The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
January 30 - Jaipur, The Pink City
Jaipur is known as "The Pink City" because of the color of its old walled town ... but that was a political decision. The town was primarily a yellow color until Prince Albert came to visit. Hoping to get him to rescind a rather onerous tax that Britain levied on Indian cities, they painted the town his favorite color, kind of a dusty red. The Prince came ... and the tax went. Very clever.
While the Pink City title sounds nice, Jaipur is not a particularly pretty place. The City Palace is clean and well-kept but outside of that the town is the typical Indian blend of dirt, poverty, traffic, cows and honking horns ... in this case with the addition of the occasional camel and elephant in the streets.
But the shopping is good (I cringe when I say that) and the Amber Palace up the pass is impressive. Since tomorrow is primarily a travel day, I will save my impressionss of Jaipur proper until then. Got to fill up the space somehow ... and at the rate our driver moves through the city chaos, it may take two days to collect enough shots that aren't a blur!
© 2009 Restaurant Doctor
[