The PInk City

26.09.11

This morning we met our rickshaw driver Khan at 10am ready for our day tour of Jaipur. He drove us through the streets of the Pink City. Which interestingly enough, wasn't originally pink when it was first built (the colour of hospitality in Rajasthan)but only painted pink for the visit of Prince Albert in 1876. The streets of the Pink City were just as dirty as the rest

of the city, with rubbish strewn everywhere, and the buildings dirty. To be honest I was disappointed. The first place Kahn took us was the Isarlat, a tall tower on the edge of the Pink City, which gave great views of the city. We were then taken to the Jantar Mantar, which is a medieval astronomical observatory. It was a fascinating place, with

huge stone structures that looked like something out of Salivador Dali painting. We had a quick squint at the City Palace which is still home to the royal family. We then had a stop off at the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds. It is a beautiful building which is made up of many windows, arranged almost like a beehive, reminding you of insect eyes. We continued

on to Rama Niwas gardens and then it was lunch time.

After lunch we were taken to small printing workshop to see how fabrics were printed and woven traditionally in Rajasthan. The fabrics were stunning, intricately printed, and they were't too pushy about trying to sell us anything! Afterwards it was time to return to our hotel as we wanted to finalise our plans for the rest of the trip. The idea was that we would just make a few phone calls and confirm our tour by taxi of Rajhastan. we had been given costings

for 18 days and it was reasonable and we knew would be much more relaxed and we would see loads more. However when we called to confirm we were told that our driver had cancelled because he thought his English wouldn't be good enough. Anch got in touch with another driver, however he was charging more a km and we had to pay him for a minimum of 250km

a day, which would rocket the price up - so our plans were scuppered. Our hotel thought they could arrange something for us but we had to wait until the next day.