Jaipur, Rajasthan, India by Kev

12.04.2025 (end of the last post) We went to the 4brothers brewing restaurant. They gave us a few taste test of what they had craft brew wise. A Belgian cloudy wheat beer, mango beer and a peach beer. They were all ok, I settled on the Belgian beer but had enough by the end of it. Tried a couple more I had never tasted before, listened to some good live music and had way too much food. Time to head home for sleep.
13.4.2025. Up early, headed for the train station. No problem getting on, the train was waiting there. It left 30mim later but otherwise all smooth sailing. Around 6hrs later we had pulled into the Jaipur station. Bloody hell, what a mess. People trying to get off, people try to get on, all at the same time. There's this old lady pushing the people who were getting off, because she needed to get on. Get out of the way, let people off, then get on. Simple as that. I said before, Indian people don't seem to have any patience, it's “me” first. Emma and Andrew went first and we got kinda stuck, lost sight of them for a bit. At one point, everyone was pushing and nobody was going anywhere. What kinda stupid shit is this? Anyway, we managed to get out of there eventually, found a Tuktuk and made our way to our room. Once settled we went out for a look around and some food. We found a nice rooftop cafe, played some card games and Jenga. Afterwards we made our way over to Patrika gate, a massive gate leading to a central park. Took some photos, went inside and there's an army band. Was nice to hear a brass band. Afterwards we walked over to the middle of the park where there is a big fountain. We waited for a while and eventually, there was a music and light show with the fountain. It wasn't that great, so we moved on. We had trouble finding our next destination, a huge architectural piece next to the park called Toran Dwar, the gateway of Rajasthan. Massive marble structure, can hardly get back far enough to get it all in the photo. After that, back to our room, bath and bed. Oh yeah, at 10:06 we wished happy birthday to our boy. It's the time he was born in Australia, so we celebrated a little early.
14.4.2025. Happy Birthday Andrew!!! Our little bloke is pretty excited about today, and why wouldn't he be? Not everyday you turn 10 in India. He knows we have something organised for today(I say we, I mean Mel mostly), but he doesn't know what it is! We had a Tuktuk organised to pick us up, got him to make a stop to pick up a cake, Andrew's choice. Then we drove over to our first stop of the day. Fun Kingdom!! An Indian amusement park. We're a little early, as always, so we sat under a tree and sang Happy Birthday and ate cake. We did some rides, Andrew got to zipline again, he also abseiled for the first time. We weren't sure what to expect from this park, but we were expecting a little more. Half the rides were for adults only, but Andrew was allowed on some of them, then later he wasn't allowed. There wasn't a lot of people in the park and they wanted to fill the ride a bit before starting it, so we got told to wait a fair bit. Overall it wasn't a great start to the day, but the kids had some fun and that's the main thing. I did get asked why we were leaving and was everything ok with the park. I told them my thoughts, and what I thought was wrong with their park. They seemed to take it in board and sounded like they'd had more than me complain about the park. My final words were “it was ok, not great”. Luckily we had a backup plan. Back in a Tuktuk and off to a place called Hop up. Think King Pin, but bigger. Not quite as many arcades, I think, but indoor bumper cars, trampoline area with a flying fox, rope course, bowling alley upstairs, cricket simulation area, cafe and more. We spent some money and played some games, LOTS of games. The kids found some they really liked, spent an hour in the trampoline area, we sat in some massage chairs for 10mins. We found the cricket game and Andrew had a go for 3 overs. He missed the first few then got his eye in. After that he smashed it. We went up and had a game of Tenpin. It was fun but the lanes here suck, balls changing direction as they went down and not polished at all. That's my excuse for a crap score anyway. We went back and Andrew and I had a go at the cricket. Was fun as, I was sweating afterwards. Somehow, without noticing, we had stayed at this arcade place for nearly 6 hours. We headed back, showered up and Andrew's choice for a movie (SpongeBob ). He tells me he had a great day, I really hope he did.
