Travel Archives — FORBABYNMOMMY

How to Plan a Trip to Dubai UAE

Travel trip to UAE

In this trip to UAE we visited 3 emirates out of 7 emirates:

Planning for the visit to 7 Emirates

We started the planning at least 2-3 months before. Planning includes various things like – length of visit, what to see, which time to visit, how to arrange etc.

We checked various travel partners/websites to get the quotation for a 6N/7D itinerary for 2 Adults and 1 kid to UaE. We were getting around 2.6L to 3.2L quotations. Cost of these packages depends on type of hotel and what all things you are including in it plus your bargain skills.

Finally, we checked if we could plan ourselves and if our friends are okay with that or not. Our friends were good with planning the whole trip by ourselves and had same thought that this provided us the freedom to plan as per our requirements.

Basically, with any tour package you get less tension, but you are stuck with them, they decide what to do when to leave where to go etc. With self-planning you have the freedom to decide what to do how much time to spend what to visit etc.

So, first we finalized what all places we want to visit in UAE and what all activities we want to do. Once we have that list, we checked the ticket prices on various websites. Then we checked the cab charges, hotel prices, flight prices and after all this we compared it with packages cost, and it was coming less only as this does not include their commission.

We booked better hotel, we decided what we want to visit, we decided the time when we want to visit, we decided in our leisure time what we want to do etc.

Cost for Trip to UAE

Our trip cost was around 3.2L for 2 Adults and 1 Kid (6 years age). This includes

Flights, we booked Emirates were little costly than other Indian carriers
Hotel, we stayed in 4* Marriott property that was not too far from Downtown
All the attractions
Taxi fares
Food we eat
Shopping including Duty Free
Visa
Travel Insurance
International Sim
Cab fare from home to Airport and back in India
Shopping for the trip

One can save some money on hotel and attractions. Like you can book something cheaper say a 3*, we choose to go to 148 Floor of Burj Khalifa which was costly then normal ticket, we booked a private 2-hour boat ride in Marina instead you can do a smaller tour or skip it, smaller tours of Abu Dhabi which were cheaper etc.

Attractions We Visited in UAE

After a lot of research and discussions with our friends we shortlisted:

Burj Khalifa
Burj Al Arab
Abu Dhabi
Dubai Frame
Dolphin Show
Dubai Mall
Ponte
The View At the Palm
Old Dubai Walking Tour
Boat ride in Dubai Marina
Miracle Garden
Ras Al Khaimah

We didn’t do the Desert Safari had done something similar in Jaisalmer so were not too keen on doing it. Our friends did it later in there stay with some of there relatives and said it was good one-time experience, if you have never experience something like that before.

Also, we missed visiting Museum of the Future as tickets were sold out, Dubai Eye as it was under maintenance.

There are a lot of other attractions/places to see in Dubai & around but you need time, so kept them for next visit.

Visa For UAE

We applied for Visa via MMT (Make My Trip). The process was quite simple and straight forwards. You don’t have to visit any place and can apply from the comfort of your home. We took 30 days Single entry Visa.

Document required:

Passport Scan – Front & Back
Coloured Visa photo

You can use MMT App for the same. Upload all the documents on there and pay. We paid INR 19,800 around for 2 Adults and 1 Kid. MMT say it will take around 10-12 days, but it takes around 3-4 working days to get the visa.

Flights

Do plan your trip well in advance to save some money. We were little late in finalizing the dates and doing the booking and due to this we paid around INR 20,000 extra. Initially same flight was costing us INR 57,000 and when we booked it 3-4 days later it was INR 77,000 around.

We choose Emirates because of the experience & service, even though we travelled economy but it’s different then Indigo and SpiceJet for sure. One can save some money here as well by choosing Indian Carriers.

If you have some Credit Card/Priority Pass that offer free lounge access, then you can plan your arrival at airport accordingly. We won’t recommend anyone to do this @Mumbai Airport as the Loyalty lounge here is pathetic. It’s so claustrophobic and smells of food all the time & you will feel like coming out of it immediately.

Food was also not good; we had few things there and were out of it in around 30 min. It was much better outside then sitting there. There are other lounges but as this Airport was taken over by Adani, I think they have converted them into but for Business/First class. There are much better lounges on Domestic then on International.

Do note that you’ll need separate cards for all the passengers even for kids above 5-6 years age.

Travel Insurance

We took this from Reliance General as this was the cheapest option. It costed us INR 1000 for 3 passengers with cover of USD100,000 and some add-on features which were common across all other providers.

Stay

For this trip we booked Aloft Al Mina which is a Marriott property. It’s a 4* property and it’s good. This property is situated right on Sheikh Rashid Road and has a hospital right adjacent to it. Marriott has their Elements property as well in the same compound so, 2 hotels in same compound.

The property is nice and clean with different options to eat and party. We have booked the room with B/F and they have good vegetarian options with good Indian options as well. Food was good, staff was good and helpful. We didn’t face any issue throughout the stay. Only drawback I would say is they don’t have any free pick and drop to the airport.

They do have free pick and drop to Dubai Mall and La Mer beach but that to is quite less, I think only 3 times a day.

Rooms were quite specious and had a great view of Dubai Downtown. We could see Burk Khalifa from one window and sunset in the evening from the other.

This property is near to Airport around 16-17 Km and nearest attraction is Dubai Frame and Dolphinarium. Farthest attraction was Miracle Garden, which was around 30 Km, but the beauty of Dubai is it will only take you 25-30 min max to reach there.

Attractions

We booked the above listed attractions mostly via there official websites and few via GetYourGuide. It’s best to book the tickets from the official websites as it’s cheapest there and there is guarantee that you won’t get cheated.

Only drawback of this is that you must pay in AED which will add some additional cost to your Credit Card, but you will earn points so kind of win-win.

We choose GetYourGuide as it has good reviews and packages, like Abu Dhabi tour, boat ride, walking tour. While booking this we paid in INR only and got a coupon code which gave us 10% discount but only on there App. Using this we saved at-least INR 8,000.

