Jaipur

“Jaipur isn’t a place to live , it’s a place to feel alive” - unknown

Overland journey of ~ 240km to Jaipur which is a planned city capital of Rajasthan stopping along the way.

The first stop was the heritage-listed city of Fatehpur Sikri founded 16th century, said to be built by Mughal Emperor Akbar as his Lae architectural legacy.

Fatephur Sikri Fort

Driving you see farmers at work and many roads being improved near small villages create a lot of dust to mix with pollution cause by farmers doing traditional burning . Truck drivers like to decorate their most are brightly coloured have tassels hanging from many places this truck was great “Krisha Express” or did he mean “Krishna”

Everyone ready for a ride

The final stop before reaching Jaipur was the Chand Baori stepwells, built over a thousand years ago and one of the largest in the world. Those who saw the movie The Best Exotic Hotel Marigold hotel would find this familiar.

3500 steps

The Jaipur hotel was the Samode Haveli hotel heritage listed with beautifully decorated, with many corridors with stairs up or down  I need help to find the restaurant and roof top terrace, the bigger challenge was to find your way back to the room.

Enjoy a quick photo stop at Jaipur’s famous Hawa Mahal (‘Palace of Winds’), with its distinctive red and pink facade with snake charmers to entertain.

Jantar Mantar Observatory, an ancient stargazing hub packed with enormous astronomical instruments dating back to the 16th century. I found this of great interest they did not know about GMT yet these ancient time piece are accurate within 10 minutes of GMT

Tour of the Amber Fort, with its distinctive Mughal architecture which was just visible thru the population haze in town.

Then, immerse yourself in the wonderful artworks and block prints of Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing, housed in a beautifully restored haveli (mansion), and learn the intricacies of this traditional Rajasthan craft.

Up before sun rise traverse Jaipur bicycle through the narrow lanes of the old city. Biking to unravelling the secrets that this mystic historic city beholds. The city doesn’t really startup until 10 or 11 each day. This was a slow pace to look at more traditional perspective of how the morning time develops in the beautiful and historical city of Jaipur.

To ensure good Kramer I feed the cows and forgot to take a photo then headed off to Albert hall where soon to be married couple were taking photos in the morning pollution.

Then to a park to group yoga they said but more like yelling and laughing as a group (a lot of fun with strangers)

In the end, go to Govind Dev Ji Temple and see the aarti ceremony. Govind Dev Ji is dedicated to Lord Krishna, which is also the main deity of the city and its people. It is visited by thousands of local every hour and temple has a positive effect on the visitors. This was fun

Who is that in the blue t-shirt curly sing hare krishna maha mantra