Padharo Rajasthan Part 2

 

(Click here to Read Part 1 before you proceed.....)

Day 4

Udaipur is known as city of lakes. The Lake Pichola is an artificial lake which is the source for fresh water. We covered City Palace, Jag Mandir Palace, Monsoon Palace or Sajjangarh Palace, Bagore Ki Haveli, Vintage Car Museum, Doodh Talai Musical Garden & Ahar Cenotaphs on the first day of our stay at Udaipur. Jag Mandir Palace & Lake Palace are situated in the middle of the lake. So, you need to go by boat. Lake Palace is run by Taj Resorts & it is open only for guests who stay there. But Jag Mandir is open to public as well, even though there are some restricted entry points so that the privacy of the guests staying there is not hampered.

Day 5

On second day at Udaipur, we covered Fateh Sagar Lake, Saheliyon Ki Bari, ShilpGram & Eklingji Temple. The temple has a marvellous architecture with pyramidal style roof. Photography is strictly not allowed. The temple is dedicated to lord shiva with four faces. This temple is 20 kms from Udaipur. Shilpgram is a rural place which is 3 kms from Udaipur, dedicated for arts & crafts. It depicts the lifestyle of the folk & tribal people. There are handicrafts shops at Shilpgram and also various cultural programmes like puppet show, dance etc presented by people living there.  

The other highlights of Udaipur is the presence of two restaurants which we liked very much. This blog would be incomplete if I don't mention about them.

• Charcoal by Carlsson : Their speciality is food cooked over charcoal. The staff are very friendly & helpful. They provide you whatever information you need about the items in the menu. The food is great and could be enjoyed with spectacular night views of Lake Pichola. This is a rooftop restaurant on the 4’th floor of a building and we have to climb a number of steps (P.S. No lifts). But one would never regret climbing those for the food, surreal ambience & views you get. It would be best if you could arrive at the restaurant few minutes before the sunset. Don’t forget to book your table beforehand itself to get those boundary seats.

• Ambrai Amet Haveli : This restaurant is situated on the banks of Lake Pichola. The view, ambience & food are really good and not that expensive. It is an open-air restaurant with well shaded trees and is on the same level of the lake.

Day 6                         Udaipur -> Jodhpur                   276 KMS, 6.5 Hours’

After breakfast we started our journey for Jodhpur. On the way we had a stop at Kumbhalgarh Fort for site seeing. Kumbhalgarh Fort is known as Great Wall of India. Here you have to reach on or before 11 am or else you will have to park the car very far and have to climb the road to fort. The fort is situated on a hill. It is the second longest wall in the world after Great Wall of China and also is included in UNESCO heritage site.

On reaching Jodhpur since we had time, we decided to enter Umaid Bhavan Palace. Moreover, Umaid Bhavan was along our way to our place of stay at Jodhpur. A part of Umaid Bhavan is managed by Taj Hotels, but a part of it is open to general public for site seeing.

Day 7

We went to Mehrangarh fort, Jaswant Thada, Rao Jodha National Park & Mandore Gardens which all were in 2 km radius.

Day 8                              Jodhpur-> Jaisalmer                  281 KMS, 4.5 Hours’

We decided to stay at a desert camp at Sam Sand Dunes. Before checking in to desert camp, we went to Lodhurva Jain Temple, Kuldhara Village & Khaba Fort. Khaba Fort & Kuldhara Village are amid great Thar desert. The village of Kuldhara also called ghost village, was home to the Paliwal Brahmins from the late 13th century. Around 80-90 families were residing in various huts and small houses scattered around the village. The mysterious story of Khaba starts in 1825 when one night, all the villagers deserted the village and went to some other place. Till date, nobody knows where the villagers went and this remains an unsolved story.

The desert stay was a different experience. Once the sun sets, the desert temperature falls down and it turned to be very cold. Here we went for a jeep safari on sand dunes & a camel ride. We could only see heaps of golden sand all around us. With every wind a new sand mountain was formed and old one vanished. Till then I had seen it only in movies. At night, there was a cultural programme arranged which was in an open-air theatre. It included a puppet show and dance programme.

