Bargaining in Jaipur: Clinton-style

For my twenty-first birthday (celebrated in a city where the legal drinking age is 25), my mom, brother/bff, and I went on a shopping excursion in Jaipur, a city five hours south of Delhi.

Jaipur is called the “Pink City,” and was once ruled by Rajasthani princes, who actually believed in things like urban planning and infrastructure. Thus, there are sidewalks, making it a winning destination in my book.

As we had visited all the famous forts and palaces on a previous trip, we spent most of the weekend wandering the streets and bargaining for blue pottery, bangles, dyed fabrics, genie lamps, and antique gypsy hats (in Mother’s case). 

I was in love with all the colorful, mirrored fabrics and bought decorations for my future dorm room.

This is the pottery workshop where I spent twenty minutes negotiating with a vendor over the price of a multi-colored glass lamp, until he finally acquiesced and threw in a few free tiles for the family. Supposedly Bill Clinton visited this store when he came to Jaipur. Indians love Clinton.

One of my favorite parts about bargaining in Jaipur is how smart all the vendors are. They show you business cards of “Ambassadors” who bought products at their shop, say that they export their goods to U.S. companies like World Market, claim that their fabrics aren’t “tourist quality” but real quality, and use psychological tricks to convince you to buy at insane prices. Our driver, who is from Rajasthan, amused himself by laughing hysterically at our negotiation attempts and asked me why Americans buy things like fabric door decorations and antique gypsy hats. I had no response. 

Click below to read about how we accidentally trespassed in a family’s private cemetery:

Our first day in Jaipur, we decided to visit a famous cemetery where the wives of the Maharajas (kings) were buried. Our driver asked around for directions, and then we pulled up to a gate with a narrow opening and hopped out. Upon entering, we thought it was strange that a family was in the yard doing laundry. We walked around for a few minutes taking photos and realized the family was staring at us because we were not, in fact, at a public historic site. Instead we ended up in a little courtyard with tombs where a caretaker’s family lived. It was super awk.

Note the laundry line in the background.

Finally, we got directions to the right place. The real cemetery was much bigger and had guards and signs.

Greek-like columns. The Maharanis went out in style.

And with that, we left Jaipur to return home, but not before stopping at the greatest hotel ever on the way back, Neemrana Fort. Photos to come.