Golden City #3: Jaipur

Jaipur, also known as the pink city that has over 3600 temples, is probably known for all the stereotypical things that people think of when they think of India- palaces, elephants, and food. Jaipur is also very famous for block printing.

All over Jaipur are palaces. Some palaces you can actually go inside, where as others are not accessible to the public. One of the palaces that we got to see was called the Mirror Palace. This was located inside of Amer (pronounced um- burr) Fort. This palace was made completely out of mirrors from Belgium. Amer Fort is filled with lots of artistic Hindu style of elements. Amer Fort was absolutely beautiful and all I could think of was how blessed we are to live in such a world where there is such incredible history.  We also got to see and walk around parts of the City Palace, because people still can live there today. The City Palace is a place that is recommended that you visit, but we were all disappointed. We thought that the other palaces which we saw were much more impressive.  Although I got to take some great model photos here. Also, Vinay plans on living in a mansion much more lavish than any of these palaces.

Elephants have always been important in Indian culture. This can be seen in the old stories and in temples. The temples usually have carvings of elephants to honor them and thank them for carrying all the heavy supplies needed to build the temples. Hinduism has a god that has the head of an elephant- Ganesh. At the hotel there was even a towel folding in the shape of an elephant. As you can see, elephants are very sacred and important in India. Before we left for the trip I told my parents that there was one thing that I wanted to do on this trip- ride an elephant. At the elephant farm we got to hang out with two lovely lady elephants. However, these two were more interested in causing mischief. They decided that they wanted to smell random things and try and steal each other’s food. They were absolutely adorable and I loved getting to be this close to elephants. This will be one of the coolest experiences that I have ever gotten to do and I am so thankful that I got to do this.

Block printing does many of the designs that are seen on more casual Indian clothes. Block printing is done using stamps, ink, and water. This process is done completely by hand and we got to try making a block design of our own. There are 4-8 stamps that are used and 4-8 different colors of ink. You always start with the most intricate stamp because that is used as the outline. After that, the stamps are yours to choose. Once you are done stamping you leave the fabric in water for 2 days, but since we didn’t have 2 days to wait, the fabric was put into what they call “magic water.” 2 minutes later. The ink had managed to change color which made the design much more appealing. Block printing makes beautiful designs and artwork.

If you know anything about me, it is that I love food. Being in college has made me realize that I miss eating Indian food almost everyday, so being in India is great because I get to eat Indian food all day every day. The food in Jaipur is very rich and is absolutely delicious. We went to a restaurant that had a performer that sang old songs while we ate. After you eat dinner many people will eat something called Paan. This is a sweet made out of leaves to cleanse the palate. This restaurant had crushed up the leaves and combined it with ice cream and some other ingredients to make non alcoholic paan shots. These are delicious and if you are ever in India I would suggest trying to find yourself a paan shot.  My favorite Indian drink however is a laasi, which is a yogurt smoothie. I have basically been drinking laasis the whole trip and when I found that the top place to visit in Jaipur is called Laasiwaale, well… I was very happy. This was the best laasi that I had ever tasted and you are given them in clay cups to enhance the flavor. I enjoyed the laasi so much that I got to drink two.

Something that I found very interesting throughout this whole trip was that everyone thought that Vinay and I were either twins, or that he was older. This was so interesting to me because I can understand how Vinay and I look like twins, but I don't know how he looks older. I guess this means that my baby brother is growing up.

After a day and half in Jaipur, it was time to say goodbye to our faithful driver- Mahesh. Mahesh was with us from Delhi until he dropped us at the airport in Jaipur. He is what I would call a 21^st century nomad. He doesn’t have a real home and spends his time driving or staying with friends and extended family. He was an excellent driver in the India traffic and decided that since he didn’t have a family that we would be his family.

It was time to finish out the trip by seeing our family including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Pune and Mumbai.