Jaipur, India
India,  Wildlife

From Ranthambore To The Pink City Of Jaipur

December 13, 2025 /

Breakfast is curry. Dinner is curry. Lunch, if you have it (we haven’t had room) would be curry. By our first Saturday we’re on curry number 10. That’s going to reach a very big number by the time we see anything like a change of cuisine. Tummies, you better be ready.

Saturday afternoon and our fourth sortie into the Ranthambore National Park sees us take a break from seeking out animal sightings and instead we climb to Ranthambore Fort, the huge 5th century hilltop construction from which the National Park takes its name – indeed the vast area covered by the park once formed the fort’s hunting grounds. Today the fort lies well within the Park itself. Claimed and occupied by successive dynasties through the centuries, Ranthambore is now a designated UNESCO World Heritage site as one of the Rajasthan hilltop forts.

Ranthambore Fort, India
Ranthambore Fort
Ranthambore Fort, India
Ranthambore Fort
Ranthambore Fort, India
Ranthambore Fort

It’s a mightily impressive place, featuring multiple separate buildings still standing proud some 1600 years after construction. It’s also home to large troupes of black-faced langur monkeys who continually amuse us with their playful antics.

Monkeys at Ranthambore Fort, India
Monkeys at Ranthambore Fort, India
Monkeys at Ranthambore Fort, India
Monkeys at Ranthambore Fort, India
Monkeys at Ranthambore Fort, India
Monkeys at Ranthambore Fort, India
Monkeys at the Fort

As we reach Saturday evening we are still talking about yesterday’s tiger sightings, the undoubted highlight of what has been a thrill-filled couple of days. Unsurprisingly the tigers form the basis of most of the conversation over that 10th curry.

Ranthambore Fort, India
Ranthambore Fort
View from Monkeys at Ranthambore Fort, India
View from the Fort

It turns out that our last two Ranthambore sorties are complete let downs, firstly a ride into Zone 7 which is high on the mountain ridges and devoid of interesting wildlife (great views mind) and second a boat ride described as a “river safari” which is about 30 minutes on a wide river with only crocodiles to see and about as far from a “safari” as you could get. In both cases the guides hardly say a word and in the former the driver seems more interested in meeting other drivers than anything else. It’s good that we had our better experiences first – if these two experiences had been on our first day we’d have been questioning the wisdom of our choice of provider. But we have those first two days – and the tigers – to remember, and that’s what matters.

Ranthambore India
Ranthambore

Time to up and leave Sawai Madhopur, time to get a train fix too, as we head off on the next part of this journey, a section which will take us through four of India’s most famous and spectacular cities before we head to the south. Except once again I am thwarted on the train fix front – as departure time approaches we hear that our “express” is running nearly four hours late on its long, long journey from Mumbai. We can wait in Sawai Madhopur for four hours before we even set off or we can grab a driver and be in Jaipur in three. 

Sawai Madhopur, India
Sawai Madhopur, India
Sawai Madhopur

Sawai Madhopur, India
Sawai Madhopur

Train journeys booked 2, train journeys actually completed 0. Ever so slightly gutted but some things just aren’t meant to be, and the Pink City awaits….

Jaipur bakes in the afternoon sun. Its streets, all but gridlocked with cars, mopeds, tuk-tuks, people and cows, are typically manic, barely an inch of road surface visible as the fight for space goes on. Horns blare, engines rev and somewhere, masked by the cacophony which is the soundtrack of Indian cities, a muezzin’s call to prayer echoes from a minaret. Odours alternate between delightful and offensive, incense and perfume fill the air only to give way to the stench of rotting rubbish; now the heady scent of curry is lost to the putrid stench of garbage-filled stagnant water. Pigeons, cows and dogs hunt for scraps in piles of discarded waste, streetside stalls steam with marsala tea or fragrant dosa. Men use chapati to scoop daal from bowls; a middle aged man urinates against a wall in the midst of the crowd. We are back in India. 

Jaipur, India
Jaipur

Jaipur though is to wow us very quickly – before, in fact, we even venture outside of our new home which is a delightful traditional haveli. For generations home to the exceedingly wealthy Bissau family who still occupy the upper floors, this wonderful old building may have seen better times but is still steeped in character, its decor and furnishings making us truly feel that we have either stepped back in time or entered a museum of colonial grandeur. It creaks with age but positively oozes with character.

Bissau Palace Hotel, Jaipur, India
Bissau Palace Hotel

It’s not just the furnishings which are distinctly colonial, the staff at this place which is still run by family members, are extremely well versed in the deferential nothing-too-much-trouble customer service style of a bygone era. Carry your own bag or fetch your own tea and someone will come running to take over.

Bissau Palace Hotel, Jaipur, India
Bissau Palace Hotel, Jaipur, India
Bissau Palace Hotel

Bissau Palace Hotel, Jaipur, India
Bissau Palace Hotel

The city, founded by and taking its name from 18th century regional Rajpoot ruler Sawai Jai Singh II, forms part of India’s famed and much visited Golden Triangle with Delhi and Agra and is a city boasting more than its fair share of worthy sights. A proportion of its architecture is finished in a pink hue which has given rise to one of Jaipur’s monikers, The Pink City. As it happens, we will be moving on to The Blue City and The White City from here. 

Jaipur India
Jaipur
Jaipur India
Jaipur

What an appeal Jaipur has, a heady mix of the typical craziness of Indian cities with a sizeable collection of eye catching attractions. There is an upbeat, vibrant feel to the city, a city which seems to have multiple layers of character. A large, sprawling metropolis of nearly 5 million inhabitants, its places of interest are scattered around the city with many some distance apart, so careful planning of our time here is essential.

Elephant in Jaipur India
Jaipur

Thus, we opt to snare a tuk-tuk for Day 1 in order to view most of the sites, after which we will spend a couple of days digging more deeply into those we wish to explore further. So it is that we meet Soni, who immediately endears himself with his ultra helpful attitude. For a start…

Jaipur India
With Soni, our tuk tuk driver

“Please. I am not a guide, just a tuk-tuk driver”, he insists, and then proceeds to be a more than adequate guide to a city of which he is clearly proud. And then, to emphasise that we can take as long as we like at each stop, he has a little catchphrase…

“Remember. No hurry, no worry, no mutton curry”. 

And so our exploration of this rather wonderful Pink City begins….

You May Also Like

Gateway of India and Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai

A Different India: The City Of Mumbai 

December 25, 2025
The Taj Mahal India

Completing The Buddha Circuit: Balrampur-Sravasti-Taj Mahal

March 21, 2023
Sunrise above the tea plantations, Munnar, Kerala

Over The Hills To The Tea: Days In Munnar

January 12, 2026

30 Comments

We’d love to hear from you