On the Way - 4

We boarded the train to Jaipur from Udaipur for our return journey. There were some Korean Tourist in our compartment travelling back to Jaipur. They entered the train and placed their luggage on their booked places. Within couple of minutes they took out cameras and started taking snaps in the Railway train compartment. It sounded funny to us, but i did remembered our visit to York, UK, where we had done something similar to this.

After a while, I also joined them in taking snaps of the Indian Rail compartment and enjoyed the whole experience of travelling in it after many years.

On the Way - 2

I had planned trip to Udaipur, Rajasthan with my parents during my visit to Jaipur for the second time.
We had booked nigth journey Railway tickets from Jaipur to Udaipur.
The train leaves Jaipur at around 10 o clk at night and reaches Udaipur early morning.
Due to unavailability of tracks and signal the train halted at a small village before reaching Udaipur.

This place is around 30 minutes distance from Udaipur Rail station. Being ily ritual, the regular travellers jumped out of the train on the rail tracks.



Although its not advisable, people in India try to folk around the rail tracks when such an event occurs.
I could take picture of early morning sunrising above distant mountain and Rails electric wires.


We could sight a brand new palatial hotel in front of our train boogie. The hotel's building was made of white marble and tried to immitate the old Rajasthani architecture.

Block Printng Factory in Jaipur

During my second visit to Jaipur, Rajasthan, I had opportunity to visit the Block Print Factory. The factory produces block printed clothes- eg, block printed saress, salwar suits etc. One can get glimpse of how the factory workers dye the clothes with vibrant colors. The piece of cloth is then dried. The workers then apply block print at regualar intervals on the piece of cloth. After the block print on the cloth is dried, the ladies in the factory create magnificient embroidery designs on the cloth with gold and silver color beads.

Video of Block Print Factory in Jaipur, Rajasthan

Colors used for Block Prinitng

Design Blocks used for Block Prinitng

Amer Fort Jaipur

The Amer Fort in Jaipur is one the must see tourist attractions in Rajasthan. The fort lies outside the boundaries of the Jaipur City. On your way to Amer fort one can site the Jal Mahal (Lake Palace) on your rightside. On reaching Amer town, one can see the huge Amer fortress walls being embraced by huge Maotha lake. If you are lucky enough one can see elephants bathing inside the lake. The Fortress walls are built of Red Sandstone. The pulsh interiors are built using white marble. With so much traditional Indian Art and heritage to explore one marches towards the entrance of the Amer Fort.

Puppet Show

Its time for Puppet Show at Chauki Dhani as the sun sets and it becomes dark. The puppet artist perform live behind the curtains of the stage set for puppets. This show usually narrates Rajasthani Folk stories along with live music and orchestra. Similar puppet show can be seen in museum Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal at Udaipur.

Rajasthan Folk Dance

One of the few star attraction events at the Chauki Dhani is the folk dance of Rajasthan. The Hotel employs the rural folk dancers to perform at their event in the evening. One can just sit around the stage and enjoy the folk dancers performing live. The dance is accompanied by live singers and orchestra. One can also site these dance performaces at cultural events, parties at big five star hotels and weddings.

Relaxing at Chauki Dhani

Once you have complete visiting the rural village immitations, one can just sit and relax and enjoy the surroundings. The Chauki Dhani offers various traditional relaxing options such as Machan and Charpai.

Machan - It is watching tower created in the village to keep on eye on the upcoming danger or enemies towards the village. In desert areas the land gets heated very quickly in day time and emits lot of heat after sunset. To escape the heat, one can just climb the machan and enjoy cool breeze in summer night. The machan is also used as storage place. To keep the food grains or hay away from its prediators.

Charpai - As the name suggest, Char means Four and Pai means Legs. It is four legged Seat or Sofa. The matress of the sofa is wowen with help of jute rope.

Jal Mahal

Jal Mahal is a lake palace in outskirts of Jaipur, Rajasthan. The palace is built in midst of Lake Mansagar and has picturesque backdrop of Nahargarh hills. Presence of all the necessary tourist attraction elements makes it a Five Star hotel. For those who cannot afford visit or stay at the hotel can just make halt while driving towards the Amer Fort and take some beautiful pictures.

Entrance of Amer fort

The fort lies on top of small hill. Its rightly said, 'If in Rome be Roman'. Similarly, be a rajasthani and enjoy elephant ride to the top of the hill. The elephant ride costs you around Rs 580 for three people. Otherwise, A small fee is charged to drive the car to the top of the steep hill. You need to park the car outside the fortress entrance. In worst case one has to walk towards the entrance. There is ticket window next to entrance where one needs to buy entrance tickets. Tourist need to declare their Cameras and Video Cams and buy tickets accordingly.