Shopping in the Pink City

Tuesday April 29, 10:00 pm - Jaipur, the Pink City

Tonight, Mintu took out to see the city and go shopping. This was a beautiful city – all the buildings are painted pink! And they even have sidewalks, which made it feel more like a city.

We saw several palaces – the Wind Palace and the Water Palace – they were exquisite. This is the Wind Palace. It was definitely my favorite.
The best part of this day was the shopping. I told Mintu I wanted to look at some textiles, jewelry, and shoes. Our first stop was to a textile manufacturer, where we watched him block print some fabric and then we looked through his store. When we walked in, the owner told us that they were here to help us, but they would not hassle us. They would let us browse, and if there was anything we wanted custom-made, they would make it for us and bring it to our hotel in the morning.




Because they left us alone (what an unusual concept in this country!), we weren't in a hurry, and ended up spending about $100. Aside from seeing amazing fabrics, our shopping experience was delightful. Anything I wanted to see, they got out for me and put back for me. I think they would have let me just sit there and they would bring me things to examine.

The owner helped me try on a sari, and of course, I would pick a very expensive one. I think he said it was 30,000 rupees (roughly $750). But it was beautiful. I couldn’t believe what it took to wrap the thing – five meters of fabric, wrapped around my waist, tied in a knot, then folded over a half dozen times, tucked in, and flung over my shoulder. One of the workers put a gem between my eyes, and they asked Andy if he recognized me. Uh, I definitely do not have a career in modeling ahead of me - could I look anymore awkward?

The absolute best part of this store is my skirt. I found a skirt that I loved, but they didn’t have it in my size. He said “No problem. You choose fabric, we take measurements, we make for you, and bring to your hotel in the morning.” What?! So we chose some fabric, the tailor measured me, and we’ll get it in the morning. I figured while he was at it, he could make some custom-made white linen napkins for me. I'll have to take a picture later.

We spent so much time in the textile store, that we only had time for shoe shopping, no jewelry. That was very cool. The shop owner would not let us browse; instead, he brought out chairs for us to sit in, and then he just started bringing out shoes. No matter what we asked for, he brought us what he thought we would like. We must have each on at least two dozen pairs of shoes – each! We both tried on the royalty shoes (the kind in Aladdin that are pointed at the toes), and I tried on a billion sequined shoes, sandals, leather clogs, you name it. We settled on a few pairs and left.

After shopping we ate at a restaurant that had beautiful dancers, balancing pots on their heads. The tandoori chicken with rice and daal and naan were divine, as was the pistachio ice cream that came in a little clay pot.

So far, Jaipur is my favorite part of this trip. Could it be because I had such good shopping experiences?