5 Nov TUES: Palace of the Winds and Walk around Bazaar Area

We visited Jaipur as part of an organised tour in 2014 so we have seen most of the major tourist attractions ie Amber Fort, City Palace, Palace of the Winds etc.    

We didn't want to revisit most of them but we did want to take another look at the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) which is five storeys high. It was constructed in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh to enable ladies of the royal household to watch the life and processions of the city without being seen by the public.

Jaipur is famous for its bazaars. There are many throughout the city and around the Hawa Mahal there are half a dozen or more in an area about 5kms x 1.5kms specialising in  carpets, handicrafts, cloth, textiles and sandals so we decided that would be our plan for today.

We took a UBER cab to the end of the bazaar area furthest from our hotel and walked around looking at all the wares.    To be honest they didn't differ much from markets in most Indian towns but they're fun to look around.   

One of the funniest things we saw was a very naughty cow.   We were walking along a narrow lane towards a guy sitting on a stationary motorbike and chatting with a friend.   The cow was walking towards us … she got level with the two men and deliberately bumped her hip into the man standing up who was pushed against the one on the bike and they both went flying.   The cow just sauntered on (probably smiling to herself).   The men did see the funny side though.

During our previous visit tourist coaches could park directly in front of the Hawa Mahal so there were lots of hawkers and sellers of  'tourist tat' waiting to ambush people as they disembarked from the vehicles.   I photographed a couple of snake charmers here (one of whom I portrayed later on).    This visit there were no snake charmers and it was noticeable there were no coaches either so perhaps they've been banned from parking outside and blocking traffic.  

We did wander into the area outside the City Palace but we've read bad reviews recently.   Some of the Maharaja's family are in residence in part of the Palace and have increased entry fees to an exorbitant level and blocked entry to some parts .. so we didn't bother going in this time.

David photographed some school kids who were eager to have their picture taken and some ladies dressed in their finery who were sitting chatting outside the Palace

The rest of these pictures are really just more street scenes ...

Looks like they've been on the alcoholic stuff - hen night maybe?

If you haven't got a shop or a trailer, just spread your wares out on some hessian on the ground at the side of the busy roads 

These are uncooked water (chest)nuts

 David testing the Jaggery (sugar)

 Selling bangles at the roadside

Bookshop

Opportunistic monkey

Shoes nicely displayed

Locksmith - these are all keys and locks he is working on

A close shave at the roadside

Flower sellers/making garlands to be offered to the gods in local temples 

and a very welcome Chai break.   

We've recorded 14,000 steps today although neither of us took our phones out tonight so the actual figure is higher than that.    We're getting plenty of exercise this trip!

We're going to try the food at the Peacock rooftop restaurant tonight so I need to get a wiggle on and get ready.    Writing these posts takes so much longer than expected each time and they're done in a hurry so please excuse typos.