Mike Yardley: Might and magic of Jaipur with Wendy Wu Tours

When it comes to grand gestures, painting your entire city in the one colour is quite something. So much for painting the town red. How about pink? Jaipur beckons as one of India’s most enchanting destinations, where the Old City is harmoniously bathed in the same pink hue. The elegant capital of Rajasthan was painted in pink stucco in 1876 to welcome Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, who was the son of Queen Victoria and later became King Edward VII. Jaipur’s Maharaja chose the colour because pink symbolises hospitality in Rajput culture, and the gesture impressed the Prince so much that he nicknamed the city the "Pink City." The name – and the stucco - has stuck ever since. A year later, a law mandated that all future buildings in the Old City must be painted pink.

As I swept into Jaipur on a private holiday Wendy Wu Tours, there’s no denying how that welcoming palette sweetly seduces even the most jaded of travellers. Jaipur effortlessly casts you under its spell, as you delve into its rich history and treasury of enticements. There is an unmistakeable magic about the place. Nearly 300 years ago, an enlightened maharajah with a penchant for jewels and a keen eye for architecture built this planned city, wedged between the arid hills of northwest India. Built in the form of a rectangle, Jaipur was divided into nine blocks, seven for public use and two reserved for the state’s most prestigious palaces and buildings. The entire city was girdled by a formidable protective wall.

Called Jaipur after the city’s founder, Jai Singh II, the planned city soon gave rise to astonishing royal palaces and vast workshops of artisans recruited to establish a new commercial hub. These days, gem cutters, jewellery designers and garment-makers are still doing a flourishing trade in Jaipur. And the royals still occupy a wing of the majestic City Palace, while gleaming mid-rise towers and a new subway system anchor Jaipur’s forward march. But for all the contemporary progress, it’s the architectural grandeur, proud sense of place and thriving craftwork traditions that make this destination so infectious. Street markets are splashed in colour and handicrafts, and Hindu temples can be found nearly every 100 metres. Though the streets heave with beeping and belching traffic, aimless tourists and dung-dropping cows, there is a charm and charisma to the carnival of commotion.

Close to City Palace, my wonderful Wendy Wu Tours guide Vipin treated us to some sizzling old-school retail therapy. We walked under the peeling pink porticos of the roadside bazaars which were emblazoned with everything from puppets to pyjama pants; passing by carts of fried chickpea cakes, and marble-lined shrines with statues of Hindu gods. Garment-hunting was high on the agenda, for gifts to take home. Vipin led us to his favourite shop, where an explosion of colourful fabrics heaped in piles and stacked to the ceiling soon greeted us, as attentive staff served us Masala chai. Whether you’re after local, authentic t-shirts, shirts, trousers, scarfs, saris, rugs, cushion covers, towels or table-cloths…this is textile and garment-shopping heaven. As my sister snapped up some sensational saris, I haggled down the price on a sublime tablecloth with block-printed red elephants. The other boom retail business is jewellery, because Jaipur is a global centre for cutting and polishing precious and semiprecious gems. Head to Jewels Emporium’s stately white building and take a tour of the workshops, where cutters shape facets, and men at workbenches adorn gold settings with jewels, and rinse the gold dust from their hands in wash basins. That water is later sold to extraction companies. The quality of the workmanship is second to none, true Rajasthan’s abiding legacy.

Jaipur’s Pink City bragging rights is best epitomised by the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of Winds. We stopped by to pose in front of this five-story palace façade, constructed from pink sandstone. Built in 1799, its iconic facade features 953 small windows which allowed royal women of the court to observe street processions without being seen while also creating a natural cooling effect. The palace's architecture is a blend of Rajput and Mughal styles, ornately designed with protruding bays of lattice stonework and cupolas mimicking Krishna’s crown. Could there be a more glorious façade in the world?

