A trip to Jaipur.
Months back I visited the pink city of Jaipur and it was well justified why it is the capital of Rajasthan, the royal state in India. Jaipur is super rich in culture, heritage, and crafts.
My purpose for visiting Jaipur was their amazing craft of blue pottery. This craft is drying and is one of the most beautiful crafts in the world. The state of Rajasthan has always amazed us with its beautiful craft with intricate designs and this craft certainly tops the list.
Blue pottery is not like any other ordinary pottery type which includes clay and a wheel. The materials and every detail of it are extremely different. It was an amazing experience to go through the overall design process starting from the research to the final design.
Check the full project on Behance:
Resisting Jaipur is impossible and so I extended my research trip for a few more days. This place might seem to be small but it is not. There are amazingly beautiful places to see in Jaipur.
For a student like me, it is best to stay in a hostel like Zostel, Hosteller, Moustache, and many more. There are endless options and it is super economic as well.
Zostel is the best hostel to stay at. It is very much on the busy street of Jaipur. A 5-minute walk from Hawa Mahal and almost everything is very close by.
The one thing we kept on eating was the onion kachori. It is one of the best delicacies in Jaipur. There are different kachoris available but I believe that this is the best.
We visited various places all rich in intricate designs.
1. The City Palace: It is the home of royals and definitely a must-visit place. a lot of movie shootings take place here and also reflect the life of Maharani Gayatri Devi. This place took us around 3 hours which we clicked a lot of pictures, fed some squirrels, and had an amazing time.
2. Gatore ki Chattriyan: Not a lot of sites recommended us to visit here and that might be the reason this place was so peaceful and less crowded. This is also known as Maharani ki Chattriyan. It is a funeral monument and well maintained. We spend an hour or 2 in this peaceful place.
4. Hawa Mahal: This is one of the most crowded places we visited. Almost every site recommends you and it is certainly worth it. This monument has around 953 windows or jharokhas. This place was built for the women in the palace to see the daily drama on the streets without being noticed. It was during the purdah system in Rajasthan which was later removed by Maharani Gayatri Devi.
5. Amber/ Amer fort: This palace is the birthplace of Jodha bai as seen in the movie Jodhaa Akbar. This movie did show a lot of places in the palace, but a visit is worth experiencing. This place is an architectural miracle and amazingly built. More than 3 generations in the family contributed to building this fort.
Markets of Jaipur
There is no way you conclude your Jaipur trip without doing a lot of shopping. I shopped for almost everything my eyes saw in the market. The 3 famous markets to visit are Bapu bazaar, Johri bazaar, and the Hawa mahal market. The best things to shop from here would be leather bags, mojri (footwear), dress material, and definitely a lot of jewelry.
There will always be more and more about Jaipur. Even though some well-known sites would say that 2 days are enough to visit Jaipur, I would say that I was not even satisfied after 5 days of the trip there.
Don’t forget to check out the Blue pottery project on Behance.
