Jaipur (and a bit of Delhi)

I left Woodstock on Saturday and headed to Delhi with Megan and Saahil. We met up with another student teacher from Olaf who has been teaching at Kodai. Early Sunday morning, we headed southwest of Delhi to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Highlights from the trip:

-Stopping at a McDonalds and, upon reading some literature about how healthy it is to eat there, I discovered that they offer guided tours per request of the kitchen. It was all young Indian men working there, and if we hadn't gotten enough stares by just being female and white, we certainly did when we were wearing hairnets and pretending to be super interested in the difference between how they store plain buns and sesame buns.

-Meeting up with one of my drawing students and his family, pardon me, his royal family. I'm not really sure what their status is, but they are part of the Rajasthani royal family and the were very eager to welcome us to Jaipur. We met them at the Polo Club, which turned out to be a very exclusive, members only club. Then they brought us to a 5 star hotel for dinner. The dinner wasn't terribly fancy, as it was traditional Indian cuisine (which you eat with your fingers), but it was definitely pricey and delicious. Among many, having connections to wealthy families all over Asia is one of the benefit of working at Woodstock.

-Sight seeing old forts and palaces. Jaipur is called the "Pink City" because all of its old buidings (which it has plenty of) are pink. Everything is very beautiful.

-Chokidani: A tourist trap catered to middle-class Indians. It is a "reinacted Indian village" complete with a fake dinosaur, a HUGE game of snakes and ladders, and other more typical village things. We rode camels and elephants (camels are way more exciting!) We also ate dinner, village-style (this part was actually authentic), and by the end of the meal we had a wall of Indian men watching us eat...they quickly became fascinated after hearing us speak Hindi.

-Shopping! Jaipur is the best place for shopping. I had to work extremely hard to control myself. They are known for their beautiful textiles and jootis (camel leather slippers). Everything is so gorgeous and, if you excell at bartering, you can get it really cheaply. We spent hours walking up and down the streets.


The terrifying camel ride at Chokidani.


Bangles galore!


Juuti shopping.


Beautiful wall paintings at the City Palace.


We were excited to be tourists...complete with headsets, maps, and cameras.


One of the many gardens at Amber Fort.


Women outside of Amber Fort