Talk:Jaipur

Here is one author's experience (note in hindsight this author admits to being foolhardy, and doesn't recommend such exuberant curiosity, although, wink wink, whats the fun of travelling without a few risks!):

''My first day in Jaipur, I was wandering the bustling streets, when out of nowhere a young fellow rode up next to me on his motorbike, with a cricket helmet and orange sunglasses. He introduced himself as 'Bapu', and immediately started to accuse Westerners of hating Indians, and not wanting to associate with them or get to know them, but only to see the historical sites and leave.

''Naturally in the backpacker's spirit i rejected this, and so he offered that we go discuss this over a cup of tea. Being an experienced traveller, this set off warning signals, but i was in the mood for adventure. I rode on the back of his motorbike to a local, dark out of the way restaurant. I quickly refused to drink anything, as i had heard of such ploys where the tea would be drugged, and i would wake up with all of my posessions gone. He soon lost interest, and i left. Later that day, another youngster attacked me with the same argument, and offered to discuss it over tea; naturally i refused (i heard later from another traveller that he had accepted an invitation, and suddenly a policeman arrived and arrested the youth, and advised him of the scam).''

''That evening I went to see a movie at the Raj Mandhir Movie Theater. While waiting in line (where people were pushing and shoving to get tickets), a youth approached me and asked me to buy him a ticket as well. I did so, and as it turned out we sat together in the theater. Now if you are going to Jaipur, I highly recommend seeing a movie here, it is a positivly astounding experience. The audience talks during the entire film, and shouts, claps and cheers; the movies themselves are beyond belief, usually rife with dancing and singing, and often copied scene by scene from popular Western movies!''

''This young fellow invited me afterwards to go to a party at his boss's house. Having little else to do, i hopped in a car with them and went. We got to this house, and no sooner had i walked in the door, than who did i see lounging on a couch? Bapu! He didn't say a word for a good 15 minutes, and then stumbled through an explanation. I was willing to forgive, and talked to the fellows for a while. Later, the 'boss' came in, and we talked, and he invited me to come for tea the next day at his office. I agreed, and he sent his friends to drive me back to the hotel. As we drove back (a little tipsy i must admit), suddenly a jeep crashed into the side of the car! Luckly nobody was hurt, but the car had been hit pretty bad. The fellows ran over to the jeep, and ran back saying 'no problem! its the police, we know them'.''

''The next day they picked me up to go to this boss's office, which was in fact a jewelry store. We casually talked for a bit, then he proposed that I assist him in smuggling jewelry to the US. Essentially, he reasonably explained that every tourist has a quota of several thousand dollars of untaxable exports. I, being a poor backpacker, naturally had only around 100 dollars worth of shawls, etc, to bring out. So he wanted to send a package by post to NYC in my name and under my export quota. When I arrived in NYC, a man would take me to pick up the package, and hand it over, and get 15000 dollars cash. A very attractive offer, but i had read about such scams and denied. He tried to convince me (i was clearly torn by the desire for $15k), but finally i said no, and he did little to stop me. Having almost gotten drugged, scammed, and killed in an auto accident, i realized it was time to move on. And thus I bought the next train ticket out of Jaipur!''

I noticed that an entry was needed for Jaipur. I visited it for a few days during an India trip in fall 2002, so i decided to drop some notes on it. I decided the best way to relay my advice on a particular topic i knew about in that city, safety, was to write up a story. Its not short, but i think it conveys an important aspect of Jaipur quite nicely. Is there, or should there be a travel story section, so that maybe i wouldn't need to stuff this in the Jaipur entry (if so please feel free to move the story)? Check it out at http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/article/Jaipur - NB 5-28-04


 * Ok Apparently somebody didn't like the story idea; I admit it was a bit long. I filled in some more traditional travel book info, and am working on getting a couple pictures i took uploaded. Is there a section where a travel story would be appropriate?


 * Just finished putting up pictures. NB (now (WT-en) Nick)


 * She only moved the story to Talk:Jaipur, rather than deleting it. We mostly try to stick to a Project:Manual of style for our guides, and one of the guidelines is to avoid writing in the first person.  Sometimes I find this kindof difficult, since it makes it hard to express some ideas.  That said it makes sense when you think of each article as a stand-alone guide to the place which somebody can use to find their way around.  Meanwhile the talk pages obviously are full of first-person opinions, etc. -- (WT-en) Mark 05:23, 29 May 2004 (EDT)

What should be done before this article is featured on the front page
In case you aren't reading India Expedition/Rajasthan, I wrote this there:

