Bodhgaya - the Origin of Buddhism

We had a chance to visit Bodhgaya, Rajgir and Nalanda in Dec 2017.

To be continued ...

Royal Rajasthan - Jodhpur

Continuing on our Rajasthan tour, we next covered Jodhpur - the 'Blue city'.

Since we spent only a day or so in Jodhpur, this post is going to be short. Let me use this opportunity to may be describe a bit how we planned the trip.

MakeMyTrip Itinerary

We booked the trip via MakeMyTrip. We wanted to cover multiple cities, so it was best to have a driver for the whole trip. Otherwise, you will end up doing a lot of bargaining with taxi drivers, each time you reach a new city, and want to go to the next. So to avoid all this hassle, our goal was to book a 'Car with driver' for the whole trip.

This is by no means an endorsement of MakeMyTrip, but in general our experience has been positive with MakeMyTrip - esp. when you want to custom design your own trips.  So if you start by searching MakeMyTrip for Rajasthan packages, it will show you around 10 options. As you will notice, most tours either cover Jaisalmer or Udaipur, but not both. We wanted to cover both - so we basically went for a customized version of the 'Jewels of Rajasthan Explored'  (link) tour.

In the end, after customization, our itinerary looked something like this:

Jaipur (2 nights) - drive to Jodhpur via Pushkar (6-7 hours) - Jodhpur (1 night) - drive to Jaisalmer (5 hours) - Jaisalmer (2 nights, 1 night in a desert camp - Don't miss this!!) - long drive to Udaipur (9 hours) via Ranakpur Jain temple - Udaipur (2 nights)

MakeMyTrip packages also include flight and hotel bookings. Here, we would very much advice that at least for the hotels, do your own homework!! The hotels MakeMyTrip advertises as 4 stars are often very basic hotels. So do your research - refer to TripAdvisor, Booking.com, etc. - but make your own selection. Also, be careful about additional charges that you will need to pay directly at the hotel. We usually travel in India during Christmas / New Year holidays, and during this time it seems that most hotels charge for MANDATORY Christmas and New Year Gala Dinners, which can easily run up to Rs. 5000 per person - so beware of these "additional" charges!!

Having said all this, we were very happy with the services provided by the local tour company, esp. our driver / guide (Mr. Ratan Kumar Verma). He was always punctual, smiling, friendly - we couldn't have asked for a better person. Finally, note that most such bookings come with the standard tagline "that the car / driver is available only for the advertised itinerary". In practice however (at least in our experience), once you rent such a car for a multi-day trip, they are usually available throughout the day; and will not hesitate to drive you around the city to places not explicitly advertised in the itinerary.

Mehrangarh Fort

If there is one thing that you MUST absolutely see in Jodhpur, it is the Mehrangarh fort. Having seen so many forts in different cities, the Mehrangarh fort does standout as one of the most impressive ones.

As you can judge from the picture above, it is an imposing sight to behold. The sheer size and grandeur, and also the fact that it is constructed at such a high altitude; only increases its appeal. A few more pics of majestic fort follow:

Umaid Bhavan (below) is the other palace located in Jodhpur. You might have heard of it because part of it has now been converted to a Taj Luxury hotel. However, purely from a touristic perspective, if you have time to visit only one of them - choose the Mehrangarh Fort. Umaid Bhavan only has a small museum which you can visit - and it is not that impressive to say the least.

Jaswant Thada

Very close to the fort is a cenotaph called Jaswant Thada (below). While it is interesting in itself, it is also a good place to take panoramic pictures of the fort (e.g. the one at the top of the blog).

City

Jodhpur is one of the bigger cities in Rajasthan, so might be a good place to do your souvenir shopping (esp. if you missed out on it in Jaipur). The main market is close to the clock tower (below), which you can easily make out from a distance. And, while you are in it, do not forget to taste the local delicacy 'Makhan (Butter) Lassi' - it is absolutely delicious :)

Pushkar Lake

Pushkar lake is a good stopover if you are driving from Jaipur to Jodhpur (or vice versa). This place has religious significance for Hindus as it is home to the only 'Brahma' temple in the world. Even if you are not religious, or not Hindu; the lake by itself is really beautiful and worth a visit - it emanates a very nice, peaceful, and serene feeling. However, note that there are no proper signs, and it might not be so easy to reach the lake on your own. If you are a foreigner, especially, try to have a local guide with you. 

