Rajasthan is Real

I arrived last night in Jaipur, the capitol of Rajasthan state. Jaipur is immediately my favorite city that I've visited in India. The whole city was planned and built in the mid 1700s on a grid pattern, and all of the earthen buildings are painted a red clay color. I spent the day walking around the two palaces in the city center. One was called Hawa Mahal or "Palace of the Winds." The wall of the mansion as seen from the street is covered with many small windows from which women could watch the street from many small balconies without being seen.

The other palace was the Jaipur "City Palace" and had some beautiful buildings as well as collections of items possessed by the lineage of Rajas. Most interesting were the two 900 gallon water vessels made of pure silver. They were filled with water from the Ganges and brought to England in 1907 so that the then Raja could purify himself on his visit to England.

My train from Mumbai took almost exactly 24 hours, but it was an easy journey and I was easily occupied by watching the desert scenery of Rajasthan. On my first night in northern India I noticed that the food is much different. After two delicious meals I am certain that I prefer the food of northern India to that of the south.