Vacay - I

So we had gone for some R&R with R&R to the famed Golden triangle - being the brave souls we are, we arranged our own kinda tour where I booked hotels off the net and kept the inter city travel fluid. Praying to God that the hotels were not shadiness personified and not doing any research on the sites we wanted to visit,we had a very adhoc holiday which was just what the doctor ordered.

I really wanted to keep a travelogue sort of thing but it does not seem to be coming together so I will just review with pictures in brief:

Jan 2nd, Wednesday:

Depart Mumbai - on time, Air Deccan Zindabad! ok - maybe 20 mins late but that is practically on time in my world!

Reach Jaipur - check into Arya Niwas - heave sigh of relief that the many bags fit into one Tata Indigo - and before u people start saying how I can never travel light, R & R had mega bags since they the ones that had to go straight home post. The hotel was nice - tried and tested since the mother had stayed there in September

The difficult part was the finding of the food for lunch - since flight was at inconvenient time and AD is an LCC [Low Cost Carrier for those who did not know - no food served on the damn flights!!]. At the same time, trying to figure out an agendafor the evening since it was already 4 and every thing shuts in Jaipur by 5.30! Anyway, so we try our luck at this rooftop italian restaurant since it's the only one that's open and order the thali and pizza and let me tell you....this has to be the best Pizza in INDIA. It is wood smoked, with bacon, thin and crispy...I could go on and on...pizza being my favourite food!

We then decided to go Chokhi Dhaani which is an artisan village to spend the evening and soak in the Rajasthani culture. The highlight of that evening was the ghoda ghadi and camel ride...not because we took them..because they kept trying to kill R who was always in their way! There was always a Tyrannosaurus Rex who kept braying the whole night. The food was not that good tho I gorged on the roti, makhand and gur!

Back to the hotel , picked up alcohol and sat and chatted around. We had decided to hire car next day, do the sights and take the train to Delhi [original plan being J for 2 nghts and Delhi for one]

Jan 3rd, Thursday:

Woke up bright and early [read 8.30 am].Made arrangements with hotel in Delhi, so on and so forth and finally set off at 11 am for the wonderful sights of Jaipur

Started with the Hawa Mahal, the palace of wind..basically the house for the concubines which had a connecting door with the main city palace. The palace has some ridiculous number of apertures/windows thus the name. This was one of the first places to have a swimming pool/jacuzzi structure. I can just imagine the Maharaja with his 5000 concubines in the 'ickle' pool.

From there, we moved onto the City palace with the 4 season's courtyard and the 'Big' Maharaj who was 7 foot tall and 4 foot wide! He ated 5 kg jalebi and 5 litres of milk for breakfast per day...he died at age 40. Who would have thought? ;-)


At the Amber fort, where we cheated and took the car up instead of walking, we opted out of the guide and semi wandered around doing our own thing. Taking lots of funny pictures - finally ended up for lunch at a picturesque resto-cafe in the middle of the fort. The location was nice, the food left much to be desired but nice experience. Post which we came back to hotel to pack up and catch train for Dilli so that completes first installment of holiday. will do Dilli 'n Agra later.


P.S. me and the boy are holiday compatible - yay!