Taxi

We book all our travel within Dubai via Careem, this is the cheapest and most used app for booking taxi. In non-peak hours it starts from AED 5 around and in peak time which starts from 8 AM to 11 AM & evening 5 PM to 8 PM I think it starts from AED 12.5. For the farthest i.e. Miracle Garden which was 30 KM from our hotel we paid AED 64 which is quite reasonable and something similar we paid in Mumbai for Uber Prime ride to airport.

Uber is too costly there and is not for us mostly used by Europeans and Americans etc. for example same ride in Uber would cost anything above AED 150 easily.

One point to highlight is don’t get into any Black Cabs all Black Cabs are luxury cabs and will cost you way more then Careem. We took one from Miracle Garden to Dubai Mall and it costed us AED 94 this was at-least 9 KM less than what we travelled while coming to Miracle Garden.

International Sim

We purchased Matrix International sim from Mumbai airport for INR 33oo/- after 10% discount. We opted for E sim as our phones does not have duel physical sim options and our friends choose physical sim.

E sim calls were working fine but internet connectivity was a big issue. On the other hand physical sim was working fine. Also the number provided was UK number and not of UAE so our friends & other people in UAE were not able to call us on that number.

Adding to this, whatsapp calling is not allowed in DUBAI, it worked fine in Abu Dhabi.

Don’t take Matrix sim, at the immigration they handed us 2 Du sim for free with 24. hour validity and 1 Gb data. Then we can recharge it for AED 200 I think which will give validity, talktime and data. This is much better then Matrix but not sure how long this will be provided.
Even if they stop then better to buy a sim there only.

Stay tune for more details about the daily planning and attractions details.

For more travel blogs click here

This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.

Deham wellness retreat

As a mother and women, I totally understand Our daily Marathon starting everyday running from kitchen to rooms and outdoor trying to manage everything in daily life and forgetting about personal health and wellness.

In this hustle we at times ignore our mental and physical Health, that we suffer daily but tend to ignore it. Back pain, anxiety, stress, join pain, depression and digestive issues the list goes on if we count. Your personal wellness is equally important.

But this year I made sure to give health priority and take a break from this busy schedule. We went to Deham, a luxury and wellness retreat is placed in the lap of breathtaking Sahyadri mountains located at just 1 hr drive from Pune.

Yoga, Naturopathy, 𝗔𝗬𝗨𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗗𝗔 and Satvik diet are the four ways they work in Deham for your wellness . Let’s discuss more about how it works for us.

Naturopathy or Nature cure (Wellness approach)

In this treatment they try to heal our body by itself with the help of nature forces. In naturopathy they work under the factors responsible for any particular disease or illness like the daily lifestyle, unnatural habits, sleeping schedule, food habits & work.

Understanding health

After understanding all the details a proper diet and treatment is suggested as it is believed our body is capable of self healing if proper care is taken. That’s how your wellness journey starts.

Treatment and wellness Therapy

At Deham before starting any therapy or treatment you need to take proper consultation with experienced doctor present at the resort. As per your health condition, history and any current concern doctor will suggest a proper diet with therapies to be taken.

During your wellness stay you need to follow the whole prescription and daily check up before starting the next day treatment.

Therapies that can be taken at Deham

Nature Retreat for Wellness

• Massage • Aqua tonic Therapy
• Mud Therapy • Foot Reflexology
• Acupuncture • Acupressure
• Physiotherapy • Diet and Nutrition

Balance of Mind Body and Soul

Yogasana
Kundalini
Therapeutic Yoga
Yog Nidra
Power Yoga
Aquatic Yoga

Oldest Holistic Healing System

Abhyanga
Udwarthanam
Dhaara
Basti
Swedan
Panchakarma

Farm to plate concept

At Deham Naturecure you will get wide range of health-supporting cuisines. They offers a variety in pure veg and authentic cuisine. They offer dishes that are made from vegetables and grains that are grown organically in their farm and crafted by the guidance of health experts.

Experience

It was a much needed break we needed. We had a nice family time together as we were disconnected from Gadget ( no Television in the rooms ) at the wellness resort . Has a rejuvenating experience following proper clean diet and required treatment under doctors assistance.

Experience with kids

Amazing experience for my daughter as well. She learned so much about farming and enjoyed plucking fresh fruits and vegetables from farm. Participated in meditation and yoga as well, relished the fresh produce direct from the field.

Staff at Deham

All the staff at Deham wellness resort was so friendly, we never felt we are at resort. We felt like family the moment we reached Deham, they welcomed with so much affection.

After becoming parents we rarely get free time even at the resorts, but here we enjoyed me time as well with the help of the staff.

I would surely recommend to all the parents, to have this experience.

Happy faces when we left Deham with so much love!

You can explore more my family travel experiences here.

Golden City of Rajasthan – Jaisalmer

After our 2 nights stay in Shekhawati Region we headed towards biggest district of Rajasthan, The Golden City – Jaisalmer.

Most of us know it is situated in the heart of Thar Desert. It got its name Golden City due to the yellow color sandstone architecture.

It’s around 9 hrs drive, 522 KM from Mandawa via NH 11.

We stopped @ Motel Haveli Resort for b/f and total bill was Rs 200 for veg sandwich, poha and tea. It’s a big place with stay options as well, washroom were clean and place was also clean. Food was ‘Ok’ took some time to come.

There are very less places to stop on this route so come prepared with snacks. For lunch we could not find any good place on the map then suddenly we came across a place called Hotel Shiv Villas. We asked them to pack some aloo pyaz parathas for lunch as we don’t want to waste time rather eat it while driving.

After this we directly stopped in Jaisalmer. We reached I think late afternoon.

We had planned 3 nights in Jaisalmer, I feel 3 nights are good if you want to see everything and visit Longewala.

