MissTtravels

A bit behind on blogging but here I go catching up.

Yesterday we travelled to the village of Bagru, outside Jaipur, to meet a leading exponent of the art of block printing. Suraj Narayan is internationally famous for his natural dyes and original designs. We looked at his museum, and thoroughly enjoyed watching his team at work.

Of course, we had to stop in the shop. Many more metres of fabric were added to the stash. Syrah’s family made us chai, to finish off a lovely morning.

A side note:

in India you often see people shaping cow pats to use as fuel. Suraj uses lots of boiling processes to make his dyes and treat his fabric, so he has big piles of cow dung drying in the sun. I love how you can see the handprints in them.

In the afternoon, back in Jaipur, we visited the City Palace, where the Maharajas of Rajasthan still live. The part that is open to the public is amazing.

We had lunch there in a cute cafe.

Totally amazing building. Very lavish and highly decorated. Also amazing that they still live there. When not off playing polo or at one of their other homes!

Excellent displays of weapons, showing centuries of military ingenuity, and of textiles, showing they wore on their bodies and kept in their home.

Dinner in the hotel again.