City Palace is a stirring complex to leisurely explore, peppered with mouth-watering architecture, tranquil courtyards and lush gardens. The prize draw is the Palace of the Breeze, a triumph in building design, whereby the air circulates so efficiently that it keeps the occupants cool even in the extreme summer months, when the mercury can nudge 50 degrees. The on-site museum is studded with royal treasures, costumes and curiosities. Out in the courtyard, I admired some massive silver vessels that carried the Maharaja’s drinking water from the Ganges R

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks. A. B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Travil corresponds Mike Yardley, and he is here with us
this morning, focusing on Jaipoor Rajasthan.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Good morning, sir, Good morning Jack. I can see you
on the trapeze after that, Dad, I don't know, huling
yourself across some venue. Yeah, I'm just not someone.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm not someone known for keeping his limbs close to
his body. You know, that's like an help a tross
on stilts, they say, Mike. So no, I'm not sure
that I necessarily have the grace to join. It is amazing.
Every time I go to Sir Laer, I'm like, it's
just unbelievable to me that people are able to pull
off those different stunts. You know, I'm always so yeah,

(00:50):
so affected by it. So that does sound sound amazing anyway.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
You're human, human elistic, isn't it it is? Yeah? Yeah,
everybody is.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
And some of the things they pull off you just think,
oh my goodness. Yeah. Now, Jaipoor is the is the
red city, isn't it? Is that right?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Red and I understand. Or pink city, yes it is pink, yes, yes,
the blue city. But Jaipur is the is the pink
city and it really is gorgeous. How did it end
up getting painted pink? How did the old city and
Jaipaur end up pink?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yes, well, a lot of people Jack liked to paint
the town red, but Jipaul went pink and it's pink stucco,
which all began in the eighteen seventies when the Prince
of Wales rocked into town. So he was Queen Victoria's son.
He later succeeded her as King Edward. He named j
Paul the Pink City, and the Maharaja at the time

(01:44):
chose the color for his visit because pink symbolizes hospitality
in Rajpot culture. So the name and the stucco has
stuck ever since, and even today, all the buildings in
the old City must still be painted pink, which I
think adds to the unmistakable magic about the place. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, so talk to us about City Palace. What did
you like about City Palace?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, there are some really big sights to see in town,
and City Palace is such a stirring complex. It just
seems to be the most perfect union of mouthwatering architecture
and tranquil garden courtyards. They really know how to soften
hard edges. And I love the Palace of the Breeze,
just such an ingenious design because it was built purposefully

(02:34):
to circulate cool air amongst all those pillars of the
palace in the extreme summer heat. And I mean I
was there and I think it was thirty nine degrees
when I was there, and yep, I was not sweating
at all in that palace. For something quirky. I think
this is the greatest thing about the City Palace. You
can go and see these massive silver vessels in the courtyard.

(02:57):
They are like the urns of a giant. And they
carried the Maharaja's drinking water from the Ganges to London
for Edward's coronation. And I thought I was a heavy packer.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Jack.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Isn't it amazing?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, it's not a short journey. Yeah, amazing. Are the
other royals still in residence.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, you can see the reception rooms of Jaipaul's royal family.
The cheers. I love their cheers. They have silver lions
for armrests. Every home should have those. But there's a
lot of tabloid tattle at the moment about the current
Maharaja of Jaipaul, Patcho Singh. He's only twenty seven, quite

(03:41):
the playboy and not just at Polo. So he's currently
living in city palace with his French girlfriend. Now this
is very controversial because, as I'm sure you can appreciate Jack,
in Rojastan culture, one must have an arranged marriage and
it's also got to be astrologically aligned. So there's not

(04:02):
much hope for the French girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
No wow, okay, says scandalous. I might have to have
a very scandalous So just beyond the old city, another
huge drawer is Amber Fort, right or Army of.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Fort Armia Fort. Yes it's spelled Amber, but they say, amya,
apologies for the background noise. By the way, I'm at
that gobshide of a place called Auckland Airport. Ah, but
yes it's a construction zone. Yes, yes, anyway, our US
Army of Fort. What a colossus, like something out of

(04:36):
Return of the Jedi. It sort of sprawls across the
upper reaches of a hillside like a city. It's just
so enormous. And this was the seat of power for
the Rujhport Kings before they relocated into town to build
city palace, But I was equally intrigued by Armia War,

