Sharpen Your Pencil

We sadly left our Palace on the hill, and headed towards Jaipur. The pink city. The walls of most of the buildings are painted a pinkish tone. The city is very crowded and noisy. It is famous for its jewelry stores. Need I say more?

On the way our travels had been slowed by a new road hazard, camels carts. There are lots of camel carts in Rajasthan. Because the camels are brown, I think of the camel carts as UPS of India!

In a lot of Bollywood movies you see people on top of a bus as it drives down the road singing songs. People really do ride on top of the busses. We first went to the village of Kala Dera where they do Hand Block Printing using a resist process called Dabu that uses mud to create the designs.

We finally got t drive o the Anokhi Museum near the magnificent Amber Fort. The fort is situated high on a mountain. The museum is situated in a run down little village that is slowly being restored. I was amazed that the van we were in could navigate thru the narrow streets. The Museum is in a restored Haveli (mansion). It is very informative. We were the only people in the museum.

We finally arrived in Jaipur and after a quick snack, went jewelry shopping. The Indians live to bargain. I used my best “Sharpen Your Pencil Skills”, and was pleased with the outcome.

We are staying in the Samode Haveli in the center of Old Jaipur, amazingly it is very quiet, with a beautiful pool area and gardens. Cocktails, We had cocktails by the pool and then had dinner in the interior courtyard, while listening to a small Indian group play Sitar music.

I think there are two more days of shopping in our future.