Unforgettable Rajasthan Sojourn - II

Day 2:
Our destination for today is Udaipur. It has got multiple names such as ‘City of Romance’, ‘Venice of East’ and of course ‘City of Lakes’.

Inching closer to 'City of Lakes'

I have learnt a lot of history also as part of this trip.

Chittaurgarh, the original capital of Mewar was subjected to multiple Mughal invasions. After the third major siege, Udai Singh left the Chittaurgarh palace and finally found the place near a lake.  The climate was cooler, fertile land and abundant water supply. All the conditions were suitable for setting up the new capital of Mewar. The capital was named Udaipur and the lake was none other than the Lake Pichola.

The king got his palace built on the lake side in 16th century. Current palace complex has structures subsequently added by 22 successive Maharanas.

One of the most brave and well known Rajput rulers, Maharana Pratap succeeded Udai Singh. The battle of Haldighati against the Mughal army is still remembered for the valour of Maharana Pratap and his horse Chetak.

After a good sleep and a heavy breakfast we started off to Udaipur at around 9:30 a.m.

My seat in the car is not that of driver in this lap of our journey. Wifey is on the driver seat and I am happily stretching my legs sitting in the passenger seat. J

There is no doubt that the condition of roads is very good in Rajasthan. There are several toll booths, but it doesn’t pinches, when after paying tolls one gets really good roads to drive on.

We reached our hotel in Udaipur at 11:30 a.m. and after a brief stop, started off for local sightseeing.

After crossing the narrow bylanes of Udaipur city, we reached Jagdish temple. After a bit of struggle finally found the parking. Just outside the parking there was a board for some art classes.

There are a lot of classes being offered to cater to the tourists. These classes are for subjects ranging from cooking to drawing and other art forms. I am in no way associated to Mr Kailash here; a standard disclaimer :)

The temple has some fine work done on the white marble. The carvings are detailed and beautiful.

He has got some company...

...and he is enjoying it thoroughly

After performing prayers at the temple we went for a guided tour of City Palace. The entire palace is not open for everyone, only a part is open for general public.

The kings had pigeon service to convey any important message back to the palace. The pigeons used to fly back with the message tied on to their legs. This was more of a one way communication like the free incoming calls of the modern era mobile phones.

Erstwhile Department of Postal Services

The palace houses several belongings of Maharana Pratap like the armor, sword, shield and spear used by him in multiple battles. The armor itself weighed over 25-30 kgs.

Armor of Maharana Pratap

Elephants were part of the Mughal army against which the battle of Haldighati was fought. Maharana Pratap had an artifiicial trunk resembling an elephant's trunk worn by his loyal horse Chetak. It was used to disguise the horse as an elephant. Legend is that, the horse had placed his front legs on the trunk of Man Singh's elephant while Pratap attacked on him. Man Singh managed to duck the blow, however Chetak got injured from the sword tied to mughal elephants trunk. Maharana Pratap escaped the battle field, as the injured Chetak took his master more than 2 miles away from the battle field. Unfortunately Chetak succumbed to the injuries and died but after bringing his master to safety.

Artificial trunk on horse

There was separate area for women in the palace called Zanana Mahal. It had provision of activities that the ladies could engage in for time pass and enjoyment - swings, board games and obviously make up :).

Way to the Ladies Palace

Swing for queen

Board Games

Queen used to meet her guests here

King's dining spot

The Maharaja of Udaipur has also put on display the great silver artifact collection that the royal family owns. The collection has things ranging from horse and buggy to a small toothpick.

Front view of the horse and buggy

Exquisite silver work done in Buggy

Royal weddings take place in the palace. However, this mandap is only for the marriage of the members of royal family and is not available to public.

The silver mandap

A royal wedding was supposed to take place in palace and preparations for the same were on full swing.

We were told that the budget for Royal wedding starts approximately at 30 lakhs for 12 hours.

View from the top

Preparations in full swing

The views from the palace are simply breathtaking.

After the city palace we went for the boat ride of the Lake Pichola.

Almost all the houses in the city (at least those in vicinity of City Palace) have beautiful paintings on their walls. There are a lot many drawings of Maharana Pratap which is obvious.

We went for a cultural show in the evening called Dharohar. This is organised in the Bagore ki Haveli. The show comprises of performances by authentic folk artists from various parts of Rajasthan.

Puppet man weaving the magic without hiding the tricks of trade

Beautiful performance by graceful lady

Amazing!!! She easily managed 6 more towards the end of performance

We had our day with dinner at Natraj restaurant. The restaurant offers Rajasthani and Gujarati thali and is highly recommended. Couldn't take any photographs as I was busy in eating. :)

This brought to an end our Day 2 of the Rajasthan Sojourn.

