Best things in life are random, unplanned. Sometimes the chaos is fun because the people with whom you are in chaos are fun to be with... That's how my trip to Golden triangle was made. My nephew and I decided to do Rajasthan trip on bikes but well as the destiny had it, the night before we were supposed to leave, my darling sister had these inhibitions surfacing which until that night came out only in the form of excitement :p...
Anyways the golden triangle in India is Delhi -Agra - Jaipur -Delhi in any order :). So we decided to do the trip from Delhi to Jaipur and then to Agra and back to Delhi.
The distance between Delhi and Jaipur is around 269 km but as we also wanted to cover Bhangarh, the most haunted place in Asia so we took a slight detour and then reached to Jaipur.
Bhangarh, Rajasthan
Bhangarh is a small village located North east of Jaipur. The place has a fort to offer which apparently is considered as most haunted fort in Asia. Due to some google maps issue, we went around in circles and finally reached Bhangarh. The sun was at its peak and we were already quite tired and covered in mud and smoke but all this didn't take away the excitement within us to go see the fort.
There is a Hanuman temple in front to keep the spirits away. The fort is open from 9 am till 5 pm in the evening. No one is allowed to stay in the fort in the night. The starting of the fort is all ruins and doesn't add to the whole wisdom of spirits that the place carries :p but finally once a door comes in you will actually start seeing the fort. We took a young kid to be our guide as it was interesting to see how much he had mugged up about the place and the stories that it carries along. The fort doesn't have any water and eating options inside though outside there is a water cooler and at the gate you will find a lady offering water for free.
What our guide told was that there are no spirits or ghosts there though there is a rock further from the fort where you can hike though its pretty steep and he told us a story about the queen becoming rock or something like that :). Well to be honest in my opinion it wasn't that great to visit Bhangarh considering Rajasthan has alot many forts to offer!
Finally we started from Bhangarh to Jaipur and reached around 7-8 in the evening.
Jaipur
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan. It has many forts and stories to tell from past. The city has this historic, traditional feel to itself as even the buildings in the main market have historical essence to them.
#Food
Well if you are a foodie, Jaipur is the place to be. We were disappointed as we couldn't find good dal baati churma anywhere. Finally we went to LMB in main market. In my opinion it was not really traditional and everything was over priced there. Next day morning we went to Samrat restaurant on a parallel road to the main market and got some amazing poha, jalebi , dhokla, samosa, kachori. As I prefer tea with less milk which they couldn't make and it was without ginger so I didn't like it but everything else was top notch in this place and the prices were very reasonable.
You must definitely try lassi in any of the local shops as it's totally to die for. The kulfi and other sweets everywhere are really good as well
We also heard about choki Dhani which is located little further from the city but you can have an authentic experience of food and hospitality there as well.
#Stay
Well if you don't mind sharing rooms then in my opinion Zostel is the best option you have got out there. You can get a bed in AC room in mixed dorms for 500 INR.
There are many hotels available otherwise in the main MG road.
#Places to visit
As our aim was more of biking within 3 days hence we didn't go around much except Amer fort.
Amer fort: It's a massive fort and would require 2-3 hours if you want to explore it in detail. Though I am not sure that the stories which guides tell , are those really true or not but it definitely gives you a perspective to the place. You can find guides in different languages like french, Spanish etc.
You can take Elephant safari till the gate for 400 INR or shared jeep for 50 INR per person. Well as they only take you till the gate, hence if you are fit then you don't really need any safari though experience of walking on the trail of fort on elephant definitely might give you some royal feeling :).
The ticket to enter in the fort is 100 INR per person.
There are many other places to visit and MG road is full of traditional clothes, bags, shoes and earrings for shopping but in lieu of time we started for Agra immediately.
