The Gem City of Jaipur - Paradise For A Shopaholic

Little, shiny rocks.  A woman's dream, a man's nightmare.  Unfortunately, Jaipur has them.  Lots and lots of them.  And more.  Many of the rubies and sapphires that come out of India are mined nearby.  Many diamonds and emeralds from other countries are also imported here to utilize all the craftsmen skilled in cutting gemstones.  Hence, Jaipur is one of the better places in India to buy jewelry.

The day started innocuous enough.  We met our guide Monika at 9 that morning for a city tour.  She is a petite, soft-spoken Indian woman in her twenties from the upper middle-class.  So far, she has been the only Indian female that I have seen drive a car.  I joked that 'Monika' is not a typical Indian name, thinking that she adopted it to make it easier for her Western clients to remember.  She agreed stating that it used to be very popular with as many as six other females in her school sharing that name.  Now, nobody wants to give their girl such an old-fashioned name.  Not the answer I was expecting.

Jaipur is known as the "pink" city because the buildings are painted to mimic the red sandstone.  Fortunately for my testosterone level, the houses really don't look pink, they are more of a natural tone.  We spent the morning visiting the expected tourists sites in the old city.  Our first destination was a brief stop to photograph the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) built in 1799.

There are 593 screened windows in the Hawa Mahal.

They allowed the women of the harem to spy on the bustling
street below without being able to be seen by passersby.

Our next stop was the City Palace.  In contrast, to some of the previous palaces we have seen before, the City Palace is in much better condition than the Mughal Forts.  The fact that it has been continuously inhabited and never abandoned has meant that it has been maintained properly over the years.  

Colorfully-painted entrances lead into the City Palace.

During the Mughal Dynasty, Jaipur was the site of a large cannon foundry.  There are still plenty of martial relics from that era.

One of the main structures at the entrance is the Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience).

Exterior of the Diwan-i-Khas

Interior of the Diwan-i-Khas

The walls and ceiling of the Diwan-i-Khas are delicately painted.

 It is also decorated with antique furniture and accessories.

There was also a large urn on display inside the Diwan-i-Khas.  It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest silver object.  It was made for the Madharaja Madho Singh II who traveled to England in 1901.  Since it is considered inauspicious to travel over large bodies of water, he filled these urns with holy water from the Ganges River and brought them with him for luck.

Golden Door to the Pritam Chowk

Entrance to the Pritam Niwas Chowk
 (Court of the Beloved)

A peacock adorns one of the doorways.

The Pritam Niwas Chowk contains four ornately decorated doorways representing the seasons of the year.

The Maharaja of Jaipur and his family still live in a separate part of the City Palace.  In contrast to the attention the English give their Queen, the locals of Jaipur are no longer awestruck at the presence of their royalty.  According to Monika, if they were at a store or mall in the city, most people wouldn't even care.  They are, more or less, just your average, run-of-the-mill multi-millionaires.

The seven story Chandra Mahal, the residence of the royal family of Jaipur

We crossed into the last area of the City Palace through the elaborate Rajendra Pol gateway.

There are two large elephants on each side of the Rajendra Pol--each carved from a single block of marble.

This final area contains two small museums where photography is not allowed inside.  The Sileh Khana (Armoury) houses an arsenal of interesting Rajput firearms, swords, and daggers from the last 500 years.  The collection contains some beautifully-decorated ceremonial swords and a unique katar (punch dagger) with two pistols attached on each side.  The Mubarak Mahal (Welcome Palace) now displays a collection of costumes and textiles used over the last several centuries by the royal family.  One of the most interesting pieces of clothing belongs to an 18th century Maharajah's who must have weighed 400-500 lbs.  His shirt is unbelievably huge.

Entrance to the Mubarak Mahal

Fountain near the Mubarak Mahal

After finishing the tour of the City Palace, we walked next door to the Jantar Mantar.  This area is a collection of 18 instruments built by Maharajah Sawai Jai Singh from 1728 to 1734.  He was passionate about astronomy and built five observatories throughout Northern India.  He must have had some component of obsessive-compulsive disorder because he built continuously bigger sundials in order to accurately predict the time within a few seconds.  Personally, I think I would stick with my small wristwatch that is always off by five minutes.

Early model of a sundial

Each device had a description.

The Krantivrtta measures latitude and 
longitude of a celestial object.

The Yantra Raj can calculate positions of planets and their rotations as well as the sunrises and sunsets.

 The Narivalaya uses two sundials inclined at 27 degrees to measure time.

The Laghu Samrat Yantra is also inclined at 27 degrees and can calculate time to within 20 seconds.

The Jai Prakash Yantra was the last device built.  It was used to check the accuracy of all the other instruments.

The Rashivalaya Yantra are 12 separate instruments that point to each zodiac constellation.

At 90 feet high, the Samrat Yantra shows the time in Jaipur and is accurate to within 2 seconds.

Jaipur is known for their block print textiles.  We visited Anokhi, a popular boutique store that specializes in more contemporary fashions.  We also stopped by a much smaller place called Rashid where we picked up a nice king-sized hand-block quilt for 2500 rupees.  Prices are non-negotiable at both stores.  Monika also took us to a touristy shop called the Satguru Exports.  They demonstrated how block prints are made.

