After the horrible experience with the hotel in New Delhi, we were pleasantly surprised and relieved with our choice of hotel at Jaipur. Hotel Pearl Palace, rated the best backpackers' hotel by Lonely Planet. Why?
Because it doesn't really feel like a backpackers lodging in the first place. Packed from the rooftop to reception area with Indian furniture, paintings and deco, you would be forgiven if you thought that this was a palace.
Speaking of the rooftop, there is an awesome restaurant, the Peacock Restaurant. Best place to enjoy the food, the company and the sights...:
It is conveniently located beside a lesser-known ancient fort:
The rooftop consists of the restaurant and a few more storeys above for dining.
Scenic view of the surroundings:
We totally felt safe there. To me, nothing else matters - not the hotel's cleanliness or location - but that feeling of security you get when you stay in a temporary accomodation.
Guess who we bumped into over at the rooftop? Another bunch of NUS students! Yeekiat, Jieming and Valerie were all hallmates from Eusoff Hall and they were friends with some of our friends back in Singapore. It was such a small small world. They had been travelling the western part of Rajasthan and south India in Bangalore a few weeks before. We immediately decided to explore Jaipur together.
Our surprisingly huge room:
Jaipur's many gates into the old city:
Jaipur is known as the 'Pink City', yeah, I know what you are thinking, its not really pink...:
Monkeys!:
We walked around the old parts of Jaipur till we came across one of the landmarks - the Hawa Mahal:
Built in 1799, it is known as the Palace of the Winds and is an extension of the City Palace for the women's chambers. The windows you see allowed the royal women back then to observe what was happening on the streets of Jaipur without being seen since they had to observe strict 'purdah' or cover. The whole Hawa Mahal looks surprisingly small from the front, but there is a whole lot of palace ground behind.
The entrance is at the rear through all the sourvenir shops...:
The City Palace:
Entrance to Hawa Mahal:
Courtyard:
One of the windows, the royal women peer through:
That is the Jantar Mantar in the background (more on it later):
Omm....:
Yeekiat and Valerie:
The larger group of 7 - Lien, Faith, Valerie, Shazi (me), Ming, Zhongx, Kiat:
So after that we decided to walk around Jaipur a bit more:
Holy Cow!:
There was even the hugest elephant I have ever seen but I did not take out my camera in time. Another holy cow:
Kiat, Ming and Valerie convinced us to watch a Bollywood movie. At first we were hesitant but it was such an experience!:
They of course treated us foreigners better again by letting us cut the super long queue to buy tickets and we got to sit at the balcony with the other tourists and locals with families. But before the movie started we got to try India's MacDonald's.
What??? No beef? No problem!:
We watched 'Kambakkht Ishq' featuring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor.
Ironically the story was shot entirely in Hollywood (there were cameos by Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh) and there we were, trying to experience a Bollywood movie in India. I have never felt so cheated by Bollywood movies. They are simply not real, if you know what I mean. There they were, the locals (cramped in the auditorium below the balcony), cheering for their favourite actors or actresses acting out their wildest fantasies living it up in Hollywood, owning yatchts, mingling with beautiful people, marrying Denise Richards...
Like come on...
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