On the first day we didn’t do much as we were little tired driving 522 KM, so we checked in into this small beautiful Boutique hotel – Garh Meera.

It’s new property, still work pending due to Covid they couldn’t complete the work. Their kitchen was also closed at that time.

It has a wonderful view of Jaisalmer Fort from the roof, which was obstructed (little bit) by a construction on the building in the front.

On this day after some relaxation we went to visit the nearby local market. We booked this place only for 1 day and rest 2 days @ Jaisalmer Marriot. After b/f we left to check in to Marriot. But our room was not ready, so we went to see original Handicraft place.

For Jaisalmer sightseeing we had booked one very experienced guide Mr. Harish Giri Ji. He is really informative and very good human being.

Mr. Harish helped us in doing all the bookings i.e. city tour, desert safari package, taxi service etc.

So, on our second day of Golden city tour, Harish Ji took us to one genuine place to see some of most beautiful Rajasthani handicraft items.

We can definitely see the price difference as we have visited few shops before coming to this place and this place as huge price difference (it was way cheaper).

Harish ji is working as a volunteer in the co-operative place which provides ways to earn to the women living in desert area and keep the real hand craft art alive in this machine era.

You can check the place on Instagram with name Jaisalmerhandicrafts. This shop has amazing products. This was the first time ever we did shop on our trip/holiday. Usually we buy some fridge magnets only.

After this we had some lunch/snacks at a local shop and then headed towards – Kuldhara.

Kuldhara is a haunted village which is 50 min drive i.e. 27 Km around from the main city. Roads are good, there is a diversion which is a single road but in decent condition which takes you to the village.

This village and some adjacent villages were abandoned over night for unknown reasons. As per local stories some say it was due to the persecution of Salim Singh minister of Jaisalmer state.

Before abandon Kuldhara was inhabited by ‘Paliwal Brahmins’ and it is said that they were very prosperous.

It is very fascinating to visit this village and listen to all the stories, now we can only see few feet walls of all the houses and nothing else.

Converted into a tourist spot and there is an entry fee which is Rs 20 pp and Rs 50 per vehicle.

After spending some time here max 30 min as it was hot and there is not much to see, we left for desert safari.

Ours booking was done by Harish Ji and it’s called – Desert Safari Camp Sam Sand Dunes, you can find it on Instagram as well – @desertsafarisamsanddunes

One thing I would suggest to everyone is either stay in the camp or reach little early to properly enjoy the desert.

We reached just on time to have enough time to enjoy the dune bashing by open Mahindra Thar and enjoy sun set in the desert.

After taking lot of pics we headed back to the camp on camels. It was quite thrilling going up and down on a camel. Few times I thought we will fall ?

Back at the camp we had High tea with some snacks post high tea. There was a live folk music and dance performance. We really liked the performance all the talented artists.

After all the enjoyment and fun filled day. We ended the day with a good dinner at the camp and then drive back to the city.

While driving back had amazing experience, watching clear sky full of stars & cold breeze.

This ends our 2^nd day in Golden City Jaisalmer. Stay tuned for our last day in Jaisalmer.

click here to know full details of this 10 day Rajasthan road trip .

Harish Ji’s contact details –

Company name – Jaisalmer Tour Guide

Website – http://www.jaisalmertourguide.com/#services

Instagram – @jaisalmertourguide

Cell # 9414761153 & 7014396051

Shekhawati Region of Rajasthan – Nawalgarh & Mandawa

After spending amazing time in Jaipur and visiting few of the most popular places of Jaipur. On Day 3 we headed to a less explored region of Rajasthan i.e. Shekhawati region.

As mentioned in my first blog this is region is located in Northern part of Rajasthan. It consists of Jhunjhunu, Sikar & Churu district.

Places we visited came under Jhunjhunu district. As per the guides this region was founded by ‘Rao Shekha’ and named after him.

About the region

This region consists of some of the most beautiful and iconic havelis. Word haveli means big house or as per our guide “Havadaar” ghar. These havelis were build by some of the rich merchants of that time.

This region was a part of ‘Silk route’ so the merchants were quite rich. They built these havelis to show off their wealth. Few of the famous havelis are situated in Nawalgarh, Mandawa & Fatehpur.

We visited Nawalgarh on our way to Mandawa. It’s around 120 Km from Jaipur and it’s a National Highway 52 via Sikar.

The most famous haveli in this place is ‘Podar’ haveli. After restoration it was converted into a museum and now it is maintained by the Podar trust.

This place is really beautiful, with lot of frescoes. Fresco is a technique in which the painting . It is done when the plaster is wet so that the paint penetrates the plaster and becomes fixed upon drying.

There are 2 courtyards with different kind of frescos all around it.

The door that connects these 2 courtyards was(is) amongst the most beautiful gates in the country.

There are around 700+ frescos in this haveli, these frescos depict many scenes from Indian mythology as well as some modern trends like trains and dresses and also European culture. All the colors used in these frescos was obtained naturally.

There is entry ticket which is Rs 75 pp and timings are from 8 AM to 8 PM.

The museum displays the art and culture of Rajasthan,different festivals and way of celebration.

Different types of bridal costumes which brides of different sections of the society wear.

There is a section which displays different turbans which holds specific significance and are wore on different occasions .

In the marble art section, there is this beautiful artifact of a Rajasthani women. Build out of single piece of marble.

There was a school at this place which was converted into a museum. To accommodate the kids, they constructed few rooms on the first floor.

The caretaker/manager of this place showed us the Haveli and informed us each and every detail about the place plus. He helped us in clicking some good pics as well ?.

After completing our tour and taking a lot of pictures, we continued with rest of the Journey towards Mandawa which another 30 Km. We booked the stay a place which was 9-10 km before Mandawa city.

Mandawa is 236 KM from Delhi.

On the way we stopped at a hotel and to our surprise it was one of the most cleaned and hygienic and modern roadside hotel/property. It has auto on lights in bathroom with contact less flush etc.

