Jaipur is not a charming place!

This  morning we went out to look at Jaipur – the Pink City. We took a rickshaw to the city palace located in the old part of town where almost all the houses are pink. After having been in Varanasi for a while which admittedly was hysterical when it comes to traffic but where the pace was rather slow as the roads were so bumpy, we were a bit shocked by the traffic chaos of Jaipur. It is dominated by cars driving really fast and the Indian touch in the streets is almost nonexistent. Once inside the old town we thought it would get better but it did not. Moreover, it added several thousand persistent vendors that lined every street. Not nice, just annoying! And the entire old town is full of bazaars that sell things so there are not many places where you can escape the fiery votes.

After taken some pictures and visited the Palace of winds, which actually was not at all as impressive as it was very dated, we took a rickshaw to a completely different part of town where a store named Anokhi is located. Johan began to feel a little sick on the way there so it was nice that there was an air-conditioned cafe adjacent to the shop where we could get something to eat and where Johan could sit while I looked at the clothes and fabrics in the shop. Anokhi is a store that is significantly more expensive than it is out on the streets, but where the prices are fixed and the quality high. Great tablecloths, dresses, blouses and bedspreads. As we travel with limited space I had to suffice with a small blouse on sale for 600 rupees (10 Euros). I will buy a lot more in an Anokhi shop before we go home in December.

In the evening we had dinner at the rooftop restaurant of our hotel. Tasty food and entertainment by a group of Indian musicians and dancers. Christel tried to dance some Indian dance…