Day 2 -> Alwar - Jaipur sightseeing of Jantar Mantar

We somehow wrapped up our Day 1 from Alwar and started towards Jaipur on Day 2. Finishing the breakfast we checked out of the hotel. There were not many varieties in breakfast which i was not expecting from the Hive group. Apart from it, the room service was good. 
Now focusing on the road trip from Alwar to Jaipur. The distance between Alwar and Jaipur is 155 kms. We started at 9:00 am from Alwar. We drived on SH 13 and Delhi-Ajmer Expy/Delhi-Jaipur Expy. The way was full of greenery, beautiful mountain ranges,along with rain at some places. Around 30kms from Alwar is situated 'SARISKA NATIONAL PARK'.But it was raining heavily so we dropped this point of Alwar trip.Now,it took around 3.5 hours for us to reach our Hotel 'Holiday Inn'. We reached around 1:30 pm and checked in there. All the way through GPS and google were our faithful friends to guide. After taking a quick refresh, we planned out our visit, starting with Jantar Mantar first, then City Palace as both are in the same premise, followed by Birla Temple, and we called off the day visiting  Jal Mahal.

Hotel Holiday Inn:
Before going into in depth of locations, let me say something about the hotel 'Holiday Inn'. Its really grand and amazing. Many foreign tourists make a stay here. Its a 4 Star International kind of hotel.It has Wifi (that is charged for Rs 400 per day), nice swimming pool, restaurant, party hall, lawn. It has great reception and the employees are also nice and well groomed. The hotel room is not so huge but its sufficient for couples. The interior and exterior of the hotel touches the famous Rajasthani architecture. The morning breakfast buffet has so many good and healthy options available, while the dinner buffet didn't had many items especially for vegeterians. But no doubt the staff is way too serving and humble. One greatest advantage of this hotel is its location. From here the famous locations like Amber Fort, Nahargarh Fort, Jaigadh Fort, Jal Mahal etc are easily accessible, or I should say are located on the same Delhi -Ajmer highway.
The best part for us, due to off season we got a approx 50% discount on the room tariff. :D Lucky we ;)
One can get full information on the Hotel Website
http://holidayinnjaipur.com/

Posting a pic which i managed to click from the road opposite to it, Delhi-Ajmer Highway

Holiday Inn

Jantar Mantar :
Starting from the hotel we reached to the parking for Jantar Mantar.The parking charges for cars were Rs. 40 for full day. From there we started towards Jantar Mantar. One need to take tickets for the places like Jantar Mantar, City Palace, Amber Fort(Amer Fort), Nahargarh Fort and many others. So we took a composite ticket for all which cost Rs 100 per person, and has a validity of 2 days. 
Jaipur is famous not only with Indians but also foreign visitors too. Lot off foreign visitors were already present in groups inside Jantar Mantar. As we entered there, we booked a guide who charged Rs 200 from us. They were govt authorised guides so we need not to worry. If one does not want to take guide, the audio option is also available which is cheap too.
Finally we proceeded with our guide to the land of vast ancient knowledge and instruments. Here there are 7 instruments along with their prototypes( or can be said earlier versions) are installed whereas the Jantar Mantar in Delhi has only 4 instruments. 
The list of the instruments we saw is as listed:

a) Dakshinottar Bhitti /Meridian Wall -> measures the altitude or the angular height of a celestial object when it crosses the meridian

Dakshinottar Bhitti

b) Yantra Raj /Astrolabe -> measurement of time and position of celestial objects.

Yantra Raj ( At the left hand side is the prototype & on right hand side is the original instrument)

c)Nadivalaya Uttar Yantra -> It helps is determining time. It has two circular dials in the plane of the Equator - a North facing one and a South facing one

This instrument is in 2 parts just opposite to each other one facing North and other facing South

d) Rasivalaya-> measures celestial latitude and longitude of a celestial body.

The shadow of this structure is measured  on the zodiac sign structures

All 12 zodiac signs structures are built here

e)Vrihat Samrat Yantra-> largest sundial which gives time to an accuracy of 2 seconds.

The triangular wall whose shadow is used for the calibration of time

f)Chakra Yantra-> Its a ring instrument which measures the global co-ordinates of declination and hour angle of a celestial object.

g) Laghu Samrat Yantra -> It is a sundial which can give time to an accuracy of 20 seconds.

h)Ram Yantra -> measures the local coordinates of altitude (angular height of an object from the horizon) and azimuth (relative angular position of the object measured eastwards,starting from the direction North) of a celestial object.

i) Kapali Yantra -> 

There are two such hemispeheres. Telescope are kind of based on this instrument concept.All celestial bodies at the same place.But to make exact calculations, there is no way to get to inside it. The guide told us that due to this the Jai Prakash Yantra was designed.

j)Jai Prakash Yantra ->

These are again two hemispheres.The black shadow visible are the stairs made to get inside to calculate exact observations

We spent good time there getting to know things. All thanks to our guide. Luckily the weather was good but a little humid, still far better from Alwar. Due to cloudy weather we could not see the exact demonstration of all these intruments. But it was a great experience to know how our ancestors were so mastermind and intellect. Always proud to be Indian ...Sare jahan se accha hindustan hamara :)

The City Palace, Birla Temple and Jal Mahal covered in next post.
Stay tuned :)