Information on Trips around Jaipur
As well as the detours off the Delhi road, here are three trips in other directions. Samode— The keen can abandon cars for camels for part of this short trip (42 kilometers/26 miles) from Jaipur to a tiny rural village where Jai Singh's finance minister built a palace which nestles in the hills beneath the older clifftop fort. The give-away on the simple exterior is thegrand staircase. It leads up to rooms decorated with large murals, fine mirror-work and quantities of gilding and as it is a hotel, you can also stay here and, perhaps, continue northwards to the Shekhavati area. Ajmer- This city is 138 kilometers (86 miles) south-west of Jaipur. The shrine of Sufi Saint Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti is as sacred to Muslims now as when Akbar first visited it (see page 147). Tiny streets lined with kiosks selling lace caps, flowers and sacred texts lead to the holy complex where emperors from Humayun to Aurangzeb added the buildings. Rich pilgrims pay for sweet rice ...