(04:57):
which rides across the ridge lines as far as the
eye can see. The Chinese would be very impressed by
this wall. But within the fort comp once again, you've
just got the most dreamy stash of palatial buildings and
shades of honey and rose, sandstone and white marble. It

(05:17):
is a bit like some of those palaces in New Delhi,
just the most frothy fusion of Indian and Islamic designer
really is gorgeous.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Are elephants still lugging tourists up the hillside to the fall? Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yes? And those tourists they are getting harder to lug.
I actually took an elephant ride at Army of fourteen
years ago, but I've put on a bit of wait
since then, Jack, and I'm very mindful of animal welfare,
so I didn't I didn't ride mister elephant this time.
I took a jeep ride up the hill. But me,
That've still got hundreds of elephants out there every day,

(05:56):
hauling hefty visitors up to the fortress, and they're all
brightly dressed. Apparently they looked after really well. But I
think you would struggle to find a New Zealand travel
agent would say, do the Elephant Rider. It's just become,
you know, a no go for a lot of keywsks.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, yeah, fair enough too. Were there some good buys
in the bazaars around town?

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh wow, I reckon. This is the highlight of Jaypaor.
I mean, I'm not a big retail sort of person.
I'm not a shopaholic, but it's that sort of place
where impulsive shopping becomes compulsive. You know, you just find
yourself buying things you never dreamed you'd buy. And it's
just so much fun to be had strolling under those

(06:35):
peeling pink porticos of the roadside bazaars, and there are
ablaze with everything from hand crafted puppets to pajama pants.
It's just the most wondrous place. I haggle down the
price on this spectacular tablecloth with block printed red elephants.
So that's as close as I got to a trunk jack. Yes,
but yeah, if you want local garments or textiles, really

(06:59):
good bys and jewelry and Jaypoor Jaipaul is the global
center for cutting and polishing precious and semi pressure gems
who knows. Maybe the French crown jewels may end up
and jib, but you will still you will still see
old men at workbenches in the city adorning gold settings
with jewels, and then they rinse the gold dust from

(07:20):
their hands and that water is later sold to extraction companies.
So the quality of the workmanship is second to none.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh man, that sounds sounds incredible. I think when I
was there, I it was up the road maybe in
Jaisalmeir or something like that in Rajasthan. But I went
to you know, in those bazaars they often have the
leather shops, and I bought a leather a camel leather
messenger bag and it costs about you know, seven dollars

(07:50):
or something, and I just like, to this day, I'm like,
why I didn't know by fifty of those. It's just
such good quality and such a bag and such a
handy thing. And it's been all over the world with me,
you know.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, it's just it is. Those bazaars are really incredible.
So when you're in Joyboul, it's a good place to stay.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Well, this is one of the real gems about Dipau.
They have so many old historic palaces, that have been
revitalized as hotels, so if you really want to go
Palatal with your accommodation, they are surprisingly inexpensive. But I
actually switched it up on my last trip a few
weeks ago and I stayed at a brand new palace

(08:28):
style hotel. So you might have heard of the brand
inn Intara, the tie of origin, but they've gone global
five star hotel chain. Anyway, they've opened their first Indian
opening in Gypaw and they've built it as a replica
of Gipaul's landmark, so you will see the facades of

(08:50):
Army of Fort, you'll see the facades from the city
palace built into this palace hotel. It is absolutely exceptional
and they've used a lot of local craftsmen to do it.
Even within the hotel, they've done a modern replace of
sheesh Mahal, So sheesh Mahal is the mirror the mirror

(09:12):
palace in Gipaw, and they've turned this into like a
bar and a restaurant at an Atara Hotel and the
actual interior gleams with three hundred and fifty thousand pieces
of glass in mirror mosaics. It's just the most incredible thing.
So Yeah, it's great to see all of that architectural

(09:35):
prowest of Jipoor continuing to shine in you know, new generations,
and I think that's what makes that place as a
destination so special.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, it looks. It looks amazing. Thank you so much, Mike.
We're going to make sure the bike's article for tripping
through gipaor is up on the News talks 'DB website.
NEWSTALKSZB dot co dot nz is the place to go
for everything from our show.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
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