Shopping, Lac Bangles Making & Photostop at Hawa Mahal in Jaipur

Shopping with someone who knows the prices

Jaipur's bazaars are one of the best places to buy in India and one of the easiest to be fleeced in. This is four hours with a guide whose job is the second half of that — what is handmade, what is machine-made and sold as handmade, and what the local price actually is.

Johari Bazaar

The jewellers' street, and the oldest trade in the city. Kundan and meenakari work in the windows, gold by weight, silver by the tray, and gem dealers upstairs whose doors you would never guess at.

It is also where the lac bangle makers work.

Making a lac bangle

Lac is a resin secreted by an insect on host trees, collected and refined into a workable material. The maker softens a stick of it over a small flame, works it on a stone, rolls it round a wooden mandrel to size, joins the ends, and presses in mirror or glass while it is still warm.

You do it yourself, with him guiding your hands, and you take the bangle home. It takes about fifteen minutes and it is the part of this tour everyone remembers.

The craft is specific to Rajasthan and it is disappearing — there are fewer families doing it each decade.

Bapu Bazaar

Inside the city wall between Sanganeri and New Gate: textiles, mojari leather slippers with the curled toes, bandhani and leheriya tie-dye, camel-leather bags, quilted razais.

A good mojari bends easily in the hand; a bad one is cardboard with leather glued on. Your guide will show you the difference.

Hawa Mahal

A photo stop at the honeycomb facade — 953 windows, five storeys, built in 1799 so the women of the court could watch the street unseen. The morning light hits it straight on, which is when it goes properly pink.

Included

Air-conditioned car, driver, guide and the bangle session. What you buy is yours; nothing is built into the price and your guide does not take shop commission.