I have been planning to visit the Jaipur Literature Festival for the past 3 years, but something or the other kept preventing me. This year too, till the very last moment, it wasn't certain that I will be able to go. And booking a decent place to stay at such a short notice became a challenge. We checked online on Airbnb and came across Sanman Homestay, barely 8 kms away from Diggi Palace. It looked like a nice play to stay, though there was just one review, which was 5 star, for the homestay. We were slightly apprehensive because finding a room available in a good, reasonable homestay in Jaipur just a couple of days ahead of the Jaipur Literature Festival sounded too good to be true. However, as there was no alternative, we went ahead and made the booking.
It helped that the owner of the homestay, Mr Narendra Jain, got in touch with us and made us feel welcome even before we had started for Jaipur. The homestay was tad difficult to locate but our host was on phone with out taxi driver whenever we got stuck and helped us reach the property in time.
The cottage on the outside was gorgeous with a boundary wall iced with a blooming trumpet creeper. The interiors were spacious and as tastefully done. Furniture was simple yet comfortable. On the whole, it was everything that a homestay should be. We could see that it was going to be our home away from home.
Our room was on the first floor and was sunny and airy. It had an attached bathroom that was clean. The caretaker, Jai, tried his best to accommodate all our little asks to the best of his ability, considering that we had arrived after breakfast time. The real bonus was that he did it with a charming smile that made our day.
When it comes to food, the options are limited, but wholesome. Aunty is an excellent cook. Her paranthas, poha, and upma helped us start our day with the right note.
Mr and Mrs Jain are the sort of couple who are born to be homestay hosts. Pleasant, caring, and with just the right amount of personal attention, they made our stay pleasant and memorable. Mr Jain even drove us to the festival once when they were going in the same direction and once late at night, he drove us to a medical store when we needed a medicine. By the end of our stay, we were referring to our hosts as Uncle and Aunty as that is how they had taken care of us.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
- Manage your waste well and don’t litter
- Use dustbins. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
- Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
- Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
- Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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