SEC-S16W1 | My Memorable Trip In Childhood

I take this opportunity to describe the first trip that I remember during my childhood. In our time, children had only a limited number of means of travel. In the name of traveling, we used to go to either our maternal or paternal grandparents' house.

We were lucky as both of them lived far away, so we traveled by train twice a year, and we had all the fun at our grandparents' homes. Now I am going to describe my trip to Jaipur in Rajasthan state in India. We always thought there was nothing more thrilling than train travel. For us, it was like an adventure in a way.

So here I present my first trip that I can recall for "SEC-S16W1 | My Memorable Trip In Childhood" and invite my friends @josepha, @solperez and @max-pro to share their experience.

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Note: During our visit to Jaipur I had no camera so all the images are from sharing sites. I have a few images of that trip taken by my father but I have no access to them at this point in time.

I had our real travels when I was 11, my brother was 9, and my sister was 7 years old when we came to know that our father was going to Jaipur and we were going with him. My mom told us that our train ticket had been booked and we were traveling to Jaipur by train. That was great news, and we were very happy.

When we reached the station, it was a fun view. For the first time, I had such an opportunity and got such freedom, which I was enjoying a lot running here and there at the platform with my siblings.

It seemed as if the things kept in the shops at the station were calling me to spend the only ten rupee note in my pocket. After asking my mother, I bought something for 1 rupee from the stall in front, and it felt as if I had made a big business deal. I had taken out this money from my pocket money, especially for this train journey.

But the train had not arrived yet, so I sat down comfortably on the briefcase. Now the brothers and sisters were making fun of this together, and as much as they enjoyed the train journey, they had to be scolded at the same time.

The biggest attraction at the station was the weighing machine, sparkling with colorful lights. For this, I have to measure it after repeatedly requesting it from my mother. We did not get the money at once, but after repeated insistence, we got it, and we weighed our burden.

After a long wait, the train arrived at the platform, and we all started looking for our second-class bogie going forth and back. Once inside the coach, we all wanted to sit near the window seat, including our father. I still remember we all were trying to get a seat closer to the window, but finally, the two window seats were occupied by our younger brother and sister.

Haha, people think that there is a fight for seats only in politics, but we should know there was a fight between brother and sister for the window seat. In the end, I had to sit next to my younger brother and watch the outside view.

There was no crowd in the second class those days, so I got an upper seat to sleep. Papa was on the other upper berth, my mother was on the lower berth, and my brother and sister were on the other. The emergency chain that stops the train in emergency near my birth was a mystery to me. While lying on the upper berth, I repeatedly thought of pulling the chain and seeing what would happen. To me, this chain was the brake on this train.

Apart from this, reading comics on the train and drinking tea in an earthen cup was fun. That fun is now gone when we travel by train, and we remain busy on our phones instead of enjoying the beauty outside and the fun of the train. I have those thrilling memories of childhood still fresh in my mind.

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So we reached Jaipur, Rajasthan, the next morning. We were here to see the true royal past of India and the way of life of the rulers. Jaipur is indeed a magnificent city with its luxurious palaces, which I know are well preserved to date. But I knew not much at that time, so our father was guiding us to different places.

Jaipur's bustling markets and city experience make it a notable tourist destination. At that time, I did not have that much knowledge, but today I know that the Rajput king, Sawai Jai Singh, ruled Jaipur from 1699 to 1744 and established many facilities and places here to build Jaipur. Jaipur is the first city in India to be constructed in a planned manner.

So when I went from Delhi to Jaipur by train with my family, I found it to be a very colorful city. Apart from this, since the journey from Delhi to Jaipur is fantastic, there was no problem with traveling. It took about 10 hours to reach Jaipur. Now we can reach it in 5 hours.

Our journey was made in haste without any prior planning. That's why the hotel room was not booked in advance. Apart from this, yes, we had never been to Jaipur, none of our relatives lived in that direction. We were suggested a hotel by the porter who was carrying our luggage.

We decided to stay there because the hotel was amazing because of the good service, luxurious rooms, modern facilities, and clean and neat environment. Also, the hotel was not crowded during our stay, so we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.

After a few hours, we decided to see the palaces here. After breakfast at the hotel, we went to Amer Fort and were shown the entire fort. 11 km from Jaipur. The distant Amer, or Amber Fort, is a very popular tourist destination.

I liked Sheesh Mahal at the fort. It is designed in such a way that it creates a cool environment by blowing the wind over the falling waterfall. Inside this fort, there is a temple near the Ganesh Gate, which has an interesting story behind it. We enjoyed the fort thoroughly.

After spending three hours in the massive fort and lunch at a roadside restaurant, we visited the palaces in Jaipur city. The main part of this palace is the ‘Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum’.

After visiting the palaces in the city, we were too tired to visit any other museums. So we saw Hawa Mahal only from the outside, as it is on the main road. We returned to the hotel around 7 o'clock.

The next day, we decided to visit the nearby markets, which are like any other market, but once you are outside the city, you will find a colorful Johari market. Mainly known for Rajasthani jewelry, this market defines Rajasthan and its culture. Since very old times, these jewelry shops have been famous for gold, silver, and beads. We bought lightweight Jaipuri quilts, bedsheets, and sarees from this special market. The markets and shops in Jaipur are not new, but they are constructed in a well-planned manner.

All the shops are painted pink and are of similar size. The market was very crowded, so we had a lot of fun. As much as I remember, we watched different other places within those three days while exploring the wonderful places of Jaipur, such as the City Palace, Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds), Sun Temple, and Jantar Mantar, while roaming in the pink-colored markets and eating very chilly food.

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The weather was fine at that time, but it got really hot here at noon. So we enjoyed our trip to Jaipur. Certainly, I would like to visit Jaipur again to enjoy those magical places of attraction which I don't remember now.