After a three-year looooong hiatus thanks to COVID-19, we finally visited India in December 2021. This time we spent a few days in Jaipur, before spending time with family and friends in Mumbai and Pune. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and is known as Pink City, due to the pink hued buildings in the city. Rajasthan is popular among tourists and part of the golden triangle that many tourists visit. Probably due to COVID, we encountered fewer crowds than usual. We also went quite early everywhere and that helped combat the crowds. Most people spend 2-3 days in Jaipur and probably see more places than we did. But we were fairly jet-lagged when we reached there and were glad to have more days at our disposal. We stayed at
Karma Haveli in Pink City and enjoyed the stay. It is in the older part of the city, which puts it in close proximity to many monuments. We used the rickshaw/tuk-tuk to visit the nearby monuments. The staff and the service are amazing, and the rooms are great too. We stayed on the top floor with a rooftop and could see forts and temples around us. The restaurant served great food. The dal-baati-choorma thali served here was my favorite. They also had decent entertainment in the evenings. I would absolutely recommend this place.
Here are some of my favorite places:
Hawa Mahal (the Palace of Breeze): Hawa Mahal tops my list of favorite monuments in Jaipur. Built in 1799, it allowed the women in the royal family to watch the street life and processions without being seen. Its architecture ensured that the palace was cool in the summer and had ample sunshine in the winters. I was intrigued when I first learned about it in school many years ago and saw pictures of it. Many people will tell you that there is nothing to see inside and will recommend going to the cafe across from it instead. While I certainly recommend visiting the
Wind View Cafe, don't miss the tour of the palace itself. I loved it. Normally we like to go with a tour guide, but we skipped a guide for this tour and just wandered around. The palace courtyard and some of the more obvious rooms were crowded, but leave the crowds behind and wander a bit further. It feels great to get lost here, to be the only two people enjoying the beauty of some of the rooms and terraces.
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Hawa Mahal as seen from Wind View Cafe
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| Hawa Mahal Courtyard |
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| Decorative ceilings |
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| Busy street as seen from one of the windows in the Palace |
Gaitore ki Chhatriyan (the Royal Cenotaphs): This place was very close to Karma Haveli and is one of my favorite places because of its beauty and its serenity. It is not very well known, even though the tickets to this place are included in City Palace's tickets. These royal cenotaphs have intricate carvings on them and are made from marble and sandstone. Right next to these royal cenotaphs is the
Garh Ganesh temple, situated on top of the Nahargarh hills, if you are in the mood to climb some steep, uneven steps.
Galtaji Temple: My other favorite spot was mostly closed due to COVID and we got to see it from a distance. That didn't matter. It is still a lovely place. This one was a long drive away and it's best to get a cab that will also bring you back. Negotiate a price in advance. There aren't many cabs/tuk-tuks outside the temple to come back. Car rental is also a good option for visiting this temple, as
Sisodiyan Rani ka Bagh is also on the way to this temple. There are a few temples inside the complex. The main temple that we wanted to see though was closed for visitors. This temple is beautifully set among Aravalli hills and the water tank in front of it adds to its beauty. Even from a distance we could see the vibrant colors of the paintings on the temple. Many Jaipur monuments use vegetable dyes for painting. They look vibrant and have lasted for more than 200 years without being retouched. You will find plenty of monkeys around the temple. There is also a hike that leads to the temple from the back. This hike gives you access to a beautiful sun temple and another water tank. Apparently there are seven water tanks that can be accessed through the hike. This is a great spot to watch the sunset from.
Amber Fort and Palace: Amber/Amer Fort is one of the top monuments visited by tourists in Jaipur. It is in the city of Amber and about a 30 minute drive from Pink City. It is located on top of a hill and you can take an elephant ride to go up, not something that we were keen on. We drove all the way to the top and stopped at
Panna Meena ka Kund on the way. Panna Meena Kund is a 16th century step well near the fort. The square step well has steps on all four sides. The architecture of the step well eliminates the need to climb a steep set of steps to fetch water. There are several such step wells all over in Rajasthan, with
Chand Baori being one of the largest. We also visited the one at Nahargarh fort, which didn't seem as steep as this one. At both, Amber and Nahargarh you can join Heritage water walks to learn more about the step wells.
