Golden Triangle Series : Part 3, Jaipur.

I am back at it again doing the golden triangle series and this time I will be writing about Jaipur 😉

Jaipur is the capital city of Rajasthan a state which boasts of being the most  popular tourist destination in India and it also acts as some sort of gateway to other tourist destinations including Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.

Jaipur is famously known as the pink city because of the color of the stone used for construction of all the structures. The story goes that the prince of wales and queen Victoria were visiting India. Since pink shows hospitality the Singh of Jaipur painted the whole city pink to welcome the visitors and the tradition stuck and has been followed sincerely by the residents who by law are now compelled to maintain the pink color.

Jaipur has an airport which you can directly fly into from wherever making it very accessible. I feel there are no words that can perfectly describe this beautiful city. The architecture, culture, Jewellery, textiles, traditions,art, night life will captivate you and leave you speechless. There are so many sites for you to check out and I tried my very best to do that, which was quite an interesting task to accomplish. I thought about doing two posts on Jaipur but decided against it and I will try as much as possible to include everything in this post. So please bear with me if it turns out longer than usual 🙂

There is so much to do and see in Jaipur that I feel like the minimum amount of time you should spend is three days, which might still not be enough.We stayed at Leisure inn which was on M.I road and the location was perfect in terms of where everything is.If you follow me on Instagram you are aware that when I got to Jaipur I was so sick and this almost made my Jaipur experience horrible. But no, not even bacteria could stop me from enjoying this beautiful city.

On our second day in Jaipur we met a guy named Suhan who was very cool and asked us if we would like to hang out with him. I remember an internet search had produced an article that told of how locals in Jaipur will ask tourists to hang out and then end up drugging them and stealing from them.

As a tourist you are probably going to be asked to hang out, what I can tell you is that trust your instincts always and if the people are especially too eager,avoid them. Also know that sometimes they wont genuinely hang out and will want to take you to businesses where they want you to purchase items and they will even get paid for doing that. Suhan turned out to be very awesome and we ended up hanging out with him and his buddies the entire time we were in Jaipur.

New friends.

The pink city is incredibly beautiful and as you drive or walk around you cannot help but stare. On the streets there will be people doing mehndi art designs, indulge yourself and get it done for next to nothing. The shopping bazaar is a true shoppers paradise, there are so many beautiful things to buy . One thing that sucks is how expensive things are for a tourist! The struggle is real. Most of the times, by virtual of being a tourist you might end up buying something 5 times its actual price. You will have to be very tough and bargain to buy things, for me I would divide the quoted price by four and refuse to change my mind. They would argue and act like its outrageously low, but if I started walking away they would follow me and most of the times end up selling to me at my price.

Mehndi Art

Haggling 101

After some shopping in the pink city, walk to Hawa Mahal and enjoy the beautiful palace which has a very interesting story behind it. The palace has very many tiny windows which allow you to look at the streets without being seen. The story behind this is of a king who built the palace for his many queens to be able to see festivities down on the street without them being necessarily seen.

The palace is incredibly beautiful at night and legend has it that it disappears very late at night. After the site seeing, walk to MM Khan restaurant which is just close by. Suhan and his buddies promised us that the restaurant had the best chicken in the entire state. True to their words that was the best chicken I had in Rajasthan and the entire India!!. I still think of that Afghani chicken when I am hungry LOL. There is good food for everyone and if you are a vegetarian,do not worry  because theres a  Restaurant on M.I road called Dasaprakash that has delicious vegetarian food.

Hawa Mahal

Hawa Mahal

MM.Khan

Visit the water palace which I swear was the one of the most beautiful sites I saw in India. Imagine a huge palace in the middle of an equally huge lake and has like a beautiful background of mountains!. It was breathtaking and so surreal.

Water palace.

We also got a chance to go to Amber fort which is the principal tourist attraction in Jaipur and it is a UNESCO World heritage site. The palace has a serpentine looking staircase viewing from the road. Visit this fort and learn its deep history and marvel at its amazing red sandstone and marble architecture.After visiting the impressive Amber fort go up ahead to see the sunset up the Nahargarh fort, which is on the edge of the Aravali hills and is also another UNESCO World heritage site. From this fort you can see the entire city of Jaipur as you have a beer.

It is so impressive and don`t be surprised if you are not able to resist the beautiful view as Jaipur lights up after dark and end up having more than one beer. While you are there visit the wax museum which is very beautiful. Before this I had never been to a wax museum and it was a really interesting affair for me seeing the lifelike wax figures.It was opening night when we got there and we got a chance to  see the museum and take pictures with the wax figurines which was pretty awesome. Lets just say I “got to smoke some shisha with a dude in a turban and joined a band” while I was there LOL. Not so far is the Jaigarh fort which you should also visit.

Homies.

Band Mates.

Still on the museums vibe visit the Albert fort that is home to all of the history of Jaipur dating as far back as when the city of Jaipur was formed by the very first Maharaja. When you get to the museum you will feel like you just walked through a time machine as you get the feel of the past, present and future Jaipur. The museum is quite impressive and houses also history’s of other places example Ancient Egypt.They also had like an entire section showing different ancient yoga poses in their traditional Sanskrit names which made me jump gleefully, and re-evaluate my Yoga goals he he.

Albert Fort.

Yoga Goals.

We also visited the Monkey temple which is in the other side of town, up a hill and as the name suggests be prepared to see a lot of monkeys. When you get there, you will be offered tour guide services,and for us there were this two young 10 year old boys who were looking to make some cash and it was quite hard to resist them, those two will make good salesmen when they grow up . While you are at the bottom of the hill buy some nuts to feed the monkeys and wait until you get to the top before feeding them. At the top there is a temple which you are allowed to get in after taking off your shoes and there are so. From here you  get a really awesome view of Jaipur and the sunset is breathtaking. At the temple they don`t ask for money from you but it is good if you can contribute something small. Have fun with monkeys and do not be too scared to feed them. One of the monkeys was so curious about my hair and jumped on my back and proceeded to put his hands through my hair LOL. That was the first time I have been so close to a monkey and I would like to think the tiny guy cast some magic spell on my hair and am attributing its recent growth spurt to him he he.

 

Since it looked like animals were feeling my vibe then I am sure it doesn’t come as a surprise that we also visited the Elephant village. At the elephant village there are various activities that you can do to the elephants ; ride, wash, paint and feed them. I had my first elephant ride and got a chance to hug the elephant and kiss its trunk which apparently brings you good luck.

Bliss.

Something else that you must do is visit the Famous Raj Mandir Cinema which is a piece of art. It is so awesome and though the movie was in Hindi I was very happy and loved the being there. Its not 3D, but the screen is massive and i would advice you to get the Diamond tickets which give you a perfect experience.

I feel like Jaipur will always hold a special place in my heart as I got to celebrate my birthday there. The night life in Jaipur is awesome bruh!!i had really great nights and partied a lot. My fave bar was Blackout which was super lit!!.

Birthday Night at Blackout.

 

Thank you Suhan for the great time buddy and when we come back we will turn up a good one xx!. Thank you all for reading this post and kindly share your thoughts below.

Cheers!