JAIPUR - The Pink City

This one is for you  Dianna -  Road to Bissau Palace, street scenes at  Chanpol gate. One of my favourite streets? Why I have no idea.

Alis goats waiting to be sacrificed

Alis daughter - not too sure about us

Our dear friend Ali who we met many
 years ago, is our favourite auto rickshaw driver 

Alis wife removing her toe ring to give to us as a gift!

Holy Cow! Visiting the temple

Ali negotiating the traffic to Amber Fort

My favourite building ever,  Hawa Mahal  - yes better than  Taj Mahal.
Presently under construction - check out the scaffolding - wooden sticks.
Hawa Mahal is actually a facade, there is nothing but stairways on the other side. The royal ladies would hide behind during festivities so as not to mingle with the lower castes. 

Famous restaurant LMB renowned for their
 sweet meats - Paneer Ghewar a chewy,
 crunchy honey combe like cake full of bubbly holes - tooo delicious

Night 'flower market' in central Jaipur





Off to Amber fort in Ali's BMW

Haha and he wasn't even looking -  I was actually getting ready to grab this poor
 Spectacled Cobra and sneak him into my bag. These snakes are left in the baskets
day and night eventually they become paralysed.

Beautiful gardens of the Amber Fort

Our eager elephant Wallah - he's actually eyeing out Nina!

Our elephant journey up to Amber Fort

Nina and her Raja - as long as she wasn't walking we had a smile - so elephant rides were good..

Elephant festival end of march so elephants were starting to apply their make up for this big Festival in Jaipur.

Pilgrims camping for the pre Holi celebrations, that start 1 month prior to Holi

Intricate Mendi Hand Tatoo

This whole festival changed our plans for the day.
Ali is not impressed! You have to understand in India all
 main roads are closed during a festival
 or pilgrimage - they always have priority.

6666 Rajastani women in their traditional
outfits all with clay pots and flowers for pooja

Shiva preparing for Shivrartri

Krishna and his ring necked parakeets in a cycle ricksha

CHOKI DANI A RAJASTANI EXPERIENCE

Nina getting ready for her dinner and dance - no date !!

Best part of the evening - their famous Tali - meaning
 "whole meal"
They just continually fill up your plate
 with Chapatis, naan, dhal, vege curries, pakoras,
  rice and salad. then the sweets meats arrive.

SANGANEER - dying factories, block printing, paper and pottery manufacturers

Sanganeer - 30 minutes outside of Jaipur.
This is where all those beautiful block printed fabrics are manufactured

Dying of the fabric - using such antiquated equipment

Block printing done in dark, extremely hot rooms
 with no flow of air and such strong
 smells of  chemical dyes and printing ink. There are a few
 factories that use natural dyes - not many.

Washing of fabric in salt water after dying

Such vibrant colours

Fabric is dyed, block printed, washed then
 camels carry the wet loads
to flat areas in the
 desert where the women lay it out in the sun to dry

Our smart Ambassador





Galta and Surya Mandir


This was a steep 200m walk , you can imagine princess was not impressed, the monkeys were tagging at her dress and  the sun was setting and the surroundings became rather scary - inhabited by 5000 monkeys.
'Temple of the Sun God'
These are pics of our way up ....... and down

The holy cow with a 5th leg

Our funny guide who had just
 finished classes at school  - he
just loved
 the monkeys, they were really tame
 and gently took the peanuts from us
 with their little paws. 

Good Chai - really bad Mendhi

After all this Princess was exhausted - she was actually sleeping in the offices of one of my suppliers with all the workers walking in and ou,t she didn't flinch.
There was a time when she fell asleep sitting up - poor thing.