Pink City as its Prettiest. Review on Jaipur

After extensive googling and some amount of planning, 4 of us took off from South to visit Rajasthan and I must stress on the fact that it is a beautiful place! We had 7 whole days in hand and we didn't want to return and have a holiday from this holiday:) so we limited our tour to Jaipur(3 days), Jaisalmer(3 days) and Jodhpur(1 day).

Day 1: We reached Jaipur and stayed at RTDC Swagatham [(0141)-2200595]. Aware that most of our time would be spent in visiting places in Jaipur, we were set to catch up our night's sleep in economy hotels. The rooms were spacious and clean with relatively good service. The key advantage is Swagatham is close to the railway station and there are several eat-outs in the vicinity. To name a few at walking distance, Raawat is famous for its Pyaaz ki Kachori, Santosh is well-known for Dal-bhati-churma and Kanji has different cuisines. RTDC also has comfort hotels in the vicinity like Gangaur and Teej, but we couldn't get booking in these hotels owing to the crowd being the marriage season.

Day 2: We took a cab from the hotel to take us around Jaipur. Not inclined to cram too much sight-seeing into one day, we decided to enjoy our time at the forts in the outskirts of the city. So we first went to Amer Fort(11kms from the city) and then to the forts in the vicinity - Jaigarh(check out the huge Cannon) and Nahargarh(to see Mahendra Bhawan and Rang de basanti shooting spot). While returning we stopped at Kanak(garden) and JalMahal(palace amidst water) to click a few photos.

I must add a few pointers now. Beware of guides in Amer Fort! Sometimes, it is interesting to engage a guide while visiting monuments to realize the importance, but it is difficult to pick the right one. We were taken for a ride by a guide who charged us double, built fairy tales, and made us visit a Rajasthan emporium stating that it is a cottage industry with fixed prices(We later learnt that these guides get commission from taking tourists to their shops). I would suggest one to use the audio guide which is efficient and if you are still interested in engaging a guide, check the rates which are printed on the board along with the entrance charges.

Day 3: We relaxed during the early part of the day and then took an auto-rickshaw to the CityPalace. After that, we crossed over to Jantar-Mantar which is right opposite CityPalace. Well, I should say that if one is interested in science and physics, please visit this complex arena of sundials and celestial studiesJ. The audio guide went tangentially above my head, so I can’t contribute much to the technicalities of this place. Then we walked over to Hawa-Mahal, clicked a few snaps, walked over to Chauda rasta, shopped a little and returned to the hotel by evening.

We had the evening to ourselves as our train to Jaisalmer was at night. We were given 2 options - One was to visit Birla temple, and the other was to go to Gaurav towers(basically a mall) and enjoy the pink pepper ride(Volvo with inbuilt restaurant that takes you through Jaipur in 2 hours at night). We opted for the latter and went to Gaurav towers. The Pink pepper ride [(0141)-2722227 / 09799105400] didn’t quite happen as it required advance booking, but we went around the mall, enjoyed dinner at Indian Spice restaurant, returned, checked out from Swagatham and boarded the train to Jaisalmer.

As MS doesn't permit more than 7500 characters, I've continued the rest under Jaisalmer and Jodhpur respectively.

Sandhya