We had tea here and it was really good. Place name is – Hotel Om, Sikar Road. You can see it on the left side while coming from Jaipur and going towards Mandawa.

We stayed @The Desert Resort which is part of WelcomHeritage hotels. It’s design replicate the rural culture. It has mud houses/huts of different sizes.

The Desert Camp — Desert Camp main entrance

This was the second time we didn’t find the service up to the mark as per 5* standards(First one was with Sofitel BKC Mumbai which is one of the worst service we ever had)

So, there was a film crew who has occupied most of the resort and we were given choice of 2 rooms, one in each category and the rooms were not cleaned at all.

The covers of sitting area was dirty there was dirt on the floor on the table, we called multiple times for all this.

Also not sure if there was shortage of staff but as there was a bottle kept outside of room which was there when we arrived and was still there when we were checking out.

Another thing is there was garbage left by guest in the main garden area right in front of reception and few of the housekeeping members pass by but no one picked it

Overall their attitude was not at all good which is totally opposite of the people of this region. We booked this place for 2 days but moved out after one day to a different property.

And this was one of the best decisions as we got the chance to stay in one of the original heritage property more than 100 year old Haveli – Vivaana Culture Hotel

Day we reached Desert resort we relaxed as we were tired of walking a lot in Jaipur and explored the property itself.

The property is good with some activities as well(which are very costly like Rs 1500-2000 per activity) we didn’t do any activity as most of these activities we were going to do in our next destination.

In Mandawa city there is a lot to see and can be covered in half day or max a day’s time. All the tours are done walking only. The guides here knows multiple languages as before pandemic most of the tourists were foreigners.

Beautiful Frescos of different Havelis in Mandawa

Fun Fact 1 – our guide asked us which language we prefer we said Hindi then he said he is not comfortable in Hindi as their native language is marwadi and after that he can talk in English, German, French etc.

Fun Fact 2 – Bajrangi Bhai Jaan wash shot in Mandawa (Pakistan part)

Frescos inspired from different historical events

There is a fort in Mandawa which is now a hotel and there is entry fee and as per the guide it was not worth.

There was this one golden room and the ticket price of that was 100 pp and that was not worth at all. So, you can avoid that and can save some money. Why not worth as the room was not maintained at all the family living there have stored all the crap and the walls and ceiling was not maintained.

After completing our tour of Mandawa we came back to the Haveli where we were staying and had a tour of that as well.

They also do village walk but not sure if it was due to pandemic or we were Indian tourist the person was not at all interested in taking us for a walk, so we did that by ourselves.

100 room Haveli and a beautiful yellow door of some house with Frescos

You will see a lot of cows and bulls and cute little kids playing in the evening, we went to a vendor who make Bangles but we were little late as they have already turned off the furnace(small one to make bangles).

He didn’t even showed his own property(he works there was customer relationship manager at the property) with any enthusiasm or interest.

The Maze waterway in the middle of the courtyard is a tribute to the amazing human ability to negotiate problems and came out free at the other end.

We gave the same review in their feedback book and to our surprise the owner does check that, and we got a WhatsApp message from the owner Mr. Atul Khanna very next day when we were on rout to our next destination. He apologized for that person’s behavior and informed us that there CRM is very enthusiastic.

There are different category room starting from Deluxe, Luxury and Royal. We got the opportunity to stay in Royal room which was quite amazing and weird as well.

Weird in the sense that the bathroom of this room was on the first floor and it’s an open bathroom.

The room is very beautiful with frescos all over the room. This property has 2 blocks, basically they acquired the haveli adjacent to theirs and combined it.

The Luxury rooms with frescos are there in second block and on low occupancy they close that block to save some money.

Overall with mixed experience we enjoyed our stay in Mandawa and will definitely recommend it to everyone.

Day 2 in Jaipur also knows as Pink City of India

Day 2 in Jaipur Pink City of India

After exploring the magnificent forts of Jaipur we started our second day after heavy b/f. For this day we have planned to visit the Jantar Mantar, City Palace, Amer Fort & Jal Mahal.

We started with Jantar Mantar as it’s totally open space with no shade, so if it’s hot then we have to bear the heat. In Jantar Mantar there are more than 15 astronomical instruments which were built by Sawai Jai Singh 2.

Jantar Mantar Jaipur — Worlds Largest working Sun Dial

Jantar Mantar is situated right beside City Palace and Hawa Mahal. The instruments created here allowed the astrologers to see the astronomical positions of different planets and stars with naked eyes. This was built by the king as he has keen interest in astrology, he used all the knowledge while constructing the Pink City.

There is a sun dials which tells the local time in which we need to add I think 38 min to get the IST. The biggest sun dial(vrihat Samrat yantra) in world shows the time to a precision of a second.

Witnessing all this live was an amazing experience and to know this all was created 200+ years ago by our astrologers and craftsman. Overall time spent here was maximum 1 hour. Ticket price is Rs 50 pp and car parking is of Rs 80.

From here we went to City Palace which is situated right next to it. Ticket price is Rs 200 pp. There are other tickets as well like the one where you can visit it at night and then there is package in which you can even visit the place where the current royal family lives, as I remember the price of this ticket was Rs 3000 +.

City Palace was created at the same time as the Pink city itself. It consists of Museum and a part where the royal family lives. This palace houses many courtyards, buildings and pavilions and the most prominent are Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal.

There are many entry points to the palace, one is reserved for Royal Family i.e. Tripolia gate. Visitors can enter via Udai Pol and one other.

Mubarak Mahal was built as a guest house for foreign guests which is now converted to a museum. Chandra Mahal is one of the oldest building in the palace and has several floors.

Then there is a place which was used as a Diwan-e-khas, it’s an open hall which is now used by royal family to celebrate important festivals. There are 2 big Silver vessels kept on either side and these vessels hold the Guinness World Record as well.

These vessels are the largest silver vessels with height of 5.2 ft weighing 340 Ks and has a capacity of around 4000 liters. These vessels are used by the king Sawai Madho Singh 2 to carry Ganga Jal when he went to London for some function/play.

