The Pink City

For our last few days in India, Ainsley and I went to Jaipur with my aunt, her family, and my grandma. Jaipur is known as the pink city because, well, it’s pink. Specifically, the old town in the middle of the city is surrounded by pink walls and full of pink buildings. A quick Google says that painting the city pink was done as a welcome for a British prince in the 1800s. But I also remember someone saying something about how the materials that the buildings were made out of was naturally pink. This isn’t a history lesson blog post though (although that does sound fun to do), so moving on to the trip itself. 

Immediately, I felt a unique but still Indian vibe in Jaipur. The traffic was still chaotic, but red lights seemed to actually carry weight—most of the time. The drivers seemed less worried about hitting you and seemed not to love you crossing in front of them, evidenced by the apparent speeding up of cars once they saw us in their headlights. In Surat, everyone seemed concerned only with getting to where they wanted to go as quickly as they could without hitting anyone. So, red lights were irrelevant unless there was a cop standing there, and pedestrians were obstacles rather than targets. Jaipur also was, compared to Surat, bursting with white people. As part of the “Golden Triangle” along with Agra and New Delhi, Jaipur attracts many more tourists than my family’s hometown. In my opinion, this is with good reason. Not having been to many cities in India, I would rank Jaipur as the best one to visit. It’s definitely better than New Delhi or Agra, the latter having little to offer other than one old building, the former simply being an unfun place to be. Jaipur, on the other hand, had lots to do and generally great vibes. 

As I said, there is a lot to do in Jaipur, and we did quite a bit. So, I’ll just go through everything I remember doing in whatever order it pops into my mind. 

Jantar Mantar

Jantar Mantar is an old observatory full of giant instruments to measure things in the sky. It has the largest stone sundial in the world, The Vrihat Samrat Yantra, which means the “great king of instruments”, standing tall at 88 feet (27 m) high. I can confirm, it is very big. So big, in fact, that it can tell the time with an accuracy of two seconds. My watch is significantly smaller and more mobile, and can tell the time with an accuracy of less than a second, but I digress. It also had a lot of other instruments that, I’m sure, did a great job doing whatever they were supposed to. There was plenty of astrology stuff there as well. So if you do plan on visiting, just make sure you don’t do so with someone that’s into astrology; that sounds like a perfect way to suck the joy out of visiting. Overall though, in terms of places you visit with the purpose of walking around and seeing old things, this is a great one. Each of the instruments had explanations for their use and they all were just nice and interesting to look at.

The Amber Fort

The Amber Fort is a large fort slightly outside Jaipur situated high on a hill. It has beautiful architecture influenced by multiple cultures and an interesting history. The entry fees to get in are:

₹502 ($6.05) for foreign citizens 

₹152 ($1.83) for foreign students, 

₹102 ($1.23) for Indian citizens, and 

₹22 ($0.27) for Indian students

Technically, my grandma should have gotten Indian citizen, and the rest of us foreign citizen tickets. However, we weren’t gonna do that. Using Ainley’s student ID card from the place she graduated from 7 months ago, we got her a foreign student ticket. Using my aunt’s ability to speak Hindi like a native, she got an Indian citizen ticket. And using my appearance and ability to remain silent so as not to give away my identity as a coconut (think, colors), I got through with an Indian student ticket, 95% percent off.

The fort itself was very cool. The buildings were beautiful and the views were stunning. There were plenty of visitors but nothing too crazy. We had a guide that was provided to us by the driver we hired, but I don’t think it would’ve been worth it to pay for a guide in general. My favorite part of visiting was when we let the guide go on ahead for a while and explored the many semi-hidden passageways and connections between different parts of the fort. Overall, I would say the Amber Fort is definitely worth a visit if you’re in Jaipur, and should even contribute to a decision on visiting Jaipur. 

Hawa Mahal

The Hawa Mahal, which translates to “Wind Palace,” is a photographer’s dream located in the middle of Jaipur’s old town (the pink part). Made of red and pink sandstone, from the outside it almost looks two dimensional, but behind the stunning facade, there is a massive complex full of nooks and crannies to explore.

Having lost my wallet a few weeks before the trip, I don’t have my student ID with me anymore. To my surprise, I also don’t have a picture of it. So, as the subterfuge that led to my getting an Indian student ticket at the Amber Fort would not work as I would have been forced to reveal my lack of Hindi, we schemed to get a foreign student rather than citizen ticket. Ainsley showed her student ID, then I showed a picture of, drumroll please, my freshman year dorm’s resident assistant’s student ID. Why I had a picture of that and not my own ID? The world may never know. However, we successfully fooled the ticket man into thinking I, a fellow Indian, had the last name “Ortega.” Remember, we’re on a budget here. This is how you afford to travel for 6 months before you get a real job. 

