A mere three hours from Rathambhore lies the beautiful city of Jaipur. Bal, our trusted friend and driver, told us so much about the city - it seemed like everything was available in Jaipur! From custom tailors to spice shops, from masseuses to shopping malls - this is where we will be spending our last few days in India.
Kyle and I expressed interest in local clothing, shoes, and spices. Bal assured us that Indian people did not purchase “ready-made” clothing in malls like Americans and Europeans do. Indians prefer to frequent tailor shops. My friend Sherlyn had assured me that Indian tailors were quite affordable, so with a little skepticism and a lot of excitement, we requested Bal take us to a tailor!
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| Indian Sari |
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| Indian Kurti |
Bal drove us directly from Rathambhore to the local tailor shop, whom he trusted. The tailor gave us a demonstration of how block printing (a famous export of Jaipur) is created. Then, he took us into the family fabric emporium. There were bolts of silk, satins, and cottons - all arranged by use. Bright silks for Indian saris were in the left corner; cotton, silk, and wool for men’s suits, blazers, and shirts sat to the right; linens for all uses were in the center; and block patterned bolts were on the far right, ready for women’s kurtis. After a few cups of masala chai, we were ready to do business. The tailor was quite the professional salesman. Plunk, plop, slide! Rolls of fabric were unwound and fell like snow on the counter. We felt each fabric for quality and made a pile of favorites. While he talked prices in general, he was not yet ready to begin bargaining. We chose fabric for a sari and kurtis for me, as well as for a duvet cover; then, we chose fabric for Kyle a three-piece suit, blazer, and dress shirts. When it came time to make final decisions, this tailor knew exactly how to seal a sale. He gave Kyle and myself plenty of time to chat, just the two of us. Then he came over and was not pushy in the usual fashion, seeming happy to make whatever we chose. However, when we culled our purchase ideas from a suit, a blazer, nine dress shirts, four kurtis, two saris, and one duvet cover to just seven dress shirts and two kurtis, he asked, “Now tell me, how much would you be willing to pay for all of the items?”
Kyle should have been the one to wheel and deal. I probably high-balled. After much back and forth, we ended up purchasing a suit, blazer, nine dress shirts, two kurtis, one sari, and a duvet cover. Then, he threw in one extra kurti for free. As I thumbed through the style book for Kyle’s suit, I looked at Kyle and turned back to the style book….then back at Kyle….”Oh my, but wouldn’t he look great in a vest. If we don’t buy this suit with three pieces, how will we ever have a vest that matches?” And thus, we added yet another item to our list. We were both measured from every possible angle, then we arranged a fitting for tomorrow, and paid for our stash.
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| My turbans! (The turban-winder also wound my scarf into a turban for himself!) |
From the tailor’s, we headed to the spice store, our hearts delving in our stomachs from our big purchase. We heard the spice owner’s spiel about the healing possibilities of each spice, gave him the list our culinary teacher had written for us, and asked for a few more spices that he told us about. We are interested to taste test the spices we bought in India versus the spices we buy from Penzey’s! The shop also had a perfume area. After we each had very little space left on our arms from trying perfumed oils, we ended up purchasing a block of amber resin and a bottle of patchouli - I am so excited for us to use them (they’re unisex and smell slightly different on each of us)!
We paused our shopping expedition for a bite to eat and a bit of sightseeing. We visited a tourist-oriented restaurant that had a couple neat qualities - a man in Rajasthan traditional garb (complete with a turban and waxed mustache) playing a homemade instrument; as well as a Rajasthan turban museum, where we both were able to have pictures made in turbans, wrapped just for us! Then, we viewed the City Palace and Observatory. The architecture was absolutely stunning - quite diverse! And the display in the armory was the best I’d ever seen! From maces to crossbows, daggers to swashbuckling swords, this armory had it all!
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| Kyle at the City Palace |
We made our way from the Amber Fort to a shopping mall - this was a special request from me! Unlike when I lived in the U.S., Austria, Italy, and Hungary, in India I have no baseline with which to compare prices. All monuments here have entry fees that are triple or quadruple the price for foreigners and restaurants with food made especially for tourists’ bellies are more expensive. How was I to know if we were getting fleeced at the tailors if I did not know what “ready-made” clothes cost and what the quality was like? So, we rode to the shopping mall, where we found there was still a bit of bargaining (like you do at the kiosks in U.S. malls) - it wasn’t quite the fixed prices for which we had hoped. I bought a “ready-made” kurti, which already didn’t fit perfectly and didn’t feel like the same quality of fabric, just to have a baseline from which to judge the clothes we will receive from the tailor. After visiting each shop, we came to understand that Bal was right! “Ready-made” clothes were only $5-$10 dollars cheaper than going to the tailor, without the ability to customize the design, choose quality fabrics in fun patterns, or even assure the fit. We are incredibly excited to see the clothes we commissioned. Hopefully the quality is superb!
Lastly, we stopped for the night at our new hotel, the Derara Watsar. It is superb. Antique furniture that could have been featured in the Bombay Company magazine fills every room. Beautiful fabrics cover the chairs and serve as bed covers. The bathroom is marble and cleaned spotlessly. Lights twinkled over an outdoor patio where dinner was being served. And the icing on the cake? This is the best deal we’ve gotten on a hotel yet - and it’s by far the nicest! There couldn’t be a better place for poor Kyle to nurse his “Delhi-belly.” At least if he is writhing in pain from a possible case of bad eggs, he’s writhing in splendor!
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