Real Indian Food

Taj Hotel: Garlic Naan

Taj Hotel: Gobi (Cauliflower), Shrimp, Rice

Taj: Paan

 

Jaipur: (its cold!) Samode Haveli, Gobi, Daal, Rice

We checked into the Taj about 2:30am. We were just transiting in Mumbai, arriving from Sri Lanka and awaiting our flight to Jaipur, in Rajasthan. The suite they upgraded us to was exceptional. There was a complimentary bottle of wine, nuts, fruits, etc., we felt we should toast Obama’s 2^nd term (the inauguration in Washington was live on CNN-World.)

We finally went to bed around 3:30am. In the morning when we awoke, we decided we wouldn’t leave the Taj. It was so nice being in a 5-star hotel, like this, and we were tired from our very late night. Breakfast in the Club Room, shopping at their wonder boutique, Massage, and a wonderful Indian late lunch concluded our stay at the Taj Lands End (Bandra). We were picked up at 3:30 for our transportation to the airport. All of the excitement of Bombay was brought to life on the ride to the airport. The traffic was horrendous, the streets were teaming with people. Horns blaring, Bollywood soundtracks playing in the background, the fast chaos of the city – it is amazing. It was the Mumbai we love.

We had a driver and a guide who that made sure everything worked flawlessly, we didn’t have to think or worry. They knew how to get around traffic problems, by taking obscure roads, how to get us through the maze at the airport – they were fixers for travellers. At one time we were on a very narrow one way street and traffic was driving the wrong way on the street, creating total grid lock. Our man, jumped out of the car and started directing traffic to get us through. It was a very James Bond experience. We got to the airport and flew to Jaipur where we are for the next 7 nights. We were extremely happy when we were met by our driver: VeeJay. We know him from previous visits and really like him. This pink city in the desert is home to the Jaipur Literary Festival, which we attended last year and is the reason we are here again.

Many new hotels have opened in Jaipur, but we chose to return to a Samode Havali (a city palace) we have stayed at many times before. We have a wonderful room. We ate dinner, outdoors in the courtyard, on the cool desert night, warmed by fire pits on either side of our table. I requested a cauliflower dish that wasn’t on the menu, and the kitchen made a wonderful preparation of it.

We drank a bottle of Indian Wine (Sulla red) that was excellent, and I was surprised they had my favorite scotch: Talisker. My one last task is to identify the star that appears so clearly if the sky next to the Moon. Tomorrow we start to check out gems (which Jaipur is famous for).