08 Dec Two Days in Jaipur

Visiting Jaipur has always been a dream of mine… for no other reason than all the images I had seen of Hawa Mahal. What can I say, I am a sucker for aesthetics. So, when the opportunity presented itself, as tight as the opportunity was, I coerced my family into believing that a trek all the way from Mumbai for two days in Jaipur before heading to Bali totally made sense.

With only those 2 full days to explore Rajasthan’s capital before heading to Bali, and a mission to make sure that we got to see (and photograph) as much of the ““Pink City” as we could in that time, I searched for Jaipur on “Get Your Guide” and immediately got served a “Jaipur: Instagram Tour of the Best Photography Spots” tours, which for very obvious reasons I immediately gravitated to and booked  immediately.

Day 1: “Get Your Guide” Instagram Tour of the Best Photography Spots in Jaipur

I am not normally a fan of tours, however, given the fact that we only had 2 full days to explore Jaipur, and I didn’t really have enough time prior to our trip to plan anything beyond booking flights and accommodation, this seemed like the practical and logical thing to do. With that being said, the 6 hour “Jaipur: Instagram Tour of the Best Photography Spots” tour from Get Your Guide was great, because of the individual attention we got from our driver (and my personal photographer Harshid) and I appreciated the private vehicle. Look... I am generally a friendly person, but what I am not trying to do when on a vacation, is be stuck in a vehicle with people I don’t know, forced to stretch my capacity for small talk. The six hour tour began super early – for vacation time – with Harshid, our tour guide picking us up from the hotel at 8am and covered all the major tourist spots. From the Amer or Amber Palace, to Panna Meena ka Kund, an ancient eight storied stepwell that was built during the 16th century as a way to collect rainwater during monsoons, to Patrika Gate and Nahargarh Fort it was really something else to see everything I had marvelled over on “travel Instagram” in real life. I mean, Hawa Mahal and The “Blue Room ” in The City Palace, are exactly as I had imagined them to be… beautifully spectacular. I also learnt a few things like: Jaipur is known for cutting and polishing precious and semiprecious gems and the royal family of Jaipur, still occupy a wing of the City Palace.

Day 2: Hawa Mahal, Nila House, Rambagh Palace & Bar Palladio

This trip broke all my rules, in that it had absolutely no “lie in days”, but it was after all, a trip my siblings and I had organised for my mother’s 60th. So, whilst, I was very tempted to lie in and spend the day chilling at the pool at the JW Marriot Jaipur, my FOMO for making the most of day 2 of the trip was engaged.  I recruited my mother to join me on a random further exploration of Jaipur before our evening plans. This exploration included going back to Hawa Mahal so that I could try and get a better picture than the one we captured the day before. Pro-Tip: Go to The Wind View Café, located opposite Hawa Mahal, and take your picture from their terrace. With my Instagram goals achieved, we then proceeded to Nila House, which is a sustainable craft and artisan space that also doubles up as a retail space to see if we could find anything to remind us of Jaipur.

The day really didn’t feel like it could get better than laughing and exploring with my Mom, but then we met up with my sisters at the spectacular  Rambagh Palace for tea, wine and treats. This was followed by dinner and drinks at the instagrammable and buzzing Bar Palladio, before heading back to the hotel to get some rest before the long transit to Bali.

A Final Word

Jaipur really exceeded my expectations and assumptions… and so did Mumbai, because I have to be honest and say that before I visited India, I had two very distinct visuals of what to expect. One was what I saw in Slumdog Millionaire and the other was what I saw when I saw pictures of Jaipur on people’s Instagram feeds. Neither was exactly that, but both were memorable and exciting.