Agra, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and a glimpse of Delhi. India was amazing. This blog post is about where to go in which places, who to travel with, what hotels to stay at and what food to eat. **Warning: LOTS AND LOTS OF FORTS** All of this was made possible by SITA (http://sita.in/) and all hotels will be named at the bottom with all SITA destinations.
Agra was a wonder for one night only. Driving in from Delhi, with all our things we first go to our hotel. Within two hours of relaxation we visited the Agra Fort. Known for keeping the "peacock throne" for a king, the agra fort is mainly used by the military. Only 1/4 of it is opened to the public and no one but the military know what lays in the remaining 3/4. After the intriguing Agra Fort, we made our way to the beauty of them all, the Taj Mahal or the "monument of love". This grand edifice, built by Shah Jahan from 1631-1653 to enshrine the remains of his beloved Queen Mumtaz Mahal. This magnificent structure took 20,000 workers to build, built so precisely that when you walk into the inner chambers you can see the light hitting the marble. With thousands of precious stones this building brings out the tears and love for everyone. It truly symbolises the everlasting love put into every detail.
After the one night was soon over, we drove to Jaipur "the pink city", the capital of the Rajasthan province. It is well known for it's art and crafts, jewellery, hand painted fabrics *actually got to try* and stone sculptures. It was beyond beautiful. Food was Top of the Top quality. Jaipur has become the home of many of inside jokes. Such as our amazing tour guide, aka. Captain Fantastic. Totally and truly fantastic.
Only shortly after that, we took the real deal. An overnight sleeper train in India. Depatrting at 1 am and arriving at 1pm was probably the suckiest trip of them all. But when in doubt by Zig Zag Cookies (technically ritz crackers without the cheese) and play a couple rounds of hearts. Once in Jaisalmer, our next stop in this amazing fiasco we had the day to relax. Truly in the middle of the desert it might seem impossible to do anything. Ha. You're wrong. Jaisalmer is also known as the "yellow/orange city" lived up to our expectations. In just one day we visited the Amber Fort, *riding with elephants that sneezed A LOT* the City Plaza Museum, The Jaisalmer Fort, Old Havelis and the Jantar Mantar. To add to the special day Ava and I got henna done by our tour guides sister in the only living fort in India. What.
As our two day paradise in Jaisalmer ended, we continued on to Jodhpur. Jodhpur entertained us with the Mehrangarh Fort and a lovely tour of our drivers farm (second henna done). With the beauties of both the old city and the new city we saw the Jaswant Thanda, a memorial built by the popular ruler Jaswant Singh (1878-95). The rest of the day we had the leisure to enjoy strolling through the market until we had dinner underneath the start over looking the fort.
In the morning we transferred to the airport, got on a flight to Delhi and spent the day in Haus Kas Village. We visited chic little shops and had an extraordinary lunch at Rama or Rasa or something beginning with an R. To sum up, India is an amazing cultural and colorful place with many diverse buildings, forts :) and memorials. With such beauty India is a definitely a go back to and some day we might find our selves there. Even with the poverty and the trash on the roads, India exceeded our expectations.
Hotel Information:
Delhi: Hotel Le Meridien SITA headquarters are there. (+91 9871416743 - Vikas Singhaniyan)
Agra: Hotel ITC Mughal SITA Agra (+91 562 2330373)
Jaipur: Hotel Samode Haveli SITA Jaipur (+91 141 4112600)
Jaisalmer: Hotel Suryagrah SITA Jaisalmer (+91 2992 253465)
Jodhpur: Hotel Ajit Bhawan SITA Jodhpur (+91 291 5101935)
(Drivers Farm Hotel Link coming soon!)
See You on our Next Adventure!