Day 9                 Jaisalmer -> Jodhpur                             281 KMS, 4.5 Hours’

After checking out from desert camp, we headed to Jaisalmer fort and then also went to Salim Singh Ki Haweli, Patwon Ki Haweli & Sadar Bazar. Initially we had planned to stay at Jaisalmer. But due to previous day food, we decided to stay somewhere on the way to Jaipur. That’s how we settled at Jodhpur which was half way. On the way to Jodhpur, we also paid a visit at Jaisalmer War Museum.

Day 10                       Jodhpur -> Jaipur                        350 KMS, 5 Hours 45 Minutes

We went to Amer Fort, Jaigarh Fort & Nahargarh Fort. It is always better to wear a pair of comfortable shoes. In Rajasthan, to enjoy the beauty & marvel of the architecture, one has to see these forts & museums for which we need to walk a lot.

Day 11

The site seeing on this day includes Sisodia Rani Ka Bagh, Central Park, Albert Hall Museum. There is an Egyptian mummy at Albert Hall Museum. Rest of the day was spent for shopping in local markets like Tripolia Bazaar, Johari Bazaar & Bapu Bazaar.

Next day morning we headed back home with lot of sweet memories of Rajasthan hoping to come back once again to visit the places which we missed. It includes Pokhran, Mount Abu, Abha Nagri, Bhangarh Fort and a safari at Jhalana National Park & Desert National Park at Jaisalmer.

Click here for photos from Ranthambore National Park.

Click here for photos from Rajasthan.

The two restaurants/cafe I should mention about

• Meraakki Kitchen : The place is well setup with lots of indoor and outdoor seating. The whole decor and lightings are well done. The food is exceptionally good and so is the ambience. The staff can be trained on a bit of soft skills otherwise this place is perfect. 

• Tapri Central : The café was really good. It offers an indoor & outdoor seating with very good ambience. The masala tea I ordered was very tasty that we bought a packet of tea leaf before heading back to our place. But its bit overpriced. A rooftop restaurant which is opposite to the Central park with a store below from where we got the tea leaf. In case you need to speak to the waiter, you don’t have to call him. Instead, just press on the bell placed on your table.

Padharo Rajasthan Part 1

Rajasthan is indeed a priceless jewel in the crown of India. Rajasthan was in our bucket list since long. To cover the entire state, one has to either visit it 2 or 3 times or at least 12 days at a stretch. Also, the best time to visit the state is during winter. There are no direct flights from cochin to Rajasthan. So, we had a short stay of a day at Mumbai to meet one of our cousins. We flew to Jaipur from Mumbai. It was almost dark when we reached our hotel (Ibis, Jaipur) at Jaipur. We got fresh, had our dinner. Since we arrived late, the dinner buffet was closed and they asked us to order from their 24x7 restaurant menu. We were very hungry & tired that, we ordered for Rajma Chawal without diving much into the menu. It was finger licking good.  Without wasting much time we went to bed for a sound sleep as we had to kick start for our long energetic trip. We chose to drive ourselves by hiring a car from Jaipur. 

Day 1                                 Jaipur -> Ranthambore           188 KMS, 3.5 Hours’

After breakfast, we headed for some site seeing in Jaipur which included City Palace, Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar.

The City Palace, Hawa Mahal & Jantar Mantar are close to each other and are at walkable distance. The City Palace complex lies in the heart of Jaipur city. The entry fee is 200 INR per head and open from 9.30 AM to 5.00PM. Hawa Mahal is open from 9.00 AM to 5.00PM and entry fee is 50 INR per person. Inside the Hawa Mahal it was very airy & cool as its name due to its honeycomb like structure with many small windows. The place which attracted & seemed interesting to me was Jantar Mantar. It is open from 9.00 AM to 4.30 PM and entry fee is 50 INR per person. It is a collection of astronomical instruments which helps in measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking location of major stars and other celestial objects. These were built from local stones & marbles and was built in 1700’s where science was not that advanced.

