Jaipur Shopping.

	Jaipur Shopping
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If you come across an Indian handicraft object or garment abroad, chances are it will have been bought in Jaipur. Foreign buyers and wholesalers from all over the world flock in their thousands to the Pink City to shop for textiles, clothes, jewelry, miniature paintings, puppets and pottery. As a regular tourist, you'll find it harder to hunt out the best merchandise and fairest prices, but it can be fun trying. As a source of souvenirs, nowhere else in India - not even Delhi - comes close.

In keeping with Maharaja Jai Singh's original city divisions, different streets are reserved for purveyors of different goods. For clothes and cloth, including Jaipur's famous blockprint work and bhandani tye-dye , recently pedestrianized Bapu bazaar , on the south side of the Pink City is the best place. This is also where you'll find those pointy-toed camel-leather jootis , and traditional glass, laquer and inlaid bangles. On the opposite side of town, along Amber Road just beyond Zorawar Gate, rows of emporia are stacked with gorgeous patchwork wallhangings, embroidery and traditional or antique Rajasthani costumes; these places do a steady trade with bus parties of wealthy tourists, so be prepared to haggle hard.

The same is true of the outlets of the city's renowned blue potteries , further along Amber Road, where you can buy old-style Persian-influenced vases, in additional to tiles, plates, candleholders and a host of other Westerner-oriented nick-nacks.

For top-quality blue pottery, though, visit the shop of Jaipur's most famous ceramist, Kripal Singh, at B-18A Shiv Marg (near the Jaipur Inn ), Bani Park. Bear in mind that Jaipur's blue pottery is essentially decorative; none of it - in spite of what some shop owners tell you - may be used for hot food as the glazes are unstable and poisonous.

For silver jewellery and gemstones, Chameliwala Market , southwest of the old city, is in a league of its own. It is also one of the hardest places to shop in peace, thanks to a particularly slippery breed of scam merchant, known locally as lapkars . Usually young lads in their late teens or early twenties, smartly dressed in Western clothes, these smooth operators speak excellent English, which they use to befriend foreigners in the street. Offers of trips to local beauty spots are invariably followed by a stop at a "relative's" art studio, pottery or carpet-weaving workshop.