Jaipur, the Pink City

I headed out from Pushkar in the morning. I had hoped to find a bus that would go straight to Jaipur, but I ran into a bus guy who told me there wasn't one. But I could go on his bus to Ajmer, and then catch a bus to Jaipur from there. Well, I'm not entirely convinced that would be the truth. I got a bus straight to Pushkar, and I was told it wouldn't be possible, so I figured there would have to be a bus straight to Jaipur, but the bus guys would never admit that. They want you to take their bus. I didn't really want to fuss about and find one though. So, as it wasn't supposed to be too difficult to manage, and it was supposed to be a regular sort of route from Pushkar to Jaipur, I just got on.

I got to Ajmer and then went to the bus station down the street and quickly found a bus to Jaipur. The distance from Pushkar to Jaipur is only a little over 100 kilometers, 110 or so. Even so, it still took almost four hours to make the trek. I don't understand how it can take so long to get places in this country. That is a bit bewildering to me.

Once I reached Jaipur, I walked past anyone who thought to “help” me find a place to stay. “I know a good place. What do you want to pay? It's 300. Really cheap and good place.” Yeah, and you will take me to more expensive places first in the hopes that you will get a better commission. I hate those guys.

But I did wander for quite a little while, getting turned down by a few hotels. I don't know how it works. Some places it's really easy to find a spot, there are hotel people standing in the street offering rooms. In others, it's like they don't actually want to rent out their rooms. And of all places I would have thought that Jaipur, being in the Golden Triangle of tourism in India, would have people all over offering rooms. Not so.

Eventually I sat down on the curb in a side street that I had ventured onto and was opening my computer to see if the page from Wikitravel that I had downloaded for Jaipur would be able to offer suggestions on the best place to seek lodging. A man came along and asked if I wanted to find a hotel. He knew one. I shouldn't have done. I knew that. But I still had had enough of trying on my own. So I followed him. Three down the street I was on and in a direct line of where I was headed and would have gotten to on my own in a few more minutes. It turned out to a be a place that would take me, and it had rooms and I took one of them. Then my “helper” hung around and had his hand out for a little something for the help. It really stuck in my craw since I would have. soon gone into the place on my own. But just to make him go away, I gave him 50 rupees. Then he started telling me that he had a rickshaw and would be glad to take me around the next day, sightseeing. Hmmm... Let me see. No. You chose to get a tip for helping me find a place to stay. For that I won't even consider having you take me around. And his English was crap as well which was strike two.

I struck out on my own to walk around, since it was only midafternoon. I headed in the direction of the railway station. There was a tourism office in the station and I thought I could get some information. Unfortunately, I was wrong. They were quite uninterested in being helpful or informative. But while I was looking for the office, I was approached by a helpful rickshaw driver who helped me find the office, as well as telling me that he knew the city well and would be happy to take me around the next day for 400 rupees. I had read that a good price for that service would be about 350 rupees, so I thought that might work out well. But I wanted to check out the tour offered by the tourism office. The office only handed me a brochure and didn't even really bother to try and promote it. It was also a lot to pack into one day, so I thanked them in the end and left. I went back to talk to Ali, the auto-rickshaw driver.

We arranged to meet the next day, and then I wanted to head off into the pink city. He wanted to take me, for a smaller fee. He kept me talking for quite some time about the prospect, even though I was quite firm that I wanted to walk. Eventually I got free and headed into the pink city.

It took a while to find it, as I only had the vaguest of ideas where it was. I ran afoul of the new subway system they are building. It is quite ambitious and is being started basically from scratch.

But eventually I found one of the gates into the old city, the Pink City. But Ali had kept me long enough in his quest to make a bit more out of me that it was now quite late in the afternoon. All the sites close at 4:30 and I was arriving at some of them at around that time. I was able to see the city from street level, but I was looking for something high enough to get a bird's eye view. Even though it was somewhat striking to see all the buildings painted or whatever in some kind of dusty rose (I wouldn't actually call it pink), I thought it would be more interesting to see it from above.

