Jaipur: The Pink City

Again we had the struggle if getting into our air conditioned car and being driven to our next city. Oh woe is me. As we spend so much time driving I feel like I have no choice but to be amazed at how massively humungous India is. Massive. Ginormous. Big. We drive for hours each day just to get to the next city, within just one of the ?????? Indian provinces. Large.

We got to Jaipur which is the capital of the province Rajasthan, the province we've been traveling around. We checked out a silver/gemstone shop and two carpet/textile factories. At the textile factories we learned a lot about carpet making and block printing, which is what Jaipur is known for. The textiles here are absolutely incredible. On tablecloths etc...they use anywhere from 3-6 blocks which work together to completely fill in patterns. On facebook there is a pic of a set of four blocks and the pattern that Michelle, teresa and I created below the blocks. Each block is hand carved (aka super incredible) and fills in a different part of the overall design allowing multiple colours to be used. The finished products are amazingly detailed, full and precise and everything is done by hand. We saw the process and here folks work incredibly fast.

Then...the marketing comes in. We are taken to the shop and treated like guests. We are offered be stages and obviously oblige. We are seated on a couch as Rajan and his assistant show is their textiles: it starts with $10 bed covers, to $15 bed covers and ends up with just over $100. It is hard to see as much beauty in the $10 when you've seen the 'extra' detail and intricacies of the pricier one. Good on ya' I dare say. Good on ya'. Good marketing, Indian textile folk. But they know how to run a business: they took a bedcover and turned it into a duvet cover for me and Teresa got a dress made and both were ready the next day. And they have ridiculous shipping rates so instead of backpacking with it for weeks still (although, lets be honest: we haven't really backpacked yet) they have super cheap shipping rates so we shipped it all home to Canada. AND to add to the fun: Michelle tried on a legit sari!

Jaipur day two...coming up!