08/02/22 Jaipur Jewels

 August 2nd  Jaipur Jewels


It was a long road trip today. Between the colourful trucks, building facades and clothing worn by farm help, the trip was anything but boring. 

The road trip was long, so a couple of pit stops were involved. I am grateful to have found a fun skirt at one of the stops. Emma was grateful for some Diet Coke.


Upon reaching Jaipur, Bhanu surprised us with a fantastic BBQ lunch. Skewers of veggies, paneer, chicken, fish and shrimp were served over a charcoal rotisserie at our table. There was also a main course buffet. Sooo much good food. 


My favourite discovery today was a dessert called kulfi. It is a traditional “ice cream” that tasted like sweetened condensed milk. Absolutely stunning!!

After lunch we had a quick walk-about. I checked out the Crocs shop. I find it interesting that “name brand items” (Crocs, Swatches, iPhones etc cost the exact same amount here. For example Crocs run around $35 at home. Here they are around 2100 rupee, which is just under $35.  It seems “unfair” as those thrills would “cost” someone approximately 2 hours working at McDonalds. Here, it would “cost” a person 11DAYS of work at McDonalds. Bhanu always seems to “know a guy”. Today we went to his cousin’s jewelry store (real cousin or air quote cousin, I’m not sure).


We had a chance to spot some monkeys playing on the roof tops before we views a demonstration on how tocut and polish a gem. 


Of course there was an opportunity to go shopping! I bought a lovely ring in the past that I designed. Today I designed a complimentary ring to match with it. I expect it will be delivered to us tomorrow. Our hotel is absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed a relaxing swim, a similar puppet show and dinner. M suffering from a food coma and am definitely ready for bed.

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