Another special thing about these vessels are they are created without any joint or soldering. It was a wonderful experience knowing our history and seeing how skillful our artisan were. We spent around 1.30 hr here.

From here we went straight to Amer(Amber) Palace. This is situated in the Amer town and was build by Man Singh and later by Sawai Jai Singh. It situated on the foot of Jaigarh Fort. Ticket price is Rs 100 pp and parking charges for car is Rs 50.

There are many options to reach the palace one of which is your own vehicle. There are electric vehicles which will take you right inside the palace and charges Rs 80 pp after your own vehicle this is the most economical and affordable option.

There is one main attraction here to reach the top is elephants, but they are there till 11 AM only after that you have rest of the options till 5 PM.

From down to the full tour it will be around 3 Km of walk. The fort is laid out in 4 levels starting from Diwan-e-aam which was used for public celebration, Diwan-e-khas used by King and his special council, Sheesh Mahal and finally the Sukh Niwas.

This palace and Jaigarh fort are situated in one complex as there is a passage which connects both and was used in case of war. This enables royal family to shift to the Fort which is situated on a height and much more secure.

In Jalebi chowk there is Ganesh pol/gate which is very beautiful. It leads us to the private palace of the Maharaja. Beside this gate there are steps which directly leads to the temple of ‘Sila Devi’ which was worshipped by the Maharajas.

Going up from here comes the Diwan-e-aam, this was used to address common public. Going further up comes the third level. This is the courtyard where the Maharaja his queens and attendants used to live. There are rooms for all.

There is a ‘Sheesh Mahal’ and a beautiful garden as well in this courtyard.

Sheesh Mahal and beautiful garden in front of it

Final courtyard is where the queens used to live. The king had 12 queens, so he constructed 12 rooms and there is a staircase which is connected to the Maharaj’s room, but the queens are not allowed to go up.

All the rooms open to a common area which has a Baradari in the middle. It is said that if any queen does some mistake then the king gives them the punishment and make them sit in this baradari which is then covered by curtains and the queen will do some hard work like ‘Chakki peesna’.

In front of this Palace situated a lake know as Maota Lake and in middle of it situated a garden also known as Kesar kyari(garden) and as informed it was built to harvest Kesar.

In the Amer town situated Jhodha Bai ki Haveli which is not maintained at all and no once can access it, we can only see it from the Palace or the Fort.

After this we stopped on the way to click some pics of Jal Mahal. It is situated in the middle of the lake ‘Man Sagar’

It is said that it was given on lease to someone big company to renovate it and make hotel in it like what we have in Udaipur. Someone said that there is a stay on the construction/renovation.

This Mahal is a 5 storied building of which 2-3 floors remain submerged all the time and when the lake is full 4 floors are submerged. The situation on the shore is not good, so much of garbage was present in the water that it was stinking.

This ends our second and final day in the Pink city. From here we went to the less explored region of Rajasthan which houses some of the most beautiful Havelis.

Do check my next blog for more details about this place.

Exploring the wonderful Pink City of Rajasthan – Day 1

Jaipur aka Pink City was formed by Sawai Jai Singh in 1700’s. It took around 4-5 years to complete the construction of the Pink City i.e. construction of main roads and main areas of the city. Present day it’s the largest city of Rajasthan.

Do check out my previous post where I have given details about different regions of Rajasthan we have visited and how we planned this trip.

After check-in to hotel and relaxing for some time we started our tour after lunch. We stayed in Jaipur Marriott. The property is quite big with 300+ rooms. We stayed in Executive room on the top floor and the view was quite good.

There is one restaurant ‘Okra’ which serves good and quality food. We had daily b/f and dinner at this restaurant. There is one more restaurant/bar where you can have high tea or drinks.

Service is very good; we missed our high tea on the first day and requested them if they can send at least tea to room as we were really tired after the tour. We were surprised when the room service came with a big tray.

The chef has sent fresh aloo bonda(aloo Vada) with a sandwich, some cake, cookies etc. Everything was tasty and fresh.

First day we have visited Jaigarh Fort and Nahargarh Fort. These forts are situated above Amber Palace and there is a way to reach Amber from Jaigarh fort which was used by the queens in case there is an attack.

First, we went to Jaigarh Fort and the main attraction in this fort is worlds biggest cannon named ‘Jaivana’. The weight of the cannon barrel is said to be around 50 tons and 4 elephants were used to turn the cannon from one direction to other.

It is said that the only time it was fired they have used around 100 kg of gun powder and 50 kg of cannon ball. When it was fired it travelled a distance of 30+ Km and a small lake was formed in ‘Chaksu’ were the cannon ball landed.

This fort has its own water harvesting system as well, as water scarcity is there in Rajasthan from long time so they use to clean and store a lot of water.

There are small museums inside the fort one displayed the swords, shields, guns, and also a 50kg, cannonball with other smaller cannonballs. Other one has photographs, stamps and other stuff of royal family.

There is a small garden which is quite well maintained but cannot be accessed by public, one can see that from fort walls.

Many movies were shot in this fort/garden area.

View from here is amazing you can see Amer palace and Maota Lake, we can also see the Nahargarh fort walls which are spread over several km. Roads to this fort is in good shape but it’s a single road broad enough that 2 cars can pass.

Timing of this is from morning 9 to 5 in the evening. Ticket price is Rs 100 per person. One good thing about this place is you can take your car inside the fort, ticket price for car is also Rs 100, driver fee is included in car fee but if you are driving then you have to take ticket as we were told that driver can not step out but our guide managed it for that time ?

From here we went to Nahargarh Fort. Opening time is same as Jaigarh but it opens till late in evening due to sunset point. Ticket price is Rs 50 pp and Rs 50 is for car parking. There are 2 parking places one is inside, and one is outside so if you want to visit the sunset point and parking is available inside then do park inside else you have to walk extra.