Good article.
 * Some external links are either naked or footnote-style and should be fixed. ✅ I think I got them all, though do double check to see if I missed any. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:58, 22 March 2015 (UTC)
 * "Learn" section is in the wrong place, and its listings should all be templated. ✅ Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:51, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * "Sleep" listings that haven't been updated since 2012 should be updated.
 * "Activities and entertainment" listings under "See" should be moved to "Do," except for the bazaar, which belongs in "Buy." ✅ Ibaman (talk) 12:30, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * There are a few more listings that are incomplete or need to be listified and the article lacks a city map. ✅ Ibaman (talk) 14:20, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Also, the "Understand" section is very good, but the lede should be made more attractive. ✅ Most of the work was by User:Saqib, with some by me. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:58, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

But overall, it's a nicely illustrated and very substantive article. We should polish it and then nominate it for Destination of the Month. Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:44, 17 March 2015 (UTC)


 * The obvious remaining tasks are to add addresses and/or geo to listings that lack them, check to make sure all the listed establishments of any kind still exist and update old (mostly 2012) prices. Also, see the Chokhi Dhani thread below. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:58, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Tours in "Do"
This article is shaping up very nicely and may be ready for Dotm nomination soon.

One of the remaining issues is how to treat the tour listings. I'm having trouble seeing how the Jaipur food tour provides a "value-added" service that individual travellers couldn't do on their own, and the linked company seems to be a rather typical tour agency that also includes food in its tours, rather than, for example, a cooking school. The site for Vedic Walks, which is promoting its "Heritage Walking Tour of Jaipur" in this article (or, less likely but possible, someone else decided to list it), is not working properly on the notebook computer I'm borrowing from my girlfriend, so I can't see the details of its tour. Is there anything "value-added" about their tour that warrants it being listed? I like the idea of a Vedic walk, but would it be hard to duplicate on one's own? Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:48, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm going to delete them. If anyone would like to argue for reinstating them, please do so below. Thanks. Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:24, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Chokhi Dhani
Right now, it's listed in "Do", "Eat" and "Go next". The "Go next" listing is the fullest, but at 18 km from the city centre, is it really a "Go next"? What's the best place to list this, or is it actually so unusual that it should be mentioned in several sections? Also, it would be great if its address or at least geolocation could be established. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:54, 22 March 2015 (UTC)


 * My resolution of this issue was to consolidate the three listings in "Do" under a new "Nearby" subsection, getting information from the resort's website, and then also inserting a note at the end of the "Eat" section also referring people to this listing. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:51, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Jewel prices
I deleted old jewel prices, which are probably from 2011 or earlier, as misleading, but I'm not sure I was right. Would it be better to restore them with the disclaimer that these prices are probably as of 2011? The theory behind restoring them would be that some guidance, even if old, is better than a visitor having no idea whatsoever of what the actual prices after bargaining should be. But if these prices are 4 or more years old, it's hard to know how accurate they are for 2015. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:27, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

By cycle-rickshaw
"Cycle-rickshaws are cheaper, but the amount of time it takes quickly makes the extra few rupees worth it." What does this implicate? That cycle-rickshaws are so slow that you should rather take an auto-rickshaw, taxi or bus? Then, let's say so.

"Walking in the bazaar is a treat, although side streets are a bit less welcoming and offer a sharper glimpse of poverty." Shouldn't this be moved to a By foot section instead of being sandwiched in the middle of the cycle-rickshaw section? ϒpsilon (talk) 08:29, 19 April 2015 (UTC)


 * I interpret the first sentence the same way you do, and I agree with your point about the second one. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:08, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

Jaipur and wv:worship
There seem to be many places of worship listed – are they all listings that travellers unrelated to the religion would want to go to? While some like Galtaji or Moti Dungri Mandir seem places that I'd want to go to even though I'm not a Hindu, others like Birla Mandir doesn't seem to fit the criteria for wv:worship and some like Jain Mandir seem to be a vis-a-vis case. To anyone who knows this place well, which ones should be removed? -- SHB2000 (talk &#124; contribs &#124; meta.wikimedia) 06:18, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Image search results for Birla Mandir, and there's a thumbnail in the article; Jain Mandir, which looks really beautiful and special. The guideline you are citing is meant to avoid boring listings, not listings for places that are beautiful or special in some way, and I don't think that because you don't find Birla Mandir's more modern style so interesting (for the record, my taste also runs more toward the Jain Mandir if I'm choosing) is a good reason to suggest deleting the listing. Besides, listing only 7 temples in Jaipur is rather restrained. I hope you don't suggest decreasing the number of churches listed in the article for the way smaller city of Siena next. There are 6 listed there, I've personally visited all 6, and they're all worth visiting. Please back off a bit on this. And you may remember that I'm neither a Hindu, a Jain nor a Christian. But I do love beautiful buildings and beautiful art. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:48, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree with Ikan, they can all be kept. Tai123.123 (talk) 17:09, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Which cab apps should be mentioned, if any, and in what order?
Right now, we have in order Gozocabs, Uber, Cabbazar and Ola. Ikan Kekek (talk) 01:55, 15 January 2024 (UTC)