Jaipur was a 4 hour drive from Ranthambore and I was so excited to return to Jaipur after 11+ years. We stayed at the Royal Orchid in central Jaipur. It was a decent place, the rooms were small but neat/clean and the bathrooms were modern. It was also reasonably priced. Last time Prasad and I went on our own, we stayed at the Jai Mahal Palace and that was pure luxury but it was booked up and probably unafordable anyway. The first night we went to Choki Dhani. It is a mock village with Rajasthani dining, stores, camel/elephant rides and Rajasthani dance shows. The kids absolutely loved it!. The whole area has a very festive air to it, it's like going to an amusement park. We covered the City Palace and Hawa Mahal the first day. We also went to Bapu Bazaar and bought some local textiles, puppets, lots of bangles etc.. You can really bargain there which is fun because so many of the other stores quote fixed prices and don't offer more than a 10% discount. The next day, we went to Amer Fort. The road to Amer Fort is full of great shopping areas. I bought a set of beautiful musical female Rajasthani dolls, blue pottery and a beautiful painting. I literally shopped till the last minute and we only arrived 1/2 hour before our flight took off. We asked the driver to wait in case we missed our flight. Luckily the airport is very small so we made it just in time. Prasad also wanted to check out this famous vegetarian restaurant that was recommended by a shopkeeper, Surya Mahal, but unfortunately, we ran out of time both evenings and ended up eating at our hotel. I think we'll be back to visit Rajasthan again, possibly to see Udaipur and Jaiselmer.
On Oct 31st, we were having dinner at our hotel and Sindhu suddenly realized that it was Halloween and became very upset that she didn't get to go trick or treating. Next year, we'll have to make it up her. Apparently, they did try to celebrate Halloween in our neighborhood but it didn't really work out, the community next to us does celebrate it so next year, we'll head over there.
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