trip to jaipur

we went on a weekend trip with friends (the majumdars and the punaters) to jaipur, the pink city. the color might have been pink when the maharaja had originally ordered everyone to paint the city pink (i am sure he must have meant red) to welcome the prince of wales in 1853. but now most of the buildings along the main market avenues look more orange and various shades of red, than pink!

what struck me more than the color pink was the sheer variety of modes of transport : elephants, horse carts, bullock carts, camel carts, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, cycle-rickshaws, auto-rickshaws (2 versions), cars, buses, trains, planes, etc.

we did the usual tourist haunts including - chokhi dhani, hawa mahal, city palace, and amber fort. and we indulged in gastronomical sins of the highest order by pigging out at chokhi dhani, rawat mishthan bhandar, lakshmi misthan bhandar, etc.

the city does give you a sense of the royalty and grandeur that was prevalent in the past. you also notice that, for its age, the city was a very well-planned city as compared to most of the other cities in the north.

nett-nett, we had a fun-filled, relaxing and yet tiring weekend (if you know what i mean) in jaipur. (but i wouldn't want to do it again anytime during the summer months).

here's some pics of our trip to jaipur.