Days 218-219: The Pink City

A morning bus ride continued our traversal of India's 'Golden Triangle' of Delhi-Jaipur-Agra. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, and widely known in India for its arts and crafts. It also has a few nicknames. Pink City is pretty self-evident when you head through the streets, as most buildings are painted the same pinky-beige colour. It is also apparently known as the Paris of India which is...a bit harder to see. Although the city does have some spots of beautiful architecture, most of what I saw was crumbling buildings, streets full of garbage and refuse, and wild animals wandering aimlessly through the crush of humanity so common in India.

Luckily we had pretty swanky accomodations as we were staying on the ground floor of the home of one of the former Rajasthani royalty, and it managed to provide a nice oasis away from the noise and garbage of the city. After quickly settling in we did a quick orientation of the nearby streets and market and eventually got back on the bus for a ride to the town of Amer just outside the city to visit the Amer/Amber Fort.

The site had a long history as Amer was once the capital of the area, and most of the fort was made/expanded during the 1600s. It has beautiful architecture and design, especially with the sun shining down off the stone.

On the way back to Jaipur we stopped by Jal Mahal, a palace built in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake.

In the evening, we went out to probably the most famous theater in India, the Raj Mandir Cinema. Attending a Bollywood movie, especially at the Raj Mandir, is not like a typical movie experience in the western world. In the lobby before the movie our group got mobbed by people wanting to take pictures with us, and when we finally got seated inside the cinema each change in lighting or screen caused hooting and cheering from the crowd. The film we watched was called "Student of the Year", and I guess I'd call it a college drama. The crowd settled down after awhile, but any scene involving romance or bare skin would cause them to all start up again. Not totally surprisingly most of the noise was from the male audience, but curiously, it seemed to be louder for shots of the half-naked males than the bikini-clad girls. Although most of the movie was in hindi, the plot was pretty self-explanatory and there were occasional random lines spoken in english. The best part of the movie, as with most Bollywood films, was the dancing. It fascinates me that virtually every Indian actor/actress, no matter what type of character they play, will have to dance. It's hard to imagine what our movies would be like if Christian Bale had to break into enthusiastic dance every film.

The next day in Jaipur included a visit to the royal palace, but most of the day was just free time to wander around. Exploring included discovering such things as (very touristy) snake charmers, monkeys roaming the city rooftops, and the usual collection of locals constantly trying to sell you things, and rarely taking 'no' as an acceptable answer.