Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/t9B6QTgTQuabu2aJ8
Rajasthan was amazing. It’s an incredibly picturesque and scenic state, and the architecture in all four cities I visited (Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Udaipur) is stunning. And more importantly, the food was fantastic here as well. My personal favorite was dal bati churma, which is basically these balls of lentils that you break up and pour sugar and dal over and mix up. Also, it being northern India, Rajasthan was definitely a bit dirtier (especially Jaipur and Jaisalmer), but nothing too crazy there for me. Though I definitely spoke to a bunch of white tourists in the hostels I were in who commented on that, but I’m more or less immune to any of that stuff now.
Jaipur
Jaipur is basically a giant Wes Anderson film set. It’s an incredibly pretty and scenic city. Considering that it was “only” built a few hundred years ago as a planned city, and that it was painted pink just over 100 years ago and maintained that way, it makes sense. Even moreso than Hangzhou, Jaipur is basically made for instagram. I’d often have to wait 10+ minutes to snap some photos since people were posing for their insta/tinder pictures with the symmetric and colorful backgrounds. I think a general rule of thumb is that if you see a white girl on tinder with a photo in India and it’s not the Taj Mahal, it was taken in Jaipur.
That said, it didn’t feel artificial in any way for me…that’s probably due to the historic nature of the city. It was honestly a bit surreal walking around the pink city historic area and seeing all of these bright pink historic exteriors being repurposed as small restaurants, stores, etc. I guess it’s really no different than how many other ex-colonial cities repurpose colonial British architecture but this was a very novel one for me due to the unique architectural style.
In terms of the sites, I think the standout was the Hawa Mahal. This is definitely one of the few things that looks cooler in the photos than in person (since you can crop out all the hustle that surrounds the place), but it’s still definitely one one of the cooler single landmarks that I have seen on this trip. Again, a very symmetric and colorful building that just looks cool. Another sightseeing highlight was the city palace tour – this was where the tourists posing for photos was most egregious.
There were a couple of standout food places I went to here…the first was Lassiwala, which is probably the best lassi that I have had on my trip so far. Can’t overstate just how good this was, and all for under 1 USD. The other was Laxmi Misthan Bhandar, where I had a Rajasthani thali (thali means meal). Thalis in general are good sampler courses to get introduced to a region’s cuisine, and the food here was amazing. I did break my street food rule by eating in a restaurant in this case, and splurged over 10 USD for my dinner here. For context, most of my (delicious) street food meals in India are 3 USD tops.
Overall, I can’t recommend Jaipur highly enough, and the golden triangle (Delhi/Agra/Jaipur) is definitely a perfect intro to India ~10 day vacation.
Jaisalmer
My poor weather luck while travelling continued in Jaisalmer. A sandstone fortress city built in the middle of the desert, it basically never rains here. As luck would have it, there were downpours when I visited, continuing my trend with the clouds in Nepal and when visiting Kiliminjaro last year. Jaisalmer actually felt very middle eastern, and somewhat surprisingly reminded me of medieval Cairo (the market area of Cairo). It was a super unique place and really, if you zoomed through it you wouldn’t think you were in India at all.
I did an overnight camel safari which was really cool. It was sadly funny how I was wearing my raincoat in the middle of a downpour while riding a camel in the middle of the Thar desert, with sand dunes as far as you can see in one direction (and the green grazing fields behind you, but if you look straight you can maintain a better illusion). It was really unique to have the guides cook us dinner by campfire in the pitch dark, before we transferred to our tents to sleep overnight. Despite the rain, definitely one of the cooler things that I have done. Camels are also very uncomfortable to ride (especially compared to horses), and my thighs were sore for a few days afterwards.
Jaisalmer itself is a great city to just wander around for a day or two. Unlike almost every other major fort in India, the old city here is a living fort. So you climb up the hill and enter through the fort gates, and see a ton of shops/lodges/houses, as people actually live and work there. It was a very atmospheric location, with the narrow alleyways that were surrounded by these gorgeous, intricate haveli balconies. I’m a big fan of the floral design that a lot of Indian architecture uses, and these balconies were a prime example of that.
Jodhpur
Jaipur is known as the Pink City, Jaisalmer as the Golden City (due to the sandstone used for everything), and Jodhpur the Blue City. The Jodhpur fort was probably the coolest fort that I saw appearance wise – it’s a MASSIVE structure on top of a giant rock in the middle of the city. From up top, you overlook the city and just see a sea of blue, as many of the buildings are painted and repainted a bright blue. It was really a pretty awesome site. That said, when I walked within the Blue City area, it was basically a glorified slum, so it’s definitely one of those things that looks way cooler from afar than from close up.
Had my 2nd best lassi of India after Lassiwala in Jaipur at Shri Mishrilal Hotel, which was by the clock tower market area. This shop also sold an incredibly mean rabri, which is a condensed milk sweet. In general, the dairy sweets in Rajasthan were out of this world. Despite walking ~10 miles a day, if anything I have gained a few pounds in my retirement due to all the (cheap!) delicious food that I am eating. Though I think getting the slight belly really makes the hawaiian shirts look better on me, but I digress.
Udaipur
Udaipur isn’t quite as photogenic as Jaipur (not as colorful or symmetrical), but it’s honestly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. The city has a few artificial lakes that are shockingly very clean (this is India!). In a way, it actually reminded me of Saint Petersburg and all the canals there. The architecture is all these white and offwhite buildings, but built in a distinctly Indian (Rajput I think?) style as opposed to the white colonial buildings you see everywhere else in India. It’s also a very clean city, especially by north Indian (and even Indian standards). The one negative was that Udaipur’s downtown area is heavily touristy, so there were really no good street food options here. I had to walk 30+ minutes in any direction away from the tourist sites to get into the “real” Udaipur and get my good, cheap, and questionably hygienic food.
Udaipur is a fantastic city for just lazing around and going at a slow pace. Especially after Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, it was nice to be in a scenic city and not necessarily rush from A to B to C to see all the sites. One funny thing was that literally almost every cafe that I would walk into was playing Octopussy…this seminal Roger Moore film (Pierce Brosnan is still the best Bond! This one’s for you, Martin and Brad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvTEvmhnAMk) was largely filmed in Udaipur so they are really milking that claim to western fame.
Udaipur was also the whitest (as in people, but also architecture) place I have been to in India so far, even moreso than Agra. It was basically almost all of the worst people from Varanasi, but Udaipur is a stunning city so I was able to still enjoy myself here.
Overall, Rajasthan is definitely one of the must see places in India. Obviously most first time Indian visitors will come for Delhi/Agra/Jaipur, but if you have a 2nd week on top of that, then going into Rajasthan (Jaipur is in far eastern Rajasthan) is the way to go I think. One thing is that I am definitely a bit fort’d and palace’d out (3 forts in Jaipur, 1 each in Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, and countless havelis and palaces across all four cities). My next trip is to Ladakh to go snow leopard tracking with my uncle, my aunt, and my cousin’s friend (my cousin Adithya is currently getting his PhD in neuroscience in Johns Hopkins so he’s not able to make this), which should be a very cool trip. It’s also a nice reminder of my roots, as I’ll be braving temperature in the teens (farenheit)…at least it’s only for one week, and I think it’s going to remind me that I REALLY don’t miss Chicago at all.