India: Jaipur

February 9, 2016

The Jas Vilas B&B is just as lovely during the day as it had looked at night. I woke up early, unable to sleep, and decided to take advantage of the courtyard. First I sat in a swinging bucket swing to read, then I moved down to a table and chairs and had some masala chai, which was very good. I read up on our planned walking tour in Jaipur’s Pink City, and then Paula, Mike, and Potter joined me for breakfast. It was our first non-Indian meal, and very good: assorted fruit (grapes, oranges, papaya, and a mealy kiwi-ish brown thing that wasn’t my fave), toast with various jellies, and veggie omelettes made to order. We had fresh orange juice and more chai, too.

We headed over to the Pink City, which is the oldest part of Jaipur, surrounded by a fortress-like wall with gates penetrating the border at a few points. All of the buildings are painted a peachy shade of pink, with white trim and accents. This was done because the commonly used red sandstone wasn’t available for construction at the time, so they decided to recreate it with paint. Now the look is iconic, and its upkeep is regulated. It’s also notable for being an early example of a planned city, which meant a semi-logical street grid (a rarity so far on this trip!). The streets of the Pink City are lined with bazaars, hawking all sorts of wares. The first street we went down was mostly clothing and shoes. I had been on the lookout for more sandals, since I liked the ones I got in Delhi so much, and was pleased to grab some for 400 rupees (especially because the vendor started at 1,250, but I knew better!), which is about $6. I also got some super hippy but also very comfortable drawstring pants with blue and white elephant and floral print for 200 INR. So far, so good.

On the next street, it was mostly more of the same, with the addition of jewelry and silver shops. The region is known for enamelware, which we mostly saw on jewelry and figurines. We saw a beautiful table lamp and shade made entirely out of silver filigree that I lusted after, but had to pass up at 26,000 INR. We found a shop that was fixed price (meaning no haggling, which is a relief sometimes) and had all sorts of hand-crafted goods. We ended up getting all sorts of trinkets to bring back for family and friends, including a silver elephant bracelet, enamel elephant figurines, carved wooden boxes, inlay marble boxes (which are probably alabaster knockoffs, but still pretty so whatevs), and carved wooden stamps. They had so much more, but there’s a limit to what we can fit in our suitcases! We also stopped at a pharmacy, because Potter’s been dealing with some allergies. He asked for zyrtec, and they brought a big box up to the counter and pulled out the foil-wrapped strips of pills, asking how much he wanted. He pointed to how much (1 perforation’s worth was 10 pills) and they told us it was 21 rupees. 21 ruppees! That’s like… 30 cents. For pills that in the US, you would need a prescription for. India, ladies and gents! (That’s another thing I’ve forgotten to mention: here, they call you ladies and gents. Never gentlemen, always gents. “Gents washroom is over here” “all the gents wear this type of clothing” etc. etc. I think it’s so cute!)

Further up the road, Paula and I spent a while in a clothing shop. We were lured in by more elephant pants (for her) and indigo blouses (for me). The shopkeeper was very nice, and willing to show us all sorts of things in any color we could think of. Paula got elephant pants and an elephant wrap skirt (there’s a theme here, can you tell?). I got two hand-dyed indigo blouses with coconut shell buttons (so cool!). They shopkeepers were very patient as we tried on different patterns, checked the mirror, and mulled things over. Just was we were getting ready to check out, they started to show us some silk scarves. We said no thank you, just the shirts and skirt and pants, but he said “no buy, only look” so how could we say no? Well of course we loved what we saw and ended up getting some scarves, too. But they’re beautiful! They’re silk in a crazy variety of colors, patterns, and patchwork, with contrasting stitching done by hand along the entire length and width of the scarf. We had so much fun looking at all sorts of color and pattern combinations. The shopkeepers kept showing us more options, too! There was someone in the back literally just tossing bundles of scarves towards the man helping us- they would land with a thud in front of us out of seemingly nowhere. I was also impressed by the extent to which they were willing to go to help us (and make a sale, of course)- they kept unwrapping, untying, and unfolding everything so that we could see every options. By the time we finally settled on our choices (it was so hard to pick!) it looked like a tornado had gone through the store- I can’t imagine how long it took them to clean up and re-pack everything!

Our shopping bug satiated, we continued onwards in search of some historic sites. Our first stop was Hawa Mahal, a palace built in 1799. The most iconic feature of the complex is a five-story high facade with lace-like screens at every opening, set within 953 niches. The screens served, as we’ve seen many times throughout our trip at this point, as a way for women to look at the goings-on below, but not be seen from those outside. We took a tour through the whole palace complex, learning about the various rooms and courtyards, but the facade was really the highlight of it all. Upon seeing it from the rear (inside), we saw that some of the screens and openings were filled with glass of different primary colors. It was gorgeous, but it did make me wonder if it was original or a later insertion (quick googling didn’t give me an answer). Once at the top, we had a spectacular view of the city, including a minaret, an observatory (more on that later), the far-off Nahargarh Fort on the hill, and other small domes throughout the city.