15.4.2025. Today we visited the palace, bloody expensive. Well, India expensive, most expensive place we've been to so far, if you leave out the arcade we did on Andrew's birthday. Actually nevermind, it seemed expensive, but now that I have thought about it I'll just shut up. Anyway there were two tickets, we paid for the ones that gave you more access and a guide. Our guide turned out to be pretty good, friendly with decent English. The royal family still live in the palace, sometimes areas are off limits because of this. Luckily for us they were away and we got into all the areas, including one which was usually shut but open today. We were shown a room at the top, painted blue with lots of windows for ventilation, used during monsoon season(my favourite). We saw a room they use during the winter, small curved mirrors covered almost the whole ceiling and walls. They would reflect the light and warmth from candles and sunlight. Apparently it gets pretty cold in winter, down to 5°. We walked through massive entrance areas where guests used to arrive on elephants, coming through huge gates. After the tour we were taken to a restaurant inside the platform refreshments. Water, coffee, tea and some biscuits. Had to pay extra for the milkshake Emma wanted. I dunno why I got my hopes up after forking out a load of cash for a ticket that included “refreshments”, I guess inside I still like to be surprised a bit. I got a black coffee, I wanted a cappuccino, but that cost extra and I wasn't giving them any more. Then we got led through the artist area, we'll show you how to tell if this goats throat fur blanket thing, is real or not. Look at how beautiful it is, soft too. Buy, buy, buy! Pfft, no chance. Anyway, the palace was lovely, the coffee was pretty decent and the guide was interesting to talk to. After leaving the palace, right next to it is Jantar Mantar. A museum as such of sundials and devices for tracking celestial bodies. The biggest bloody sundial I have ever seen, 27 metres high. We could see the shadow moving on the base, plus lots of other astrological things I didn't completely understand. Next on the list, find food, hadn't eaten since 4 the day before. We have found out Jaipur is bigger than some other cities and not the easiest to get around. Restaurants are spaced further apart and none close to where we are. Our stays restaurant is closed too as the chef is away. We found some really nice food for lunch, well 2pm, they lunch later here. Worms satisfied, we headed for Hawa Mahal, the wind palace, also the name on our room. Built high on one side with lots of windows. Most were closed so it was hard to feel the wind, ironic that. I could try and explain more, but I'm palaced out and can't remember much anymore. Look it up on the web, it is beautiful. After that we had a short walk back to our room, about 20mins. I dunno how many times we said no to a Tuktuk driver, bloody lots, several times to the same one. Ignoring and walking off doesn't always work, they follow you. After we ran that gauntlet, it was time to shower and rest. The kids played a bit then time for bed.
16.4.2025. Today we decided we'd head to a few forts. We walked out with the intention of either finding some breakfast or a Tuktuk to Amber fort. We found the Tuktuk first, should I say, he found us. An agreement was made money wise and we were off. We were close and could see the fort, when our driver was waved down and he pulled over. The guy that came over said that Tuktuk's couldn't go up to the fort, you have to take a jeep, boat or elephant ride. What are you on about mate? Jeep is Rs650 for all 4 up to the fort. That's more than what we payed for the Tuktuk, that's not gonna happen. We told him to go away and told our driver to keep going. Some words were exchanged in Hindi, our driver looked at us and we told him again to keep going. He did, and we were off again, driving past lots more people trying to wave us down. He didn't look so sure. We got to the main entrance and we got dropped off, like a flock of bloody seagulls and I had a handful of chips, we were engulfed with people trying to get us in a jeep or on an elephant. No thank you, no, no thank you, no, just keep walking. The trip was done, now we needed breakfast. There was a proper restaurant not so far away, and a small outside place cooking all sorts of things. They had samosas, we chose small and outside. We grabbed a couple samosas, something else that looked like a