Wow! Now these outfits are keepers...you've inally found your style! Our "first couple" as our guide, Anil, called them....

Jaipur....

It was now time for us to leave the comforts of our ship and say goodbye to some of our friends who had chosen to either return home or to conduct their own private post tours.

It had been an eventful several weeks and we couldn't believe it was nearing its end.  We had been in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and 4 Indian cities traveling south to north. We weren't done yet....the Taj Majal was to be the crowning jewel of our trip. This part of the trip we were doing on land with 500 other passengers. Yes, it was another big bus tour! Regent hadn't done such a spectacular job of our daily bus trips, so Doug and I entered into this post trip with a "you get what you pay for mentality." This was an included excursion, part of the new all-inclusive Regent. We were to visit Jaipur, Agra and Delhi.

We disembarked to leave directly for the Mumbai airport to our first city - Jaipur, capital of the Thur Desert region. We had to be out of our rooms by 7:30am and had an interesting Mumbai drive by bus tour, with some parts a bit redundant for us from the prior day's excursion.

The day didn't seem to start out terribly well. As with any air transportation these days, we waited for what seemed like ages for our seat assignments. Indian security is as rigorous - maybe more so - as ours, with slight differences. You can keep your shoes on, but all metal objects, including watches and some jewelry, must be removed. Women have separate security lines from men. It is pretty nerve wracking to take off your Rolex and see it waiting on a conveyor belt while you are apart from it being searched. They searched through my luggage several times, pulling out metal clips, brushes, flat irons, and put them on separate conveyor belts. Because of this confusion, I didn't realize my iPad was left in a bin in a separate conveyor. Thankfully, we were talking about iPads while waiting for the plane,and I looked for mine, realized I didn't have it, and rushed out to look for it. The security folks quickly assured me they had it and before letting me have it made me prove it was mine. I pulled up a picture of myself on the iPad. The guard nodded, gave me my iPad and said: "you look much younger in your picture." I was devastated. It ruined my day even though I had my iPad back.

The city of Jaipur (with a current population of about 2.5 million) was founded in 1727 and in 1956, it became the capital city of desert state Rajasthan, located in the north-western part of India, bordering the Thar Desert and Pakistan.

The flight to Jaipur was only an hour away from Mumbai but they served us a nice meal and soon we were on our way to the hotel. I wasn't impressed at first with Jaipur, especially as we pulled into our non descriptive Marriott. The interior was nice, though...what you'd expect from a large convention like hotel. The room was typical modern Marriott ... The view was not. Jaipur is acclaimed by the tourists as one of the most picturesque cities in the world. It belongs to the world famous golden triangle circuit comprising of Delhi (historical city of monuments) – Agra (the Taj Majal) and Jaipur (distinct city planning and architecture).

As I flung open the blinds to take in Jaipur, I looked down upon rubble, litter and a shanty town of about 30 tents. It certainly made for interesting viewing. The shanty town isn't surprising considering the poverty level in Jaipur is estimated at 36 per cent.

Jaipur is often claimed as one of the first planned cities in the world. The city was founded on strong scientific principles and laid out according to an ancient architectural manual.  It has salmon colored walls encircling the old city on three sides with seven gates opening it up to the outside world.  In 1876, the city was painted pink, traditionally a color associated with hospitality, to welcome the Prince of Wales to the city. The tradition has been maintained and today all residents in the old city are compelled by law to preserve the pink color.

That afternoon, after lunch, we visited a couple of the key attractions within the Pink City. We first visited the City Palace which is a vast palace complex occupying nearly one-seventh of the Pink City. It was originally built by Maharaja Jai Singh II. The complex is divided into a series of courtyards, sprawling gardens and buildings. It is home to several palatial structures, e.g., the home to present Maharajah of Jaipur), a textile museum,  another museum housing the two largest silver vessels in the world.

Another section of the palace was the women's chamber. Built in 1799, its purpose was to allow royal ladies to observe everyday life in the street below without being seen. It is a five storey high red sandstone structure complete with over 950 windows. While the concubines seemed to lead a storybook life behind gilded palace walls, this building is a reminder that it was a man's world and they were only allowed to view it from afar. Life wasn't as rosy as the walls.

One of the more fascinating attractions is the UNESCO world heritage site containing the largest of five astronomical observatories build by Maharaja Jai Singh during the period 1727-1734 in north India. The observatory consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking stars in their orbits, ascertaining the declinations of planets and determining the celestial altitudes.

We only had a half day in Jaipur, barely touching on all it has to offer. As we were whizzed by various forts, shops and bazaars, and even temples, we wanted to scream "stop" but knew we'd have to wait for a visit on our own.

On leaving the palace, we saw one gang of the famous Rebel Monkeys guarding the palace walls. These Rhesus Macaques, especially one gang who live in a nearby place called "monkey temple" live in luxury because worshipers believe they personify the cherished 'Monkey God' who banished evil.

As we waited for the bus, we were again bothered by hawkers. Children again were at the forefront. The 10 million street children of India is 10% of the world's total and despite efforts by the government, the number does not diminish or their plight grow better. In order to survive, a poor child in India will probably be forced to sacrifice education and training; without skills the child will, as an adult, remain at the bottom of the economic heap.  Most Indian street children work and many are girls. In Jaipur, common jobs, in which children as young as 6 years old work, are street vending, begging, prostitution and trash picking.

In Indian Society females face severe discrimination. The problem is worse in conservative Rajasthan than almost anywhere else in India.  For example, because girls carry the liability of dowry and leave the family home after marriage, parents often prefer to have male offspring. Many babies are aborted, abandoned or deliberately neglected and underfed simply because they are girls. The Indian National Government has banned the practice of "dowry", but it is still widely practiced that a wife will bring a dowry into a marriage. For children of impoverished families or homeless girls, the lack of family support makes dowry impossible. This further constrains their choices.

Gender discrimination is particularly evident in education where boys are more likely to attend school and to do so for more years. The traditional place of the woman is in the home and so many parents and children consider education for girls to be a waste of time, especially when the child can instead be working or performing domestic chores. Only 38% of Indian women are literate and, at 64%, the gender parity between literacy rates amongst Indian women and men is one of the most unequal in the world.

We ended our time in Jaipur after dinner with visits to some recommended stores for retail therapy, but the prices were so high most of us left Jaipur with only the treasures of our memories.