Jaipur

After my first decent night's sleep due to jet lag, we were up at the alarm for a change, making it to breakfast and ready for an 8 a.m. departure from the hotel. We drove into the old, walled city of Jaipur, which is known as "the pink city." It's really more of a terra cotta color than pink, but in 1857, when the Prince of Wales came to visit, the local Maharajah declared that the entire city be painted pink, which is the Hindu color for welcome. We weren't told if the prince was impressed, but apparently enough other tourists were, that people flocked to see it. Knowing a good thing, a city ordinance now decrees architectural standards and a fresh coat of locally manufactured "pink" paint at least every 10 years for every building in town. Pity the fool who wants to erect a multi-story glass and steel tower here!

We made a "Japanese photo stop" at the Palace of the Winds, an ornate, Persian style facade with more than 900 screened windows. It's purpose was to allow the ladies of the court (the maharaja's 12 wives and 76 concubines) a place to watch the daily life in the city from safely behind a screen, where they, themselves, could not be seen. Out front, a trio of genuine Indian snake charmers, complete with baskets full of genuine Indian cobras (that were apparently safe enough to be touched by tourists). Our guide's joke about a "Japanese photo stop" was made more funny by the arrival of a bus-load of camera-toting Japanese tourists, just after we had gotten back on board our bus.

We drove on a short distance to an area known as the 'milk market.' This is an area of a couple linear blocks where farmers come to town -- generally by bicycle, with large, 4-5 gallon milk cans strapped on the back of the bike. What's interesting is how the buyers check the fat content of the water buffalo milk to see if it has been watered down: They stick their hand into the can, up to the wrist, and see what sticks! Of course, this is not pasteurized milk, and there is no telling where those hands have been prior to putting them into the milk cans. There were no facilities for washing, and the only cleansing between checking one can and the next was shaking the hand off a bit. Highly sanitary.

Following this cultural experience, the bus took us to the Amber Palace -- the mountaintop fortress that overlooks modern Jaipur. The same dynasty reigned here for more than 900 years because this fort was so defensible. Elephants were traditionally the only way up. We went by jeep. 

The palace is in three levels, for commoners, nobles, and the king's court. Much of the latter was devoted to quarters for the king's 12 wives and 70+ concubines. There were manicured gardens and a reception hall with more than a million piece of blown glass imbedded in the walls to serve as mirrors. Quite the place. We did not go further up the mountain to the military fortress, but it looked quite formidable. We spent quite a bit of time touring the palace in detail.

We came back to Jaipur and ate lunch at an "Italian" (!) restaurant (Chef Boy-Ar-Dee and French fries), then went for a walk in the Jaipur market, where we were just about the only tourists in the crowded allies. A bicycle rickshaw took us back to the bus, which had to be parked some distance away. Traffic around the rickshaws was even more amazing than in Delhi, because we were on Jaipur's wide streets, contending with motorcycles, trucks, and busses -- all honking horns madly. There are no lanes here, and the direction of travel on a particular side of the street seems to be only a suggestion.

After a bit of down time at the hotel to recoup, we were taken to a "Continental" restaurant for dinner. This was a mixture of very good and interesting, and very awful, European food. Don't we ever get to eat Indian?