India Trip Day 1 Part 3 (Jaipur) - Hawa Mahal, Jama Masjid & Muhammadi Palace

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

We arrived in Jaipur Railway Station (Station code: JP) at 1.40pm. Our sim cards still couldn't be activated and none stated other than 'no service'. We had neither mobile data nor public free wifi to search for uber. We had no choice other than taking a prepaid taxi.

As we went out of the Jaipur Station, a group of taxi drivers from different companies, and some were private ones came, surrounded us and persuaded us to ride on their taxis. They followed us, but we kept walking until the prepaid police taxi booth. I'm not sure why they call it a 'prepaid police taxi' though. Anyway, we took a taxi, which costed us Rs270 and arrived at Zostel Jaipur about 50 minutes later.


ZOSTEL JAIPUR

It wasn't really hard to find the Zostel as it is located near the main road, just a few mins after the famous Hawa Mahal. Zostel is the most leading hostel in India and they have a few branches all over India. One of them is in Jaipur.

As you can see in the photo below, it's situated just above the ICICI Bank and the staircases that lead to the reception area are next to the bank. The Zostel is a super duper comfortable hostel! Really recommended for those who wanna stay in a hostel. We booked a dorm of 4 bunk beds, just nice for the 4 of us and paid RM22.40 per person including charge and tax.

Inside of Zostel Jaipur.

They even have a map indicating places to visit and also the opening time for all sightseeing.

Horse riding in the middle of the road is really common there. In fact, horse is one of the income sources in India as they not only help carrying people from one place to one place, but they are also used to carry things, which personally I kind of pity the horse.

We checked in, put our things inside the room and went out. Nothing much we could do in the evening as during winter, it gets dark earlier than usual. Maghrib that time was at 5 something pm. Hawa Mahal is within walking distance from Zostel, just about 8mins. Plus minus another 2mins to say no to sellers on the street and try avoiding dogs and animals poop. 

HAWA MAHAL

The nice part of Hawa Mahal, like what you'd see if you type 'Hawa Mahal' in the Google search box is situated by the roadside. Literally by the roadside. You can either take photo with just a part of the building or the photographer will have to stand in the middle of the busy road. 

There are shops along the way to Hawa Mahal. As we walked, passed them, guess what? Almost every single seller would ask, "Malaysia?" "Indonesia?" "Singapore?" haha yes, really! And some of them said, "Madam, murah murah." "Sangat murah." I bet many Malaysians had come here haha. 

Due to time constraint, we only spent time taking photos outside of the Hawa Mahal and decided to not pay the entrance fee just to enter for a few minutes. 

And here's a not-so-ready photo of the four of us.

After many photos taken in front of Hawa Mahal, we tried searching for Jama Masjid. I couldn't remember which Jama Masjid is the large one; Jaipur or Delhi, but we still had some time before sunset so why not?

JAMA MASJID

And here's the Jama Masjid. It's situated among the shop lots, which means the larger one is in Delhi.

Sanaa and Fatin went inside the mosque to see how does the interior part look like (spot them in the photo below), while Najwa and I waited outside of the mosque. They just had Asr prayer if I'm not mistaken, and a crowd of (mostly) men came down from the floor above, wearing their shoes they left at the staircases.

An uncle came to us and asked us why we didn't enter the mosque. Obviously I couldn't really understand what he said as he talked in a mixture of English and Hindi, but somehow I could catch by trying to understand his gesture. Well, that was what I always did. Most of the time in India, I understood what they said through their gestures and eventually nodded my head haha. 

Back to the uncle. Then he somehow repeatedly invited us to enter the mosque, and suddenly another guy came and said "Girls can enter." They were so kind and concern. 

I love how this photo below turned out.

Another glance of the surrounding near Jama Masjid.

Before I arrived in India, I thought 'auto' is what they call a car, but actually, it's like a tuk tuk, but here they prefer to call it auto. Every time you hear 'auto', they are referring to this mean of transportation, which you can see in the photo below. There's another type of auto. Just keep scrolling. 