Best time to visit this fort is in the evening time, you will witness amazing sunset and can click some amazing pics, when we were there a couple came for there pre wedding shoot.

There is one restaurant Padao as well which is operated by RTDC and they charge Rs 100 pp as entrance fee. Our guide said that the food quality is not that good, and we can get the pic from outside as well, so we didn’t went inside.

There is a wax museum at the entrance of the fort and the ticket price is Rs 500 pp, they have built a ‘Sheesh Mahal’ small palace made of different color glass and few other attractions.

We didn’t visit this as well as the price is more, and we don’t want to visit wax museum as we have seen Madame Tussaud’s in NL and Sheesh Mahal is there in City Palace as well.

Nahargarh Fort

In the main building of this fort there are around 9 rooms which are exactly same created for 9 Ranis(queens) of that time king.

We can even climb on the roof of this building and the view is just amazing.

While returning back from the fort to hotel in the evening we visited the Pink city. The city building are well maintained and are maintained by the government. No one is allowed to do any other color inside the Pink city.

Pink city has 7 gates to enter/exit, the wall of Pink city and the gates are still intact and well maintained. This city is well planned city and was constructed as per ‘Vastu’. There was no modification done with any of the buildings(there are new constructions but old is as it is).

We missed taking pics at night as our guide said that lights will be there till late night, so we went out around 11 PM one of the gates was closed so we have to take a de-tour and found that the lights are off.

I am not sure if they close some gates at night daily or it was due to Covid they closed it. There are lights which lit the full pink city at night and the lights are turned off by 10-10.30 PM daily.

This concludes our first day out of 10 days. Keep following my blog and Instagram for day by day trip details.

10 days road trip in different regions of Rajasthan

After a year long break due to Lock down and different restrictions due Covid-19 we finally dare to step out and went on a 10-day long Road trip to Rajasthan.

This was first time we went on any road trip of such a long duration covering 6 cities/towns/villages in different regions of Rajasthan. As usual our planning started around a month in advance and we started looking for good properties with different themes.

As we are native of Rajasthan so we went to our hometown first spent few weeks there and then started our road trip as Directly traveling from Mumbai was taking 2 days of time to reach(reason we don’t rush while driving and we don’t drive in night, so we usually take a stop in long drives)

Also we have to visit our home town as it’s been more than a year we’ve been here. So this saved us 4 days of travel time, which leads to good number of days spent in each city/town.

Usually good time to visit Rajasthan is winters i.e. till March mid around but this time it was little hotter in March start itself, but it was bearable around 32-34 degrees. Nights and mornings are colder not too cold but very pleasant.

We started our trip from Jaipur and ended it in Jodhpur and then back to our hometown.

Cities covered

Jaipur -> Nawalgarh -> Mandawa -> Jaisalmer -> Pokhran -> Dhundhara -> Jodhpur

We travelled around 1400 Km of distance in these 9-10 days. Roads are dam good and few are newly constructed. It’s a combination of State and National Highways

We skipped Bikaner this time, but will visit it next time?

Days spent @each city

2 nights in Jaipur
2 nights in Mandawa/Nawalgarh
3 nights in Jaisalmer
2 nights in Dhundhara and
1 night in Jodhpur(I know which is less min is 2 nights)

Different Regions of Rajasthan

These cities/towns are located in different regions of Rajasthan like Nawalgarh & Mandawa are located in Shekhawati region Jodhpur & Dhundhara in Marwar, Jaipur in Dhundhar region.

Last year we have visited Udaipur which comes in Mewar region which also consists of Chittorgarh which has the largest fort in India.

Word ‘Rajasthan’ literally means ‘Land of kings’ (Raja + shtna means राजाओं का स्थान). There were so many great kings who ruled in Rajasthan the most famous and fearsome was the Great Maharana Pratap.

Rajasthan has rich history and while on the trip we came to know that it was partially a part of Indus Valley Civilization as well.

The Shekhawati region is located in Northern part of Rajasthan and consists of Jhunjhunu, Sikar & Churu district. Places we visited came under Jhunjhunu district. As per the guides this region was founded by ‘Rao Shekha’ and was named after him.

These places are famous for grand and beautiful Havelies build by rich merchants of this region. This area was part of the ‘Silk rout’.

Jaipur is part Dhundhar region or say the main and biggest city of this region which got its name from river ‘Dhund’.

Marwar which consist of Jodhpur, Bikaner etc. means region of Desert. Mar was derived from Sanskrit work ‘Maru’ which means desert and ‘wad’ which means regions. People speak Marwari language if this region which is quite popular. If you are from Rajasthan, then most of the outside Rajasthan people assume that you are a Marwari ?

Things to Pack

Good Sunscreen
Hat/Cap
Sunglasses
Comfortable shoes, as it will be a lot of walking
Colorful & comfortable cloths, as most of the monuments are made of single color stones so you can get beautiful pics
Less things to carry while on tour as you have to walk a lot so a small sling or handbag or just a backpack
Do carry water bottles while on tour(visiting any monument)

* sunscreen can be removed if visiting in winters as that time sun is not that harsh but quite pleasant

Do follow my Blog and Instagram for detailed posts about the places visited in each cities, different charges/fees, timings, where we stayed, places to eat and shop.

Check where we stayed and what all we saw on Day 1 of our trip.

A day in Vadodara(Baroda)

After our visit to Statue of Unity we planned to explore Baroda or say Vadodara. It was a leisure day excursion, so basically we want to visit few places but don’t want to cover the full list mentioned on many websites.

We stayed in Eastine Residences. Will share the detailed review in my next blog.

Our day didn’t start early :), we left for sightseeing at around 11 AM.

We didn’t plan much to see, 2 main places that we want to cover were Zoo and Palace. Both had there reasons over any other place and those were we want to show animals to our little one and the Place looks really beautiful in the pics and had a lot of 5* reviews.

