three safaris over two days but sadly we didn’t see any tigers, we still had a great time though, we saw monkeys, deer, vultures, bison, jackals, and wild chickens. It was so cool, even though we didn’t see a tiger there was one really close and we heard it growl.
Number 2: The Paradox Museum.
The Paradox Museum in Mumbai is a museum full of super confusing optical illusions. There were so many of them, there was one where you wore this coat that blended in with the wall and you could camouflage. There was also an illusion where there were a bunch of water droplets that looked like they were floating upwards. There were a lot more but it would take ten years to write them all.
Number 1: The Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal, a huge tomb that an emperor named Shah Jahan built to bury his dead wife in. Even though he had like eighteen wives, it was specifically for his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. After his death Shah Jahan was buried there, too. The Taj Mahal was built to be exactly symmetrical on the inside and outside, this means that both sides look exactly the same. It was made of marble and very sturdy. In the morning when the sun rises it reflects off the Taj Mahal and turns it orange. The front lawn is huge and has vast fields and huge fountains. Before you went in you had to put on these covers for your shoes so that you didn't make it dirty. On the inside all the walls had very precious stones like rubies and emeralds carved into the walls. Our tour guide showed us that if you shine a light on it they glow and it looks super pretty. At the Taj Mahal there were so many people that there had to be guards blowing whistles and pointing where to go. It was amazing and I'm very happy that we were able to go.
