The post details the meticulous planning involved in organizing a family trip to Thailand, focusing on key factors such as weather, travel time, interests, budget, and transportation. Emphasis is placed on booking flights early, utilizing free visa options, and understanding local transport logistics, especially for traveling with children.
Thailand trip is the most happening post nowadays on everyone’s feed. We spend so many days to plan this itinerary for our Thailand trip, considering many factors as we were travelings with kids.
Let’s discuss the Important factors to consider Thailand trip.
Factors to consider
Weather in Thailand – As the temperature is normally high in Thailand and we were travelling in March-April so we expected it would be hot.
Bangkok, like most of Thailand, has a tropical climate meaning it is steadily warm and humid throughout the year with a rainy monsoon season. April is the hottest month in Bangkok, with temperatures averaging at 30.5 °C (87°F) and the coldest is December at 26 °C (79°F).
Travel time – We want to cover multiple location so local distance between places was really important to plan your daily itinerary.
Places to explore as per interest.
Budget- The most important factor that helps you in planning the Holiday.
Flights
Let’s start with booking flights both international and local flights.
It is always good to book flights as early as possible, to avoid costly tickets. We took the benefit of FREE VISA and saved few bucks.
If you are travelling with kids you can take the separate priority line at Thailand immigration, that will save some time.
Local flights– The flight prices for cheap local airlines is mostly without any baggage, you need to pay extra for your luggage.
If you book the luggage also in advance you can get the low price benefit.
Local Transport in Thailand
Airport cabs booking is cheap at KLOOKthan any other local options as we needed xl cabs for two 6 people with luggage.
Klook services and drivers are good. Cabs provided are nice and spacious and always be on time.
Klook customer support was available on whatsapp.
In city transport you can go with GRAB. You need to have a local sim for Grab application.
Colorful TUK TUK ride prices vary and is totally on your bargaining skills.
THAILAND Sim
You can purchase sim from airport itself as we compared the prices on the company website were almost same.
we took 699 baht plan for 30 day with good data limit.
Sim counters are near the baggage claim and outside pick up points
E-sim options is also available and the connectivity and internet was good.
As we were two families we opted two different networks sim, that was helpful in case one network is down.
ATM withdrawal fees – It’s always good to carry cash from India as the cash withdrawal fees from atm is high. 200 baht for some banks and 800-1000 for others.
Cash is required in almost all places to shop or pay bills at restaurant
Forex card- choose the forex card which provides good benefits and charges less fees on reloading transactions. We have used HDFC FOREX Card
Being vegetarian it was not so hard to find good options to enjoy vegetarian food. Specially in bangkok and Phuket there were lot of Indian Restaurants with vegetarian food options.
In Chiang mai and chaing rai also we found vegetarian food in local places. Just in Big hotel chains it was hard to find veg options especially in Buffet, that was included in stay prices.
Follow this link to check out my next Blog for Bangkok and you can also check other travel blogs
Dhundhara is a village in Jodhpur District, Rajasthan, surrounded by four districts and secured by four gates. The author visited while staying at Kot Dunara, a heritage home. They experienced guided walks, local markets, visits to schools, interactions with farmers, and a jeep wildlife safari, ending with high tea
Dhundhara is a Village in Luni Tehsil in Jodhpur District of Rajasthan State, India. It belongs to Jodhpur Division .
Dhundhara village situated at corner of 4 district . which are pali barmer jalore and lasst village of jodhpur district.it is far 60 kms from jodhpur pali and balotra.it is last village of jodhpur district. 4 gates secures this village around.
We got the chance to explore this place as we had our next stay at Kot Dunara. A heritage home stay in rustic Rajasthan.
About Kot Dunara
It is an ancient Kot, which has been opened up for you as a boutique heritage hotel. Belongs to the Thakur family who have looked after the Kot for over hundred and eighty years, though its existence is estimated to be over a thousand years.
Places we visited in Dhundhara
During our stay in Kot Dunara, they have organised some really nice experiences.
Guided walk
We took a guided walk around village Dhundhara. exploring the local market Soak in the local village scenes, and watch local artisans make their unique handicrafts.
Enjoy the vibrant markets and end the walk with a visit to the girl’s school in the village.
We went to the adventurous ride in a jeep for the wilderness safari. Enjoy the local flora and fauna as we spotted local wildlife like Black bucks, Blue bulls and Chinkara deers.
And finally Ended the adventurous safari with High Tea in the wilderness.
Our overall experience was quite refreshing as we stay in metro cities, where its hard to enjoy open surroundings. Staying in a village provides an amazing experience connecting to our roots,
Getting chance to touch and feel the flora and fauna. enjoying the local cuisine and local tradition. I would surely recommend the stay when you are visiting Rajasthan.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 2nd 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 .
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.
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.
Garden area
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.
Desert Camp
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.
Mandawa Fort
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.
Roof with original gold work
After completing our tour of Mandawa we came back to the Haveli where we were staying and had a tour of that as well.
Vivaana @night
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.
Fountain in other blockPlay areaVivaana
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.
Maze courtyard
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.
Beautiful Royal room
Weird in the sense that the bathroom of this room was on the first floor and it’s an open bathroom.
Royal room in the main building
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.
Original and working Rolls Royce
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.
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.
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.
Silver Vessel
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.
Electric vehicle
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.
Kesar Kyari
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.
Patrika Gate
Do check my next blog for more details about this place.
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.
View of Amer and water reservoir
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.
Sunset point Nahargarh
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.
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.
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.
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.
Garden plus Golf course
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.
Entry after ticket check
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.