Unforgettable Rajasthan Sojourn

Rajasthan.

Shakespeare said “What’s in a name?”. However, I think there is a lot in the name and it can’t be more apt than this. Rajasthan – the land of the Kings! A mere mention of Rajasthan brings an image of sprawling desert and majestic forts in one's mind, not to forget the Rajputana aan, baan aur shaan.

Majestic Forts

and the beautiful lake besides

Travelling to Rajasthan was always one of my dreams. Every year a trip to this majestic and royal destination, finds its place in my 'to do things' as part of New Year resolutions. And, like most of the New Year resolutions, this one also used to remain unaccomplished.

This was also one of the resolutions most often forgotten in the busy life.

It was going in the same way this year also, until we heard the news of my cousin's marriage in Jaipur. The song “Padharo mhare desh” echoed in my ears. This was the trigger that set the ball rolling for the Unforgettable Rajasthan Sojourn.

We got into usual dinner conversations of what to cover as part of trip apart from Jaipur.

Me: It can be a week’s trip. Let's cover Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur.

Wife: That sounds great. It will be nice. Will you get that long vacation from office?

Me: Hopefully Yes!

Sister: What about Jaisalmer? That's the desert part; we can go for desert safari as well.

Me: Yes, desert safari will be great. Without desert safari it will be incomplete. But Jaisalmer will be very far. We need to check the distances.

After checking the distances on Google maps the initial crazy plan was to drive from Gurgaon - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Jaipur - Gurgaon was not practical. Unwillingly, we had to drop Jaisalmer from the plan.

Having said that, we made another resolution – we will cover Jaisalmer in our next Rajasthan trip whenever it happens.

For couple of days such multiple discussions went on and on. There were discussions of going by train as well which would have killed all the joy of a road trip. We did a good amount of research online, went through few blogs, few other sites. We came to conclusion that trying to cover more than 2 major cities will become tough and won’t be justice to the places as we won’t get much time to appreciate the fine things.

Finally we came up with the plan as Gurgaon - Chittaurgarh - Udaipur - Jaipur - Gurgaon.

Day 1 - Gurgaon - Chittaurgarh = 535 km

1 day stay in Chittaurgarh.

Day 2 - Chittaurgarh - Udaipur = 120 km

2 days stay in Udaipur with excursion to Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur if time permits.

Day 4 - Udaipur - Jaipur = 420 km

3 day stay in Jaipur.

Day 7 - Jaipur - Gurgaon = 235 km

The exciting drive

Even with this plan we were apprehensive about the Day 1 drive, as this was the longest and we had a small kid with us. To add to our worry was the media coverage of the pathetic condition of Delhi - Jaipur highway. Every where we were hearing and reading the horror stories of people getting struck in the traffic and the dreadful condition of the road.

We had planned to start on Sunday, so that we get ample time on Saturday to do the packing and other preparations for trip and the marriage. I got the car serviced one week before our trip to ensure that everything is fine from car’s perspective.

But how can everything go as per the plan. J

I had some work at the bank, tried to start the car and to my surprise, it won’t crank up. Gave couple of more tries but not, she just refused to start. It was around 10:30 a.m.. The immediate thoughts were of the possible cancellation of the trip. I gave a call to the service adviser and the fellow asked me to get the car towed to the service station. Then a long wait started for the concerned person to arrive with the towing truck. With every passing hour, my tension was also rising. When till 12 noon also no one came, I called up the Service station and they said they will send someone to my place. Finally the mechanic came at 2:30 p.m. and on inspecting the car said – “Sir, battery chali gayi hai. Nayi lagani padegi”.

Got the car jump started and battery replaced. Now a sense of relief prevailed. We thanked our stars that this problem cropped up on Saturday rather than on Sunday when we had to travel.  

Conscious of the fact, that 1^st day’s drive will be long and tiresome, we ensured that all the packing was done timely and we were ready to sleep on time.

Went to bed peacefully, had a good sleep and we woke up at around 3:00 a.m.. Finally we were all in the car by 4:30 a.m. ready for our drive to Chittaurgarh.

It was more or less a smooth drive. We were progressing well on the rather infamous Gurgaon - Jaipur stretch. There were diversions and all type of trucks plying on the road. At one place near Manesar, we got struck in a bad jam. All of a sudden, our spacious car appeared as a small box surrounded by monstrous trucks in every direction. Luckily, after 10-15 minutes, the vehicles started moving albeit very slowly.

Soon we were moving at a good pace passing the milestones and the multiple tolls. There are 4 tolls on the way till Jaipur.

Manesar – Rs 60

Shahjahanpura – Rs 114

Manoharpura – Rs 55

Daulatpura – Rs 46

The sunrise happened somewhere around Shahpura.

Beautiful morning Sun...

