Jaipur

In an attempt to see everything before we leave India we took a quick road trip to Jaipur, the pink city, this weekend and really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was absolutely perfect with blue skies and a comfortable 65-70 degrees. We started at the City Palace where the royalty of Rajasthan live, but were not impressed until we saw the Amber Fort Palace on the edge of town. A very beautiful hilltop fort built around the 12 century for the Rajput people who were in power at the time.
We found a very quaint little hotel called Suryaa Villa for 2,100 rupees=$40 in the city center that came highly recommended on Trip Advisor. The only people staying there were foreign passport holders who had also read about it on Trip Advisor. We had a basic room with everything that we needed and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The best part was the staff who did a little bit of everything. We met our favorite guy when he carried our bag to our room and then went through the entire room explaining how to turn the geyser on and everything. Then we sit down for dinner and he is our waiter. I swear it was a scene straight out of a comedy. The man did it all! He served our coffee and tea this morning at breakfast and then took a break to come to our room and carry our bag to check out. He was our personal bell boy/server for our stay. It was such a relief to finally see an Indian hotel that truly knows how to run a hotel. The place was cheap, clean, and well staffed. It's not rocket science, but it is definitely something that most places here in India struggle with offering a comfortable and clean hotel.

Pictures:
1) Walls around Amber Fort Palace
2) Elephants of Jaipur getting ready for the huge Elephant Festival in March
3) Amber Fort Palace
4) City of Jaipur (population over 5 million) from Nahargarh Fort
5) A camel in Jaipur waiting for city bus number 5...HA!