A weekend trip to Jaipur

Jaipur, also known as the Pink City, truly reflects royalty. As you wander in and around the forts and palaces of Jaipur, you can visualize how glorious the life of royals would have been. This Jaipur trip was a surprise from my dear friends. I was totally unaware of this location until a couple of days to the trip, where they had planned a bachelorette for me.

If you are a shopaholic or you are planning to decorate your house, Jaipur is a perfect destination for you. You get amazing artifacts, beautiful bedsheets, you also get great quality clothes and the most important of all, the gorgeous mojadis. And as I was getting married, this was just the perfect place for me to complete my shopping!

We had already been to Rajasthan and hence in Jaipur, for our college trip, which was exactly 10 yrs earlier, but this was a whole different adventure!

As a bride to be, I wasn’t sure of going on this trip, 12 days to the wedding and still a lot to prepare for! The packing was done on the morning we were supposed to take off. Few hrs. to the flight, I packed a few clothes I could easily find in my wardrobe. And so was the case for my friends. Generally, we discuss, plan and then pack our bags like, who is responsible to carry toothpaste, sunscreen, makeup, etc. But as no 1 was sure for this trip to actually happen, we could not discuss or plan the packing and that was a proper lesson for all of us later.

Day 1

The plan was to reach Jaipur by flight so, the meeting point was the Airport. As usual, we reached the airport just in time to check in. Everyone showed up, including the bride to be and that cheered everyone. We landed Jaipur at around 3pm and took a cab to our hotel, “Hotel Sajjan Niwas”, an old haveli turned into a beautiful hotel. The haveli was split into half, 1 half was of the brother (Hotel Sajjan Niwas) and the other half was of the sister(Umaid Bhawan-A Royal Heritage Style Boutique Hotel), a typical Indian household story. As it was an old haveli, the architecture was old, yet gorgeous. We enjoyed every bit of the property. Our room was on the 2nd floor and the lobby not only on the 2nd floor was stunning, but all the floors had equally beautifully painted wall arts. We were clicking pictures the moment we reached the location. There was a picture of 3 Rajasthani ladies, right outside our room and we were kind of happy for this coincidence (as we were 3 friends). After relaxing for some time in the hotel, having snacks, we finally decided to move out for some shopping.

It was finally around 5:30 or 6:00pm that we reached Bapu Bazar, one of the most recommended shopping destinations in Jaipur. You can get everything as you roam from one shop to another. Every shop has some or the other collection that is unique from the other shops selling similar items. I was mainly looking for Mojadis but we shopped for more stuff than we had thought we would. Dress, mojadis, other Rajasthani footwears, fridge magnets (which is an obvious buy), jewellery, bedsheets and much more stuff. We were shopping till around 9:30 pm when the shops were about to shut for the day, and that is when we realized it was time we should head back to our hotel. But we were hungry. We walked for half hour to reach the nearest hotel which was open. As we were done with a good dinner, the street were almost empty. Somehow managing to get an auto, we reached the hotel after 10:30pm.

We had no toothbrushes, no toothpaste for the next day and when asked if we could find any store open, we learned that all the stores, including the medical stores, close by 8 or 9pm. We laughed on ourselves and slept after a long tiring day.

Day 2

We 3 woke up and finally out of bed by around 9pm. The previous day, we somehow had managed to find a dealer who rents a self drive car, for 2 days. After getting ready by around 11pm, we reached the dealer’s office (Yocarz services, Manish: 7357515751). Today was fort hopping day. According to the car dealer, we should have started our day by 8am when it was 12 noon. Finally we took the car, the dealer being skeptical of handing over his 10 day old car to 3 girls, and hit the road. We passed Patrika Gate on our way and decided to skip it after having a look at it and proceeded. If you are a shutterbug or someone who is obsessed of getting clicked, Patrika Gate is exactly the place for you. Had a nice, filling brunch at Rawat Misthan Bhandar, which we had imagined to be a small, old style shop, but to our surprise it turned out to be a big deal, just Rajasthan tales!

Then we proceeded for our journey to the forts. You can see the Nahargarh Fort from the main market areas but as they are on top of hill, overlooking the Pink City, you have to cover a good distance by road to see its insides. You pass through Hawa Mahal, Jal Mahal on route these forts. Nahargarh Fort, Jaigarh Fort and Amber Palace were our target for the day, including Panna Meena Ka Kund. It was a hot march day in Jaipur and we 3 girls were set to ramble without any scarf, hat or sunglasses. One of us had managed to carry at least a sunscreen and that was a relief.

