Jaipur Jai ho

According to wikipedia, "Jai ho" (the Hindi word popularized by the hit song by A R Rahman) means "Victory to You" or something in relation to victory. Our trip to Jaipur this past weekend was quite victorious. For our final weekend adventure, Kate and I headed to Jaipur for a 48 hour crash course in pink.

From Jaipur India June 2009

It's for good reason that Jaipur is known as the Pink City. The capital of Rajasthan state in India, the city was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II who apparently had quite an affinity for the color (which weathers over time to a more orange hue). Absolutely everything in the city is painted this way.

We left early at the pre-dawn hour of 3:30 AM. Kate insisted in traveling by train, and I had a great time acting like I knew what I was doing while we navigated the chaos of the Delhi train station. We were both too exhausted to thoroughly enjoy the passing scenery and the window was more translucent than transparent, but it was still fun.

A few highlights of the trip included:

Girisadan Home Stay - Captain Singh treated us like family. After an excellent recommendation for dinner, he treated us to Mango on Vanilla ice cream while we shared photos of his family's recent wedding.

From Jaipur India June 2009

A trip on Sunday to Amber fort - Riding an Elephant to the top of the fort was one of the experiences that really made me feel like "now I've done everything in India." With my impending return to the US next week, I feel quite accomplished in the places I've been, people I've met and memories I'll take home.

From Jaipur India June 2009

We stopped by Jantar Mantar - where I had a fantastic time thinking how clever I was while I matched Led Zeppelin lyrics in my head to the photos I took.

From Jaipur India June 2009

Albert Hall - A beautiful museum where I quickly found that I was a chief attraction. While taking photos of the exhibits, locals rushed to invade my personal bubble for a quick photo on their cell phone.