I have the habit of keeping my shoes, things I love and gifts I get. I won't use them because 'sayang nak guna'. For this trip, I decided to wear the shoes that I bought in Italy a few years ago. I rarely used these shoes because I really, really love them. Some shoes can last long, but its lifespan might be reduced if you don't wear it, which is proven by me haha. 

The soles of my shoes at the ankle area were ripped off almost halfway out of sudden when we were walking from Jama Masjid back to Hawa Mahal. As I didn't bring any other shoes and the fact that I needed a good walking shoes because undoubtedly we'd be walking a lot, we tried to find a glue at the small shops along the street. But, none was found.

We kept walking and found the entrance of Hawa Mahal.

Sanaa asked the guards what do they have behind the tall wall.

The elephant is a part of road users.

We tried to find any shoes brands like Nike, Adidas, etc, but all we found were handmade hard-material shoes. I know that I shouldn't be picky as I didn't have much choice, but it was necessary for me to buy a comfortable walking shoes. 

With the damaged shoes I was wearing, we stopped at a male footwear shop. Hoping they might sell comfortable female shoes made me felt sad when they said no. But.. I saw someone mending shoes at the back of the shop. I immediately asked the sales person if the uncle at the back can help me to glue my shoes. After persuading him for a few minutes and told him that I was willing to pay, he agreed to help me. To help me to glue is more than enough, but the uncle did more than that; he sewed both shoes for me! I paid him Rs20 for that.  

Haha acah acah je ni

This is another type of auto. More privacy (lebih tertutup), but less space.

We took an auto rickshaw from Hawa Mahal to find a halal restaurant.

MUHAMMADI PALACE RESTAURANT

Someone recommended us Muhammadi Palace Hotel for non veg halal food, which is situated about 20-30 minutes from Hawa Mahal. Here's the front part of the hotel, also the same entrance to the restaurant. 

Creds to Google for this image

We ordered 3 plates of white rice, half butter chicken, half kebab, roti tandoori and 2 cups of chai for dinner. At the end, we bought a dessert called kheer. The portion of the food was large! The meal was scrumptious, the chai was milky, only the rice was a little bit cold. Otherwise, everything was good. Especially to us who hadn't had a proper meal since yesternight. 

Anyway, here's the look of the chai. The difference between chai / milk tea in India compared to Malaysia is they use fresh cow milk instead of sweet condensed milk and that's what makes it special. You can even get it in the train, especially when the train stops. Usually a guy holding a container and some cups will walk from one coach to another and shout "Chai, chai" but we didn't dare to try. 

Kebab on the left, butter chicken on the right.

And below here is a breath freshener called Mukhwas. Correct me if I'm wrong. It is mainly made of seeds and has a minty herbal kind of flavour and smell.

The menu they gave. Roti tandoori costed us only Rs6 each, equals to only about RM0.40!

The view from the second floor. Look at how busy Jaipur is at night.

Inside of the Muhammadi Palace Hotel.

So full! We went back to Zostel by an auto (tuk tuk). A group of men was gathering near the staircase to Zostel Jaipur and it scared us a bit. Felt like wanna run instantly. That night, I slept really, really early. It was at 9pm, but already felt like 12am. I guess this is how winter and long night feel like, now I understand.

Tomorrow we're going to a palace! What palace? Stay tuned :)

More photos on Dyllarezan's Instagram

All posts;

India 14 Days Trip - The Intro

India Trip Day 1 Part 1 (Delhi) - Airport & Honk

India Trip Day 1 Part 2 (Delhi) - Scary & Scared
India Trip Day 1 Part 3 (Jaipur) - Hawa Mahal, Jama Masjid & Muhammadi Palace
India Trip Day 2 (Jaipur) - City Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Amer Fort & Jal Mahal
India Trip Day 3 (Udaipur) - City Palace, Udaipur Ropeway & Bagore Ki Haveli