Jaipur - Part 3

On our final day in Jaipur we were scheduled to take The Great Exotic Flower Tour created by a company called No Footprints. Jason decided to take the morning off, so Alice and I headed out with Selva, our guide for the day.

Our first stop was the market. We made our way through the stalls selling fresh vegetables.

I was excited to see what fresh water chestnuts look like, since I've only known (and loved) the canned version.

Then we entered the flower market. We were garlanded with marigolds and strewn with chrysanthemum and rose petals as we admired the vibrant blossoms for sale.

We saw several vendors creating garlands and other offerings for the temples.

Our next stop was the Govind Dev Ji Temple, dedicated to Krishna and to Radha, his chief consort. It was built by Jai Singh II and it is technically part of the City Palace complex, but a wall was constructed between the temple and the rest of the palace for security reasons.

The statue is believed to have been created by Bajranabh, great-grandson of Krishna, and to be one of the most faithful representations of the god. The central shrine is closed several times a day to change the clothes and decoration of the statue and when it is revealed again the worshippers react with great joy and energy.

After our visit to the temple, Selva took us to a local shop selling traditional sweets for a demonstration of how flowers are used there. We got to knead together chopped cashews and honey with cashew paste and then roll balls of the sweet dough in the dried petals of the local roses. Neither of us love the flavor of rose, but the sweets were surprisingly tasty.

The last stop of the tour was the atelier of HeenaAgrima, a local sustainable fabric and design brand. It is run by two young women who have been working together since grade school, where Selva was also a classmate. After time in New York and Milan, they returned home to highlight the traditional local eco-friendly dyes and to create zero waste fashion.

We got to try dying fabric with the flower garlands we'd gotten at the market. We arranged them on squares of cloth, covered them with another piece of fabric, then hammered the flowers to release their color.

Afterward we saw other employees doing hand embroidery and using scraps to create applique flowers and gorgeous silk organza patchwork.

Alice enjoyed looking through a rack of their beautiful creations and couldn't resist walking away with a couple of them.

Jason joined us and Mr. Khan took us to the Rajmahal Palace RAAS Jaipur, a very elegant Indian Art Deco hotel, for lunch on their terrace.

After a break at our hotel we headed to Ikaki Niwas, a small guest house offering cooking demonstrations and dinner with the family who run the place. Our host, Chandrika, let us help her in making sweet halva, papadam curry, and bread. Alice and I made chapattis, and Jason got to learn how to fill the dough to make a paratha.

Our dishes were supplemented with a buffet of local standards (the chicken pakoras and spiced cauliflower were especially good) but the best part was sitting and talking with Chandrika and her son-in-law, JD. He pulled out a fennel seed moonshine that he makes himself and we chatted about life in India and the US until we dragged ourselves away for an early start the next day.

Our various injuries made things a bit complicated, but we all agreed that Jaipur was our favorite place in India…so far!