Bargaining in Rupees: Jaipur the Peach City

The next day, April 16, we got picked up at the hotel at 9:30am. We only had one day in Jaipur and our plan was to see the sights and then shop in the bazaars. We met an American couple at the Taj Mahal who really got us excited for the shopping, the women went on and on about how much there was to choose from and how easy it was to bargain with shop owners, so, as you can imagine, after all that sightseeing in Delhi on the second day we were kind of “sightseed out”. To be perfectly honest, every fort looks the same, and every palace looked the same, and the forts kinda looked like the palaces and the palaces and a sticking resemblance to the forts. Nonetheless, we took our lonely planet book in hand and trudged on. First stop: you guessed it, Amber Fort!

Amber Fort was actually a 20 minutes drive outside of Jaipur, Amber was the ancient capital of Jaipur and the fort was more of a palace for the royal family (go figure). It was also pink (surprised?) but the actually walls of the fort were built from red sandstone and white marble looked similar to the Red Fort in Agra. Instead of walking up to the fort by foot Sara and I decided to go by Elephant. They were huge! But pretty and so gentile. These elephants were festive; their skin was painted in the front in Indian style designs. My heart went out to them because you could tell they weren’t properly treated. It seems India has no real humanitarian nor animal safety laws, for one, child labor was rampant and animal care was entirely lacking, then again, does a government that is trying to deal with such widespread poverty have time to deal with rights and liberties? Anyway, back to the topic at hand, excuse my tangents, the elephant ride, it was great we got some great pictures of the two of us hoisted up on the beast, which will look great in the photo album. It was cool to of ridden an elephant in India, but there’s not much we had to do, we kind of just sat there and the elephant did the rest, to be frank, it sounds a lot more intriguing than it really was.

25 minutes of an uphill trek the elephant safely got us to the top of the fort where the palace was. Sara and I were both pleasantly surprised. It was beautiful and huge. There were four gardens. The most striking building within the palace was definitely the Kali Temple, the walls of which were decorated in mosaic style, but rather than using tiles the mosaic pieces were mirrors. The ceilings had the same mirror mosaic art but had a different pattern, on the wall there were flowers in pots all symmetrical in lined up in rows and columns, the ceiling was also symmetrical but different circles and just rows of mirrored pieces. It was unique, unlike anything I had ever seen before, and beautiful. While we were there we saw the temple being restored since much the mirrors were chipped away and largely deteriorating, I mean the fort and palace were built in the late 1500’s. It was interesting to see the restoration, done piece of piece, little by little. Talk about tedious work, but hey everybody’s gotta pay the bills. We walked around the palace for a good hour admiring the architecture and the precision of the construction. I think when looking at these historical sights its incredible to recall that they were built before the time of rulers and proper measurements, much of the precision lies in trusting the builders vision of what appeared equal. When taken into consideration it makes it all the more astounding.

After taking it all in we walked back down dodging poop along the way, of course, I mean this is INDIA! The next site was just a brief stop it was on the way back into Jaipur coming from Agra Fort. It is called Lake Palace or Jal Mahal; it is a red sandstone building built in 1799 in the middle of the lake. It was the summer resort for the royal family and was primarily used as a station for duck-hunting parties. It was very cool, just a huge edifice sitting on top of a lake, hanging out on the water, normal? Well in India yes! There were a few buildings like this, in Pushkar and Udaipur too, just isolated in the middle of lakes. Anyway, Sara and I got out of the car snapped a couple photos and were on our way back in to Jaipur where we went to the Hawa Mahal.

The Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) is apparently Jaipur’s most distinct landmark. It is pink, go figure, but the architecture is interesting, the building was built in layers akin to a huge honeycombed hive that is 5 stories tall. It too was built in 1799 in order for the women of the royal household to watch the life of the city, which explains its location in the center of all the hustle and bustle. Again here not much to see in a museum sense, just architecture.

After Hawa Mahal we went to the City Palace, which really was not impressive at all. It was dirty, not kept well, and it was interesting because the current Maharaja still lives on the grounds. We didn’t stay around long; there wasn’t much to see. This was our last stop on our sightseeing tour of Jaipur time to hit the Bazaars!

Shopping in India is not so much to buy things as it is for the experience. In order to be a successful shopper you have to have a sense of humor. There is a central street in Jaipur that is aligned for blocks and blocks with hundreds of different shops. The second we hit that street we were bombarded with shop owners, “take a look at my shop” “free to look” looking is no charge” “come to my shop”…. On and on and on and on. Rather than get frustrated and overwhelmed you kind of have to laugh it off. We spent the day at Johari Bazaar, which was famous for its fabrics and saris. They are beautiful, bursting with color and elegance. Sara and I had a really great rest of the day going from shop to shop talking to the shopkeepers, bargaining prices, looking at all the cultural things, the differences, what they eat, wear, buy. Their style of clothing, jewelry, and shoes. It was unreal not your typical American mall, just complete chaos. And let me tell you they love to bargain, it isn’t a pain for them, it’s a sport, its fun. You walk in they give you an outrageous starting price, especially if they know you’re American, those three letters U-S-A make their eyes light up with dollar signs. So say they start at 500 rupees for a pair of shoes, that’s around $12.50. You then cut that price in half you say $250 they say no no ill give you a good price, a special deal just for you (clearly haha) $450, you say no $200. They say no no, you go down in price? No no. So he bargains with you more and more, you take your 200 rupee out of your fanny pack (yes, fanny packs really come I n handy I have come to learn!) so that the guy can see the money, and once he sees it there’s no turning back. If at first he hesitates say ok thank you and start to walk out of the store, he’s already seen the money, he knows you mean business, and quickly says ok ok ok 200 no problem. Done and done shoes that were $12.50 USD are now just 5 bucks.

As the day went on and out bargaining skills improved we started to notice the smile on all these guys faces they loved it. They knew how ridiculous their starting prices were and they just loved the tennis ball bickering going back and forth between owner and client 1000, 500, 850, 500, 750, no 500, fine fine I make you a deal 650, no 500…ok ok 500. Haha. Simple as that. We got tons of things, I especially got stuff for my sisters I miss them so much and everything just reminded me of them. I got authentic things though things they wont be able to find in the US so that they can share a little bit of my experience with me, Indian bangles, and garb, shoes, and the like. Half way through the day we bout little suitcases to roll everything around it, we got two suitcases for $5.

I had never in my life see such prices as I had in India. It made me realize how rich the United States truly is in comparison to most of the world, and in effect the power associated with all that wealth. Before coming abroad I had a lot of issues with capitalism. Due to multiple experiences I have had here, Jordan, Turkey, and now esp. India, I realize its not so bad. Yes, the US has poverty, high levels of it for a Western democracy, and it has millions of citizens without healthcare, an expanding gap between the rich and poor, and a million and one other problems. But at the end of the day America is still a young country, but a great one, in just 300 years she has accomplished so much, and has become the powerhouse of our universe surpassing countries that have long histories of immense prestige. Everyone wants to be an American citizen (a generalization, I apologize, many want to be an American citizen), and now I know why, like is just a lot easier in comparison. While I was always proud of being an American, being away from home for these 5 months has reminded why I should be so grateful, so proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. While my knowledge of other cultures has enhanced, simultaneously, my patriotism has definitely grown.

After a fun-filled day of shopping Sara and I headed back to the hotel, for early nights sleep. The next day we have a 3.5-hour car ride to a small spiritual town called Pushkar.