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| Panna Meena ka Kund |
Amber Fort opens at 8 am and we reached there by 8:30 am. It wasn't crowded and we were told that mostly international tourists visit that early. Due to COVID, international visitors were almost non-existent. Other than us there were three wedding photographers at the fort and we had to hustle to get some good shots for ourselves. Our tour guide was great and took some good photos of us as well. The fort itself was beautiful and huge. The main courtyard and the entrance to the palace were enthralling. No wonder, so many pre-wedding shoots happen here. Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors) is the most famous part of this fortress-palace. It's walls and ceilings are beautifully carved with paintings and flowers made from thousands of glass mirrors. One can only imagine how beautiful Sheesh Mahal would have looked at night when the palace was lit with oil lamps and thousands of small mirrors reflected this light.
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| Amber Fort sits on Lake Maota |
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Main courtyard, Ganesh Pol
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Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors)
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City Palace: City Palace is another popular monument in Jaipur. Once again, it's huge, beautiful and regal. It's architecture has both Mughal and Rajput influences. The entire palace is full of intricately carved walls, pillars and entrances. It has beautiful marbled floors and collections of royal gems and gold embroidered clothes. It has a beautiful courtyard, similar to other forts and palaces (and many traditional homes) all over India. The courtyard has four beautiful entrances, each depicting a season.
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| Peacock gate representing monsoon |
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| Lotus gate representing summer |
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| Green Gate representing Spring |
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| Rose gate representing winter |
Sunset in Jaipur: There are several spots where you can enjoy a great sunset. Gaitore ki Chhatriyaan and Galtaji Temple are both good candidates, and so is
Jal Mahal (we didn't have much luck here). Jal Mahal is a 5-story building with four levels under the water and one above water. The most popular spot, which we also liked is the
Nahargarh fort. You can combine your visit to Amber fort, Jaigarh fort and Nahargarh fort in a single day.
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| Jal Mahal (Lake Palace) |
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Sunset at Nahargarh fort
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Patrika Gate: Patrika gate is close to Jaipur airport and is the entrance to Jawahar Circle Park. It is a much newer monument as compared to others in the city. It was built in 2016 by a local news company called Patrika. It has the same ornate arches and pillars as seen at other Jaipur monuments.
Albert Hall Museum: This museum was built in 1887 and is named after Prince of Wales, Albert Edward. The building itself is beautiful (Indo-Sarcenic architecture) and looks even more beautiful when lit at night. It has a vast collection of a variety of artifacts, including military, textiles, paintings, pottery, philately, etc. Both the quantity and quality of the collection in this museum is unlike what I have seen anywhere else. We spent several hours here.
Folk art: We were able to catch some performances at our hotel and at
Jawahar Kala Kendra. Jawahar Kala Kendra is a center for preservation and promotion of the culture and art of India. It's architecture is the same as that of the city of Jaipur, which is designed in nine blocks, based on Navagraha (nine planets). Luckily there was an exhibition and folk artists from all over the country gathered and performed here in December. A few performances that we enjoyed included Ghoomar, Kalbeliya, Bhavai, Chari, Kachhi Ghodi, Lavani, Gondhal, etc.
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| Bhavai |
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| Sufi Kathak (Indian classical dance) |
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Kachhi Ghodi
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Food: No matter where you go in India and what you want to eat (veg or non-veg), there are always plenty of good options. In Jaipur, for the first time, we ate samosa, kachori and jalebi for breakfast. Growing up, I never knew that anyone can eat jalebi for breakfast! For the most part of our trip, we also routinely skipped one meal, because of how heavy the food was (it was also delicious and we always overate!). We were gravely disappointed by the much talked about Laxmi Mishthann Bhandar (LMB). Instead smaller shops were so much better. We loved the snacks at
Krishna Sweets in Pink City, close to Karma Haveli. The ghevar at
Sodhani sweets was also much better. Of course, the lassi at the original
Lassiwalla was to die for. When we got tired of eating all the heavy food, especially lal maans and dal-baati-choorma thali, we went to Narain Niwas Palace for some non-Indian food. Both
Shikaar Bagh and
Bar Palladio had great food, drinks and decor.
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| Dal Baati Choorma Thali |
Shopping: Much has been written about street shopping in Jaipur. Famous places are Bapu Bazaar, Johari Bazaar and other such street markets. I honestly no longer have much patience for this shopping any more, but I love walking through the colorful markets. I however, shopped at the Narain Niwas complex, which has stores like Anantaya and Jaipur Hot Pink. I also like to and have always had a good experience shopping at exhibitions in India. And I had that opportunity this time at Jawahar Kala Kendra during their exhibition.
Traveling in India is always fun. The best term to describe our India vacations is "चंगळ"! It's a feeling that I don't know how to express in English. Jaipur was great and I am now looking forward to the next trip!!
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