Weekend Trip to Jaipur from Delhi

Bus from Delhi to Jaipur:  Friday

It was my sudden plan for a Weekend Trip to Jaipur, I had no idea where to catch the bus for Jaipur, so I asked my colleague, where can I get the bus to Jaipur, he told me Sarai Kale Khan Bus stop, it's very near to Nizamuddin Railway station.

I took a metro ride from Noida city center to Indraprastha Metro station and from Indraprastha Metro station I took the shared auto in 20 rupees to reach near Nizamuddin Railway station and from the Nizamuddin railway station I took a walk for around 5 minutes and reached Sarai Kale Khan Bus stop. Here I enquired about the Bus to Jaipur and got the bus, the moment I entered in the Bus, it started to Jaipur, It was around 12:00 o’clock in the night when the bus started to Jaipur. During the course of the journey to Jaipur, the bus stopped at one Dhaba for tea coffee and dinner. Since it was a late night so I chose to avoid any tea or coffee break in the journey.

The bus reached Jaipur around 4 AM in the morning, I got down when the bus entered in the Sindhi Camp bus stand. Since I had no prior hotel booking so I started searching for the hotel, meanwhile one strange fellow came to me, showed hotel card and one more card where almost all visiting places names were written, he repeatedly insisted me to go along with him for the hotel booking and all but I strictly told him, I have come alone to explore the place, let me explore it alone, let me find the hotel alone, let me book the tourist bus (One day package tour bus for sightseeing in Jaipur) alone.

Somehow he left me and then I went to a very nearby hotel to Sindhi Camp Bus Stand in Jaipur. Since it was 4 o’clock in the morning and I had to wake up at 8 o’clock in the morning, so I only wanted a hotel for a little nap, toilet, and shower. I preferred non-AC room but the non-AC room was not available and the AC room was around 2,000 rupees, I tried to bargain with him but I failed in the that, I started coming out of the hotel, suddenly I thought of asking about the one-day package tour bus for Jaipur sightseeing and for this I again went to the reception in the same hotel.

I enquired about the fare for one person of a Jaipur sightseeing bus servie, and I came to know that it’s only 250 rupees, as soon as I heard 250 rupees, I finalized this, I told him to book one seat in the Jaipur sightseeing bus, when I started giving 250 rupees for Jaipur sightseeing bus then he told me you are only paying for the bus here and you are going to find room in another hotel, I said yes, because your room is little expensive for me then he said okay give 550 rupees more I give you the AC room. I said okay because this is what I wanted, I paid him 550 rupees more and got the room key and the hotel attendant accompanied me to the hotel room.

Exploring Jaipur: Saturday

I woke up at around 8 o’clock in the morning and was feeling little cold, the weather was quite good outside, I had only one hour left with me to get ready for the bus. So I started getting ready, I skipped the shower because I was feeling little cold, I left the room around the 8:30 AM and handed over the key to the guy sitting in the reception. I asked for the breakfast and he told me to have a sit on the breakfast table, I started looking into the menu and I found no good options available to have, I was looking for some boiled eggs and milk but I could not find that so I asked for this but he told me, sir egg and milk are not available, so finally I got to order oily Chhole Bhature.

I finished my breakfast very fast and I asked for the bill, the bill was 70 rupees and paid him 100, 30 rupees as a tip and I went to the reception to ask about the bus. The reception guy told me sir bus will come by 9: 15 AM so I waited until 9: 15 AM. Since I had 6-7 hours of journey in the night so I started feeling sleepy sitting on the couch, I took a tight nap for 15 minutes because at sharp 9:30 somebody came to disturb me, and he was the person I was waiting for, he was my sightseeing tour guide. He took me to the bus and finally I was on the bus, very excited because I was about to explore Jaipur, the pink city, it’s beauty, architecture, history, food, handicraft and many more things.  There were 12 more people in the double-decker bus so it was quite fun talking to them. The bus started for the trip at around 9: 45 and the first monument in the list (the list with the tour guide) to see was the Birla Mandir.

We reached the Birla Mandir via Raj Mandir theater. Raj Mandir which is the iconic theater not only in Jaipur but in India as well. After reaching Birla Mandir, the tour guide gave us 30 minutes to see the temple, the temple is built beautifully in a very large and beautiful place. I took some photos of the temple from outside the temple, photography is not allowed inside the temple. The temple has idols of Lord Vishu and Goddess Laxmi.

After visiting the temple we came out and sat on the bus for our next monument, the next monument was the central museum. The entry fee to the museum was 40 rupees for Indian citizen, I took the ticket and entered the museum, the museum was very big, beautiful and multi-storey, the museum showcases the art of Jaipur and it has a collection of artefact of Jaipur’s royal family such as handicrafts, paintings, and many more things.

Hawa Mahal Jaipur:

Our next monument to visit in the list was the Pink city, the name which is synonyms of Jaipur, the pink city is spread in distance of 4 KM and it has very similar architecture in both side of the road, temple opposite of temple, shops opposite of shops. The Hawa Mahal, the landmarks of Jaipur is situated in this pink city only. We had only the front view of the iconic Hawa Mahal as there was no place to park our vehicle there. After few minutes, we were out of the pink city and we waved our hands on the exit of the pink city.

