Pink City, Pink Lady

Your correspondent spent the weekend in Jaipur, known as the "Pink City".  Founded in 1727 by Jai Singh II, painted pink to "welcome guests", Jaipur is now part of North India's "Golden Triangle" which makes it a busy hub for tourists, trinket-wallahs, and Rajasthani thalis.  And it's no exaggeration - it really is pink.

The Jawa Mahal - "Palace of Winds" - meaning windows

This was the weekend for Jaipur's yearly elephant festival, so there were plenty of "jumbos" wandering through town on their way to the parade.  The parade itself was an interesting experiment.  Two lady announcers had to simultaneously describe the proceedings, keep the afternoon moving, maintain order, and offer philosophical musings on what it means to "walk like an elephant".  Eventually, so many tourists got tired of standing behind the railings that they just walked right onto the stadium grounds to get pictures close up.  The poor ladies simply announced, with great aplomb, "We are trying to maintain order ... but the parade is now chaos ,,, and life is often chaos, so I guess we should just enjoy it."

Surrounding the city are a number of forts, peering down from scraggly, arid mountains.  We stopped by the Amber Fort for the panoramic view and to marvel at the various courtyards.  Rajasthan's desert climate was especially evident looking out over the countryside, not least because of the heat from standing on a hilltop in the sun.

Our guide was a lovely gentleman who made sure to take us to a nearby Krishna temple as well, which ended up having even more beautiful stonework than the fort itself.  Then, he did something you are 100% never meant to do: he fed the monkeys.

The day after the festival was Holi, and celebrants were certainly - let's just say - exuberant.  It's appropriate that your correspondent returned from the Pink City literally pink, herself.

Painted pink in the Pink City... That jacket used to be black.

My flickr pictures are up here.