And then I saw something that seemed to be perfect. It was a Islamic-looking tower. But I couldn't figure out how I might get to it. I wasn't even sure it would be possible to get up it. I wandered to the nearby intersection and asked a police officer where I might get an aerial view of the city. It took a bit of pantomime and the help of some friendly and helpful passersby, but the message eventually through. The officer's eyes flashed understanding and he said I could go up the tower. Cool. He told me how to get there and I headed there straightaway. Unfortunately, as I arrived they were just closing up.

But the man there told me they opened at 9 am and I said I would come back. He also asked me what I wanted to see. I told him about Ali, the rickshaw driver. The man kind of wrinkled his nose, not about Ali, but about rickshaw drivers in general. He told me I would be better to go the Amber Palace (the main attraction in Jaipur) on the bus. It would be much cheaper and would take about as much time. I kind of knew that, but I didn't know how much putzing around I was going to have to do to do that on my own.

In any case, I asked about the other fort in town, Nahargarh, sitting on the top of the hill. I thought if I climbed the hill, at least partway, I could get a good view of the city. He gave me directions to the path up the hill. I went on my way.

But then I was walking along the street and was accosted by a guy who told me about the Krishna temple across the street. It was free, and I could get a good view of the city from the top. I should have paused to think about it a bit more to prepare myself. It should have been a warning signal to have anything or anyplace advertise itself as a free place to visit. It usually turns out that there is a catch. However, I didn't.

I went in and I was met by Viki, one of the priests (or whatever they would be called) of the temple. He told me about the great view. He took me up and I got to look out over some of the buildings.

It wasn't actually that great a view, but it was something. Then he asked me what I was going to do. He asked if I was going to go to any of the markets. He warned me that most of the places where tourists go are ripoffs and I should be careful, or not even go. This, I already knew, and I wasn't actually planning to go. Then he said that the temple was connected with a co-operative place that manufactured silk and other fabrics. Village women from around the area did the work and I could watch things being made. I could view the manufacturing process from beginning to end. It would be a great way to see this sort of thing in action. It was some distance away and I could go and have a look. And it would be much cheaper than anything I would find in the shops in town. And it would help the right people as the money was shared amongst the people of the villages, the ones who really should get the money. The monies also aided in financing the temple, so it was win win for everyone. Now I like that sort of enterprise, so I allowed myself to be talked into going. I was put in a rickshaw and sent off on a thirty minute ride in the opposite direction of my hotel as the sun was setting. Possibly not my best decision.

I arrived at a factory that had no village women working. There were a bunch of men in suits working half-heartedly at some looms and things. I was now quite sure that I had been set up. Again. But I was there, so I let myself be led upstairs after the mini-demonstration of block printing of designs on textiles. And I did buy a couple of scarves. I'm out of little gifts should I be meeting anyone I might like to give a little something to. And they also had these little paintings done on silk that looked nice. I bought one for myself. But all the scarves and block-printed textiles looked awfully well done to have been done by hand using the process that I was shown downstairs. I was suspicious of whether these things really were made by people or by machine. But, it cost me less than 20 dollars for the three things, so I didn't care so much. I will warn others though. Avoid letting anyone take you to the co-operative factory that benefits poor women in outlying villages, giving them a way to work and make money for their families. It has a really scammish feel to it.

As it happened, the factory was near to the water palace, another of the interesting attractions of Jaipur. After my visit, my “handler” at the factory gave me directions to find the water palace and I walked over to see it. It was just getting dark enough for the lights on the palace to be nice, so I took a few photos. It didn't look like it would a place anyone could visit. It really was out in the middle of a lake. But I knew no more about it.

After that, I headed back to my hotel. I actually was going to ride the bus, but I made a wrong turn and ended up on a street where the buses didn't go. I suppose I ought to have turned back to the main street, but instead I walked back. It didn't take all that long, and I figured out a great deal about where I was wanting to head the next day. So it didn't turn out badly to have taken that wrong turn.

I wasn't sure that Jaipur was going to live up to it's reputation as being a fabulously beautiful place to go touristing, but it didn't seem that it was going to be too bad either. I would find out the next day, with Ali.