April 21, 2012

• From Rags to Rajas

  After the daytime stargazing, we wanted to see a bit of the city.

  

  Jaipur is known as the Pink City, named for the Terra Cotta color of the sandstone making up all its buildings. As to WHy it was made Pink originally, well the most popular story goes that In 1853, when the Prince of Wales visited Jaipur, the whole city was painted pink to welcome him as pink is deemed to be a welcoming color. This, our guide promptly informed us, was a load of cow plop. Another popular story goes that the wife of Sawai Ram Singh, the Rajah of Jaipur at that time, adored the color pink, and so her husband passed a lot decreeing every building must be painted this color. This is also a load of poop, although slightly less so, as the city has had a law making the whole city pink since 1877. Whether it was because of a royal wife is unclear. As it turns out, we never learned the real reason because walking down the street we were suddenly distracted by…

  

  SNAKES! or more accurately, snake charmers. Also, short round charmers. We asked if the snakes enjoyed any particular songs, for example, Dont Stop Believing by Journey. As it turns out, snakes have no ears and therefore are a bunch of philistines. They are just responding to the vibrations in the air produced by the instrument. Oh and dont worry about the danger…apparently these snakes had their teeth ripped out so they couldnt bite/kill the charmers. The work ethic of your average craftsman today is appalling, truly…

  

  This magnificent structure is the Hawa Mahal, aka Temple of the Winds. It is modeled on the crown of Krisha and its numerous windows are filled with a ton of latticework that allows people to see out, but not in. This is so the royal women were not seen by men, observing the strict purdah-(face cover), but could still watch festivals, markets, and presumably impromptu musical numbers. After All, this is India

  

  A short walk away from the Hawa Mahal and Jantar Mantar, and in fact connected to both is the Royal Palace. The Part immediately behind us is the actual still in use living quarters, but large sections of the rest are open to the public.

  

  This is the Peacock Door, one of the 4 entrances to the courtyard in the above picture. The others are the emerald door, and umm the curry door and bhangra door…I dont know, I had sort of tuned out because this door was way more awesome looking

  

  All through the palace are displays of weapons, like this gunwheel. Like a pinwheel, but more explodey

  

  Since this is still a royal residence, certain areas remain off limits. Woe betide those who try to get into them anyway

  

  Heh…erm, No ticket?

  A Brief aside…if you are going to India yourself, please be aware that it is a tip based culture. And I mean that if you accidentally look at someone cross eyed they are going to expect a tip for the privilige. Now exchange rates aside, this is not a lot of money…until you consider how many people and how often you are tipping every single freaking day. It adds up, and amounts a ton of small bribes just to accomplish things you could easily do yourself but are not in fact actually allowed to. So bring cash, and lots of small bills, because this is a hidden cost that is not emphasized enough.

  Inside the palace, in addition to all the impressive architecture, are a number of local arts and crafts

   

  

  . The lady above is creating a henna pattern on the arms of Miss Crystal. Henna is a plant that once ground up into a powder can be mixed with any acidic liquid (lemon juice, tea, etc) to make a toothpasty liquid that is applied to the skin and will stain it for about 2 weeks.

  

  Looking sharp!

  After leaving the Royal Palace, we were all inspired to look for an appropriate craft to bring back for our memories. Miss Crystal had her Henna, and Short Round briefly considered purchasing a magic carpet

  

  However, he exceeded the weight limit, and he decided he could find plenty of regular carpets at home. Dr Han and I opted to look for some traditional Indian Clothing…Dr Han found a lightweight Kurta, a pajama shirt usually made of cotten and I…well,

  

  Prince Ali, mighty is he, Ali Ababwa! Heard your city was a sight lovely to see!

  

  So try your best to stay calm…Indiana Josh and Short Round are the bomb!

  

  Traveling to show a whole new world to you and me! (music trails off)

  This was a total impulse buy. I did technically need a suit to go to an Indian friends wedding…however I looked so damn good in this getup that I rationalized that eventually all my Indian friends would get married and I could just keep wearing it. It may also make a future upcoming appearance at a karaoke night as a friend and I roleplay racially reversed Johnny Quest (i’m Haji!)

  

  Feeling like ancient royalty, we decided to finish off the night feeling like modern royalty with a trip to the Raj Mandir. This place is basically like the Kodak Theater of India. It has seen a number of huge Bollywood openings, been visited and autographed at one time or another by most of the major stars in the industry, and basically just is a cool looking place to see a movie

  

  The interior is all done in art deco style

  

  We bought samosas from the snack counter and sat down to enjoy a 3 hour non-subtitled hindi film. But at least there was a lot of singing and dancing and we all got the gist. Go check out a Bollywood film if you get the chance, they are much of the fun

  Upcoming Posts from Jaipur: Amber Fort, Dera Amer Elephant Camp, and the coolest looking Hotel ever that we got to stay in and will deserve its own entire post.

  As always, the photos here are merely a selection from the hundred I took, and if you are interested in seeing the rest, along with any other travel photos, please just shoot me your email address and I will add you to my google circles.

  (Shoutut to Fushmush and the Wilsons, because they are still by far the best travel buddies Short Round and I have met on our journeys, and havent spoken with them in a while)

  • 1:32 am
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