Jaipur - The Pink City

Hands down, one of our favourite destinations within India is Rajasthan.  For those not familiar with where that is I have included a map below.  The state includes many of the favourite tourists destinations:  Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pushkar and many more.  We love it for a number of reasons:

• The people are so friendly. As Rajasthan is quite a rural state, many people are farmers or tradesman living on the land and they are such friendly folk.
• The colours of Rajasthan are brilliant - the ladies wear bright red, orange, purple, yellow saree's.  They stand out and just brighten everything in a very dusty and sandy state.
• The arts and crafts are brilliant - their fabrics standout as some of the best I have come across, and not to mention, the brass, wood and marble artefacts are magnificent.
• The beautiful forts and palaces that dot the state make for fabulous viewing.
• There are deserts, jungles, cities - what more do you want ?

This trip we were only staying a single night in Jaipur before heading south to Ranthambhore to visit the National Park.  We stayed in a beautiful haveli, a converted Indian mansion, that was well located within Jaipur.  As we have visited previously we only wanted to do a few touristy things and a little shopping !

First stop was Nahargarh Fort which lies to the north of the city and stands atop a large hill overlooking the Pink City.  The city is known as the Pink City because of the pinkish/orange sandstone walls that surround the old city within Jaipur.  These walls are very distinctive and were painted this colour, under instruction from the Maharaja, in 1876 before Queen Victoria visited the city.   The colour pink supposedly denotes 'hospitality' and provides a sense of grandeur.

The climb to the fort is quite steep and we heard that about 10 years ago there were only a few visitors to the fort as it started to really full in to ruin.  Now it is a very popular attraction and is often used as an art gallery and also has a modern indian restaurant inside.  The views over the city are lovely and well worth the trip up but the Fort itself, sadly, is not very well maintained.

We then visited one of the many fabric and artefact shops in Jaipur. I managed to get another present under the Christmas tree for me - another lovely blanket and a block printed christmas tablecloth.  I think Mike was lucky that is all I walked out with - I had my eye on quite a few things !

One night in Jaipur is never enough but I hope you enjoy some of the photos from our flying visit.

Rajasthan is highlighted

off we go again !

These marble inlays are everywhere in North India.  I LOVE them
I want one like this for our bathroom in Sydney

Our Haveli was very very ornate

Couriers, Jaipur Style 

Sadly, even somewhere as beautiful as Jaipur has loads and loads of garbage
EVERYWHERE !

The Nahargarh Fort in Jaipur
Reminded us of the Great Wall of China

Loved this lady selling Papadums 

The view of Jaipur city from Nahargarh Fort

Jaipur City

A Step Well at Nahargarh Fort

A game of cricket seen through the wall of the fort

Max having a go at the Rajasthani drums

anyone need a pot ?

This is what the area surrounding Jaipur is like !

off to town to sell some rice