..with sun rays kissing the mountains...

and gently waking up the little one

Our bad that we left NH8 and entered Jaipur city only to eventually join the Ajmer Expressway. We realized our mistake after a good 10-15 kms. I guess this cost us about half an hour. The time was close to 8 a.m. and thankfully we didn’t encounter any major traffic in Jaipur.

Landed on NH11C instead oh NH8

We found our way to the Ajmer Expressway and continued our journey to the first capital of Mewar – Chittaurgarh.

Had our breakfast somewhere around Ajmer. This was a very much needed break which refreshed all of us for the journey ahead.

Road to infinity.. though we got off at Chittaurgarh

We had switched off the GPS in phone after negotiating the Jaipur city. Again switched on GPS and kept following it and I must say, it was quite accurate as it brought us very close to our hotel in Chittaurgarh. So, finally we reached our stop for the day at 2:10 p.m. covering more than 550 kms. This was better than our expectations.

The major attraction or rather the only attraction is the fort. Fortunately, this place is not that commercialised yet.

At around 4:00 p.m we left for Chittaurgarh fort. This is one of the largest forts in India in terms of area. The fort was constructed sometime in 7^th century AD.  Ala-ud-din Khilji  was so besotted  by the beauty of Rani Padmini, queen of Rana Ratan Singh, that he attacked the fort in 13^th century to capture her. The rajput fighters fought till the end. The queen preferred death to dishonour and performed the ultimate rite of Jauhar (self immolation).

Vijay Stambh standing tall among all the structures

The fort saw some of the greatest Rajput warriors. Rana Kumbha got the Vijay Stambh (Victory Tower) built to commemorate his victory over the Muslim rulers of Malwa and Gujrat. He is credited with building Kumbhalgarh Fort as well. More on that later. J.

Reminding the past glory

Modern day jharoka

the timeless ruins

Palace surrounded by ruins yet exhibiting grandeur

Experiencing the tranquility of the lovely sunset

Fort wall is visible in the panormic view of the city

The fort was seized 3 times and all 3 times the Rajput ladies performed Jauhar.

We saw the Light and Sound show at the fort and enhanced our knowledge of history. It is a very informative show and I will definitely recommend it to anyone who visits Chittaurgarh. It reminds us the great history of Rajputs, the stories of supreme sacrifice and unmatched valour.

Palace lit in the light

We had our dinner at the hotel and ended a our day with ever lasting memories of stories of unmatched courage and self respect of Rajput warriors.

Trip to Devbhoomi Uttarakhand

For almost last one month we were having few discussions over the meals about what to do during the Gandhi Jayanti and Dussehera holidays.

Initially we decided to go to our native place Dehradun, but the destiny had something else in store for us.

The Surreal Destination

It was almost final when another proposal came in to visit our ancestral village in Garhwal. We planned to visit some famous temples in and around our village and to cover Pauri and Khirsu also as part of the visit.

We finalized this trip and the preparations started for the trip. As always happens you tend to get more work and get busier as your travel date comes near. The case was same with me as well.

Luckily, I got free on time and was in home by 7.

Started the packing, thanks to 1.5 years old kid, there are couple of small to medium size bags catering to the junior's needs specifically. Moreover, we had to pack some light woolens anticipating the cold climate there.

I wanted to go to bed early considering the long drive next day. But as it always happens, the excitement before the anticipation of a long drive (that too on Hills) doesn't lets the sleep come on time.

I got up early in the morning at 3:30. It seems my little kid was also very much excited as he was also up running here and there in the house by 4 am.

After persuading my wife and sister to get ready quickly we finally hit the road at 4:45 am. I was very happy and was having a feeling of victory that all of us, including 2 females : ) were able to get ready in about 1 hour.

Reached Noida in about half an hour, thanks to lesser traffic during early morning. My in laws also joined from there. Our cavalcade of 3 cars (Maruti Swift Diesel, Honda Amaze Diesel and Hyundai i20 Petrol) started off to Kotdwara at close to 6 am.

The beautiful road

Slowly crossing the milestones on our journey

It was a perfect drive with windows rolled down and the early morning breeze gently coming on the faces.

We soon were crossing the likes of Modinagar, Muradnagar, Merrut. We entered the Merrut city and thankfully didn't encounter any major traffic hurdles thanks to the national holiday of Gandhi Jayanti. We stopped at Miranpur for breakfast. With our tummies full we resumed our journey and crossed Bijnor, Najibabad and finally hit Kotdwara at about 11. With our stomach already full, we tanked up our cars for the journey ahead.

Wow.. what a pose :)

He is not alone.. I am also there.

After Kotdwara the road started taking twists and turns. As we started climbing on the gentle slopes of the hilly road, we could clearly feel the clean air and the natural beauty. We miss the feeling of this clean air a lot in the metros.