We reached the Nahargarh Fort when it was 1 or 2 pm, the scorching heat was making it unbearable, but still we managed to roam around the fort. The entry ticket is around ₹ 50 for Indians. The architecture is amazing. As the fort stands tall on the Aravalli hills, you get to see a full panoramic view of Jaipur. You can get a clear view of Jal Mahal and many small ponds and lakes. The fort is open till 5:30 pm and opens at 10:30am

The next stop was Jaigarh Fort. You can easily take the vehicle to one of the main attractions of Jaigarh, i.e., The Jaivana cannon, which is a humongous cannon, which was then the world’s largest cannon on wheels and is preserved at Jaigarh Fort. This fort was built to protect Amer Fort and its Palaces. The fort overseas beautiful and well maintained gardens at Amber Palace. Jaigarh is a humongous fort! You actually feel the royalty the fort must have seen in its flourishing days. One can also call it a never ending fort, as it keeps on opening more and more as you walk through the tiny lanes inside the fort. The entry fee to this fort is ₹150 for Indians. The timings are from 9:00am to 6:30pm.

After spending a couple hours at this royal place, we moved for Panna Meena Ka Kund, the step well. You can just climb down a couple stairs and click pictures, no one is allowed to the bottommost part of this well. Spending a few mins, we headed straight to Amber Palace, the most beautiful palace of the day. The beautiful paintings, well maintained gardens, the glorious sheesh mahal and the gorgeous architecture, all just amazing! The best part for us was after the Sun had set and the palace was lit up. It was the most spectacular view of the day and just took away all the weariness. We sat on the floor to experience the amazing view in front of us, under the starry sky.

We were almost done for the day after having tummy full dinner at one of the restaurants on our way. I was very sleepy, but after reaching the hotel, I was asked to dress up and thrown out of the room, which felt like an eternity. The girls had decorated the room with lights, balloons were everywhere, it was magical. Finally, after this mini bachelorette, we called it a day. Ohh, and about the toothbrushes and paste, we got it complimentary from the hotel

Day 3

It was Holika dahan day and it had drizzled the previous night. Contrary to the hot yesterday, it was calm and cold today. The morning was spent in and around the pool as we wanted to enjoy every bit of our hotel. We were greatly hungry after the swimming so wanted a good lunch, but pictures at the hotel were still pending. After checking out from the hotel, by around 1pm, we went to a restaurant for a good Rajasthani Lunch. Then we headed to the City palace but since it was a festive day, the city palace remained open till noon. Jaipur City Palace, Jantar Mantar and Hawa Mahal are all in the same area, hence you can park your vehicle at 1 place and roam anywhere you want. We didn’t feel so bad as we already had been to City Palace, so next stop was Jantar Mantar. The fees to Jantar Mantar is ₹ 300 per person for Indians and now, the Sun was again in the March heat mode, but thanks to some trees which made it easy for us to tolerate the heat. Jantar Mantar is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built in the 18th century (1734) by Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II, famous for its largest stone Sundial, along with other such instruments, it is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

As most people see the Hawa Mahal while travelling to various different places in Jaipur, very few go inside it. You have to pay an entry fee of ₹ 150 per person for Indians. Famous for its Pink sandstone architecture, the cute small windows just take your mind away as you ses the interios of Hawa Mahal. The small windows, also known as Jharokhas are a very important feature of the mahal and has multiple benefits. They can convert hot winds into cool breeze inside the mahal, it is also a source from where the queens and princesses could see the ongoing hustle and festivals on the street below, without being seen. Finally our sightseeing list was ticked off. Now, we had some shopping to do, handover the car to the owner and reach Railway station, all in the opposite directions from each other and a time limit at hand. There was a great deal of traffic because of Holika Dahan celebration, which is slightly different from the way it is celebrated in Maharashtra. We had parked the car in some lane of Bapu Bazar and started to hunt for the shops we had been to, on the 1st day, which was a task with the time limit. While completing the task, we also enjoyed the Holika dahan with the locals, on our way. I just rushed through the traffic as we were getting late after the shopping was done, impressing one of my friends by my driving skills and somehow managed to reach station on time.

After boarding the train, we ordered train food, as we got no time to eat out or even buy sweets which we wanted to take back home.

Day 4

We reached Mumbai this morning and my relatives and cousins were waiting at home to greet me as I reached home. The Bridal stress was on, once again!

Let us know your experience of Jaipur or if you want to know more about the shops or things to buy in Jaipur

A small note: You might need to climb stairs on almost all the forts and palaces. Wheelchair is not accessible.

Please take care of these notes if you are traveling with senior citizens and have fun but also take care of your health