A trip to Jaipur

This weekend I went to Jaipur with 3 of my friends. Last time the 4 of us had gone on a trip together was some 3-4 years back to Nainital; and boy that was some trip - 4 of us went in a car with the one driving not having license, NH-24 closed, we started in the evening, had to zig zag our way on either side of NH-24, got lost often and finally reached Nainital in the next morning. That was one hell of a trip (won't tell about it here). So this time when the 4 of us met again for another trip (and the assembling of the 4 of us was totally unplanned) there was lot of anticipation keeping in mind the previous trip.

The journey towards Jaipur
Me and M started from Delhi around 1:30 PM. We picked S from his Gurgaon hostel and went to pick the 4th person C. S who was the guide to C's house lost the way and we had to search our way to his house. Not a bad start is it? Finally we 4 got together had our lunch at Haldiram's and started for the 250 something KM drive with M at the wheel. We had supposedly booked a hotel room courtsey S but the booking wasn't confirmed as per S. We drove non-stop for some 4 hours and reached Jaipur. We wanted to stop for tea but didn't stop as M never stopped the car. During the journey the car (Opel Corsa) raced to 160+ KMPH. On reaching Jaipur we searched our way to the hotel (hotel Bliss) and found the room was booked in S's name which came as surprise to me (he never said he had booked the room and that he knew the room no).
It was 6:30 PM and we enquired about places we could visit at this hour. We had planned to go to Chauki Dhani in the night. C had been here before and was the one who was telling us the places to see. Unfortunately all forts had closed by 5 PM and we couldn't see them that day (after seeing Qutab Minar at night I was eager to visit a fort in the night - but all hopes were squashed). The only place we could visit before Chauki Dhani was Birla Mandir. We went there and it was a really beautiful temple. We spent some 20 mins thereand then decide to head towards Chauki Dhani which was some 26 Kms away. Had heard a lot about Chauki Dhani and now it was time to see it.

Chauki Dhani
We reached there around 8 and as we reached the gate after parking the car we saw a big queue. C had told us that this place gets very crowded. It was evident and why not - this is probabaly he only place to see in Jaipur at night. There were a lot of foreigners as well. While M and S stood in the queue I and C took some pics using C's handycam in nightshots. Finally we entered after buying tickets Rs 450 per person. We headed straight for dinner. The dinner was lavish. There were some 5-6 preparations apart from rice, bajre ki khichdi, rotis (plain, bajra and makka) and sweet dishes. The food was very good - the proper Rajasthani khana; had tasted Rajasthani food in trade fair but it was nothing compared to this. Except me all went for second round of food. The food was really good.
After that we climbed a machani to have a top view of the place. We weren't helped much by the trees all over the place but we did see a folk dance from up there. We could also see people enjoying camel rides. We climbed down and started exploring the place. I wanted to have a cup of tea so we proceeded towards the tea stall. I bought a cup of tea but it wasn't that good. We roamed here and there and saw some folk dances. I and C had our handycams for company and we were making full use of it. While I prefered videos C prefered taking 10 mega pixel photos. We saw a puppet show. Then we came across a palm reader and C was eager to get his palm read. As he sat down to hear about his future S took charge of the handycam to make the video. The palm reader said C would get married this year which led to him being congratulated. Further we just roamed there and saw people taking camel rides, elephant rides, camel carts, bullock carts. The weather was getting colder and we decided it was time to leave.

Back in hotel
We reached hotel and started playing cards. We started with seep then moved on to courtpiece. M was in his usual best trying not to be the dealer but mostly the dealing part fell on him. I and M were partners and we started winning once we moved to courtpiece from seep where we were losing. We played till about 3 AM before we finally hit the sack.

The next day
The next day we started waking up around 9 and go ready to leave by 10:30 AM. We checked-out of the hotel. We went towards Hawa Mahal and parked the car there. Took a auto the driver of which told us that he would take us to 4 places and would charge Rs50. We went with him in the auto which had 2 people facing towards the front while 2 looking towards the rear. We first went to a marble temple. Nearby we had our breakfast - a combination of paneer paratha, aloo paratha, gobhi paratha, mixed paratha, omlete, curd, tea and milk. After that we went to the city palace but it would open at 1 PM and the time was 12 noon. The autowala took us to a govt shop which opened only on Sundays and where there were only few selected goods which were Rajashthan specialities. I bought a rajai and sari, M bought a rajai while S and C bought bedcovers with pillow covers. The seciality of the rajai was that it gives warmth in winter while it becomes cool in summers. And it can be used as bed cover as well. After the shopping we went back to the car and dumped the stuff there. Then we went inside the Hawa Mahal. The wind was blowing quite well there synonymous to the name Hawa Mahal. The view from the top of it was quite beautiful ad we had our rounds of photographs. Then we went to the City Palace. Spend quite some time there viewing the Sabha Nivas (which was the regular meeting hall during older days), Museum (where clothes of the previous Rajas and Ranis were kept), Chandra Mahal, Arms gallery. Finally we went to the City Palace Cafe which is a restaurant inside the City Palace. It was a bit costly but then seeing the fort we felt like having a royal eat :).
After comming out of the fort we decided to go for some shopping - specifically some namkeens and Pan Gillori (stuffed dates where the stuffing is made of the masala used in pans). We walked a long way to reach some namkeen shops where we bought namkeens. Then we asked the place where we could buy Pan Gillori. Following the directions we finally reached a famous Pan shop named Murli Pan Wala. We bought Pan Gillori there. the guy there told us about a sweet shop famous for doodh ke laddoo. The shop's name is Bharat Mishthaan Bhandar. We walked a long way to reach there only to find it closed :(. Then we hurried back to the car as we were getting late. We left Jaipur at around 6PM.

The journey back
While returning it was already evening. Moreover C said that the road towards Delhi is not as smooth as it is the other way. And we found it to be exactly as he had said, the road wasn't so good for driving and it was getting dark. And Corsa has a very low flooring which was evident throughout the journey. So we had to be slower then others at speed breakers and also couldn't get the car down to the service roads even when we got stuck in jam. We managed to reach Delhi at around 10:45 PM, once again driving non-stop.

Overall the trip was great and thoroughly enjoyed; although the trip this time was far less eventful than our last time but then the trips like the previous ones happen once in a blue moon. And it was a good break from the routine life. A wonderful start to the new year :)