Day One in Jaipur

So I was so excited to go to Jaipur and ride elephants but I must say that my experience was not quite what I was expecting. First we stopped at Hawa Mahal or the Palace of the Winds in what is known as the Pink City of Jaipur. Another opulent structure like many throughout India. The Pink City is known by its name because all the walls are a pink color and the government has mandated that anyone who lives in this area must keep the front of the building the same pink color as the rest of the city.

After our quick stop at Hawa Mahal to snap a few pictures, we proceeded to the Amber Fort by elephant. I was soooo excited to ride an elephant and it was all I could talk about for weeks. However, when waiting in line people would hassle us to buy trinkets (Indian market people will not leave you alone if they think you will buy something, unlike in America where the sales associate only asks if you need help, Indian "sales associates" will not leave you alone so I have adopted a policy where I just ignore them and it seems to work). Anyway, we got up to the elephant rides and we saw some of the elephant herders using sharp pokers to poke the elephants which made me feel horrible what with animal cruelty and all. I even saw a herder stomp on his elephants head to get it to move in the desired direction of the herder. Brenna and I got on our elephant (we sat in a basket-like contraption) and the herder kept telling us to sit back (if I sat any farther back I would have completely fallen off the elephant). I was intently taking pictures and the herder behind us took my camera and started snapping pictures of us and then demanded to be paid. I felt like I had been ripped off and now I know to be careful who you trust when you are here. As we pulled up to our stop, our herder demanded a tip (he demanded, he didn't ask) to which we paid him. However, we walked ten feet and discovered a sign that said that we were not to hand out tips. I just felt like the experience was ruined because they kept on trying to get our money and the contraption that we sat in was not the most comfortable thing in the world.

The Amber Fort was beautiful though and also had many carvings painted different colors. The fort was magnificent and one of the most detailed structures that I have seen since I have been in India. The man who built the Amber Fort had 12 wives (what a ladies man!) and had a separate room for each of his wives. It was also fun to look around and discover all the secret passageways in the fort. Above is a picture of me at the Amber Fort doing my favorite yoga pose.

We went back down the Amber Fort by jeep (after being hassled by vendors again) and made our way to a textile factory in Jaipur. This factory was famous throughout Jaipur for having the Guinness World Record silk carpet which they let us see. The carpet has something like 4, 200 knots per square inch. We got to see how they dye their textiles and make certain prints as well as the process that is gone through to make a carpet. I got to stand on silk carpets and touch the world record carpet. The process that is gone through to make one carpet takes many months and I could not believe how talented the people who worked there were. We then went to a jewelry factory and headed to the Jaipur City Palace.

At the Jaipur City Palace we were shown the history of the area and right around the corner from the palace were a small group of snake charmers. Erik decided to get his picture taken with them in which they wrapped the snake around the man's shoulders. Sucharita was deeply upset because she didn't want anything to happen to Erik but her husband felt that it would be okay to let Erik go. The men sitting there informed Sucharita that they had taken the fangs out of the cobras but you could still hear her shrill yelling about people being biten and dying. She told me that she had watched something on National Geographic about foreigners coming to places like India and being bitten because they thought that snake charming was safe. She said that Indian cobras are one of the deadliest in the world and that even if you take their fangs out they can grow back. We then discussed how snakes cannot hear (something that I learned in the Field Museum this summer when I went with my dad to Chicago) so the charmers actually move back and forth so the snakes follow the rhythm of their bodies. Sucharita is not big on snake charmers (see previous post) so I don't think anybody else will try her patience while we are on the trip by deciding to become a snake charmer :)