We next headed for Jantar Mantar, and observatory built by a king in 1738. Before we went there, I had anticipated a museum-type setting, with various objects used for measuring celestial bodies. When we arrived, I was surprised to find a large open park, with large-scale architectural objects dotting our view. It had an almost other-worldly feel, and reminded me of an amusement park. Potter likened it to the game Monument Valley, which was totally accurate. We wandered through, dodging large groups of tourists (SO many tour groups!) and reading about the various instruments. The largest, a 50-foot tall sundial, was accurate at telling time down to 2-second intervals. The objects all varied greatly in design, but I couldn’t really understand the difference in all of their purposes. They were still very interesting to see, though!

We were all pretty worn out at that point, so we decided to head back to the main gate for lunch. We picked a place which had been recommended by Lonely Planet, and it was a hit. The guidebook had warned that it might be hard to find, but shopkeepers would be happy to point you in the right direction. Sure enough, we started wandering, and people asked us “Ganesh?” and then pointed the way. It turned out to be located ON TOP of the wall, which was super cool. We took a narrow staircase up, and then were lead to a small seating area directly next to the kitchen. The server barely spoke English, but was amused by our gawking at the cooking process. I had no idea that naan were stuck vertically onto the inside of an oven! It was quite a sight, with the hectic streets visible beyond. Our food was delicious, and possibly one of the best meals of the trip. We got the same curry with four different mix-ins (they were listed as different dishes, but all had the same base): paneer, cashews, paneer-stuffed potato, and a mix up chickpeas, paneer, and peppers. The naan were the best we’ve had: stuffed paneer, garlic, and onion. My sweet lassi was also delicious and also one of the best I’ve had all trip: sweet and tangy all at once. We scarfed everything down and left happy and full. And the bill was only 1,500 rupees! That’s around $22… what a great spot.

We came… we saw… we Jaipured. Although we hadn’t seen everything in the guidebook, we felt like we had gotten a great taste of the city, between the haggling, monuments, and food, and were content to head back to Jas Vilas for a quiet evening in the garden. We read and caught up online on the lounge chairs in garden and watched the courtyard grow dark. We weren’t hungry for dinner due to our big, late lunch (we seem to be doing that a lot this trip…) but Potter and I did get some homemade pistachio kulfi- delicious! We ended the evening with a round of Kingfishers (what else) and some tea for Potter. We discovered that the tea cozy looked like a miter, and dubbed me Pope Potterblatt!

February 10, 2016

We started the morning with more masala chai and omelettes at Jas Vilas. It's such a great hotel, and we all agreed that we would have stayed longer if we could! Although our trip in Jaipur was short, I do feel like we got a good taste of the city. We piled in the car and headed off to the Amber Fort, located just outside of the city. After driving through the switchbacks up the side of the hill, we reached the fort and got out to walk around. It was composed of crenelated walls and a single tower, with not much information or plaques... we were a little underwhelmed. There was a large cannon (the sign claimed the largest in the world, which Potter didn't believe), but other than that there wasn't too much to see. We had heard that this was a major destination, and were a little maxed out on traveling and honestly just frustrated and over it. We found our driver, and he told us that that was just the top of the fort, and there was more to see further down the other side of the hill. So that explains it! On the way out, we saw lots of monkeys climbing along the walls, and a camel, which I got to pat (for 10 rupees). A camel! His hooves were ginormous. I grabbed a khulfi for the road because it was hot, and we drove down the hill to the next portion of the fort.

This was the palace part of the complex with public halls, courtyards, chambers, etc., which was what we had thought we were going to be seeing at the top. It all made sense! The palace is a little bit of a walk from the parking lot, so you can either walk, pay a driver in a jeep, or ride an elephant. We really wanted to ride the elephants, but had read that animal rights groups have criticized their treatment, so we decided not to support that industry and got a jeep instead. Our driver tore up the road, making for a fun and bouncy ride. We got our tickets and made our way through the complex. We decided to skip the audio guide, because at this point we felt pretty used to the layout and common elements (plus there were lots of plaques). Unlike other forts we'd been to, there was no clear path through this one, so it got a bit choose-your-own-adventure, which was fun. We kept finding all sorts of different rooms, including a grand hall decorated with intricately cut mirrors, which was beautiful. At one point while we were wandering around a groundskeeper started leading us around, showing us a few points of interest. There's no way we would have found all of these rooms and vantage points on our own, so I was happy to throw him a tip. We made our way to the exit, found our jeep driver, and rode down to the bottom of the hill. Potter and I got a few cheap trinkets from a vendor near the car, and then we were off to Delhi.

The drive took about 5 hours, so that was pretty much the rest of the day. I took the back this trip (we've been rotating seats) and entertained myself with podcasts and watching out the window. I got lots more pictures of the backs of trucks painted with colorful scenes and typography, which was definitely one of my favorite things to watch. We also went through lots more mustard fields. We stopped for lunch at a no-name hotel/restaurant along the way. The food was fine, but nothing memorable, then it was back on the road. We were doing fine until we got close to Delhi, and then of course hit the Delhi traffic, which is just awful. I'm not sure how much time the traffic added on to the trip, but we didn't get back until 7:30 or so. We went for dinner at the restaurant at the top of the hotel, which had a pan-Asian theme: kiwi sangria, potstickers, fried rice, etc. Even though the day had mostly consisted of sitting in the car, we were all pretty tired and turned in early.