Royal Rajasthan

After making a conscious decision to travel as much as we can whenever we can, we decided to go to Rajasthan for our anniversary as I have been telling Ranga so many things about the place and he hadn't been there - so there I was, planning our week long trip... with RCI and Club Mahindra bookings in place, and Rajesh's relative giving us a good lead for a cab which we hired to tour Rajasthan by road at an economical price with a non-smoking, non-gutkha chewing, non-paan spewing driver (!) in an AC Indigo car. So, he was hired at Rs.6/km with 300kms per day min. all incl.

Day 1 (Mandore, Osian and Luni)

Not too many flights to Jodhpur from Bangalore - I selected the 7am Jet airways via Mumbai. Reached Jodhpur at 1.30pm, and our cab driver Vijay was waiting for us. Despite the nearly 8 hours since leaving home at 5am that morning, we were only hungry but not tired, so we had lunch at a place called "On the Rocks" which is beautifully designed with lots of rocks as the name suggests, and then we headed for Mandore and Osian. The beautiful chill weather only made it more comfortable. Mandore is the place from where Mandodri (wife of Ravana) originates and is the only place in the world where Ravana is worshipped and revered as the son-in-law of the town!

The old palace is beautiful and carved with a lot of friezes and frescoes - Mandore was the erstwhile capital of Marwar, before the establishing of Jodhpur by Rao Jodha as the new capital. After spending some time there, we drove another 60kms to a temple called Osian which used to be the gateway to the desert, but is today a forgotten village with the temple its only claim to fame. Now, we were feeling a little droopy, so on the way back to our hotel, we stopped at a tea shanty run by a professor for some great masala chai and an impromptu lecture on local construction methods with stone when we told him we were both engineers! They have stone roofs with just a sliver of mortar between them and stone construction is the norm not exception!

After travelling 70lms back to Jodhpur, we drove another 35kms on the Jodhpur - Pali road to Luni, a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere and when the cab stopped in front of an ancient iron studded gate - I went, what the heck....had I goofed? But...yes, there is a but! the door opened and a man emerged in traditional Rajasthani attire and colourful turban applied the tikka and welcomed us into - the royal past! Yes, the vista which emerged was breathtakingly beautiful, we felt we had moved into a time capsule a few centuries ago, flames rose high from torches illuminating a high dais where beautiful village belles were performing a folk dance to the accompaniment of lovely music, the fort rose high and mighty behind them guarding the lawns and the rich tones of yesteryears. This was the home of Raja Dalip Singh, cousin of the present Raja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur (who by the way is still respected and is involved in the day to day lives of the people of Jodhpur), which has been converted into a heritage hotel since 1992. The staff here are descendants of the royal help who have served royalty for centuries, and boy, did they know how to treat us like royals! Feeling energised by the sheer beauty of the place, we checked into our surprisingly modern room, and came out to enjoy the evening's cultural program. Later had dinner and called it a day as were leaving early the next day.

Day 2 ( Jaisalmer)

We left at 6am for Jaisalmer, and the cold was biting, Vijay was promptly present at 5.45am, and we started off in pitch dark, with the village of Luni fast asleep, no life to be seen, not a single light other than the carpet of stars above to the mournful wail of a train leaving Luni station. After Bangalore, where the city hardly sleeps, this was the ideal setting for a ghost thriller!! After 9kms of this, we reached the main highway and turned towards Jaisalmer. Around 7.40am, we stopped at a place called 'Haveli' (what else? anything which is worth mentioning is either a Haveli or a fort!) for breakfast. Food was fairly decent but what a rip off! Rs.100 per roti and Rs.50 for water, the rates beat a 7 star tattoo on my heart...but, unfortunately, that is Rajasthan today - geared 100% for foreign tourits, they are comfortable in most foreign tongues and think in $ and Euros, Indian tourists are non-essential! Sad and a little unnerving, but true! We continued on the beautifully tarred highway to Jaisalmer and reached around 11am. We visited the Jaisalmer fort which is a living fort and then did some bargain shopping for leather items and handicrafts. Had a cup of masala chai (I vowed that I was going to have as many cups as I can before leaving :) and went to 'Patwon ki Haveli' - the 7 houses built by a Rajput Chieftain for each of his daughters, which was later acquired by Indira Gandhi and donated to the Archaeological Society of India (ASI). These houses are breathtaking for the delicate lace like lattice work at the windows and intricte carved jharokas. Feeling a little hungry, had some lovely Paani Puris and continued to Bada Bagh to see the chatris (cenotaphs) of all the high and mighty of Jaisalmer. The Golden City gleamed as the yellow Jaisalmer stone reflected the sun's rays. Though noon, the cool weather kept us fresh, and gave us a good appetite for a thali at 'Kanishka', a small eatery on the way back. We gave the sand dunes a miss as I had seen them and Ranga has seen them in Dubai, and decided to head back the 280 kms to Jodhpur. After Pokhran (yes, the place of the nuclear test), we stopped at a place for the now famous chai and chanced on several movie stars whose favourite haunt is this tent for some mouth watering food. Reached Fort Chanwa Luni, our hotel after travelling 630kms in all both ways, at 8pm and allowed us to be pampered with some lovely food and drink and soothing music. Crashed out soon after, didn't check the time!

