"Happy Anniversary" among the Pink, Blue and Golden cities

Here comes another travelogue (though it is very much delayed), this time it’s the "Land of Kings": Rajasthan

The moment one thinks about this state, all that comes to mind is sand, desert, colors, forts and yes FOOD!!

That’s what our trip actually comprised of. It was full of color, lot of forts to look around, sand-dunes, desert ride and yummiest of foods. 

As Rajasthan is a big state in India so our trip just included visiting a part of it: Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. I was very excited to begin this journey as we had planned this on our wedding anniversary (Yes, we have successfully completed a year together!!).

The plan was to visit these 3 cities in 5 days(Thanks to the IT industry, I got only few leaves approved)and it involved lot of travelling  by all  means. The air connectivity from Bangalore to Jaipur was good so we chose to start from Jaipur

Day 1- Bangalore to Jaipur - Pink city

We reached Jaipur bit late in the evening as we had some flight delays. We had chosen tried and tested Ginger hotel in Jaipur. We just rushed ourselves in to the hotel and got fresh to see this place named "Chowki Dhani".

It’s a very famous tourist place near Jaipur. A 40 min drive from the city. It opens at 4 o’ clock in the evening till 11:30 at night. I had heard a lot about this place that it brings together the heritage of Rajasthan culture at one place.so we reached the place by 9 in the night.

There are camel rides, folk dancers, handicrafts, magicians and not to forget the Rajasthani meal. The entire ambience is very colorful with female dressed in Rajasthani traditional lehenga chunris and males in turbans and dhoti kurta. The small food stalls include warm flavored milk, puffed rice snacks etc. The major attraction is the meal that includes various delicacies form different parts of Rajasthan. They make you sit down and serve you the food with warm smiles on their faces. Well I would like to add that food was below my expectations but still all the other things makes a must visit.

One of the food stalls inside Chowki Dhani

Jaipur was our starting as well as end city. After coming back from Jaipur we had almost a day with us before flying back. So we also visited the famous Hawa Mahal. It’s a very pretty Mahal with lots and lots of small windows through which wind passes and that’s why it is named so.

We didn’t go the famous forts of Jaipur as we were very tired but Amer fort, Jaigarh fort are few of them.

Day 2- Jaipur to Jodhpur- Blue city

So our journey to Jodhpur was via road. We actually travelled by bus (comfortable AC bus) which took us 7 hours to reach. Jodhpur is famous for all the forts of Maharajas around the city. Since we had just 1 day for Jodhpur, we went to the most famous one: Mehrangarh Fort

To be honest, we didn’t see much of the fort; instead we got to know about this adventure group “Flying fox” who organizes zipping event. So we just saw a bit of the fort and rest of the view was seen during the action. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had so far. They took around INR 1500 per person for 6 stretches. If you are an adventure loving person, try it for sure.

View from the Mehrangarh fort during sunset

The fort is at peak of its beauty during sunset and we got an amazing view of it while zipping.

Day 3- Jodhpur to Jaisalmer - Golden City

After Jodhpur, it was time for the golden city- Jaisalmer. We took train from Jodhpur which again took 7-8 hours to reach Jaisalmer.

The day we reached Jaisalmer was our Anniversary so we had made plans for a decent lunch in the hotel and safari in the evening. Hotels in Jaisalmer are beautiful and each one of them is unique in its architecture.

We stayed at Rang Mahal "http://www.hotelrangmahal.com/" and I must say it was a beautiful hotel with entire look of a Mahal.

Hotel Rang Mahal

 It actually made us feel like living in a fort. A Standard room range from INR 4000- 4500 per night including breakfast. The hotel staff can arrange for a night safari in sand-dunes on extra charges. We had booked us the same. This night safari includes camel rides in the desert and u can enjoy Rajasthani meal along with the famous dances. It’s must to have this experience.

 The next day we planned to visit the Raj Mahal and local market. To our delight, it was a beautiful fort and each brick of this place was golden. I felt like I was in some different world. There are some local shops of handicrafts inside the fort which makes the complete look of the place very colorful.

After the fort we had lunch at a very ordinary and not so very famous restaurant as we wanted to try the local food. We had the famous 'kadi',’gatte ki sabzi’ and 'ker sangri' and I must admit it was better than any famous restaurants.

With this meal we ended our time in Jaisalmer and headed back to Jaipur via train for our flight back home.

P.S. Fort visit require lot of walking so it is better to carry comfortable shoes.