Month: April 2018

Visited in January 2016

The Indian state of Rajasthan has a rich, colorful culture and kathputli has been an important part of its culture.

In word kathputli, kath means wood and putli means doll which jointly means doll/ puppet of wood. It is an string puppet theater, where wooden puppet is managed by strings from top on the lines of a story narrated with music.

During our visit to Jaigarh fort (Jaipur) we watched a kathputli show conducted by the locals inside a room facing an open area (aangan). The show was only for around 1 minute and some seconds but i totally loved it as it was funny and vibrant. The show had a simple presentation but the whole ambiance (music, song and story) made it very interesting. Would love to watch it again.

The person didn’t charged any ticket for it and no charges for making a video as well, he accepted what people gave him with their will.

Apart from Rajasthan, Kathputli shows can also be enjoyed in other states of India from time to time.

Visited in January 2016

After winding up early from office I took metro and reached Pratap Nagar metro station as our train was from Sarai Rohilla Railway Station (Delhi) at 5:35 pm.

And from here our journey began…….to the colorful state of India, Rajasthan. This time our destination was Jaipur & Udaipur.

I booked tickets in a Double Decker train as I haven’t traveled from such a train before so it was a new experience for which I was totally excited. Train left Sarai Rohilla Railway Station at scheduled time of 5:35 pm and we reached Jaipur on time as well at 10:05 pm.

After a lot of confusion I booked Hotel Shaher Palace from train itself for our two days stay at Jaipur. Although I had done a lot of research on hotels previously and found good reviews about Hotel Shaher Palace but didn’t booked it earlier due to mixed reviews.

The hotel sent a cab for pick-up, for which they charged later (didn’t had an idea of this). Smooth check-in, soon we were in our room. The room was small with attached bathroom. They also provided an additional mattress as we were three people. We had dinner in the train itself so it was time to have a relaxed sleep.

Day 1: We woke up and after bathing went to the spacious garden of the hotel which was just in front of our rooms. Since it was a winter season, a morning sunlight was a bliss which even charged us for our day of travel.

Now the time was to explore the pink city “Jaipur”, we thought to have breakfast somewhere on the way. We booked a tempo to explore city like a local but I must tell it wasn’t a great idea as despite of being winter season Jaipur was pretty hot in January.

Our first destination was Nahargarh fort which is on a hill. Actually other two forts, Jaigarh and Amer are also on hill. We saw the point from where the way for these fort diverts.

Nahargarh is a huge fort with a palace inside. One can even have a beautiful view of Jaipur city from this fort.

After exploring the palace and fort we had some gol gappa, bhelpuri and cold drink in the fort premises, there is only one stall with limited food options.

Now was time for the next fort, so we went back to the point where paths for Nahargargh fort and Jaigarh fort got separated.

Jaigarh fort is far from main entry gate and the fort is divided into two parts in one part Jaivana Cannon (the world’s largest cannon on wheels of the Early Modern Era) is kept and on the other side a palace, where we enjoyed a puppet show as well.

Later on we did some shopping at the emporium in the Jaigarh fort premises.

For Amer fort we booked a small vehicle which took us to a tunnel which joins Jaigarh fort with Amer fort. We have to go inside the tunnel by foot, the vehicle took us only till the tunnel entry point.

Amer fort is huge and had many visitors so after a quick roaming around and taking few photos we came back to tunnel start point (from Amer fort side).

Finally after exploring all three forts which was a real task we went back to Jaipur city and on the way we got down to have a close view of Jal Mahal and to click some photos.

Jal Mahal can we viewed from the road connecting Jaipur city with all three forts (Nahargarh, Jaigarh & Amer). There were many road side vendors at this place so one can do some shopping from here.

Please note this attraction can only be viewed from the road as entry to this place is not allowed. 

We again got into our tempo which took us to Hawa Mahal. The palace (mahal) is beautiful and is one of the famous attraction of Jaipur.

Above picture is of the back side of palace which is situated on a busy road. We took this photograph from the other side of the road.

Our tempo dropped us at a restaurant in Johari Market. Here we had our late lunch, planned for our next destination and booked the cab.

Since there was some time for the cab to arrive so in the meantime I explored Johari market a bit and did some quick shopping 😀

From here our destination was Chokhi Dhani which was around 23 km from our current location.

After reaching the place we could see large number of people at the counter and at the reception area as that was the opening time of the place. We quickly bought our tickets from the busy counter and entered the place.

Chokhi Dhani welcomes there guest by putting tilak on their forehead (Hindu tradition). After getting in we explored one part of the place and had freshly made makke di roti with saag at a jhopadi (hut). The place was vibrant due to the way is was constructed and because of various activities going on like folk dance, camel ride, bioscope, henna tattoo and etc. After some more time of roaming around we went for a gala dinner and later on got the mehendi (henna tattoo) done on our palm. The dinner and henna tattoo was included in our entry ticket. I also watched bioscope just to get a feel of ancient time. After enjoying all these stuff we went back to our hotel through our cab.

Day 2: This was the day for exploring rest of the destination left in our itinerary so after having quick shower we had breakfast (poori sabzi) in the hotel restaurant and then went to Govind Devji temple.

By the time we reached temple it was almost the closing time so after a brief darshan we collected prasad from the counter and started for City Palace which was very close to the temple around 350 m.

The palace is beautiful and very well maintained. 

There are also some bakery shops inside palace. After exploring the place we went to Gandhi market for lunch and for some shopping. We really liked stuffs of a shop and did maximum shopping from there.

After lunch and shopping we went to JP Temple, which is made up of white marbles.

We submitted our belongings at the counter and seated in the temple for some time as it was soothing after a busy day.

Now was the time for visiting our last destination in the city Raj Mandir.

