If you have read my wish list of the places to visit, Jaipur was one of it. And I managed to plan a trip in the month of September. It was a four days tour and I also visited the Agra for a day. More about Agra in another post.
In Jaipur I stayed at The Palms Hotel. The hotel is located in good area of the city very close to the Raj Mandir – A well known cinema theatre. The hotel was not exactly the best one. The service was not as expected. You may want to check the review at this site.
I reached Jaipur at around noon and after a brief nap was as good as new. Soon I was out to explore the place. After a brief walk I was in front of the much talked about theatre – The Raj Mandir. I was advised by a good friend to check out this theatre and so I went ahead and booked tickets for Dabangg. Once inside I was impressed by the Raj Mandir, one has to consider the fact that this theatre was built much before the concept of multiplexes was introduced in India. The chandeliers, the decorative pieces, the lightings… all of this really made it worth the view.
Next day we proceeded for site seeing and for that purpose booked a cab for the day. I think it was good deal at 1.2k for an AC indica. Our first stop was at the Hawa Mahal. The structure is right on the main road. Though our driver said there is nothing inside, we went in and climbed till the top floor. One can see the Jantar-Mantar from Hawa Mahal.
The next stop was at Jantar-Mantar. This huge astronomy observatory was built under the regime of Maharaja Jai Singh II between 1727 and 1734. One of the Yantra (Instrument), Brihat Samrat Yantra, here works on the principle of sundial and can give time to the accuracy of 2 seconds! You may want to know more about it please check the Wikipedia link.
Amer or Amber fort is about 12 km from Jaipur. Out of that 3-4 km stretch of road is not very good but at the time the repair work is in progress so it should be ok in another 3 months or so. Apart from that the drive was quite good.
I can only wonder what they might be cooking in this huge vessel.
On our way back we stopped at the Jal Mahal. I am told that till some days back the visitors could go inside by boats however now that service is no more available. The view of Jal Mahal at the dusk was awesome.
As the day was coming to end we decided to do some shopping. Please bear in mind that many shops here will declare that they are the government shops. However I have learnt (the hard way) that apparently government gives the contracts to the shops to sell the local articles but they are not 100% govt. shops. The prices are on higher sides. For example the shop right in front of Jal Mahal, it is a huge establishment which sells gift articles, jewellery, sarees, dress materials etc. But the prices are quite high. I guess the travel agents prefer it for the commission they get from the owners. Anyway I found that the better way to shop is to check at least 3-4 shops before deciding the right place.
The following day we went to the city all by ourselves by the autorikshaws which are very easily available. We enjoyed the shopping and also viewed a show at the Birla Planetarium. We did some experiment with food and tried our hands at the daal-baati-churma. Must tell you that it is such a wholesome meal that even after 4 hours I was feeling full :)
However I think I would visit Jaipur one more time to check out the places after studying them in more details. Also I have missed out some sites like the Nahargarh fort, Jaigarh fort and Gaitore. They certainly call for another trip.
Things to consider
Study about the place and its custom. At Albert hall museum one can buy tickets for 5 other places at concessional rate. This not only saves money but also saves time which otherwise would be spent in standing in queues.
I would advise to take a guide at places like Jantar-Mantar. I could not get good guide at Amer fort but if you could get some one, please try it. And fianally check out the links below for more information about the beautiful Jaipur.
http://www.rajasthantourism.gov.in/Destinations/Jaipur/AboutJaipur.aspx
Links courtesy Mr. Shiv (Post about wish list)
http://www.jaipurtravel.com/about_jaipur.htm
http://www.jaipur.org.uk/
What to eat
Daal Baati Churma, Malpova at Rawaat Sweets
When to visit
October - February
What to shop
Bandhani dresses, Traditional Sarees, Laakh jewellery (Bangles) at Chhoti Chopdi and Badi Chopdi, The puppets
Minimum stay duration
3 days
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