Royal Rajasthan - Udaipur

Continuing on our Rajasthan tour, we next cover Udaipur - the 'City of Lakes'.

Udaipur

 

Udaipur is a picturesque city with many lakes nestled among the Aravalli hills, the prominent ones among which are Lake Pichola and Fateh Sagar Lake. Of the two, you are more likely to encounter Lake Pichola. Most of the famous attractions such as City Palace, the luxurious hotels such as Taj Lake Palace, Oberoi Udaivilas, etc. are all located on or around Lake Pichola. 

Taj Lake Palace 

Let me start this blog with a description of our stay at the Taj Lake Palace. Taj Lake Palace is one of the most luxurious hotels in India, which often features among the 'Top 10' hotels of the world (e.g. link). 

If you are a James Bond fan, you would remember this magnificent hotel from the movie 'Octopussy'. The hotel was in fact Octopussy's lair in the movie. And ever since we saw it on silver screen, it was a dream to stay at this hotel.

The hotel is 'very' expensive, even more so if you visit it during the holiday season. However, even before entering the hotel; as soon as you are on the boat taking you towards the hotel - you get the impression that it will be worth every penny you paid.

It is located right in the middle of Lake Pichola. So the hotel reception is actually on the shore, within the premises of the City Palace - so it can be a bit difficult to find the reception. But I am assuming that if you are capable of staying in the hotel, you are sufficiently well-off to hire a local driver / tourist guide - who would know where to go :)

Once inside the hotel, the hotel is very well maintained, and indeed looks and feels like a Palace. There are of course some limitations because of its location, e.g. there is no elevator inside the hotel. But then the hotel is only 2 floors, and the porters carry all your luggage; so you really don't need an elevator. The hotel only has a limited number of rooms, 50 or so, so it feels real "nice and cosy".

One thing to try at the hotel is to have a 'Private dinner' (link) on one of their terraces. Again, it is not cheap - would set you back by approx. 20000 INR - but the food and view are totally worth it. You get to discuss the menu with a "personal chef" who prepares it especially for you. As a result, the food is guaranteed to be outstanding!! 

And, the view (below) just adds to the splendor. There are 3-4 terraces among which you can choose, so the view might be different depending on the terrace - be sure to check it out before you book as it really makes a difference. The view below is from their 'Sarvashresth' terrace.

City Palace, Saheliyon-ki-Bari

As with most cities in Rajasthan, Udaipur also has a Palace - the City Palace. While it is impressive, the "level of impressiveness" might depend on whether Udaipur is the first or last stop in your itinerary :) Basically, it is quite grand and opulent, but nothing very different from the palaces in other cities in Rajasthan. It is nevertheless almost always crowded, and the narrow passageways inside the palace only make the movement of large groups of people more claustrophobic.

Another interesting place (architecturally) is the 'Saheliyon-ki-Bari' (Courtyard of the Maidens). As the name suggests, it used to be the place where the Queen used to entertain her guests. So it quite colorful, with lush gardens and fountains - overall, worth a visit.

Monsoon Palace

The Monsoon Palace (which also featured in the movie 'Octopussy' by the way) is perched atop a cliff. So it is the perfect place to take those panoramic shots of Udaipur city.

The best time to visit the Monsoon palace is during sunset. We were lucky enough to witness an absolutely gorgeous sunset - check out some of the shots below:

Finally, let me close this blog by some night shots of this amazing city! You can capture these from anywhere along the lake - try some of the points from where the ferries leave for the lake cruises.

Royal Rajasthan - Jaisalmer

We visited Rajasthan, primarily Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur in Dec 2015.

Jaisalmer

As a city, Jaisalmer is probably one of the smallest that we have seen. It takes about 10 minutes by car to cross the city. There is nothing much within the city, other than military camps. Its proximity to Thar desert and the border with Pakistan makes it strategic defense outpost.

From a touristic point of view, Jaisalmer can be characterized by two things: "Golden" Fortress and Thar desert.

