Jaipur

Jaipur is known as the “Pink City”. The story goes that the old city was originally built with cheap materials due to a lack of funds. To cover up the shoddy work, the whole city was painted pink; every wall, every building. Though the city underwent repairs in the late 19th century, the pink color remained, and the old city it still easily recognizable by the rose colored walls.
We only had one full day in Jaipur, so once we settled into our guesthouse we headed straight out for lunch. At the restaurant, we met a British traveler, Claire. She was traveling alone and we invited her to spend the day exploring the city with us. We negotiated a rickshaw, and found our way to the pink city walls.
Our first stop was a bizarre one. In the early 19th century, the king of Jaipur had an interest in astrology. It was widely believed at the time that astrology could be used as a tool to predict everything from wars, to auspicious marriage days. Because of this belief, the king built a park with a number of tools designed to track the movements of the stars so that people could use this information to chart their astrological course. The park, and the tools are still standing within the walls of the pink city. While they are no longer used to predict wars, the tools themselves are remarkable accurate a tracking the movements of the heavenly bodies.
We wandered around the bazaars for a few hours, seeing the city palace, and some famous observation sites throughout the city. As sunset approached, we found ourselves in a rickshaw again, this time heading out 3 km outside of Jaipur to see the “Monkey Temple”. The Monkey Temple is a series of temples in a narrow ravine on the outskirts of town. Though some of the temples are still in use, the area is now more famous for the monkey population. Nearly 5000 monkeys live within the temples in the ravine, and they are the reason that most tourists visit the area. A vendor outside the temple gates sells peanuts and other treats which you can give to the monkeys who live inside. For those of us who live in a country where monkeys are only found in zoos, it is an incredible experience.
The monkeys are very used to people, and will romp and play only a few feet from where you are walking. We purchased some peanuts for the monkeys from the vendor outside. We started out by throwing them on the ground, but soon found that the monkeys will come and take the peanuts right out of your hand. They are very gentle, and will hold your hand while they use their second hand to stuff as many peanuts as possible into their cheeks. Once they are stuffed, they will shell and eat the peanuts one by one, just the way that we would.
We took our time passing out a pound of peanuts, and then we rode back into town. We had a leisurely dinner, and then walked Claire back to her hotel. On the way home, we stopped for a treat; Baskin Robbins! The next day we had a brutal 17 hour train ride, but we found our trip to Jaipur to be not only short but sweet.

p.s. our pictures from Jaipur were killed by a horrible virus.