Raj Mandir is a very old movie theater with old ticketing system and beautiful interiors.

From here we went back to hotel, picked our luggage and went to railway station for catching our train for Udaipur at 11 pm. We checked out in the morning itself and kept the luggage in hotel’s reception room.

Day 3 – The train reached Udaipur railway station at 6:45 am and cab from our place of stay was already waiting for us at the station. After some rest and freshening up we got ready to explore the beautiful lake city, Udaipur. Our first destination here was an ancient temple, Jagdish Temple.

One has to go through some stairs for reaching temple premises. The temple had many devotees who were singing devotional songs at the premise. Since there wasn’t much place to sit we took a darshan and came down.

Our next destination was City Palace which was very close to temple (around 210 m) so we went there by foot. Before entering the palace we had a quick breakfast of tea, pakori (indian snack) at a stall before the entry gate. There is an entry ticket for the palace, for boating in lake pichola and for entry in jag mandir. We firstly went for boating in Lake Pichola which was awesome as the lake is huge and beautiful.

We were dropped at Jag Mandir which is built on lake itself so one can reach the place only by boat.

Do not confuse this place by word mandir (temple) as jag mandir is not a temple, there are mainly restaurants inside the place. The interior and exterior of jag mandir is superb where one can have many photos. The place also have a garden where many Bollywood film scenes have been shot. All in all it is a good attraction which shouldn’t be missed.

Soon a boat came which took us back to the City Palace. After coming back we went to explore the palace which have many floors and we have to climb the stairs for visiting each floor.

City Palace premise also have restaurant but we had our lunch just outside the palace in a restaurant named Shree Nath Masala Dosa.

After lunch I thought to visit sunset of sajjangarh fort as that was also a spot in my extensive research on places to vist in Jaipur, Udaipur, but I wasn’t sure so we asked an auto and he suggested us Karni Mata Temple and I am happy that we visited the place.

Karni Mata temple is a small temple on hill, we went there by ropeway and after darshan at the temple, watched an amazing sunset.

One can see lake pichola and Udaipur city from the top. The sunset was truly magical and it was amazing to see the city in night, all glittering.

There was a eating point near the ropeway. After an awesome evening, we had dinner and went back to our hotel.

Day 4 – This was the last day of our trip and we started the day by visiting an ancient temple, Eklingnath ji Temple which was 29 Km away from Udaipur. The temple have beautiful architecture and it feels very peaceful inside the temple.

Locker facility is also available at temple entry gate.

Our next destination from here was Shilpgram which is rural art and craft complex. The place was almost vacant with limited open counters where we saw one folk dance, heard one folk song and watched some art works. 

The best time for visiting the place is in December as Shilpgram Utsav (festival) takes place at that time and most of the activities happens at that time only.

After having some snacks at the place we went to Fatehsagar lake.

This is a nice place with huge lake and multiple boat options like speed boat, big boat with multiple seats, luxury boat and etc. We opted for luxury boat and had amazing boating experience. In front of lake there is Maharana Pratap Museum which could be visited by going through some stairs. 

Our next destination was Saheliyon ki Bari. The place is nice having fountains, lotus pool and a big well maintained garden.

Now the time was to have some food so we went to Natraj Restaurant, which was also a must visit place as per my extensive research on internet. Natraj is truly famous for unlimited, variety and tasty food.

The service at the place is very good, also the manager was personally available and took care of the service. Loved the place and will totally recommend it.

Do not get confused as we did, they have restaurant on first floor which provide buffet, we went to another floor where there was a-la-carte.

After a bellyfull lunch we proceeded towards railway station to catch our 6:15 pm train for Delhi. The railway station is 850 m from Natraj Restaurant.

 

How to reach:

By Air: Jaipur airport is well connected with most of the Indian and international cities. It is around 12 km from Jaipur city.

There are direct flight between Jaipur & Udaipur.

By Rail: Jaipur Railway Station is well connected with all the major cities of the country. Also the luxury train “Palace on wheels” runs on this route.

There are direct train between Jaipur & Udaipur.

By Road: There is a regular service of buses from not just Delhi but other cities like Kota, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Vadodara and Ajmer.

There is a distance of approx 425 km between Jaipur & Udaipur which could be covered by direct bus between the cities.

This was my first ever experience of Japanese & Thai cuisine and i can say it was a nice experience 🙂

Bento cafe outlet, which i visited is located in food court of DLF Mall of India in Noida. It (Bento) means lunch box in Japanese.

The cafe have very simple menu with less but sufficient variety, mainly Asian (Japanese, Thai) cuisine. We ordered Tempura sushi, Dimsum, Bento box, Sizzler with unlimited cold drinks.

Tempura Sushi was a mixture of tempura and sushi. Tempura is a Japanese dish which is fried in a batter and sushi is a roll made up of sticky rice. The dish was served with soya sauce and dressing.

All in all the mix of these two separate dish was yummy with crunchiness of tempura and a sour taste of sauce spread over the dish.

Dimsum is a Chinese dish which is fondly known as momos in India. It was soft and good in taste.

Although Bento Box is a complete lunch box with gravy, noddles/rice and Thai salad (som tum) but we further upgraded our bento with spring rolls and cold drink.

One can select gravy and noodles/rice for there bento box. I chose Thai red curry and udon noodles (wheat noodles) for my bento box. We liked everything in the box except for Thai red curry, we didn’t liked it much.

In Sizzler we had hakka noodles, veg manchrian, spring rolls, french fries,  Thai salad (som tum) with unlimited drinks.

One can again choose the gravy and noodles/rice for sizzler. This was tasty and can definitely be tried at the outlet/restaurant.

To conclude, the place could be visited if you want to try out some new cuisine or even if you are looking for some regular Chinese food.