Golden Fortress

The "Golden" Fortress (or "Sonar Kella" in Bengali) is special for us Bengalis as it has been immortalized in our memories by Satyajit Ray's movie of the same name (link). 

The golden color is of course due to the ubiquitous yellow sandstone found here -  out of which the fortress, and almost all buildings in the vicinity, are constructed. As a result, the city itself is referred to as the Golden City - see the color of the houses in the panorama below.   

A very unique thing about the fortress is that people still stay inside the fortress. So there are both houses and shops within the fortress. The shops range from small souvenir shops to jewellers who make / export very expensive jewellery.

Our guide told us that the govt. is now trying to encourage the people living inside to move out of the fortress - as their daily activities, esp. water usage, is slowly damaging the fortress. However, most people are of course unwilling to do so, due to obvious short term commercial gains. As such, the guide was basically asking us not to purchase souvenirs from shops inside the fortress. The point is that going forward if more people refuse to buy from shops inside the fortress, it will automatically force the people to move outside the fortress.

The castle itself is quite huge, so keep around 2-3 hours for exploring the castle. Most tours for the fortress start from the Gadsisar Sagar lake (below) - so you will find most guides there. There are govt. certified guides there and the standard rate for the full tour is around INR 700.

Some more pics from inside the fortress:

Desert Camps

The other absolutely 'must do' experience in Jaisalmer is to stay in a desert camp and experience the sunset. Sam Sand Dunes is the most popular resort for this activity.  It is slightly outside the city and there is a well marked route leading to the camp from the city. Although we did not stay at the Sam Sand Dunes, we heard that there are around 1000 camps in the resort, as a result of which it can get quite crowded. (This is in no way a criticism of their services, or the camp in general; as we did not actually stay there.)

So we stayed at the Damodra Desert camp which offers a more personalized (albeit expensive -:)) experience - and thankfully we were not disappointed. We had a great time there and can definitely recommend it. The camp has only around 10 tents, so kind of 10 families at a time.

The tents are equipped with a fully functioning bathroom, even including hot water. So it is really 'luxury among the wilderness'. There is also a heater in the room, however it is the desert - and it can get very cold at night - so be prepared with your sweaters and warm clothes. The camp is run by people from the nearby Damodra village. As such, the service is great, and the people really treat you as their family "guests".

One of main attractions here is to see the sunset over the sand dunes. The sunset point is approx. 30 minutes drive in a closed jeep from the camp, and the drive can be bit bumpy; so be prepared esp. if you have small children with you. There is sand everywhere, so you are likely to get a lot of sand in your face as well - scarves and goggles are thus very much recommended.

Once you reach the sunset point, there is an optional camel ride around the sunset point. If this is the first time that you are riding a camel, hold on to whatever you can :), esp. when the camel is getting up. Do not underestimate this part, as we saw a couple having a bad fall right in front of our eyes.

The sand dunes, although not very extensive, is still quite impressive. If you are lucky enough to have a clear day, the sunset is absolutely magnificent and worth every penny / effort that you made to get here. Depending on the sunset time on a particular day, they usually plan so that you reach the sunset point at least half an hour before sunset, and then leave well after sunset - tea and refreshments are served in between. A few pics of the sandscape during sunset below:

      

Up on returning to the camp, you are given a traditional Indian welcome with garlands and 'Tika'. Once changed, and after having gotten rid of some of the sand; there is a bonfire going on in the middle with traditional dances and fire shows. You are welcome to sit around with hot snacks and cold drinks.

After a sumptuous diner, you are welcome to walk around enjoying a perfect moonlit night in the desert.

Suryagarh

This blog would not be complete without mentioning the Suryagarh hotel. Other than the desert camp, this is the best place to stay in Jaisalmer. Yes, it is expensive, but it also one of the best 5-star hotels we have stayed in - both service and decor wise. It is not a traditional palace per se, in that it is not hundreds of years old; but it otherwise resembles every bit a royal palace. Check out the pics below to get the royal feeling:

 

One last thing, if you get time check this out: 'Breakfast with Peacocks' (link). Unfortunately, we noticed this at the last minute; hence did not get a chance to check it out - but does sound very interesting.