Other places to visit
Hawa Mahal: As its located in the heart of the city, we got a glimpse of it though we didn't really go inside
City Palace
Jantar Mantar
Jal Mahal : You can only look at Jal mahal from far as the boat service to take you to the fort is stopped now. This was an interesting fort to see as its submerged in water and still stands out there beautifully. It would be interesting to see how the floor and walls are carrying themselves with all the water around and I would consider it to be a master piece and an architectural delight if the walls and floor are not moist and wet due to the water under.
Nahargarh fort: This fort is located on the way to Amer fort but we chose not to visit this fort.
Agra
The distance between Jaipur and Agra is about 240 km. As Golden triangle is a very popular route, the roads are pretty good. We stopped multiple times on the way to have fruit, tea and such other things. I slept twice while riding as national highways in my opinion are always very boring to ride on.
50 km before Agra there is Fatehpur Sikri. This is a photographer's paradise as there are many places to see like Buland Darwaza, Jodha Bai's palace, Salim chisthi tomb etc. As we were already late and most of us had already been to Fatehpur Sikri, we didn't detour to Fatehpur Sikri and instead continued to Agra.
Finally we reached Agra but due to festive season the market was full and busy. As my sister lives in Agra, we headed to Agra cantt. to surprise her.
#Food
Even though we ate at home. Agra has many eating joints available.
You can get very popular Panchi petha, Mathura's peda which are yum.
Also there are many popular shops which serves samosa, pani puri, kachori , tikki etc. We definitely didn't want to miss on this yummy treat and hence ordered all of this at home.
For the morning, we saved our appetite for the Sharma's burger :D...Those are the most popular burger of my family. After filling our stomach's to our brim we left for Delhi
#Places to Visit
Taj Mahal
Fateh Pur sikri
Main market
And then the plan for the day was to just ride and ride and ride and reach Delhi! Finally by evening 5 pm we reached Delhi and stopped over for a yum cup of tea in Gurgaon at my sister's place.
We reached Karol bagh, where we returned my rented bike and headed straight for home as our bum needed the softness of our mattresses after 3 days of hard seats of bullet! :)
Note:
1) Leave early and stop early. Avoid riding in night
2) Get enough sleep
3) If you plan to stay in Zostel then book online in advance
4) Generally its very hot so carry a caps, umbrellas, sun screen and drink lots of water.
Anyways the golden triangle in India is Delhi -Agra - Jaipur -Delhi in any order :). So we decided to do the trip from Delhi to Jaipur and then to Agra and back to Delhi.
The distance between Delhi and Jaipur is around 269 km but as we also wanted to cover Bhangarh, the most haunted place in Asia so we took a slight detour and then reached to Jaipur.
Bhangarh, Rajasthan
Bhangarh is a small village located North east of Jaipur. The place has a fort to offer which apparently is considered as most haunted fort in Asia. Due to some google maps issue, we went around in circles and finally reached Bhangarh. The sun was at its peak and we were already quite tired and covered in mud and smoke but all this didn't take away the excitement within us to go see the fort.
There is a Hanuman temple in front to keep the spirits away. The fort is open from 9 am till 5 pm in the evening. No one is allowed to stay in the fort in the night. The starting of the fort is all ruins and doesn't add to the whole wisdom of spirits that the place carries :p but finally once a door comes in you will actually start seeing the fort. We took a young kid to be our guide as it was interesting to see how much he had mugged up about the place and the stories that it carries along. The fort doesn't have any water and eating options inside though outside there is a water cooler and at the gate you will find a lady offering water for free.
What our guide told was that there are no spirits or ghosts there though there is a rock further from the fort where you can hike though its pretty steep and he told us a story about the queen becoming rock or something like that :). Well to be honest in my opinion it wasn't that great to visit Bhangarh considering Rajasthan has alot many forts to offer!
Finally we started from Bhangarh to Jaipur and reached around 7-8 in the evening.
Jaipur
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan. It has many forts and stories to tell from past. The city has this historic, traditional feel to itself as even the buildings in the main market have historical essence to them.
