Jaipur - Agra - Delhi

The chief architect of this trip was Shobana, she had applied for leave when we had planned for an aboard trip but when the phoren thing did not happen, she was in no mood to relent, we had to go somewhere interesting in India for a week. Just 2 days to go, the 2AC tickets were still waitlisted in the ‘Mysore-Jaipur train’ and there is where Tatkal came handy, we managed to get confirmed 3AC tickets to Jaipur in under 2 days notice. Feverish packing including a big bag full of snacks.

The train left on time but thanks to the Telangana issues it got diverted via Goa, Mumbai, Gujarat before reaching Jaipur - a good 14 hours late, that meant a full day of sightseeing lost in the train. Actually no regrets – it was a nice time to unwind in the comfort of the AC train while kids had a roaring time with the newly acquired friends of their age in the train. We reached our Hotel – Choki Dani for the night, we managed to enjoy the very famous village fair at the hotel and some sumptuous Rajasthani food. The fair had all the works thrown in including Camel rides, Elephant rides, manual rides in merry go rounds and giant wheels, there was mehandi, puppet show, kulfi wala, folk dancers etc etc. The Choki Dhani resort is a 5 star resort, though away from the city it is worth it for its rustic setting, it was indeed a very nice place to relax and we spend the first half of the next day till check out.

We reached the Albert hall museum by noon, the museum is housed in a very beautiful building build for the purpose, we choose to get ourselves the audio guide and it was interesting and worth it. History interests me and I indeed found the place very informative. There was a lot of Mughal influence but still the Jaipur Rajputana probably had its own unique identity and pride. There was also some  British influence. For the historical minds, such as mine, I could imagine the royalty, the Rajput pride. Coming from a clan that is the immediate cousin to the Rajput clan, I could feel the connect with City and its culture – both current and historically. We then drove to Hawa Mahal, we entered the pink city and wow the buildings were all in pink – my kids freak out on anything that is pink. Hawa mahal again reminds one of the Rajputana grandeur, it was a palace for the royal women to watch the royal processions and also enjoy watching the common man life- without being spotted by other men. The parda system must have been practiced very rigidly. A very Mughalai thing. The Guide did his best to explain the functionalities of various parts of the palace. From Hawa Mahal, our clever driver wanted to take us around in the city itself but we did insist on going to the far off places such as the Amer Fort and Jaigarh fort. The Jaigarh fort has nothing great but a very huge place and well preserved, we had a look at the great cannon and the museum within the fort. There are some interesting stories about the treasure being hidden in the tanks etc etc.  Some put offs like – they charge Rs.50 for camera – wonder why? Taj Mahal does not charge for camera and has a cheaper entrance fee. Anyway from here we went to Amer fort, this is a very beautiful fort. Here too – you could easily spot striking influence of the Mughals . Our guide seemed to be a Jodha Akbar movie fan, he kept showing us the various places in the fort where the movie was shot, the sword fighting scene, the barath, the kitchen scene, etc etc. Here is where I also dared to put a cobra around my neck….interesting experience, yes – a live cobra. Post the Amer fort, we stopped by at the Jal Mahal Palace, few photographs and we were now heading towards the hotel – Jai Mahal Palace – A Taj property. Wow this was so cool, a 250 years old palace used by the prime minister of the royal family. Surrounded by beautiful gardens, the palace was truly a exhilarating experience. A bit expensive but then the maiden trip to Jaipur can be a good excuse to stay in one of the palaces.

The 5 star experience was awesome, the service, the evening magic shows and dance shows were all  much superior than what we had seen the previous night. The huge spread at the breakfast table and the prompt service was indeed a royal feeling, kids had a roaring time, they enjoyed every bit of all this. There were cookies with their names written on it and the girls were so excited that they refused to eat them. We checked out earlier than the 1200 noon deadline and went about sightseeing and shopping. We visited the City Palace and Jantar Mantar, followed by some very local food at local joint – Dal Bhati at the Santhosh Dabba and then the girls went around blowing some money around in the Bapu Bazzar. From here we straight head to the station to board the Aii Af intercity express to Agra, the A/C Chair car journey was very peaceful.

