More Jaipur

More from March 10, 2010

After our delicious lunch, our driver took us by a couple of other significant architectural sites. The Jal Mahal (Water Palace), was built by King Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799 in the midst of the Man Sagar Lake. The structure seems to rise from the lake like a mirage. He spent time there for pleasure and sometimes used it for royal duck-shooting parties.

We then made a stop at the Hawa Mahal – The Palace of the Winds. This was also built by King Sawai Prtatb Singh in the 18^th century and is the most remarkably designed monument in Jaipur. It was designed to provide adequate vantage points behind stone-carved mesh-like screens for the palace women to watch royal processions passing through the bazaar.

In this close-up, you can see the carved mesh over the windows. How many wives did this guy have? Hmmmmmmm.....

The Hawa Mahal Bazaar surrounds the palace so we decided to do some shopping. What a fun experience! The variety of stunningly beautiful hand-crafted fabrics, jewelry, clothing, leather goods, etc. was a sight to be seen. We were in the market for scarves and sandals for our journey into the desert tomorrow, so that is what we concentrated on.

Here we are in a fabric shop looking for a scarf for Rowan. As you can see, the whole family is involved in the shop- dad in the background, the sons and their sons. They just keep bringing out more and more and more things for us to look at. It is important to them that they please us by finding something beautiful to buy from them. It was fun bartering with these guys.

This is one of our favorite pictures of Charanya. She is wearing the scarf that Rowan decided to purchase for $3 US (hand made!). Her dark brown eyes and asian skin along with that mysterious glance is just PERFECT! This is when we knew this scarf was the one.

We went on to look for sandals for Charanya and I. It was hilarious how the shoe guys would bring absolutely every pair of shoes from the shelves to find something that fit and pleased us. The entire floor was covered with shoes. Finding a size big enough for me, with my big American giant-sized foot was a challenge, but these guys did it (after trying at least 50 pairs!). I purchased a beautiful pair of hand made leather sandals for just $8 US.

I will end this post with another photo of a camel, just because I can't get over how cute and wonderful they are. It is really neat to see so many of them used for transportation here on the streets. A constant reminder that "we are definitely not in Kansas anymore". :o)

This one walked by us on the street and reminded us of someone we know :o) Here is the video.

We are off to Bikaner by train tonight. Stay tuned.......