Jaipur, Rajasthan, India by Mel

Hello from the capital of Rajasthan,
We are in Jaipur, the capital and biggest city of Rajasthan.
Last time we blogged, we were about to leave Jodhpur. We spent our last evening in a lovely (and expensive) restaurant with live music (a singer, one guitarist and a drummer) and cricket on a big screen. It was a nice last evening in Jodhpur. I think Jodhpur is my favourite place in India so far. I could have stayed there a bit longer!
On Sunday the 13th of April, we took a train to Jodhpur, only 6 hours, not too long! We are getting use to travel! The crazy part was trying to get out of the train when we arrived in Jaipur. The platform where the train got in, was packed with people. When the train stopped, people tried to get on the train, before people could get out! The kids were in front of us with their bags on their back and I got scared for them when they got out of the train, as it would have been easy for them to get lost in that crowd. I had a death grip on both of them with Kev behind me, not being able to come next to me due to the number of people there. It was not the best train station experience we had so far. I was glad to get out of it.
We arrived at our hotel, which is average (with a very smelly bathroom, great!). Not the best first impression so far! After we got our room set, we rested a bit and got out again to find somewhere to eat. We found a rooftop restaurant with a few card games and some blocks (like Jenga blocks) and the kids had fun building things with those. After that we went to the Jawahar circle garden. This is a big circular park with 2 beautiful monuments on each side and a musical fountain in the middle with a music, light and sound show. We decided to give it a try.
The first monument is the Patrika gate, built in 2016, on the site of one of the original seven gates of Jaipur’s walled city. This massive monument, despite being new, was made to reflects the architecture and cultural history of Rajasthan. It is also coloured pink, as the Jaipur is known as the pink city. We were lucky as that evening, an army band was there, so we spent some time listening to 3 different bands (one concert band, one brass band, and one with bagpipes and drums). We then went toward the musical fountain and were disappointed! We really need to stop going to the light and sound show in India, as they are really not the best. We left quickly and went to the other side of the park, where the Toran Dwar, the gate of Rajasthan is. This is a magnificent monument, built very recently as it was opened in 2024. I’ll try to describe it: there are archways on top of archways on top of archways, all made of white marble, culminated at over 50 meters high and 104 meter wide. There are 42 archways and 216 pillars (I researched that, we didn’t count it!). It is beautiful especially at night with the lights shinning on it. I truly loved that monument.
The next day was Andrew’s birthday! Our boy turned 10! Double digits! My mummy’s heart is hurting a bit as time goes too fast. But this is why we are doing this gap year: to enjoy our children while they are happy to be with us. We have been together 24/7 for over 3 months now and we love it. We have had some grumpy moments, but really not that often. We truly enjoy our time together.
Back to Andrew’s birthday. We got pick up by the tuktuk driver that we met at the train station the day before. I asked him to take us somewhere where I could buy a cake and he took us to a small shop with a freezer with a few cakes in it. I guess that’ll have to do. Andrew picked his cake and we went on our way to Fun Kingdom, an attraction park we found on internet. Andrew blew his candle and we ate the cake next to the park waiting for it to open. The park was nice, with some fun rides, but as there were not a lot of people in the park, we were rushed to go from one attraction to another, as they didn’t want to run them for only a few people. The rule about which ride the kids could do, changed depending on who was running the ride at the time, so we got let on some and then deny them 30 minutes later. A little bit frustrating! There was one small zipline, as Andrew loves them, so that was good. But after a couple of hours, and an ice cream and a candy floss, we were done! We went to our second choice (which should have been our first!) called Hop Up. This was a massive place with arcades games, trampolines, rope course, cricket simulator, bowling and I’m sure I forgot something! You should have seen the kids’ eyes when we entered the place!!! This was it! We spent a small fortune there (we still have money on the Hop up card, so we will have to go back this week!) The kids did everything and absolutely loved it. This was a great place for Andrew’s birthday. I am usually not a massive fan of arcade games, but the one there were active one; for example, one was a trampoline you need to jump on to move the character on the screen, or a big ball you need to push to move it on the screen, or a ball you throw at the screen to destroy a building. There were not many games where you sit and just move your fingers, most of them you had to move your all body. I really liked that!