We started with Sayaji Baug Zoo, it’s quite big garden with a Zoo, a train and big garden inside. Ticket cost is Rs 20 pp. There is a museum as well in the same campus not sure abut the ticket price as we didn’t visit.

Renovation work was going on when we visited, I think they are building new and bigger cages for the wild animals and might bring more animals as well. I didn’t see any proper parking place outside the Garden.

Whole place is nicely maintained other then few old and small bird cages for small birds, many of bird cages were even empty. There are a lot of different varieties of birds.

The zoo is divided into different sections like one for birds, one for other animals like Rhino, Leopards, monkeys etc. and one for the King of the Jungle.

Our daughter really enjoyed here, you can even take stroller as the area is quite big and kids might create fuss after sometime.

Another attraction here was the train, yes you read it right. There is a toy train which runs inside the park and shows you different parts or the park.

You can take the ride at the start to check what all sections are there or afterwards to relax a bit. We took it afterwards. There is condition of minimum number of passengers then only it will play. The ticket price is Rs 50.

Do not forgot to take your shades and water bottles and if it’s bright sunny day then suns cream.

So, after all the strolling we were hungry and want some good Gujarati food. After searching and reading lot of review we went to Sasumaa Gujarati Thali.

I think it is the most famous place to have Gujarati thali and they do have branches in other cities in Gujarat as well. The thali was big as usual like other thalis with many items.

Taste wise it was good, they did prepared some Jain dishes fresh on request as my mom do not eat onion, garlic and many other things 🙂

This place was walking distance form our hotel, after lunch we went to see the Palace.

Laxmi Vilas Palace is huge palace and hug garden cum golf course. The palace is beautiful from outside as from inside there is not much to see, as the decedents of Maharajah Sayajirao Gaekwad III lives there.

We were really disappointed with this place, we have visited so many palaces much more beautiful then this that to w/o any restrictions.

They don’t even allow to take pic of palace from outside with a SLR or digital camera, only mobile is allowed outside and inside no pics at all.

This place has so many restrictions and after paying a lot for tickets what you see is just 2-3 rooms and one big empty hall. One room is armory and other has old broken crap of there family.

I really mean crap as it was in worst condition and even for that they want us to remove our shoes outside. The hall has some paintings and some sculptures that’s it.

For all this you need to pay a whopping Rs 225. Before this palace recently we have visited City Palace of Udaipur it’s ticket is also costly i.e. Rs 300 but as compared to this that was huge and a lot to see and much more beautiful then this.

They do give audio guide and it has voice of current owners of the Palace. There are issues with the guide and after sometime we turned it off due to the issues. The person is explaining a lot about his personal life in the palace which makes it slow is not useful.

Due to this it takes more then an hour to complete the visit otherwise as I said there is nothing to see.

Forgot to mention above there is one more restriction i.e. you have to keep your mobile on silent.

I won’t recommend anyone to visit this place, you will find a lot of 5* reviews for this place on Google and TripAdvisor but after visiting this I won’t give it anything more then 1*.

We gave the same review to a family who were thinking to purchase the ticket.

This completed our Baroda’s sightseeing. Stay tuned for next blog which will be about our stay in Baroda.

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Statue of Unity – Visit to Worlds tallest Statue

We were planning trip to Statue of Unity from quite some time. This year in Holi holidays we finally visited Worlds tallest Statue standing tall at a height of 182 Meters.

It is around 420 Km from our home. We took NH 48 till outskirts of Bharuch and then took diversion on State highway 165 towards Statue.

We usually start our road trips early morning, this time was no different. We left around 5.20 AM from our home. I think this was the first time we got lost at the start of the trip.

Not exactly lost as we have Google but we took 1 or 2 wrong turns, due to this we went inside Biwandi. Maps showed us this route as there was some accident or work on NH after Thane.

As it’s National Highway there are tolls but the roads are in great shape. We misplaced the receipts so won’t be able to tell how much total toll we paid.

But due to Fast Tag we went in wrong lane and paid double the toll in one of the toll plaza. Most of the time there are clear signs for Cash lane and Fast Tag lanes but some how we missed it at one of the plaza.

Our experience with cash lane was like it was fast at most of the tolls, as most of the travelers have opted for Fast Tag so the rush on those lanes were little more at some tolls and took more time to clear.

We too have Fast Tag but the site was not working a day before so we couldn’t recharge it. The state highway in Gujarat is not in good shape, there were many patches which were in bad shape but manageable.

Our first stop was for B/F at Silver Miles restaurant. This is one of the most rated place on this route. It is big place with ample of parking, clean but not properly maintained restrooms.

Food was good and fresh and they accept card payment. Cost was little bit on higher side for normal Idly dosa but it’s Ok. It was around 100 Km from our place and took around 2 hrs.

After this we didn’t stop any where and directly stopped for Lunch around 12.30-1 PM at Hotel Narmada. It is around 400 Km from our place and around 20 Km from Statue so it was good point to stop.

Our visiting slot for Statue was 2.30 to 5 PM, so we had ample of time for lunch and relax before visiting the Statue. Food was Ok, not bad nor that good but it was fresh and service was fast as it was not that crowded at that time.

We reached the Statue at around 2 PM. There is ample of parking available around the Statue, there are different type of parking available like one w/o any shade.

It was more like a empty ground converted into parking. Then there is parking which has shade and tar road.

Parking with shade is little far from the Statue. No need to worry as the bus ride from parking to Statue main entry gate is included in the ticket price. Parking fee for both the parking is same i.e. Rs 150 no time limit.

First pose with Status from the parking area

You can find a detailed guide about this place here. Other then the statue there are lot of things to do here.

Now we entered the compound, there is one security check at the main entrance. Then you have to walk around 100-120 meter to the gate where the tickets are scanned.

We have taken Rs 350 ticket which include the entry to the viewing gallery which is at the height of around 124 meters i.e. in the chest of Sardar Vallab Bhai Patel.

