From Agra we drove to the pink city of Jaipur. It’s not really pink, but almost every building is red sandstone. When Prince Edward (?) came to visit in 1905 or so, the Maharajah had the facades of all the buildings plastered in sandstone in his honor, then some British reported misinterpreted that as pink, and it has stuck ever since. Now there are in fact many things painted pink (doorways and such). We visited the city palace (breathtaking), and an amazing complex of an astronomical observatory (the Maharajah was very into astrology) and explored the city learning about all sorts of history from Vishu (did I mention he is an historian?  Amazing depth of knowledge…).

Side note:  the Maharajahs had vast estates and enormous amounts of wealth. One was said to have 11,000 servants, with jobs as small as “walnut chopper”.  Can you imagine?!  This was mostly taken away as a result of a unified and independent India in 1947.

We stayed at a place outside the city that was a great respite from the insanity and was stunningly beautiful.  Villas that except for a kitchen were big one bedroom houses.  We are here just before the start of tourist season, so we had the place almost to ourselves. Vishu coordinated a lunch at a small nearby farm, with food served out amongst the trees and lushness of Indian countryside, followed by an elephant ride through the wilderness. The food was amazing and the setting spectacular.  And here’s a tip:  if you are in no hurry to get anywhere, ride an elephant. We enjoyed every slow, lumbering step…

From Jaipur, we went to a tiny little village called Shahpura. We were very skeptical when we made the turn off the highway onto a side road and Vishu said we “only had 40 km” of this…rutted, potholed, barely paved single lane country road.    Really?!  We bounced down this road for a couple of hours.  Turned out to be SO worth it. We arrived to an old colonial style “plantation” of sorts. A working 150 acre farm owned by the descendants of the Maharajah of Shahpura, now run as a sort of resort/bed and breakfast.  Our hosts were an absolutely charming couple name Maya and Saat, who live on the property.  When we awoke the next morning, the first thing that occurred to me was “…I…had a farm..in India”. [I hope you get that reference!].  It really felt like we were transported to another place and time. 

We wandered around the main street of the village, and the people were so friendly and so beautiful each in their own way. The children all wanted their pictures taken, as did store owners with their brightly colored fabrics for saris and shopkeepers fixing shoes or old men frying samosas.  We had a snack there of the best samosa ever…which cost a whopping 5 rupees (about a dime).

We spent most of the afternoon just lounging by the pool which is in an open field, as the peacocks wandered back and forth (seriously).  That evening, we had a cooking demonstration followed by the best home cooked Indian food, served in this cavernous room lined with old photographs and paintings of the Maharajah and his family along with stuffed trophies of their hunts, including a tiger.  Could not have been more “time and a place” of an evening…

The next morning we rose early to begin the long drive to the romantic city of Udaipur, the majestic city of lakes and palaces…the journey continues….