We crossed Satpuli at about 3 pm. Unfortunately one of the cars in our convoy, the Swift's brakes developed some problems. So we had to take this hard stop at Satpuli to get this problem rectified. Driving on hills with problems in brakes is like the Hindi saying 'aa bail mujhe maar'. :) We didn't want to take a chance.

Satpuli has few auto mechanic shops and one of the guys there rectified the problems.

One little tip here for hill driving - When driving down hill, always drive in the same gear which you would have used to climb up. So if for a particular slope while climbing I have used 2nd gear, it is highly advisable that I use the 2nd gear while coming down as well.

After Satpuli, the road to Pauri is really wide. However, due to the rainy season the road was almost without any bitumen and full of gravels at places.

One of the many breaks on the way to Pauri

We had a stop at Jwalpa Devi temple to offer our prayers to Goddess Jwalpa.

Stopping at many places to enjoy the natural beauty, finally we reached Pauri after sunset at about 6:30 pm.

As the Sun is setting down we are inching closer to Pauri

We came to know that a leopard is roaming in and around Pauri these days and is active in the night. This sounds frightening, isn’t it?

After dinner we planned for the next day - to cover Khirsu, Ransi ground, Kandoliya devta temple, Kyunkaleshwar temple, Danda Nagraja Temple and Kheraling Mahadev.

Day 2 -

After the good sleep at the hotel, we woke up to encounter a slightly hazy morning. After few discussion the last night's plan was modified to remove Khirsu.

Uttarakhand is devbhoomi of India. Many of the historical temples in Uttarakhand have been built by Pandavas. The temples are present in serene locations and to sit in these temples makes one experience the divine connection.

We started our day by visiting the Kandoliya devta temple. It’s a small temple; the complex around the temple is very nice with many swings for kids. In short, a perfect picnic spot.

Then we went to Ransi ground which is one of the highest grounds in Asia. A great place to play a game of cricket / football / hockey.

We proceeded towards the Kyunkaleshwar temple.  This temple was built in 8th century and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is believed that the temple was put in place by Adi Shankaracharya.

We started towards Danda Nagaraja temple. 'Danda' is garhwali word for forest. This temple is visited by garhwali devotees from every part of country. This is among the most revered temples in garhwal. There are legends that Lord Krishna came to this place as a snake. Devotees offer 'Gur ki bheli' as prasad in the temple. 

There it is!! Danda Nagaraja temple

The original temple is quite small and now a large temple is built around the original small temple. There is a story that the devotees from nearby villages thought of building a new temple by dismantling the original temple. The moment they started the process, few snakes appeared at the site and the task had to be aborted. Then it was decided that the original structure won't be touched and a structure will be built around the original temple.

Way to the main temple

People also offer bells in the temple

Some bells are really Big

Two more can fit in easily!!!

There are few shops which offer refreshments and prasad outside the temple. We had our lunch in one of the shops and started further.

We moved ahead towards the Mundaneshwar Kheraling Mahadev temple. This is also one of the very famous temples of this region. Every year, during month of June a large fair is organized here. Till some time back Animal slaughter used to happen during this fair. This practice has been stopped now.

Panormic view of the temple complex

These 3 also got some rest after huffing and puffing on hills

The forest around the temple is very dense and we had heard that there are multiple animals from wild cocks to leopards and bears in the forest.

Luckily when we were moving from the temple to our village we saw a dear crossing the narrow road in front of our car. But the main attraction was the leopard sighting near Nagar. The folks in other two cars saw it and unluckily we missed it.

We reached the village in the dark.

A Beautiful night

Day 3 & 4 -

We enjoyed our function to the fullest at the village. It refreshed the memories of good old school days when we used to visit the village every year. Having said that, it is sad that people are migrating from villages to plains in search of better avenues and opportunities. This is a serious topic and I'll cover it some other day - will put in my perspective.

At last the little chap and calf became friends

The village temple from our home

Slowly and steadily going towards the temple

We crossed the temple and continued with our small Trek

View of the village from the top

We visited all the temples in the village, met all the people and our relatives. I am short of words in explaining the tranquility and peace of mind that we experienced during our short stay.

Preparing rice powder for Arse

Started preparing the good old garhwali stuff

It takes a lot of strength to move the dough

And finally the mouth watering "Arse" are ready

Day 5

We started back to the urban concrete jungles of NCR after bidding Goodbye to everyone.
Stopped at few temples on the way back.

The priest at the temple told us that during the devastating floods in 2013, all these rocks were submerged under water.

Parting shot as we proceed down towards plains

Visited the Sidhbali temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman in Kotdwara.

It was a good drive back to Gurgaon. We had a good heavy lunch at Miranpur and were in the city by about 6 pm.