The CIA blog: Christopher in Africa: Amber Fortress

Yup, another fortress. But our mode of transportation to get into this fortress topped them all. Normally we just walked into a fortress, but here we rode on elephants into the fort! Amber fortress is on top of a large, steep hill, and has a winding road leading up to it. Our taxi driver dropped us of at the bottom of the hill, where elephants and their drivers were milling around. All the owners of the elephants belonged to the same group, or corporation of elephant owners that give rides on their animals for a fixed price. Once we had chosen a elephant (or maybe they chose one for us, I can't remember) we climbed up this staircase to get on the elephant's back. It was literally just a staircase in the middle of the parking lot- or what ever you want to call it- with a drop-of at the end. So, once we had climbed the stairs, we got on a basket on top of the elephant. I was on a elephant with my sister and mother, my dad and my brother were another elephant. The road that winds it's way up to Amber fortress has a wall on the side facing away from the fort, probably to keep carts and elephants and other types of transportation from falling of the sheer, cliff-like drop below. Elephants sway from side to side- unlike camels, who sway back and forth. As our elephant ambled up the road, it brushed against the wall, and, as it swayed to the left, tipped the basket we were sitting in so that it was almost hanging over the wall and gave us a dizzying look at the fifty-foot drop below us. It was pretty freaky- feeling, like you were getting tipped off a cliff. Thankfully our ride soon decided to walk more in the middle of road, and we got to the top of Amber fortress without further incidence. To get off the elephant we went through a similar procedure as we did to get of off of the it. Getting off of a elephant could be compared to getting off of a boat- like a boat, the elephant sways and moves about as you're getting off it, and the stairs we stepped onto could be compared to a dock. After we said goodbye to our mounts, we went to a ticket window to buy passes into the palace part of Amber (the courtyard where we were dropped off by our elephant riders was open to everyone, but a small fee was required to get into the main part of the fort). The palace was amazing. The wealth in the palaces of India surpasses almost anything else I have ever seen. The palace walls inside Amber fortress were beautifully painted, and had gold leaf on several spots. Underneath the grounds of Amber fortress, a tunnel led to Jaigarh fortress, just a a couple of kilometers away. Amber fortress was another amazing India experience.