#Food
Well if you are a foodie, Jaipur is the place to be. We were disappointed as we couldn't find good dal baati churma anywhere. Finally we went to LMB in main market. In my opinion it was not really traditional and everything was over priced there. Next day morning we went to Samrat restaurant on a parallel road to the main market and got some amazing poha, jalebi , dhokla, samosa, kachori. As I prefer tea with less milk which they couldn't make and it was without ginger so I didn't like it but everything else was top notch in this place and the prices were very reasonable.
You must definitely try lassi in any of the local shops as it's totally to die for. The kulfi and other sweets everywhere are really good as well
We also heard about choki Dhani which is located little further from the city but you can have an authentic experience of food and hospitality there as well.
#Stay
Well if you don't mind sharing rooms then in my opinion Zostel is the best option you have got out there. You can get a bed in AC room in mixed dorms for 500 INR.
There are many hotels available otherwise in the main MG road.
#Places to visit
As our aim was more of biking within 3 days hence we didn't go around much except Amer fort.
Amer fort: It's a massive fort and would require 2-3 hours if you want to explore it in detail. Though I am not sure that the stories which guides tell , are those really true or not but it definitely gives you a perspective to the place. You can find guides in different languages like french, Spanish etc.
You can take Elephant safari till the gate for 400 INR or shared jeep for 50 INR per person. Well as they only take you till the gate, hence if you are fit then you don't really need any safari though experience of walking on the trail of fort on elephant definitely might give you some royal feeling :).
The ticket to enter in the fort is 100 INR per person.
There are many other places to visit and MG road is full of traditional clothes, bags, shoes and earrings for shopping but in lieu of time we started for Agra immediately.
Hawa Mahal: As its located in the heart of the city, we got a glimpse of it though we didn't really go inside
City Palace
Jantar Mantar
Jal Mahal : You can only look at Jal mahal from far as the boat service to take you to the fort is stopped now. This was an interesting fort to see as its submerged in water and still stands out there beautifully. It would be interesting to see how the floor and walls are carrying themselves with all the water around and I would consider it to be a master piece and an architectural delight if the walls and floor are not moist and wet due to the water under.
Nahargarh fort: This fort is located on the way to Amer fort but we chose not to visit this fort.
Agra
The distance between Jaipur and Agra is about 240 km. As Golden triangle is a very popular route, the roads are pretty good. We stopped multiple times on the way to have fruit, tea and such other things. I slept twice while riding as national highways in my opinion are always very boring to ride on.
50 km before Agra there is Fatehpur Sikri. This is a photographer's paradise as there are many places to see like Buland Darwaza, Jodha Bai's palace, Salim chisthi tomb etc. As we were already late and most of us had already been to Fatehpur Sikri, we didn't detour to Fatehpur Sikri and instead continued to Agra.
Finally we reached Agra but due to festive season the market was full and busy. As my sister lives in Agra, we headed to Agra cantt. to surprise her.
#Food
Even though we ate at home. Agra has many eating joints available.
You can get very popular Panchi petha, Mathura's peda which are yum.
Also there are many popular shops which serves samosa, pani puri, kachori , tikki etc. We definitely didn't want to miss on this yummy treat and hence ordered all of this at home.
For the morning, we saved our appetite for the Sharma's burger :D...Those are the most popular burger of my family. After filling our stomach's to our brim we left for Delhi
#Places to Visit
Taj Mahal
Fateh Pur sikri
Main market
And then the plan for the day was to just ride and ride and ride and reach Delhi! Finally by evening 5 pm we reached Delhi and stopped over for a yum cup of tea in Gurgaon at my sister's place.
We reached Karol bagh, where we returned my rented bike and headed straight for home as our bum needed the softness of our mattresses after 3 days of hard seats of bullet! :)
Note:
1) Leave early and stop early. Avoid riding in night
2) Get enough sleep
3) If you plan to stay in Zostel then book online in advance
4) Generally its very hot so carry a caps, umbrellas, sun screen and drink lots of water.
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