India: Jaipur – City Palace
City Palace of Jaipur was and still is the seat of the Maharajas of Jaipur, one of the richest royals in Indian history. The palace (actually a series of interconnected palaces) were built in 1729-32 by Sawai Jay Singh II, the ruler of Amer (see posts about Amber Fort), who moved his capital to Jaipur and built a planned-out city around the palace. Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal are the two main palaces. The City Palace is often billed as the foremost attraction in Jaipur with its decorated gates and doorways and halls. While some of it is true and impressive, this is not Versailles or Hermitage. Rather, it’s an unveiled attempt to milk tourists off their money. You pay $12 entrance and then find out that the main rooms are off limit and only offered on special “royal” tour which is $50. When you try to take pictures inside the palaces, guards appear out of thin air with a printout about an $10 fine for picture-taking (good luck collecting it from me). And on every corner within the palace there are locals dressed up into old-fashioned maharaja outfits getting into your pictures and demanding money. Add dozens and dozens of “official guides” following you, trinket sellers following behind the guides, and Chinese tourists moving in large groups clogging the palace views – and it becomes a total tourist trap.