The pattern, carved into wood, is dipped in colored ink and pressed into the cloth. Smaller blocks with the partial pattern are dipped into different inks and

carefully lined up on the fabric. This is repeated several times until the whole pattern is fully colored. The excess dye is washed out to reveal the final result.

These steps can then be repeated hundreds of times depending on the pattern of the textile.

We then went to lunch at Surabhi, an outdoor restaurant located in an old heritage building of a former prime minister of Jaipur.  The place seems popular mainly with tour groups, but as we are finding out in India: Touristy=Clean.  Despite the hot sun, the restaurant is comfortable because it is fully shaded.  We both ordered the Rajasthani thali which represented several popular dishes from the area.  One interesting dish consists of a thin string bean found only in this area of the country.  Several musicians worked the tables playing some of the unique instruments found in Rajasthan.  Mainly, they were unsuccessful in soliciting tips.  We skipped the turban museum adjacent to the restaurant.

A man cooks naan in a tandoori oven.

This al fresco dining area is frequented by tour groups.

Rajasthani thali (clockwise from left) naan, galub jamin, biryani, daal, a vegetable and lentil 
dumpling, a thin string bean dish unique to Rajasthan, chicken curry, and papadum in the center

While we waited for our food, The Wife had her palm read and got our children's fortune told by Mr. Shashi Saurabh Tripathi at a nearby booth.  His credentials included astrologer, palmist, tarot reader, face and aurora reader, amulet maker, healer, and Rudraksh Therapist.  All I have is a simple M.D.

For many Hindus, these fortunes, based upon birth information, are crucial factors in the timing of a wedding ceremony.  Sometimes, marriages are even called off because of inauspicious signs.  The fortune teller told my wife that her lucky color is green.  Great.  There's gonna be an  emerald in her future.  Why couldn't he say black as in onyx.

 Mr. Tripathi working his magic.

What do amputees do?

We interrogated Monika on the role of women in Rajasthan.  Their ornate garments with gold trim and colorful jeweled bangles really contrast against the backdrop of dry grassland and dusty desert.  But many Hindu women also hide their faces with veils.  I had always thought that this is a Muslim custom only.  She explained that the Rajputs with close ties to the Mughals had adopted this tradition.  Generations after the fall of the Mughal dynasty, this practice still persists in a small fraction of the population.  Rajasthani women are considered delicate.  They are 'protected' by being concealed from the men of society.  Monika told us that traditionally young women are supposed to hide their faces from their future male in-laws until after marriage.  Furthermore, women on the bride's side are not even invited to the wedding!

She explained that newer generations of women have deviated from these older customs.  The vast majority walk with their faces fully exposed.  More younger women have started working--mainly as teachers.  However, once they are married (usually in their early 20's), they are expected to quit their jobs and move in with their husband's family.  They are then responsible for taking care of the kids and his parents when they are elderly.  I asked Monika if women are nervous with all the drastic changes that happen with marriage.  She replied 'No. That's all we've ever known.'

After lunch, The Wife and I explored the city on our own.  My wife had yet to be groped so far in India, so she was feeling a bit unattractive.  There is nothing better than a little sparkly thing to make a woman feel better.  The problem is that that the huge number of jewelry stores in Jaipur is quite daunting.  There seems to be one at every corner.  We asked Mrs. Singh (one of the family members that owns Jas Vilas) about some recommendations for shops in our price range.  She was extremely helpful, even calling Mukesh Agrawal, one of the sons of the owner of a store called "The Silver and Art Palace" to let him know we were coming.  The staff at Jas Vilas arranged for a radio cab for us with fair set fees so that we could avoid having to haggle with all the tuk-tuks.  Although they were not benefiting financially by assisting us, the folks at Jas Vilas really went out of their way to be helpful.

When we arrived at the, they skipped the obligatory 'demonstration' and took us straight to one of the salesmen, Mr. Ashok Sharma, to look at their merchandise.  They did not disappoint.  They had a beautiful array of rings, necklaces, broaches, bracelets, etc with a kaleidoscope of gems.  They had inexpensive pieces such as $15 silver earrings laced with semi-precious stones to enormous necklaces completely encrusted with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.  They were more than happy letting The Wife try on pieces worth a tens of thousands of dollars even though they knew we wouldn't be buying them.  We planned on spending an hour there at most.  We left over two hours later.  My wife was like a kid in a candy store.  When negotiating prices, it helped that we did not go with a guide or driver as they would have gotten the usual 5% commission.  Also, my wife had done her homework on gemstones and their comparable prices in the U.S.  It may not have mattered though as their starting prices alone were significantly better than in the States.  Mukesh was even nice enough to have his store's car take us to our next destination.

We finished the day with dinner at Niro's.  The service was prompt and the food very good.  We were really tired, so we wharfed it down quickly.

Rajasthani sula (mutton leg cooked in a tandoori with smoked ghee)

Aloo piaz (potatoes and onion curry)

Mixed vegetable korma

Mint sauce and pickled onions and mango were served on the side.

Afterwards, we had to deal with tuk-tuks trying to charge us three times the cost of the journey home.  We finally found one who marked up the fare only a little.  Although we showed him a map of our hotel's location, he kept getting lost.  He had to stop about five times to ask for directions.  At one point, we were scared he was heading out of the city where we would be mugged by some unsavory characters.  Eventually, he finally figured out the directions and dropped us off at the hotel.  After such a long day, we crashed back in our cozy room at Jas Villas, a different sort of gem in the city of Jaipur.