Jaipur for Janmashtami

For the long weekend of Krishna's birthday, known as Janmashtami, we left the fasting Anna Hazare back in Delhi and headed to Jaipur. We decided to drive and was told the 230kms would take about 5 hours. Seriously 5 hours???? This is a shorter distance than Perth to Yallingup! This seemed crazy but I also know the roads here so I didn't doubt them.

We set off at 6am on Saturday morning. The road had sections of complete insanity, especially as the monsoon rains had caused a fair bit of flooding.

Thankfully not on this bus!

School on a Saturday and this...... bit tough.

Unbelievable conditions on the great highway.

Beside the rain, the other problem is the massive, colourful, completely erratic trucks. They drive those things like they are hatchbacks! Just insane and of course accidents are never far away.

The woman driving this Honda was furious but the truck just drove away....

Broken axle and a jack-knife - awesome!

Thankfully we avoided the accidents and arrived to the old wall of Jaipur 6 hours after we left Delhi. For those of you considering a trip to Jaipur there is a 40 min flight...... I strongly advise it.

Welcome to Jaipur

Jaipur is striking when you arrive, the amazing Amber Fort perched on the hill, the kilometres of pink walls protecting the city, camels, elephants, dogs everywhere. It's pretty amazing!

We went straight to our accommodation at Samode Haveli. It is a 200 year old house which is still in the same family. We had a great room overlooking the gardens, heaps of space but I had left S's cot at home! Agh .... They offered me a cot that would barely have kept a newborn safe let alone a walking busy toddler so I "politely" declined and S was given a bed on the floor of the walk in wardrobe.

Once I had regained my composure over the bed fiasco we headed to lunch. I chose poorly so I won't review this lunch but S enjoyed some of the local music.

Then to the pool. It was a great pool for families with a big pool, a toddler pool, a spa and also a walk out ledge that toddlers could play on. There was also a bar that served us an ice coffee or a mojito!

S and T enjoying the wading ledge

Saturday night we headed out to eat at 1135 AD but Anna Hazare protests had blocked off a couple of streets and we weren't going to make it up to the restaurant so we headed back and ate in the courtyard of the hotel. We had a Rajastahani feast and it was very good. Lots of meats and breads and all washed down with a couple of bottles of very good Australian red.

Sunday was tour day at the Fort. We paid our Rs900 and hopped on our elephant and 'zoomed' our way to the top. We had a fast elephant called Rani whereas our friends hilariously had the slowest elephant on the planet.  We managed to resist purchasing anything on the way up and enjoyed the slow swagger of sitting on an elephants back while soaking up a pretty speccy view.

Rani's mahoots orange turban

A very pretty Hati

Stunning view from the back of our elephant

The Amber Fort in Jaipur is impressive. Its a huge fort, full of sprawling rooms, grounds and makes for a really interesting tour. We visited the hammam, the gardens, the wall of mirrors and the water chamber. It was excellent. There are some also pretty interesting things to see at the end of the tour - snake charmers, stores Hot Pink and Tulsi plus a modern art gallery. Impressive!

Manicured gardens of the fort

Following a good two hours at the Fort we took the stroll down the hill, wound our way through the old city and ended up at Anokhi cafe for lunch. It is a European menu of pizzas, fritters, salads and pasta and really very good. It's attached to a large Anokhi store so you an do some shopping while you wait.

My friend M and I then left the kids with their dads and went shopping. There is so much shopping to do in Jaipur and we barely scratched the surface. We searched out some sparkly bangles, blue pottery and some nice fabrics but a return trip is a must!

After a splash in the pool, a mojito and leaving the kids with their babysitter we tried again with 1135 AD restaurant. This restaurant is at the Amber Fort and it is beautiful. They have refurbished one of the rooms in the Fort and it is stunning, completely over the top but that's it's charm. The meal was sensational and the garlic naan was possibly the best I have ever tried. There is no booze served here due to its location near the temple and the price for 4 was about Rs4500.

Inside of 1135 AD

With our friendly waiter

So our last day in Jaipur saw us chilling by the pool before we battled the highway back to Delhi.

It was a lovely weekend shared with great people and Jaipur is definitely worth another visit in the not to distant future.