round flat samosa and some puff pastry thing. A chai and a coffee. We got asked if we wanted to try something else, not spicy for the kids, why not. The kids got some noodles as well. They dropped off a little tray of this brown/grey goo with chickpeas, onion and tomato in it. Along with a couple small naan. What's that? I don't know. What's it taste like? I don't know. Bloody delicious is what it tastes like. Still dunno what it was, chaat or chana or something like that. I should have paid more attention. We ate everything as it was all good, got an extra chai and coffee and asked for the bill. Rs630, I'll have that for breakfast every day. Right, off we go up the hill to the fort. Past all the blokes trying to get you in a jeep or on an elephant. Past all the blokes trying to sell you some cheap piece of plastic crap. We walked past some elephants, big buggers they are, on our way up. We stopped to read a sign that had some info on the fort. Some guy tried to sell me a hat, there's a hat on my head, right now. You could have two hats. No, go away. We set off again, it really didn't take long to get to the top. Walked past more people selling stuff, throw in guides now offering their services and we're starting to get annoyed. I'm not sure how many elephants they had there, but it was too many. Not sure how an elephant would like to spend its day, but I'm sure carrying tourists' lazy fat arses up a hill wouldn't be really high on its list. Ok, onto the visit. I like forts, love wandering around checking out all the passageways and towers and all that sorta stuff. I liked looking at the gardens, Andrew was very interested in a particular fountain, which seemed to make a bubble with the water. We saw a massive reception area, where the raja would give audience to guests. It had a billiards room built into the back later on. We had fun just exploring, when we were done with this fort we made our way through an underground passage towards another fort, further up the hill. Jaigarh fort, in here we saw old cannons, a foundry and a huge cannon boring machine that was powered by 8 oxen. There were some very good viewing locations, I like looking out over the countryside. It was now around 1:30 and we were all getting hungry, and tired, we'd done a lot of walking. We left Jaigarh fort and hopped in a Tuktuk back to a restaurant near our room. We ate and played some card games, when we returned to our room we rested and blogged. We played some more card games before bed.
17.4.2025. Blog day and supposed schoolwork day, kids had lots to blog so only that got done. I did a fair bit of laundry as it had been piling up, can't wait to get my washing machine back. All of a sudden it was lunchtime and everyone was getting hangry. We planned on to the Nahargarh Fort, I found a restaurant on the way to it, so we set of. Jeez it's hot out, we're out at the best time of day, too. It's about 42° and we're walking to a rooftop restaurant for something hot to eat, don't sound right does it. We're half way there and I had a thought, the pictures on GMaps shows there's no roof. Surely they'll have an inside area to eat, we'll see I guess. We got there and sure enough they do, also since the pictures were taken they put a roof on top. Just need a few fans now. We ate, pretty tasty. Andrew wanted a dosa, in the north it's harder to get a dosa even if it's on the menu. It's a Southern dish and we haven't had one since being in Rajasthan. So Andrew always has a back-up plan, which is usually egg curry, so that's what he got. He's also found aloo jeera, potato fried with spices, another of his favourites. The restaurant was up the hill a bit that the fort was built on. We got a good look at the fort and walls, also of the city. We finished our meal, and GMaps told us it's another 30mim walk, uphill, to the fort. Turns out only I was kinda keen to do that walk after food and it being that hot. Mel and the kids are a bit forted out. Plan b, we need some supplies, soap and tissues, maybe something else if we see it. We'd been driving past this massive shopping centre for days and decided to head there and see what we could get. World trade park is its name, and no it doesn't have a supermarket. Lots of other stuff, mostly clothing and food. We did manage to get some soap from a boutique shop, kids had an ice-cream and we soaked up some AC. So not a total waste of time. Tuktuked to the room again, some more quality time with each other before bed.
