Hi fellows! How are you all doing this last week of
August!? It has been a lovely month & year so far! Having said that, check
out the Part 1 & Part 2 of Jaipur Journals before reading this one! As I mentioned,
Day 1 was a day with a lot of sight-seeing. Well, Day 2 wasn’t that different!
It was probably more taxing but covering lesser places. Shall we begin?
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~~HAWA MAHAL~~
Much to our misfortune, it was RAINING ALL DAY! Yes, it was frustrating! For
2 reasons; One – my shoes got wet & Two – I couldn’t take my camera with
me. There are other reasons too such as ‘I have been wanting to visit Jaipur
since years & when I finally get there, it is raining, nay, pouring on the
day I am supposed to view the MAIN SPOTS IN
JAIPUR! But, I won’t bore you with such reasons.
Picture it. 2 girls in front of the Hawa Mahal
while it was POURING. Suruchi with
her umbrella & I halfway inside her umbrella wearing a rain coat clicking
photos with my mobile inside the umbrella & the umbrella making an
appearance in the photo too. And when I tell Suruchi to hold the umbrella a bit
upwards, rain starts coming in on my phone & then soon enough it gets windy
with umbrella being reversed & upturned, leaving me, my phone, Suruchi, her
phone all wet in a whole watery chaos! That’s how our day started! Lovely,
ain’t it?
I didn’t let this upset me like it did on the day
we had arrived in Jaipur. It was raining cats & dogs when we were in Jantar
Mantar. It rained, I smiled through it. It poured, I danced through it. I’m not
making shit up! I got pictures to prove it! But first, let’s focus on Hawa
Mahal! We had allotted 1 hour for Hawa Mahal, which included taking photos from
the front, doing a small tour inside it & lastly going at a café opposite
Hawa Mahal to take our photos with the background of Hawa Mahal! Instead, we
ended up doing the umbrella-rain-mobile circus mentioned above & moved on
to City Palace in less than 15 minutes! If you visit Hawa Mahal, I insist you go to the cafes opposite it (Wind View Cafe / Tattoo Cafe & Lounge) to get the most scenic photos!
Check out some of the photos below but do not be
too amazed. I had seen such fantastic photos of the place earlier, but when I
actually saw Hawa Mahal, I was utterly disappointed! It does not look as grand
as it looks in the photos. It looked like just another pink building in the
Pink City. The mantra is to not be fooled by the photos & not have too many expectations!
Other
Details:
·
5 minutes from City Palace.
·
Open from 9 AM to 4.30 PM.
·
Entry Fees – Rs. 50
·
Takes 45-50 minutes to explore.
~~CITY PALACE: PRITAM NIWAS CHOWK~~
The main spot in the lovely city of Jaipur is the
City Palace. And, dare I say, also the most OVERRATED.
There is A LOT TO SEE in City Palace,
but they choose to show THE LEAST PART OF IT,
while charging exorbitant rates for the MORE
ROYAL places. I mean, you are literally the royals, why are the
charges so high? This cannot be your only source of income!
First, we visited the Pritam Niwas Chowk which has
the 4 seasonal gates namely The Lotus Gate (Summer), Green/Leheriya Gate
(Spring), Rose Gate (Winter) & Peacock Gate (Monsoon.) From the inner
courtyard, you can view the Chandra Mahal, where the King of Jaipur resides
with his family. I think Suruchi & I spent at least 30-40 minutes at these
Gates alone! I was looking forward to get amazing photos here & so I did!
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| The Lotus Gate |
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| Green/Leheriya Gate |
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| Peacock Gate |
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| Rose Gate |
~~CITY PALACE: SHOBHA NIVAS~~
After the Gates, we went inside the Palace to the
Shobha Nivas & oh, what a beauty! It was filled with walls full of mirrors
& glasses & gold! It was as royal as it gets! The royal family uses
this room only once a year, that is for Laxmi Pooja in Diwali festival. We got to sit
where the King sits! How awesome is that? Check out the grandeur of that one
room in the photos below!
