How did it start ?
This is what happens when Rishabh's free energy decides to take over! It all started when me and my good friend met after submitting 3 assignments, attempting 2 tests and 1 end semester and said "Yaar kahi chalte hain!"
That was the moment when I realised that this was not the case of "Opposites attract" but was clearly "Like dissolves like" and my good friend then reacted positively to my proposal in presence of our interest in traveling and converted into my Best Friend!
This plan was as random as the brownian motion and hence, there were no bookings for us. We managed to book an AC ticket to Jaipur a couple of days before the actual journey and thanks to an app, we booked our hotel rooms for all the upcoming locations at just under 1500! With no tour operator, we were all by ourselves. But was it good or bad? OBVIOUSLY GOOD!
Jaipur Starts
As soon as we arrived at Jaipur station, we started google maps and our lovely google aunty guided us to the nearest metro station from where it took us near to our hotel. The metro was very very cheap and very very fast! We alighted from the metro and walked towards the Hotel.
After checking in, we enquired about the places like hawa mahal and tried to catch a rickshaw. After some luck a rickshaw wala stopped and said 200 to hawa mahal. And we poor souls couldn't even think of bargaining. We rejected it like we reject the insignificant readings in Design of experiments XD. But I have to admit, we Indians are really good at heart. That guy said and I quote "Aap jaise aate rehte hain isliye humara dhanda chalta hai, aap tourists se to humara dil ka rishta hai isliye aapko bata deta hu k aapke hotel k niche khade rahiye, 5 number ki bus aayegi use pakad lena, hawa mahal pohoch jaoge." which roughly translated to "tourists like you are the source of income for us and so our hearts are connected. That is why I'm telling you this. Stand near your hotel and catch the bus with number 5, you'll reach hawa mahal" and we waited for the bus near the bus stand. The bus arrived but did't stop. We waved our hands and conductor saw us. We thought he'll stop, but he didn't. He instead told us to board the bus that was already in uniform motion. I'm used to Mumbai locals because I use it daily and so this turbulence in the journey was no big deal. My friend on the other hand struggled a bit but then was successful in "Joining the turbulence".
We then reached hawa mahal but it closes in the evening. We still could manage to click some photos and admire its beauty at night!
The next day, we visited Jaipur's famous city palace and it was indeed beautiful! Commercialization was in excess but it was worth it with the local musicians singing folk near the entrance. We interacted with the local guards over there and I have to say, Rajasthani people have this Wakhra Swag to a next level. There scarcasm is at a level where even Falcon heavy couldn't reach. So ask stupid questions at your own risk. I asked him whether that cannon was a real one and he gave me a disgusted look and said "nahi nakli hai, le ja ghar".
We then visited the famous jaigarh and nahargarh fort. We saw this huge cannon in Jaigarh fort which had a range of several kilometers and we were shocked to see this kind of technology back then! Then we ended up watching a scenic view of the sunset from the rooftop of the Nahargarh fort.
While coming from the forts, we met two foreigners who shared the rickshaw from the mountain top till the foot with us. We started talking. One thing led to another and then they offered us a lift! We didn't deny and there we were, in our hotel without spending a single penny! So What did we learn ? Speaking to random strangers can not only give yoy good friends but also can save your money!
After completing this amazing 2 day journey at Jaipur, we went ahead to the city of lakes.. That's right! Udaipur. We went to the bus stand and a non AC bus was our transport medium till udaipur which was an overnight journey and there were few mistakes that we did and no one else should.
1) NEVER EVER UNDERESTIMATE WINTERS OF RAJASTHAN
2) ALWAYS HAVE WARM CLOTHES WITH YOU AND NOT IN THE BAG!
Since we did not have a bag with us, we slept in our coats shivering all throughout the night. My friend was miserable so I gave him my Bayern MÜNCHEN scarf and the air gushing through a 1mm wide opening in the window which wouldn't close, took our temperature below the freezing point. It felt like absolute 0 that night!
Udaipur
We stayed in a hotel and decided to go and eat pani poori! There we met an auto rikshaw driver who was ready to take us through all the important points in a day and in a very cheap price! We called him the next day and headed to complete our udaipur journey.
First, he took us to Sajjangarh which was at the top of the mountain where we were hanging from the cliff, thinking about what would happen if we slipped and g=9.8m/s^2 acted upon us, and talking about Pokemon. We both are the biggest fans :P. We then went to the zoo where we hired a bicycle and rode our way through the zoo. We didn't see many animals but cycling experience where I used inertia instead of applying external force to climb up the hill was great!
We then went to places like Saheliyo ki badi (I don't know why did we even think of going there), saw a puppet show, went to Maharana Pratap smarak and last but not the least, ended up in City Palace of udaipur (You can see it as a wedding venue in Yeh jawaani hai deewani). City palace was one of the most beautiful destinations of udaipur and don't forget to visit the garden once you go there!