At Agra – it was the typical tourist center fleecing, taxis demanding exorbitant fares, there was some sort of a cartel, I managed to break the cartel and an Auto fellow was willing to ferry us at nominal rates, the kids wanted to try McD for dinner and we did a drive in to McD in an Auto. I wasn’t expecting to be let in Trident hotel  in an Auto but Agra 5 Stars seem to be an exception, they let the auto in. Funny experiences! The Trident staff were very polite and also gave us the wonderful recommendation of visiting the Taj at dawn. We had earlier planned a late morning outing to Taj.

 

The suggestion was indeed very valuable, at 6 am the Taj is hardly crowed and it is so pleasurable. Agra daytime can be harsh in terms of heat. We did the standard photos and going around the Taj. At around 830 we went back to our hotel via the Railway station after booking our evening train to Delhi. The breakfast was sumptuous at Trident and we realized we were on the European plan (no Break fast) only after the bill arrived. A small oversight but good food, hmmm…..no value of money. We availed a late checkout to enjoy the pool for a while before we could go to the Agra fort. I like this fort and history kind of re-lives here on how an emperor like Shah Jahan who build the magnificent Mausoleum was imprisoned and died while in Fort Prison. Beautiful Fort – wonder how these building have been standing so tall and handsome for some many decades. While at the throne room, enjoyed imagining how the Mughal durbar would have been conducted. Must have been a very elaborate and grand affair. We did not employ a guide here and that gave us ample time to chill around the place. We did some Petha & Souvenirs shopping before reaching the station via the hotel to pick up our luggage. The auto driver by now had turned very greedy and demanded some obscene fare. You can trust me to manage such morons. The train journey to Delhi in A/C chair car – Taj Express was again peaceful.

Delhi station was huge, busy and one could easily get lost of lose something, an auto took us to our hotel. For Delhi – I choose a budget hotel, there were many options and it was pretty easy for me, I had to choose the one that offers the extra bed at free of cost. Hence landed in Karol Bagh. The hotel was neat, clean, many forgeries, a well marketed hotel on the net – I guess, and it was in walk-able distance from Jandhewalan metro station. The service was prompt and very customizable. We got food of our choice – lots of curds and little of everything else.

We decided to use the metro extensively for our local transport, the Rs.100 tourist card was very useful with its unlimited usage for one day. We used the map to plan our day, Sonia very quickly understood the map and became our leader for the rest of the metro trip. We visited the Qutub Minar to begin our day, the kids were very impressed. It is indeed a beauty to watch something that has been standing tall for more than 800 years, that is like even before the British or even before the Mughals. It was built by Qutb-ud-din Aibak who defeated the popular king Privthiraj Chavan – if you recall the story of Samyukta – Swayamwar, Md Ghori, Blinding of king and he killing Ghori  by sound.

We continued our Delhi sight-seeing using metro, we visited the India gate and also shot some photos with the Parliament and Rastrapathi Bhavan in the back ground. After some India gate back drop photos of the kids- we went to Lotus temple, Akarsdham temple before shopping and dinner at Connaught Place (CP). The Second day in Delhi also was very planned, we visited the famous Delhi-6, Chandni Chowk, Red Fort, Jama masjid, Lunch in the Paratha wale gali, some very interesting parathas in the very crowded and densely populated gallis. This place too must have been inhabited for centuries and I was wondering if it would have always been crowed and thickly poplulated like now, maybe in relative terms yes. Some shopping in wholesale markets, some more food – panni puri, jalebis….you see we do not visit Chandni chowk every other day, so we had to do everything possible. We then went to the famous Sarojini Nagar market before heading back to the hotel to pack, check out, reach the station on time. Our tickets were waitlisted  and thanks to Naresh, I managed to book tatkal and cancel those waitlisted ones.

The return journey in the Rajdhani and experience was wonderful, it is a super fast train with very few stops and no hawkers. The whole train is A/C and food is served along with snacks and tea. This could qualify as the best way to go to Delhi for any non –business purposes.

A very refreshing trip and all of us are reinvigorated, so time to get back to work and start to plan the next trip.