Jaipur
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and is pretty big and busy. It has a walled old city overlooked by these big cliffs with forts on top, its all very epic looking. The sandstone is painted pink everywhere so glows in the evening, really nice.
The tourist attractions in town are within the old town walls so after breakfast we left the hotel to be pounced on by the Rickshaw drivers. We picked the fastest one and asked him to take us to the government crafts shop so we could see the real prices of jewelry and metal/woodwork.
It’s very hard when you are haggling in the street to judge if you are being ripped off or not.
Here we could get a guide price before we haggle. The shop had very nice stuff and we could poke around without hassle for once.
After we left there we crossed the road to the old city and walk the 1Km or so into the center of it. Really busy and hectic and the usual mix of machine/man/animal.
We found the Palace are and went first to the observatory which was built by an astrology mad King in the 1700's. The place is indescribable. Giant 47m high sundials and crazy astrological instruments as big as buildings. Real Alice in wonderland vibe. All the instruments work exactly and are precise maps of the stars. Pretty cool for a wander.
After this we went to the Kings palace, checking out a snake charmer on the way who wanted me to pick his Cobra up. I declined not taking his word that it was 'OK'
We entered the Royal Palace, which was fairy tale type caste with textile museums and displays of swords and armor. Really cool place for a wander and we got lots of photos.
On the way backed we bumped into Lilly and a chap called Craig whom she had arrived in Rajasthan with. We strolled a bit back to the hotel and arranged to have food that evening.
We hooked up later for a few beers and had an early one; we were all knackered after walking all day!
The tourist attractions in town are within the old town walls so after breakfast we left the hotel to be pounced on by the Rickshaw drivers. We picked the fastest one and asked him to take us to the government crafts shop so we could see the real prices of jewelry and metal/woodwork.
It’s very hard when you are haggling in the street to judge if you are being ripped off or not.
Here we could get a guide price before we haggle. The shop had very nice stuff and we could poke around without hassle for once.
After we left there we crossed the road to the old city and walk the 1Km or so into the center of it. Really busy and hectic and the usual mix of machine/man/animal.
We found the Palace are and went first to the observatory which was built by an astrology mad King in the 1700's. The place is indescribable. Giant 47m high sundials and crazy astrological instruments as big as buildings. Real Alice in wonderland vibe. All the instruments work exactly and are precise maps of the stars. Pretty cool for a wander.
After this we went to the Kings palace, checking out a snake charmer on the way who wanted me to pick his Cobra up. I declined not taking his word that it was 'OK'
We entered the Royal Palace, which was fairy tale type caste with textile museums and displays of swords and armor. Really cool place for a wander and we got lots of photos.
On the way backed we bumped into Lilly and a chap called Craig whom she had arrived in Rajasthan with. We strolled a bit back to the hotel and arranged to have food that evening.
We hooked up later for a few beers and had an early one; we were all knackered after walking all day!
posted by Fionn at 11:44 PM
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