Day 3 (Jodhpur)

Got up late, had a leisurely breakfast and then left at 9.30am for the city tour. We began with the largest palace in the world and built in 1922 to help the local populace during famine by giving them employment - the Umaid Bhawan Palace - we went to the museum, the other 2 parts of the Palace are the residence of the Raja Gaj Singh and the Taj Umaid Bhawan hotel. Then we went to the Mehrangarh fort, 550 years old and an impregnable fortress of Rao Jodha. Purchased the Rs.20 entrance ticket and Rs.20 elevator ticket to the top(125M) and misc. others amounting to Rs.355 and had a lovely view of the Blue City of Jodhpur. Then we traveresed through the Flower hall, the Zanana etc and reached the ground level for a much needed but exhorbitantly priced juice after walking for a good 3 hours, painstakingly taking us through all details was a history professor who moonlights as a guide (there are audio guides availabe too at Rs.150/guide). The Raja has given a place for the dying art of durrie making handcafted by award winning artisans and you are encouraged to buy these as well as the shoes, textiles etc. Succumbing, we bought a durrie and some shoes. These monuments are still maintained privately by the current Raja. Then, we went to Jaswant Thada, the largest cenotaph yet, made in white marble. Tired and hungry we picked up some mishtan and met Rajesh's friend and wife to thank them for all help, for lunch. Then by 5pm we reached our own Fort Chanwa. Relaxed in the royal atmosphere and went to bed happy.

Day 4 (Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh)

Checking out, we felt a pang but at Rs.10,000 for a week, (we only stayed for 3 nights though) RCI really gave us value for money.Left after breakfast at 9.30am and travelled for about 150 kms on the highway to Udaipur till we take a diversion to Ranakpur, which are lovely Jain temples over 400 years old. They have 1446 pillars, all different in design, with dismantalable roofs and the intricate jalli work is awesome and a must see. After paying Rs.75 for the camera and Rs.20 for each of us, we clicked merrily away. We stopped at..., you guessed it - a heritage haveli resort for yet another expensive but tasteless lunch (the food too is geared to the Western palate, with less spice and salt) and continued on our way (about 60kms from Ranakpur) to Club Mahindra Fort Kumbhalgarh. Reached this beautiful luxurious resort nestled in the hills at 3.15pm, checked in and crashed out for about an hour. Left for the actual Kumbhalgarh Fort at 5.30pm, bought the entrance tickets (Rs.10 each and Rs.10 for the camera - thanks to ASI the pricing is low), we entered this historic fort, which pre-dates the city of Udaipur by a century or more - it is the birth place of Maharana Pratap and the place where Panna Dai hid Prince Udai Singh while sacrificing her son to the Mughal invaders - walked up to the various monuments and temples, walked along the ramparts, Ranga strolled the fort walls on top - at 6.30pm - Magic! the fort is lit and the entire fort with its 37kms of wall is the second longest after the Great Wall of China, gleams like a jewel in the pitch dark dessert night and is a sight to gladden the toughest heart! Came back to our resort happy and tired, after all we had travelled over 250kms that day too!

Day 5 (Udaipur)

After breakfast we left for Udaipur which is about 90kms away from Kumbhalgarh, 45kms of these 90kms is hilly terrain where roadwork was on to widen the rosd to a 2 lane, currently its barely wide enough to hold a car! - reached Udaipur by about 11.30 and went to the City Palace, the seat of the Mewar kings, luxurious and sister to the more famous Taj Lake Palace, the floating hotel and then on to Rana Pratap's Smarak, a beautifully maintained memorial up the hill. After a typical Rajasthani thali for lunch which didn't do much for us in terms of taste, we went to Saheliyon Ki Badi, a place for the royal ladies to retire with their friends for entertainment and went to the Fateh sagar lake, which was sadly dry. We then left for Haldighaati, the famous battle place where Chetak the braveheart saves his master Rana Pratap but dies in the process, carrying him over 3kms on a broken leg to safety. The heart broken Rana Pratap has built a beautiful memorial for his faithful friend. After watching the documentary and seeing the sound and light show, feeling a little sad, we returned to our resort. I had been running a fever the whole day and we just decided to stay put in our room. A very sober anniversary :(

Day 6 (Club Mahindra Fort Kumbhalgarh)

Stayed in and explored the Club Mahindra resort in the morning. A beautiful, clean well maintained resort with all amenities and luxuriously appointed, its a wonderful haven in the Aravalli hills. Ranga went to a local village to check out some local artisans and picked up a couple of souvenirs. Evening enjoyed a puppet show and some good music at the resort, had a Chinese theme dinner and went to bed.

Day 7 (Back home via Mumbai)

Left the resort at 9am and reached Udaipur at 11am, did some last minute shopping, bought some gifts and reached the Maharana Pratap Airport (which reminded me of our old quiet HAL airport) and left by Kingfisher flight to Mumbai. The flight was delayed by half hour but we were in plenty of time to make the connecting Kingfisher flight to Bangalore. Reached home by 9pm.

Its a trip through royal history and India's glorious past passing through some of our well know ancient Indian towns... and is a trip which will be remebered for a long time to come.