Going into, walking around, and observing old buildings is certainly a common activity for travelers of Asia, and we had done quite a bit of it at that point. So while I wasn’t fully old buildinged out, I wasn’t itching to see more. But the Hawa Mahal was one of those that reminded me of the appeal of old buildings. It had a unique layout with abundant opportunities to explore. Around each corner is an opportunity for a picture that any professional Instagramer would kill for. The Hawa Mahal was constructed with hundreds of small windows looking out into the busy street for royal ladies to observe the commoners without being seen. Peaking through the windows and observing the chaos of the street outside, feeling very royal and ladylike, was a lot of fun. We got waves from confused strangers on the street and photobombed some unwitting tourists. The top was extremely crowded, naturally, but throughout the palace it wasn’t too bad; there were plenty of areas with few to no people where one could slow down and enjoy the place. There were also some rooms with hundreds of years old art with explanations of their history. 

Overall, the Hawa Mahal was my favorite old building to explore, possibly anywhere in the world. It also dethroned another, much more notable Mahal as my favorite Mahal to visit. 

Galtaji (Monkey Temple)

Galtaji, also known as the monkey temple, is an ancient Hindu pilgrimage site. It’s surrounded by tall hills and feels like the setting for a movie about ancient times. It’s home to many monkeys, specifically rhesus macaques, and there are people there that have taught them to jump onto tourists for sweets. I’ve had a few monkeys jump on me now and it’s always a good time. They’re not captive, so it doesn’t feel unethical in any way. They’re just a bunch of little dudes who like sweets; I can relate. The views at Galtaji are great and there is plenty to explore. It costs extra to be allowed to bring a camera or your phone in, so that’s a bit annoying, but not a huge deal, just remember to hide your phone when walking up to the entrance so your I-left-it-in-the-car ruse isn’t ruined before it can begin. Overall, this place is worth a visit if you’re going to be in Jaipur anyway, but I wouldn’t necessarily come to Jaipur for it. 

Birla Mandir

This was a cool temple that you could walk around in. It was worth seeing since we were pretty much driving by it. That’s about all I have on that. It’s not that I didn’t like it, there’s just not much more to say about it.

Gatore Ki Chhatriyan

Gatore Ki Chhatriyan is the royal crematorium grounds for some old ruling clan in the area. Again, this isn’t a history post, so that’s all I’ll say about that. When we first arrived, I managed to get in as an Indian citizen by once again exercising my right to remain silent and not revealing my lack of Hindi ability. The grounds are split into three different areas, each with a unique feel. It’s situated near multiple mountains which act as stunning backdrops to the intricate and unique structures. There is much to explore and, at least when we went, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as a place like this feels like it should be. It’s a lovely place to walk around. Overall, definitely worth a visit. 

Shopping

I’m fairly neutral on shopping, generally speaking. But in Jaipur, especially in the pink part of town, there are countless stalls selling the most interesting and unique things for incredibly cheap. Jaipur is known for handicrafts, and with good reason. There was so much stuff I saw that I would love to have back at home, but I wasn’t willing to carry it with me in my already undersized backpack for the next 5 months. Even though I only bought a few things that I was able to send back with my aunt, exploring the street markets and seeing the products of the incredible artisans and the surrounding craziness was very enjoyable. Just walking through those street markets feels like a paradise for an artist looking for inspiration.

Other Stuff in Jaipur

We were only in Jaipur for about 5 days, and it felt like we did and saw a lot, but if you look at any kind of list of things to do in Jaipur, we missed a bunch of stuff. There are few cities in the world where I feel that there’s as much to do as there is in Jaipur. Many people told us 2 or 3 days would be enough to visit Jaipur; they were right, if your goal was to see something, snap a few pictures, then rush off to the next thing. But if you want to spend some time exploring the places you visit, Jaipur would take a week minimum. The Amber Fort, for example, would have taken us only about 45 minutes if we had done what the guide wanted us to do. But what I enjoyed most was taking the time to explore the many side passageways and doors to the areas that most of the visitors seem to walk by without noticing. It was the same for the Hawa Mahal and Jantar Mantar. Slowing down and enjoying each place, allowing yourself to sit down and look around before getting up for another bout of exploring, those are what make these places truly worth visiting. Seeing fewer places but being able to do that at each of them was, in my opinion, definitely the right move.

Final thoughts

Jaipur is packed with more fun and interesting stuff to do than pretty much anywhere else I’ve been to. If you’re into hundreds of years old buildings that are picturesque and unique; if you like the feeling of exploring those old buildings and finding things and areas that are easily missed by most visitors; if you enjoy good food, countless handicrafts, and truly one-of-a-kind pink vibes, Jaipur is a must see. If you are ever contemplating visiting India’s “Golden Triangle,” fly into Delhi, spend a day in Agra, then the rest of your time in Jaipur.