We had an authentic sumptuous Rajasthan thali from Govindam Retreat which was very close to city palace in Jaipur.  After lunch we went to pick up our car from where it was parked. First impression was really horrible. We were pissed off. Firstly, the car was parked in a remote place. Secondly, the car was full of dents. Thirdly, the car was bearing another state registration. Only thing which impressed us was that the car pick up was entirely app based and secondly the interior of the car was neat & pleasant. Finally, after half an hour of chat with the zoom car representative, we chose to start our journey ahead.

Ranthambore was our place of destination. Ranthambore is a vast wildlife reserve which is known for its large tiger population. The Park is famous for a tigress Machli, the queen mother of tigers and it is said that all the tigers at present in the park are all related to her in some way or the other. It was 3.5 hours’ drive from Jaipur. It was little bit dark by the time we reached Ranthambore. It was very cold there during nights & early morning. After delicious dinner, we slept early as we had Jeep Safari early morning next day.

Day 2

We woke up at 5 and got our packed breakfast. We had booked our safari tickets online, 2 months before our journey. We opted for a half day safari which took us to 3-4 zones where chances of tiger sighting are high. Before starting our journey, we were provided with 2 blankets which I felt amused. But all changed the moment the jeep was started. We reached the park gate at 6.00 AM and there were few jeeps waiting to enter the Park. It was very dark inside the reserve due to thick forest. After few minutes, we heard a warning sound of a Sambar. On hearing which all the vehicles slowed down and almost stopped to locate the sound and to check. After sometime we saw a tail of a leopard which was hiding behind a huge tree. Even though we couldn’t see it properly due to darkness, it was enough to wake us from our sleep and coldness.

Then after half an hour drive through dry forest, we finally got to see 2 cubs. I still can’t believe that they were cubs as they were really big and it was the first time, I saw tigers that close. We were lucky enough that we got to see another 2 cubs as well in some other part of the reserve. We got almost an hour with these 2 sets of cubs for clicking the pictures as well as watch them play with each other. There was a moment wherein I could feel my heart beat. One of the cubs crossed by in front of our jeep and it was so close that, if ever I want to step out of the jeep, I will surely step on it. It was in that moment Dileep asked me to click a picture and I literally forgot how to click photo. (P.S. The same camera is being used by us for several years by then). There were so many things which were running through my mind like what will we do if in case it jumps on us. I was really excited of this trip and had imagined of spotting tigers as well. I had even gone through the documentary on Ranthambore National Park which featured Machli. But the moment it was close to me, I was dumbstruck. But I’m really happy that we could see the wild cat because that energy/vibe was there in the entire Rajasthan trip.

Other than tiger & leopard, we saw Deers, Nilgai, Sambar and few birds like Peacock, Parrots. The jeep was parked in a place for us to have breakfast. But we were not allowed to get down from the jeep even if it was parked & the engines were on. The safari continued till noon. We had a sumptuous lunch at our resort and rested for a while. And in the evening, we went to the Padam Talao Lake, Ranthambore Fort which is on a hilltop. You could see lot of peacocks, parrots & pigeons in the fort.

Day 3                                  Ranthambore -> Udaipur                 463 KMS, 8.5 Hours’

We got up early morning since it was going to be a long day. From Ranthambore, we headed to Udaipur. It was 8.5 hours’/463 Kms drive, but we had to stop at Garadia Mahadev Temple & Chittorgarh Fort. The Garadia Mahadev temple was added to the itinerary after seeing it in the advertisement for Rajasthan tourism. That was breathtaking view and climate. But the problem was we arrived a bit early and also there was cloud because of which sun was absent. After clicking some pictures & relaxing for a while, we headed to Chittorgarh.

The Chittorgarh Fort also known as Chittor Fort is one of the largest forts in India. The fort was the capital of Mewar and is a UNESCO world heritage site. The fort is spread over a hill with 4 palaces, 19 temples and many water bodies etc. The fort is open from 9 to 6 and entry fee is INR 50.  It will take around 2-3 hours exploring the entire fort complex. Make sure you have enough time and wear comfortable shoes as you will have to walk a lot. But the walk was worth. It was around 6 when we reached Udaipur. 

Click here for photos from Ranthambore National Park.

Click here for photos from Rajasthan.

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