Of the three main cities of colour in Rajasthan, Jaipur, the Pink City, was also supposed to be the busiest. With that in mind, I had booked us accommodation in the north of the city, in Amer. Amer was the original capital of the Kachhawa Rajputs before the capital moved to Jaipur. Because of this, it held a lot of historical attractions including the grand fort and palace, and was a lot quieter. This was partially due to some of the roads being partially blockaded off, similar to Agra, where only specially authorized vehicles were allowed through. This also meant that it created some confusion when arriving with our tuk tuk driver.
Getting to Amer
We had managed to get a Rapido driver fairly easily from our lunch spot just outside the train station in Jaipur, but when we got to Amer, the driver promptly pulled over and told us that was the final stop. It was a bit hard to translate, but we got out and started walking the last 20 minutes to our guesthouse. Pretty soon we passed barricades and it made more sense. Neither Uber nor Rapido seemed able to update their apps to include no go zones in the country, which makes it super frustrating and confusing. Later, we would find out we actually did pretty good with our driver.
After our early train from Bikaner, and fighting a cold, we went straight to bed after checking in. I slept three hours and woke up at 7pm, which seemed a little late, but it was New Year’s Eve. Feeling much better, I was determined to stay up this year. Our guesthouse owner had invited us to eat with them on the rooftop, which he mentioned would be around 6pm. It seemed a bit early after our late lunch, but when we headed up to the top around 8pm, it was nowhere near ready. After a few games of yahtzee we decided to be social, joining the group of staff and three travelers, one from Delhi and two others from South Africa.
Making Friends on the Roof
The two women from South Africa were English teachers, working remotely. They had been in Jaipur relaxing for days after a whirlwind three week trip through India. Just like Marieke and I’s first time 11 years ago, they had not booked trains and were worn out from navigating jam packed general class trains. The guy from Delhi, we soon found out and would continue to hear about, was into Bitcoin. He was starting a new business booking flights and hotels using Bitcoin. Not being the biggest fan of cryptocurrency, I replied “oh yeah”. The guesthouse owner was less subtle, remarking “Bitcoin is a scam”. Luckily, everyone was super nice and it didn’t put a damper on the evening.
After being worried we wouldn’t be hungry in time for dinner, the food wasn’t ready til after the fireworks and countdown at midnight. We had made it! When the owner asked if we should eat, we all exclaimed in unison a resounding yes! It was delicious, plentiful, and so very spicy. It seemed like the 6+ hours of preparation time had given the chillies time to be absorbed into the paneer. I loved it, but Marieke’s face was literally streaming tears. 2026 was going to be a spicy one.
Exploring Amer
With a late start after a late night, we decided to stick close to the guesthouse and wandered up the road towards Sagar Lake, where we got a great view of Jaigarh Fort and explored some temple ruins around the lake. We slowly wandered back to Amer and ended up at the Anokhi museum, dedicated to preserving and documenting the ancient knowledge of block and screen printing using only natural colours. It was fascinating and beautiful with craftsmen showcasing their skills. Highly recommended. We also stopped by Panna Meena ka Kund, the ancient stepwell, as well as Shri Jagat Shiromani ji Temple, a beautiful old Hindu temple.
The following day, we woke up early to go see the famous Amber Palace and Fort. We had been to a paratha place the day before with our guesthouse owner, so we went back the next day. Unfortunately, after a bit confusion, we discovered the parathas wouldn’t be ready for another hour, so with only some chai in us, we walked the half hour to the fort and started up the steep ramp to the entrance. As we came at the fort from a different direction than most people who come from Jaipur, we missed the pedestrian entrance and couldn’t figure out why we had to share the road with massive elephants slowly meandering up with tourists on their back. An understandably controversial practice, we were annoyed in more ways than one.
The fort was already busy when we arrived around 8:30 am so we were glad we had gotten an early start. We quickly made our way to the most famous and popular spots, including the room of mirrors and then spent another hour or two wandering around the massive complex’s labyrinth structure. Hungry, we tried to grab a Rapido to town, but soon ran into the problem described by the two South African women on New Year’s Eve. They had spent an hour trying to secure tuk tuk drivers in Jaipur, with over 10 different drivers accepting rides and then showing up only to try and negotiate higher than the fare they had just accepted. Luckily, due to the fact there were lots of drivers who had taken people from the city to the fort and were looking to return, we switched to Uber and found a driver willing to take us for the displayed fare.
Exploring Jaipur
Heading into town, we opted to pay for overpriced food and coffee at the Wind View Cafe, offering perfect photo ops of Hawa Mahal, rather than go inside. We felt good about our decision, although the reams of people in our faces taking photos was a bit annoying. We got our shots and moved on.
We decided to bite the bullet and pay to enter the City Museum, which like Amer Fort, had doubled its entrance fees for 2026. While it was the first time in over a decade, it felt like bad timing as it had only increased two days before. The signs hadn’t even all been updated. Three hours later though, we decided the City Museum was definitely worth it, as we explored courtyard after courtyard, museums and galleries, all very well done. We grabbed a late thali lunch and headed back to Amer, spotting the Jawa Mahal (lake palace) on our way back.
Unfortunately, our ride-hailing luck was up. Using Uber, about halfway back to Amer, our driver pulled over in the middle of nowhere and tried to say the rest of the trip would cost extra. After a lot of yelling back and forth he finally kept going without extra money. While we had a few issues over the course of our Northern India trip, Jaipur was the only one we ran into this bizarre practice. Fortunately. Hilariously though, my Uber rating took a plunge from all the rides we took in the country. Ironic indeed.
