Day Two in Jaipur

We went on a cycle rikshaw ride through the Pink City in Jaipur and saw many market shops and street vendors. We went earlier in the morning so thankfully there wasn’t much traffic about (yay, less people to run us over). We passed by the Hawa Mahal or the Palace of the Winds as it is known, and saw quite a few monkeys climbing around. All of us love when we see monkeys on the streets but the people here just consider them to be pesky.

After our rikshaw ride we exchanged some of our American money with a money exchanger that knew our tour guide. Apparently the money exchanger carries around numerous types of currency so tourists can exchange money easily without having to go to a bank. The money exchanger was really nice but I felt somewhat weird that we were exchanging money on the side of the street where everyone could see. After receiving our money we were given a few minutes to shop and I bought a kurti in my favorite color green. We haggled with the shop vendor for it and I was glad I got it for a lower price but we realized afterwards that I could have got the shirt for even lower. Hopefully I will get better at bargaining as the trip goes on.

We went to the mall in Jaipur after our trip to the market. Some people went crazy with the shopping (including our program director) but I guess my frugality held me in check. The malls here are somewhat like the markets in that people hassle you some when you shop. Depending on the store, you can have sales associates come up to you one after another to ask if you want to buy this or that. I find it quite annoying sometimes to have people constantly bugging you while you shop, especially when they are trying to sell you something that you would never use (yes, I am talking to you, man who was trying to sell us turbans…does it look like I would wear a turban?!?! Although Senssue, if you are reading this, I considered getting one for you because I thought it would be funny). 

Anyway, after the mall, we went back to the hotel for a little bit and then headed out to a Rajasthan festival. We all enjoyed the Rajasthan festival with its numerous forms of entertainment including: dancing, singing, back massages, camel/elephant rides, etc. My favorite part was probably getting to ride a camel. I liked riding camels better than riding elephants because not only did the camel herder not rip me off by asking for a tip, but the camel’s gait was easier. It also cost us 10 rupees to ride camels which is equivalent to 20 cents in the US. I guess I never really realized exactly how tall camels are but it would have been quite a drop if someone would have fallen off their camel.

 We all sat down to eat a traditional Rajasthani dinner. Rajasthan has food that is different compared to Indian food in other areas of the country so it was interesting to see new types of food. We sat on the floor in front of wooden tables and I decided to eat with my hands so as to keep with Indian tradition. We all enjoyed the festival and the dinner so it was a successful trip :)