Our two weeks in Jaipur were winding down, and it was almost time to move on to our next destination, Bharatpur. We’d crammed in the major attractions already, so we had just a couple of more sights to see: the Khole Ke Hanuman Ji Ropeway, and the Birla Mandir. And oh yes, we also had a little birthday to celebrate.

Khole Ke Hanuman Ji Ropeway

The “ropeway” is what we would more commonly call an aerial tramway — a ride in ski lift type gondolas up the side of a mountain. No, no, it’s not actually operated by ropes — if it were, we might have been quite hesitant to hop aboard — but by cables, like any other. Since the purpose of taking such a ride is to catch a stunning view of the city and its environs, we figured the best time to go would be at sunset. And we were right.

But when we arrived at the top, sunset was still about an hour into the future, so we had plenty of time to wander around and see what else was up there on the hill. And there wasn’t much, except for… a temple. That seemed like an odd find at first, but the thing is one reason for building the ropeway in the first place was so people could more easily access this temple than trudging up more than 800 steps. Folks around here really fancy their temples. And quite often, they fancy some really fancy temples. But this one was not so much — it was small and plain. At the base of the hill, however, there was one much larger and grander that we could peer down upon from up there.

At last the twilight kept its appointed rounds, taking its time to do so. But that gave us all the more opportunity to witness it in action, bathing the mountains, the valleys and the city in radiance.

Flash forward to the next day, which was the birthday we spoke of. Specifically, it was Kimberly’s. And our Airbnb host was thoughtful enough to send birthday greetings, which rather puzzled us at first. How did she know? Then we remembered that, as required by law, she’d examined our passports. She must have taken note of the imminent occasion then. That’s uncommonly observant and thoughtful; but then our host was an artist, so of course she would have those traits.

Although neither of us injects a great deal of pomp and circumstance into birthdays (if life is like a box of chocolates, then it makes sense that once you’ve consumed a certain number of birthdays they start to lose their appeal), but we thought it would be a good excuse to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant, since we hadn’t yet done that in Jaipur, and we like to do it at least once in almost every city we visit. Being in India, even in northern India, the vegetarian options were plentiful. The one we ultimately zeroed in on was called Peacock. (Not only are peacocks fairly abundant in India, but it’s the national bird, and is a traditional symbol of beauty and spirituality.)

The food was outstanding, and the ambience was not bad. We decided to be seated on the upper deck, where we had a view of some old ruin across the street –it looked like a fortress — that we didn’t even know was there. And although the price for the food was about twice as much as at a typical Indian restaurant, it would have been a steal back in the States.

The only disappointment was that, since it was still early in the evening, the musicians hadn’t started to play yet. But that disappointment evaporated just before we left; the sitar player and the drummer did take the stage and launched into a set. So we lingered a bit to listen even though we’d completed our meal.

The next day our destination was another place we didn’t know existed until we spotted it on a tuk-tuk ride: an ancient looking fortress on top of a hill. We didn’t know what it was, but we decided it might make an interesting visit.

Moti Dungri Ganesh Ji Temple

On the way, we walked down a street with many many little stands selling sweets, nothing but sweets. And all very similar sweets. Why? The answer soon appeared: Moti Dungri Ganesh Ji Temple, a landmark since 1761. Ducking inside, we saw its centerpiece, a statue of Ganesh that is said to be 500 years old. Right after we entered the temple, along with dozens of the locals, Ganesh was brought out to greet the throng; all of whom except us brought along an offering of the sweets. Which makes us wonder: if Ganesh doesn’t have a very big appetite, what happens to all those goodies?

Then it was on to try to reach elusive fortress high on a cliff labeled as Ekalingeshwar Mahadev Temple on Google maps that originally lured us on this expedition. We came to find out that it is not open to the public and appears to be impenetrable, as best as we can tell.

Birla Mandir Jaipur

But at the bottom of the hill was Birla Mandir, another temple. (It seems like almost all the architectural marvels in India are either temples or forts. ) But it’s rather different from most temples. For one thing, it’s much newer: whereas most temples have been around for about three centuries or more, this one was completed in 1988 — though it gives off an aura of being much older. And being constructed of white marble, it’s… well, white. It has three main towers, representing the three primary religions of India: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

On the way back home, we walked along skid row, one of several homeless encampments we’ve seen in Jaipur and elsewhere in India. Still, we’d say that there are probably not as many of them here as back in the States. A little boy was flying a homemade kite, because childhood must go on, no matter the circumstances.

The following day, it was time to move on from Jaipur, and catch a train to our next destination, Bharatpur. Waiting at the station, we were approached by an ascetic gentleman, of which there are always a few hanging out at the train stations. Usually they try to get money from you, but this one was instead obsessed with making certain we were in the right place to catch our train. While we appreciated the concern, he was just a bit overbearing. (We suspect that he was not, shall we say, playing with a full deck.) He even called over a policeman to have him check our tickets. Although he was highly resistant to having his photo snapped, we warned him that such would happen to anyone who kept getting in our face. And lo and behold it did.

Arriving in Bharatpur we caught a car to our homestay rather than a tuk-tuk, and it’s a good thing we did. A great deal of infrastructure remodeling was going on throughout the city, and as a result, it was just about the dustiest town we’ve seen in India yet.

After checking in at our homestay, called Jungle Lodge (although it’s nowhere near the jungle), we went out in search of groceries. And it was slim pickings. Oh, there were produce stands nearby. But we couldn’t find a store that sold very many other items we sought. We went to what is billed as a “hypermarket”, but it was little more than a slightly oversized mom and pop. (India, we’ve found, tends to oversell its store sizes.)

But browsing through the shelves, we got a very good laugh when we found bags of pasta that were packaged in bags that were labeled as almonds from Trader Joe’s. We don’t know how they came up with those bags — there is no Trader Joe’s within thousands of miles. But Bharatpur was already off to a quirky start.

Events occurred 10/9-12/2026