On the cricket simulator, where you need to bat with a real bat, Andrew did very well. He is good at that game. Kev gave it a try too of course: he played 6 over (36 balls) and hit them all (I’ve heard that a few times since! Andrew said he missed one though!) He was hurting the next day (and the one after). I almost forgot: there was a massage chair too, so obviously I spent 10 minutes in it, and I will probably get back on it next time we go there!
Overall, it was a great day. I think Andrew had a good birthday. 10 years old… I can’t quite believe it.
Tuesday we went to the Jaipur palace: yes another one! There are a lot of palace in Rajasthan! There is different way to visit the palace and we picked the most expansive one for once. We did a private tour with a guide of the private area. The Jaipur palace is still partially used by the royal family of Jaipur. This is interesting because, India is a republic but in Rajasthan, they seem to be still very attached to their royal families. I don’t think they have an official role anymore, but they still have influence and money. The current royal family lives in the palace: we couldn’t visit their bedrooms or anything like that, but we saw 4 big rooms that are used for special ceremonies and when they receive guests. The interesting thing about those rooms is that they were built differently to adapt to the different weather conditions: very hot in summer and cold in winter. For example, the blue room was built on the top floor with a lot of openings to let the wind cool out the room. This room is being use during the rainy season. Another room, called the mirror room is at a lower floor, with less opening and the walls are covered with mirrors, which reflect the light and the heat of the candles they were using for light. We also learnt about the ‘Veil rule’ where women couldn’t be seen by people outside of their immediate family. The palaces are built with corners for woman to hide if someone else comes their way, extra rooms for the women to stay in, windows with tiny holes so the women could look outside without being seen… nothing very fun. We saw that in all the other palaces we saw, but as we had a guide, he could explain a bit more. The current royal family doesn’t follow this old custom anymore and one of the princesses is involved in politics and is an elected peoples’ representative in parliament. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of women who cover their faces in Rajasthan. I asked one of our previous guides (in Jodhpur) why and it is to show respect and modesty… I didn’t ask him why men don’t have to show respect and modesty. Maybe I should have. There is some push to stop this archaic custom, but it takes a long time to change a society.
Back to our visit, after the palace we went to Jantar Manta, The Jantar Mantar is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur. The monument was completed in 1734. It features the world's largest stone sundial (well we think, apparently there might be a bigger one in Italy, we got some conflicting information!) We looked at a all bunch of instruments made to calculate longitude and latitude and distance and plenty of other things of celestial objects. I must admit that I didn’t understand most of it. There were small explanations about the instruments, but not enough for someone who doesn’t already have an idea of the subject. It was still pretty amazing to look at them and trying to decipher their use. I liked the sundial best, because at least this one, I know how to use it!!!
After that we went to one last place: the Hawa Mahal. This is another palace built in shape of a pyramid-ish when looking from the front. Inside there isn’t lots to see, just a lot of empty rooms you can get lost in. There used to be a passage between the city palace and this one, so the women of the royal family could come and see the celebrations that were happening in the street in front of this place, because you know, they couldn’t get out! The outside of the place is beautiful, the colour is more salmon pink, with a lot of windows and archways. The architecture is really stunning.
Our next day was more palace and fort! I think we are getting over forts and palace to be honest! The reason why there are so many forts and palace is that, a while back, there used to have several clans running each a part of the region. Eventually it all merge into one. They also moved their main cities to different location, when they thought it wasn’t safe anymore, and built a new palace each time.
We went to see the Amber palace which is pretty massive. We took a tuktuk to get there, and when we arrived there, we got stopped several times by people trying to sale us elephant ride or jeep ride to climb to the palace. “It is very high”, “lots of stairs”, “too hard for the kids”… Yeah, no thanks! We have legs and they are working well thank you! And it really wasn’t that hard! We got breakfast first at a small shop at the bottom of the palace. We got some delicious food in a small plate with cheap peas, tomatoes, onion and a type of sauce; absolutely delicious. The only problem is we don’t remember the name of the thing, so we might never find it again!!! After that we started walking up to the palace and on the way, we crossed path with elephant carrying tourist to the top. As a family, we made the choice to not use animals that way. We feel elephant should be in the wild, living their best lives, not carrying tourists up and down the same path I don’t know how many times a day. I was saddened to see a lot of white tourists on those elephants. I feel like we should know better. But at the end, each to their own.
