We had to get up ridiculously early today, at like 4:15, because we were catching an early morning train to Jaipur. We all met in the lobby at 5 o'clock, and left anything we wouldn't need for the next 5 days (which for me was most of the stuff I had packed), and set off for the station. The car trip wasn't very long at all, maybe fifteen minutes, and we made it quickly through security (another bag scanner and metal detector), so we had plenty of time to kill when we reached our platform.
By 6:30 we were well on our way, and had been given a bottle of water each by the carriage staff. I read for a while, ate the breakfast we were served, and looked out he window for most of the five hour trip. We passed many rickety, ramshackle houses, and piles and piles of plastic rubbish with cows and goats and people rummaging through it. There were also lots of people using the hill beside the tracks as a bathroom, which is apparently quite common.
The weather in Jaipur is still very hot, but much drier than Delhi, so it feels a bit more manageable. Arpi led us to a tuk tuk rank, and we loaded all our bags and ourselves into them.
We arrived at the hotel and got settled in, then headed back out to explore Jaipur.
Jaipur is known as the 'pink city', because when Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales visited in 1876, the King decided to paint the entire city pink in their honour. Admittedly now it's much more of an orangey colour, but the old city, surrounded by a giant wall and seven spectacular gates, is still very beautiful. Our hotel, though not pink, is also very beautiful.
We settled in, then were loaded into two air conditioned white cars, and taken to an enormous gem and jewellery store for a demonstration on how jewellery in crafted in Jaipur. Apparently this is one of the things Jaipur is famous for, and there are mines throughout Rajasthan which provide the gems and metals for the thousands of jewellers in Jaipur. We browsed for a while, drinking the soft drinks we had been offered, admiring the beautifully crafted (if still very expensive) jewellery.
Next stop: a block printing workshop, where we were shown the method in which fabric has been printed for about three centuries. Up to seven wooden blocks can be used in a single pattern, to add different colours and depth to the design. We were invited to try it, and I put the final layer on a tricoloured elephant we printed. We wandered inside, and were shown the wide variety of textiles on offer, including silk and cotton printed fabric, quilted and patchwork fabric and fine embroidery. We wandered around the store for a while, but again everything was quite expensive, and so all I bought were some wooden blocks to print with at home. Again, I'm not sure I'll be allowed to bring them back to Australia, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Back to the hotel again for a short rest, then out for dinner, a delicious buffet at a nearby hotel. It was much harder to squeeze everybody into tuk tuks on the way back, given the amount of food we'd all eaten, but it was definitely worth it.
