Jaipur, The capital of Rajasthan and famously known as The Pink city or "gulabi shahar". I was always mesmerized by the hills, the forts and the proud history that this shahar carries with its name, and thus it has always been on my wish list, although I never expected that my trip to Jaipur was going to be with office colleagues. After relocating to the centre (of sorts) of most of the places on my travel wishlist, a.k.a Gurugram (or Gurgaon) I couldn’t stop myself. I had already planned my journey so that I could cover everything over a weekend and be office-ready by Monday morning. So, in December I along with 3 others with nothing better to do than spend their weekend with me hopped on a 2-day journey to Jaipur.
We started by boarding the bus to Jaipur from Iffco chowk, it was a late-night bus, 11 pm to be exact so that we could reach there early morning, settle down in the room we had already booked (OYO, technology is taking you places with ease), freshen up and start touring early. We reached Jaipur at 5 AM, lucky for us the check-in time at OYO hotel was 12PM (pro tip – never go for OYO in a time-constrained trip). So with nothing to do and a setback, we decided to freshen up in some public restroom, which by the way, in India is an herculean task, so after searching for a while we headed to the railway station, you know why. We then booked some two-wheelers online to travel in the city and headed to pick it up from the designated location. With three hours still in hand till our check-in, we decided to cover Jantar Mantar, after which we could cover the famous forts.
Jaigarh fort was made by Jai Singh II in order to overlook and protect Amer Fort and Maota Lake. The main attraction here is the cannon factory and the world biggest cannon.
Next morning, we started our tour with breakfast again at masala chowk (few shops opens at 8AM and rest at 10AM) and after then the unfinished Amer Fort.
As much as I know, Jantar Mantar is like a collection of instruments used for astronomical calculations. India in total have about Five Jantar Mantars, but the one in Jaipur is the largest. Fun fact: Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur constructed all the five Jantar Mantars in India, he is also the founder of Jaipur. I reached with some pre-defined expectations as I have been to Jantar Mantar in Delhi, but I have never been so wrong in my life (apart from a few other things), I was astonished by the architecture and the science behind all the instruments placed there. To be honest, I wasn’t able to grasp the science behind all, but the advancement of astronomy did amaze me.
On our way, we saw the picturesque Jal Mahal. We couldn’t go there since it was being renovated into a hotel(as per local), but it sure was a sight to remember.
We reached Nahargarh Fort at around 05PM . It stands on the edge of Aravalli overlooking the city of Jaipur and famous of its splendid sunset view. As the sun advances toward the horizon and goes through the desert smog, the sky turns orange and it feels truly magical.
The closing time of Nahargarh Fort is 5:00pm as mentioned over internet but this time is only valid for meusem inside fort and other places like sunset view point and cafe is open till late night.
We reached Amer Fort to the voice of Bacchan Ji explaining the history of Amer fort with beautiful light show. Entry Ticket for the Sound & Light show is Rs. 250/- and timing for English is 6:30pm(Oct-Feb); 7:00pm(Mar-Apr); 7:30pm(May-Sept) and for Hindi is 7:30pm(Oct-Feb); 8:00pm(Mar-Apr); 8:30pm(May-Sept). We couldn’t explore much so decided to leave the rest to next morning and started towards our hotel.
We spent a good time there and left for the hotel at 1 PM. With a crunched schedule to follow we started again at 3 PM towards Nahargarh Fort.
After the taking In the view at Nahargarh fort we rushed to Amer Fort. It was 07PM, dark and the ride was dangerous but fun (Don’t try this in Rajasthan).
On the way we stopped at Masala chowk, I heard about it being famous for cuisines and the food stalls and it did not disappoint me in any way. A great experience for your taste buds.
The major attractions in Amer are: Dil Aram garden, Maota Lake, Diwan-i-Aam, Diwan-i-Khas, Sheesh Mahal, different pole of entrance to the fort, presence of beautiful gardens throughout the fort.
It is a magnificent piece of architecture, and anyone will be dumbfounded by the length and breadth of it. The imposing nature of the fort wants you to explore it. In my travels, I always thought Agra fort to be well built but Amer fort changed my mind and I totally loved it. Fun fact, there is a secret passage that connects to Jaigarh fort, and we decided to tread it. It took us about an hour to reach Jaigarh fort using that route, and thus we stopped at our third fort of the day.
One doesn’t need to take the secret passage to Jaigarh fort since there is another way, which involves less walking and better roads.
With time not on our side, we decided to skip Hawa mahal(Although we already saw it while going to forts & jantar mantar) and Albert Hall Musuem and went straight to shopping for some souvenirs and boarded the bus at 9 PM to Gurgaon.
While on the bus back to monotony, I took out my itinerary handbook and found a few places in Jaipur that I could not strike off my list, like the Hawa Mahal, City Palace, Albert hall museum and a few temples but I did truly enjoyed the Pink city. And the mesmerizing trip which made me fall in love with the History and beautiful Architecture came to an end. Hope to visit this beautiful place again.