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Outside Shobha Nivas
|
~~CITY PALACE: GUEST HOUSE~~
Next was the royal guest house. It may not sound
royal, but it sure is GRAND! This
guest room was for all the guests of the royal family! It had quite an antique
look which made it look like it belonged to a different era. Of course, we
loved it!
~~CITY PALACE MUSEUM~~
After the all the main spots in City Palace, we
visited the Museum at the end. It was a small hall filled mostly with paintings
& history of the place. Not that great & definitely nothing compared to
the Udaipur City Palace Museum tour!
There were a few more spots where we wanted to
click photos, but since Salman Khan (Bollywood actor) was shooting a song scene
in City Palace, we had to miss out on those spots.
Other
Details:
·
Open from 9 AM to 5 PM.
·
Entry Fees for Museum & Pritam
Chowk – Rs. 200
·
Charges for the extended tour: Rs
1500 & Rs. 3000 for Indians.
·
Takes 1.5-2 hours to explore.
~~JANTAR MANTAR OBSERVATORY~~
The Jantar Mantar Observatory is at a 5 minutes
distance from the City Palace. It is a UNESCO
World Heritage site which has a collection of nineteen architectural
astronomical instruments.
The area was naturally quite spread out. So, here, it was very
windy & with it came the crazy rains! Because it was raining, most of the
places were restricted from entry. So, I couldn’t take photos in the manner I
wanted. We took a few shots & were out in 20 minutes. With my wet shoes all
day long, all I wanted was to go for lunch at On The House & that’s what we
did.
Here are some photos I which I’m throwing a tantrum
like a kid & other in which I accepted my fate!
Other
Details:
·
5 minutes from City Palace Upset one moment..
·
Open from 9 AM to 5 PM.
·
Entry Fees - Rs. 50
·
Takes 30-45 minutes to explore.
~~ALBERT HALL MUSEUM~~
After a heavy & delicious lunch, we moved ahead
for the tour of Albert Hall museum. This one was the longest & too tiring.
Like any typical museum, it consisted of all typical things of historical
importance. I had visited Hyderabad’s Salarjung Museum, which is the biggest
museum in India. And after that never-ending & tiring yet interesting
experience, I steer clear of museums! I have very little patience for it. All
the items are anyway similar to any other museum. You have your armour,
paintings, vases, hookah pipe (oddly everywhere!), kitchen utensils, carpets,
coins, & so on! After the first floor, I was too tired, but we completed
the second floor & then the basement.
The irony is that I couldn’t get a shot of the
museum from the outside, because it was restricted! So, it was all for nothing!
Other
Details:
·
10 minutes from City Palace
·
Open from 9 AM to 5 PM.
·
Entry Fees - Rs. 40
·
Takes 45 minutes-1 hour to
explore.
~~BAPU BAZAAR~~
After a long day accompanied with constant rain, dampened
clothes & wet shoes, we went to Bapu Bazaar with little enthusiasm for
shopping. Nevertheless, we gave it a try. The only nice thing here is that all
the lanes are Pink. Similar yet unique. But, all of them are in little stores
where they have fixed prices. So, we didn’t bother to shop because we had no energy to bargain. The streets are
really nice for a walk though, if it isn’t raining incessantly.
~~OTHER PLACES IN JAIPUR~~
As I mentioned before, we skipped a few places
because they weren’t as amazing as others, in my opinion & some of them
were very far off! You can check out these places if you have the time!
Jaigarh
Fort
Birla Mandir
Galtaji
Temple
Samode
Palace
To sum it up, we had a lot of disappointments;
restricted entries at Jantar Mantar & Albert Hall Museum, expensive tickets
at City Palace & not doing the whole routine at Hawa Mahal. All of this
combined with rains (have I mentioned this enough times?) made the whole day
tiring. But despite the challenges, we ended up having a great time! I think
more the setbacks, more it gives you opportunities to say screw it all, let’s
roam around anyway!!
Day 2 was shorter than Day 1, but it became quite
intolerable & we ended up more tired than the day before. We almost caved
about not going out for dinner. But, since it was our last day in Jaipur, we
had to go out! We had one disappointing meal on the last night at Peacock
Rooftop restaurant.
Until next time,
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