If you don’t want to stand in line for ticket purchase book your tickets here well in advance. As there are limited tickets for each slot.

Other types of ticket are general ticket which cost Rs 150 and does not include entry to viewing gallery. Then there is express entry costing Rs 1050. If you buy this ticket then you don’t need to stand in any line.

Here you will find a long queue if you are going in season or say weekend evening time. As we booked the slot for little odd time we didn’t find that much of crowed but it took us around 10 min to enter.

There are Travelators on each side and is covered from the top so you will have shade most of the time. There are escalators every where which is wonderful and very thought full.

This will reduce the overall tiredness and keeps you fresh which is necessary to explore other things. Best part is you can come with full family as escalators are really nice facility specially with elders and kids.

When we first saw the Statue it was like WOW, this is simply a architectural marvel and a great tribute to Sardar who united India.

There is museum at the bottom of the statue. This is the only place which is air conditioned.

Entry to this place is given as per slots. It has huge metal head of Sardar and other details of the full construction. It also contain pictures and videos related to Sardar providing more details about his work and his life.

In the middle of this museum there is big wooden circular shape which contains the lifts to take people to the viewing gallery. There is big line here, bigger then the one we get on the main entry.

Behind this beautiful wooden wall are the elevators

Museum is made with proper sitting areas and benches all over the place. Their is two movie theaters where you can watch small documentary on Dam and Sardar’s life.

Relaxing a bit after the visit to viewing gallery

It took us 15-20 min to reach the Lift and then few seconds to reach the viewing gallery.

The view is amazing but you will enjoy more if you visit after rains. There will be water in Narmada and if you are lucky enough you can witness the open gates of the Dam.

Sardar sarovar dam — View of Narmada and Sardar Sarovar dam from 124 mtrs

There not much to do here, you can enjoy the view for some time, click some pics and then again get in line to get down. All these lines can be skipped if you purchase express entry ticket.

For us it was too costly and didn’t justify the price as we were visiting in a kind of off season.

After getting down you can again enjoy the museum or relax a bit. After getting out of museum we climbed to the feet of Sardar. They are so huge and one can’t even see the face of the Statue from the bottom.

The view is great from here as well. You can enjoy some time here click some pics. As I said earlier there are escalators so you don’t have to climb a single stair 🙂

After all this we started walking(basically standing on Travelator :)) to exit. It was great experience and one should definitely visit this. There is food court in the campus which is quite big and has different options to eat.

Note – there is free water available in the premises, you can either refill your bottle or buy one as a souvenir. Do carry sun glasses and sunscreen in case you are visiting in day and if it’s sunny

There are other places to see near by, I’ll give more details about them in my next blog so stay tuned 🙂

Udaipur-Ramada

While planning our trip on Diwali to our home town of Ajmer we thought to Drive from Mumbai and make a small sightseeing vacation @Ramada Udaipur.

For this we were in confusion that should we go before Diwali or After Diwali, then we thought to do it before Diwali and while returning back we’ll stay @Ahmadabad.

Our 2 days details and how we planned and traveled and reach Udaipur @Day 1 & Day 2. Here I’ll share more details about our stay @Ramada

This time instead of choosing any kind of Home stay for our 2N stay we opted for a resort, reason being we were not getting any decent homestay with any view or any activity included in it.

So basically once you are back you need to sit in your room and watch TV or your mobile. We did booked a homestay for a night i.e. the night we reached Udaipur. Property was located in a residential area. The property itself was nice but our experience was not.

When we reached Ramada, check in didn’t took too much of time. They have different variety of rooms. we stayed in there premium villa rooms.

The reception area is hug with different sitting options, a travel desk, a check in counter etc. There is small handicraft shop at the end of the reception area.

These villa rooms were separate from main property and you need to walk a little to reach there.

Don’t get confused with the name villa, it’s just a big room with big bathroom. Why the name villa is coz they are build like a villa. In a single villa there are 2 room, one on the ground and other on first with separate entrance.

Ground floor one will get a porch and first floor will get balcony. In the Villa section the front row has the best unobstructed view as in front there is a garden.

We stayed on the ground floor on the row behind the front row. We did get the beautiful view of Sajjangharh Palace from the porch. You can read a newspaper or have your morning tea and enjoy the view.

Room was quite big and specious. After entering there’s a 2 seater couch on the left, then a king size double bed with comfortable mattress and pillows.

On the right we have a TV table and at the very end of the room we have a writing desk. After the bed on the left there is door which opens to the luggage and closet area.

This is really a nice add on, once you close the door you won’t see all the mess from your suitcases and cloths 🙂 From this area we have entry to the big and luxurious bathroom.

These Villas bathroom is huge with big rain shower in the shower area and a full size bathtub, yes you read it right a Bathtub.

The Property is quite big with lots of rooms in the main building and in villa section. They have a private pool with Jacuzzi which is accessible only to those who go for Spa.

There is a big common pool with a small waterfall as well which is accessible to all the guest. This pool is situated kind of middle of the property and @night you will have a great view of the property with all the lights on.

There are 2 garden on the property one was in front of the Villa section and the other was in front of the other category rooms in the main building and this was big.

The big garden has a cemented platform to play badminton and the smaller garden has swing, seesaw, slide and a board for archery.

They do have kids play area which is not a big area with lots of things to do, so your kid might get bored soon. They have indoor games for adults as well like TT table, pool and carom etc.

The restaurant is decent with decent food. Being in heart of Rajasthan they don’t serve spicy food and the reason we got to know is because maximum tourist that come is from the state of Gujarat.

There a open sitting option in the restaurant from where you’ll get the view of Sajjangharh Palace on the hill top.

When were there on our last night we had dinner at the property by the poolside. They were celebrating something which I don’t remember but I think it was related to earthen pot cooking.

they served the food in clay plates and clay bowels which is quite different. There was Rajasthani song and dance performance as well which was quite good.

Overall I would definitely suggest this place to all my friends and family for a comfortable stay.