On the way up, we are rewarded by amazing views of the hills around, the lake at the bottom of the palace and some beautiful gardens. In the palace, there are several decorated rooms, with small mirrors, tiles painted, marble carving. One of the rooms had an “aircon”: a small waterfall coming from the roof and when the wind was blowing through, it would cool the room: pretty creative! There was also a lot of empty rooms, and we had fun walking around and getting lost.
From the palace, there is a tunnel to get to the fort which is located on a hill above. We missed the entrance to the tunnel and passed the exit of a few meters, before we realised our mistake. We stepped back and the guard at the exit didn’t want to let us back in even if we literally just left by mistake. I think it was expecting a tip to let us back in, but when he realised we weren’t going anywhere, he let us back in. Ha yes, there is the small sign to show the entrance of the tunnel!
We got in, the tunnel run for 500m and then there is a small 1km path to go to the Jaigarh fort. We were the only one there! Nobody wants to walk 1km in the heat on a steep path to get to the fort!! Just us! The fort, being 400m above the palace, has nice views of the palace and the surrounding areas. In the fort, they use to make cannons. There is what is left of a sophisticated cannon foundry, as they use to build massive cannons there. It was interesting to see some of the mechanisms still visible. The kids pretend the big furnace was a pizza oven and played there for a bit. I love their imagination.
After that we went back to the 3 brothers restaurant, as the kids wanted to play with the blocks again. Stayed there playing cards games for a while then back to the room and more board games before bed.
Thursday we didn’t do much. I think we are a little bit tired. India is amazing but also tiring. I feel Jaipur is a bit harder: when walking in the streets, I feel we are constantly being asked if we need tuktuks, if we want to buy something, or we are asked for pictures… It is probably the same is in other cities, but maybe my tolerance for it is growing a bit thin, I’m not sure! The kids did some blogging: it took them forever, so we didn’t do any other school work. Kev and I did some more planning for the Europe part of our trip. After several hours we were all starving, so off for food. We were planning on going to one more fort, but it was hot and we were all feed up with forts, so we changed plan and went to a big shopping centre. We droved past a few time and it looked modern and massive from the outside. We need a few necessities, so a bit of shopping would be great. But it was a lot smaller inside that we thought. Half of it are offices and not shop. We didn’t quite find what we wanted. The food court was pretty good, so we top up on ice-cream! Then back to the room to rest a bit more.
Friday we went to the Alber Hall Museum. It was museum free day apparently. We didn’t know, but it was a nice surprise! We were welcomed with a flower and a red dot on our forehead (which symbolise the 3rd eye and help with concentration among other things). This museum is in a stunning building and has some pretty nice collections: glasswork, metal work, pottery, statues, armoury, coins, an Egyptian collection with a mummy, musical instruments and clay figurines. There is a bit too see, a lot of impressive crafts and history. If you are in Jaipur, this is a good stop. I loved looking at the different coins from different time: some incredibly small, of different material and different shapes.
After that, we went back to Hop up, the place we went for Andrew’s birthday, as we still have some credit on the cards. We spend a lot of time here again, to the delight of Andew and Emma! More trampoline, arcade games, climbing, cricket.. I did my favourite game: the massage chair!!!! I want one when we go home.
For Andrew’s birthday, I had found a Japanese restaurant as it is one of Andrew’s favourite food. We didn’t do it on his birthday as we were still full from a late lunch, so we went there. It was delicious!! Expansive as, but delicious. Kev and I ordered their dumpling and bao celebration things: We had way too much, we couldn’t finish it all!! Andrew and Emma got their sushi that they have been craving for a while! It was a great way to finish the day. Back to the room and straight to bed.
Saturday is blog, school work and planning day. We will probably go out tonight for one last feel of Jaipur as we are leaving tomorrow for Agra, our last stop in India.
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