18.4.2025. We're heading to the Albert Hall museum today. We were sorting out a Tuktuk ride when someone, maybe me, complained about being hungry. There's this little place not far from our room that we've walked past a dozen times, they cook on the footpath. That'll do, we told the driver we're gonna get some food first, np. What can I say about our experience at this little place, organised comes to mind. The main guy standing behind the “counter”, seemingly in charge, told us to sit and asked what we wanted. We don't know, something not hot for the kids and whatever for us. There's trays of samosas and other stuff, pots of whatever all around. He gave us samosas, smashed up on a small plate then covered in vegetables. Turned out a bit spicy for Mel but bloody delicious, I had two. Andrew asked for some fried flat bread, which he liked. The guy gave him some yellowish goop to go with it. Andrew said it's not hot and tastes potatoey, loved it. Emma had a flat onion samosa thing, and shared a lassi. A cup of coffee and chai and we were all full. The guy was nice and easy to talk with, when you could, he was busy. I looked around, there is a small ecosystem here. Just to the left there's a guy making the flatbreads, further there's another cooking something else, behind the guy there's more people making other things and a counter full of sweets, our drinks came from outta nowhere. He gave us a couple fried sweet things to try. We're done, all full and ready for a museum, we got our bill and a surprise. All that for just Rs320, we'll have breakfast there again. Alright, our driver is still there so we hopped in and we're off. We got to the museum, lined up at the ticket counter. Today it's free! Planned that, totally. In we go, there's some sculptures at the start, then we walk into a room with massive carpets from hundreds of years ago. The museum had a lot of different things to see. Paintings, pottery, weapons, jewellery, coins and stamps for notes, sculptures, a mummy and lots of old instruments. Also the building itself was something to look at, carved marble pillars and high ceilings. After the museum we had to go back to Hop up, the arcade place, we put too much credit on our card and couldn't spend it all on Andrew's birthday. So the kids did everything again, trampoline area for an hour, ball pit slide area for an hour, dunno how many arcades games, lots. Mel and I sat in the massage chairs again. While the kids were doing the ball pit area we had a go at air hockey again, the crazy one that drops in heaps of pucks. We played, another game started, huh? We played again, by now Mel's arms are giving out. Another game started, what is going on here? We asked a worker there for help. We worked out, Mel had the card in their pants pocket, and that was the perfect height for the tap thingy to pay, ah crap. They turned off the machine and back on again and said they'd sort it out. About 10mins later it was all sorted and we found out during those two games we'd played (was only meant to be one), Mel had tapped the card 81 times. Everyone thought it was funny, Mel found a new spot to keep the card, and I saw several times during the rest of our time there, one the guys near the air hockey table, telling people not to put the cards in their pocket. No doubt retelling our story. The kids got out of the ball pit area very thirsty, so we got some drinks. We finally finished all the money on the card, it had only taken another 6 hours. We had no need for all the tickets stored on the card, so we picked one person, and after a bit of explaining we had given them the card and we left looking for some dinner. We started heading towards a restaurant I found that served some good looking thali’s. On the way, we stopped and watched some blokes playing cricket. In an empty lot, with construction in the background and bricks for stumps, these guys were having fun. We sat there and watched for 10mins or more, before we left another game had started on the other side of the field. Anyway, time for food. We set off again towards the restaurant. We got there no prob, but it's closed. Messaged them, no response. Great, what now? We remembered a Japanese restaurant we had planned for Andrew's birthday that we never got round to going to, so we went there. We got to the spot, but the restaurant isn't here. There's a review from a few days ago, it's gotta be here. We searched around, but couldn't find it. I went back into GMaps and looked through the photos. There, there's a picture from the outside, of the big hotel we walked past. We went and asked one of the security guys, yep it's in this building. Alright we found out restaurant, now let's eat. Got the kids some sushi and Mel and I got a dumpling and bao bun offer thing. Kids loved the sushi, our dumplings and buns just kept coming. We were completely stuffed and we left some on the table. Throw in a couple beers, and we have a new most expensive dinner in India. Tuktuk back to our room, brush teeth and bed.
10.4.2025. Today is blog/schoolwork day. As we're leaving tomorrow, it's also packing day. We had breakfast/smoko at the same place as yesterday, was just as good. That's about it for the day, we'll find some dinner later.
KevRead more