10 Days in India…Part II

Okay, I don’t a have time to talk about everything Shilpi and I did in India, so let me tell you about the major highlight…a 3 day trip to Jaipur in the northern desert state of Rajasthan.

Jaipur is a place full of intrigue and rich history of the Rajas (Kings) that once ruled India. I don’t have time to get into a history lesson here, but the Rajas & Ranis (Queen) live a spectacular life. They live in palaces beyond your imagination.

Just check out some of the amazing forts and palaces we saw :

To top that off we actually stayed in Heritage hotel, which was a palace converted into a luxury hotel. Everything was very well preserved, it was like living staying in a museum.

It was absolutely stunning!

Now what’s really cool is that Shilpi and I had booked a basic suite for 2 night for me and my parents at $950/night. We had booked it with the black card and ended up getting an upgrade to the TOP room in the entire hotel.

Do you know what the top room in this hotel was?

IT WAS THE KING THRONE ROOM AND BEDROOM!?!

Check it out…

Here’s the front entrance :

Here’s shot from the throne room that we were staying in :

Here’s the view from our room of one of the multiple courtyards in this palace hotel :

Here’s the bedroom where the Raja and Rani slept, it’s where Shilpi and I stayed for two nights!

The bedroom itself was HUGE with a huge bathroom with every amenity you can imagine.

Okay, to TOP THAT OFF, I arranged a private dinner for 4 : myself, Shilpi, and my parents, where we rented out one of the courtyards and were treated like Kings and Queens for a evening.

It’s all started with a 5 minute firework display for JUST THE 4 OF US! Then they rolled out the red carpet, announced our names, had live music playing and a lady dancing in front of us as we walked to out to our seats in the middle of the courtyard. They held an umbrella over us as we walked, and another person fanning us as we walked.

It was exactly the way they treated a Raja and Rani when they entered a room in the palace for an event. We were all blown away to say the least.

Forget about imagining how Kings and Queens lived in those days, we actually experience it!

Once we took our seat in our lavish chairs we were waited for hand and foot with one appetizers after another as we walked a phenomenal performance of traditional dance and even fire eaters!

This performer is balancing 8 pots on her head WHILE dancing :

Here’s the fire guy :

Btw, the red, white, and yellow you see where performers are performing is are ALL fresh flower petals!?!

After the performance they played live music as we move to our dining area :

Yes, those are all fresh flowers hanging down, MORE FRESH FLOWERS THAN I HAD IN MY WEDDING!

I won’t bludgeon you with the cost but the night was worth every penny I paid, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

One more thing, while I was an India I had a chance to fly around in Jet Airways and King Fisher, both Indian airlines. I gotta tell you, the economy class in these airlines have better service and give more food for a 45 minute flight than first class in a US airlines for a 3 hour flight.

No Joke!