Jantar Mantar Jaipur:

After the exit of the Pink city, we had to visit Jantar Mantar, we reached Jantar Mantar just after few minutes of drive from the Pink City. Jantar Mantar was not a new place to discover for me, as I already had been to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. There are many Jantar Mantar monuments in India. I took some pictures of the monuments, saw the iconic watch inside the monuments which runs in the sunlight and gives Jaipur standard time. There were many foreign tourists there as well, Rajasthan attracts the maximum no of tourist in India, so it was very obvious to see them there.

Cenotaph of Jaipur’s Maharani:

After the visit to Jantar Mantar, we were on the way to Cenotaphs of Jaipur’s Maharani (Queen). It’s an empty tomb created to honor Jaipur’s Maharani whose remains are elsewhere. This place is picturesque so I took few pictures and few selfies.

Rajasthani Style Lunch:

It was around 2 o’clock by the time we finished the visit to Cenotaph of Jaipur’s Maharani, so after the visit, we decided to go for lunch and I was especially looking for Rajasthani Thali. Our tour guide took us to a Rajasthani restaurant where I ordered Rajasthani Thali. I heard a lot about Dal Bati-Churma so I was very excited about the order. The thali was little expensive, I paid 240 rupees for one thali but as I was very eagerly waiting for this food in Rajasthan so I paid happily.

Amber Fort Jaipur:

Our next monument to visit was Amber fort and this place is really the most beautiful place in Jaipur. The entry fee of this place is 100 rupees for Indian citizens. We reached near Amber fort at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and our guide told us that now we have to take another vehicle to go to the fort gate. So we hired a Mahindra Jeep to go to the fort gate.

We were 13 people in the group so we took two Jeep and we contributed to pay 800 rupees to the drivers. We reached the top fort gate within 10 minutes from the plain in the Jeep. The driver parked the vehicle outside the fort gate and we entered the fort after taking the entry ticket. There was no enough rush at the ticket window, so I got the ticket very fast. And now finally I was inside the fort, the most beautiful place in Jaipur, the place where you would love to take photos, the place where you would love to visit and recommend people come, again and again, the place to fall in love with, the place to experience the rich heritage of Jaipur, the place to get a kick and turn the pages of the history. I took many pictures of this place. The fort is spread in a very large place, inside the fort, there is Sheela Mata Temple. It was the first day of Navratri (The beginning of a Hindu festival which goes to nine days), so the fort was little crowded with the people who just came to visit the temple.

Shopping in Jaipur:

We came out of the fort at around 4:30 PM and after that, we were supposed to wind up our day. But our guide took us to some shops where we saw the world famous Jaipuria Rajai, the Rajai was made of only 100 gm of cotton wool and this news was very surprising to me.  The shopkeeper told me that he holds a Guinness world record for this famous Rajai and have got many awards from the Govt. of India.
The next shop to visit was a shoe shop, the shop was built by a person who used to work with a royal family of Jaipur and who lived 138 years (1870-2008), here you can find all footwear items. I purchased one shoe which is made of camel leather, the shopkeeper told me that even if I put the shoes in the water for whole night nothing will happen. As I had some other trip planned for the next day so I requested the shopkeeper to parcel my shoes to my office address.
I would say If you are visiting Jaipur, don’t miss this two place for shopping.

Raj Mandir Jaipur: Movie in Raj Mandir

Raj Mandir is not only a movie theater, it’s a tourist attraction this what once visited Yash Chopra told about this theater. People not just visit here to watch a movie but to experience the ambiance, the best in class theater, theater who set the standard of India’s best cinematic experience. This is the only theater in India where you see the curtains going up and coming down at the start of the show and at the end of the show respectively. More than eleven hundred patrons can watch the show at a time. This is the biggest cinema hall not only in India but in Asia as well.

I had my show MS Dhoni: The Untold Story at 6:30 PM in Raj Mandir, I had booked the ticket one day before to avoid the rush at the ticket window. But I think, had I not booked the ticket one day before I would not have watched the movie because there was hell amount of crowd waiting for the ticket outside the theater. But only who booked the ticket in advance were able to enter the hall.
You can book the ticket in advance from the bookmyshow website (www.bookmyshow.com), the most popular website to book movie ticket in India. I booked from this website only one day before. The tickets are available at the price of 120, 170 and 400 rupees.

My movie finished at around 9:30 PM and I have forgotten the place name where I had booked the hotel. So just after coming out of the movie theater, I asked a person, what is the name of the bus stand where I can get the bus for Delhi? (I asked about the bus stand because my hotel was near bus stand so I just wanted to know of the bus stand) He said there is only one bus stand in Jaipur and that is Sindhi Camp. I said, yes…yes, I want to go there only.

I reached my hotel at around 10 PM, had the dinner and put the phone on charge and slept.

Wish you a nice trip to Jaipur.