Tag Archives: Rajasthan tourism

Jaipur Beyond the Forts

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(This is the third and final part of a three-part Rajasthan travelogue. The first post, about our trip to Sariska National Park, can be read here, and the second part, about four forts—Bhangarh (on the border of Sariska) and Jaigarh, Nahargarh and Amber, in Jaipur—is here).

The forts of Jaipur take up a major chunk of sightseeing time, not only because they sprawl, but because of the time involved in getting to them, and then (if you, like us, happen to be visiting in peak season) fighting the crowds at each fort.

While we admired the forts of Jaipur, it was, frankly, also with a certain amount of relief that we looked forward to seeing some of Jaipur’s less touristy spots.

In 1876, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) visited Jaipur as part of a tour of India. In honour of him, the maharaja, Sawai Ram Singh II, had the city painted a deep salmon pink. The ‘pink city’, as Jaipur came to be known after that, is still the core part of Jaipur. Driving along these roads—the shops with uniform black-and-white signboards and matching façades, the occasional temple or gate or other interesting old building still fitting in perfectly with the look—was great fun, and since many of the shop signs are in Devnagari (and the LO loves reading signs), she got to practise her Hindi.

A street in the Pink City.
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The LO Goes to Rajasthan, Part – 2: Four Forts

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(The first part of this series of travelogues, about Sariska National Park, is to be found here).

On our last day in Sariska, we were scheduled to go on a morning safari, and had to wake up at an unearthly hour in order to get to the park booking office by 7 AM. The previous afternoon, we’d all got wet when it rained during our safari. In any case, it was freezing and we were tired. Was it a surprise, then, that we forgot to set an alarm, and overslept?

Frankly, none of us—not even the LO, who gets into a snit about things like this—were seriously disappointed. But this meant that we’d have the day completely free. I suggested we go to Bhangarh.

The 16th century Rajput hill fortress of Bhangarh is located on the edge of Sariska, about an hour and a half’s drive from where we were staying. It was built under the aegis of Maharaja Bhagwant Das of Amber (the father of Mirza Raja Man Singh, one of Akbar’s ‘nauratnas’). After his death, Bhangarh passed to his son Madho Singh. It’s a sprawling fortress, now alas mostly in ruins—and, according to all accounts, the most haunted place in India.

Bhangarh, supposedly the most haunted place in India.
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