Trip to Rajashan - March 2001

Here is the brief account of our visit to Jaipur, Udaipur and Mt. Abu in Rajasthan

*** We were four of us ( Myself, Prasoon Diwaker, Amit Agarwal and Rajiv Bhatia). Our initial plan was to visit Shimla and nearby places like Kulu,
Manali. But due to time constaints Nainital was considered. Finally everyone agreed upon trip to Rajasthan covering Alwar, Jaipur, Udaipur and
Ranthambore National park and may be Ajmer too - in that order.

*** We left Kanpur on friday, 02/03/01, by Marudhar Express(4863). When we reached Alwar, train was late by about 4hrs, it was 3:30pm. So we decided to continue till Jaipur, skipping alwar. Reached Jaipur at around 6pm. Took a hotel room(4 beds) for Rs350/-. In the late evening visited
Birla Mandir-a newly constructed Lakshmi Narayana Temple - Magnificant building (rather than a temple) of white marble ; perhaps like ISCKON temple of b'lore.   Tickets to Udaipur by govt bus was booked (fare Rs 160/- in express)

*** Next day we hired a taxi (ambassodor) for Rs 600/- for sight seeing of major places at Jaipur. Visited Amber fort & palace, Jaigarh fort,
Nahargarh fort, Jantar Mantar (Observatory), Hawa Mahal, City Museum, Jal mahal, Kanak Vrindavan.
Taxi driver was very informative cum cooperative. Of the available options for sight seeing like Tourist bus - which puts severe
time constraints due to their prefixed schedule , Hiring auto - which can't take us to places like Jaigarh fort b'coz of height , Taxi seems the
best option considering all aspests like cost/head, convenience, selection of places at our will, no time constraints, etc.
(Luckily This idea was given to us by an auto driver known as panna lal who is well known for his sincerity in Jaipur).

*** Reached Udaipur in the early morning 7am. Bus was good, so was the road - some national highway. Took a hotel-2 beds- for Rs200/-. Here it
turned out that taxi cost was much higher. Hotel owner hired an auto for sight seeing for Rs250/- (Later we found that the actual rate in Udaipur
is atmost Rs 150/-). Very soon we realized that Udaipur is not a place worth spending the whole day. The only Impt places are City palace cum
Museum. A Jagdish temple very close to it. It would hardly take two and a half hours to cover it.

The auto driver had said there are 12 points to be visited. The places included mainly  parks - so stupid. In that way our own Hanumanth nagar
can be made a tourist attraction by showing Bugle rocks, Bull temple, Kumaraswamy devasthana and girinagar park. We were actually misled by some of our friends who had glorified Udaipur.

*** We stayed that night in Udaipur. Left to Mt abu at 9am next day by a private bus (scheduled departure was at 8am) to reach Mt Abu(1200mts) at 2:30pm covering about 185kms. My vague expectations about the place were that it could be like Ooty or any some hill station in Western ghats. But on the way itself I realized that being in region where there is less rainfall, high tempereatures and also my little idea about the Aravalis which I had been seeing through out this trip, there will be hardly any greenery. Its Deciduous forest. I was disappointed.

We hired a taxi for Rs 250/- for sight seeing. He said as we were late by at least two hours, we will miss one place called Gurushikhar which is the
highest point ( I think so) of that region. We saw 'Om Shanti Ashram', Arbhda Devi temple. Then he took us to "Melwara" temples. As I saw it from
outside and felt 'Oh one more temple'. By that we had seen so many such places. It looked very ordinary from outside. The temple guide took
about group of 20 inside the temple. There are 5 jain temples. When we entered the second temple it was astonishing. Its covered with ordinary
rocks from outside. Inside is comletely white marble. Its not the marble that excites you. But the delicate, lucid carving that has been done. Its
undoubtably one of the best architectures in world. There are 125 dooms and 102 pillars each with different , complicated design. One more temple
was built about two hundred years later on similar lines, but involving even more difficult design. I can't explain how good it is. You'll have to
go and see it yourself

After seeing this temple I was very happy that coming to Mt abu was worth. The main reason why this place is famous is that its the only hill station
of rajasthan and secondly b'coz of Melwara temples.

Finally we went to sunset point. I'm sure You've seen better sunset points in western ghats. Then we climbed down to Abu road. Our train (Ala Hazrat Express - 4312) arrived one hour late at 1am in midnight. We had general  tickets. but general coaches were locked from inside. So we boarded a reserved coach. Luckily it happened to to be army coach. So we came quite comfartably.  This train starts from Gandhidham, a place very close to Bhuj; they were returning from probably after relief work in earthquake hit areas. We reached Jaipur at 9am. Amital continued till Moradabad on the same train. On the way was Ajmer. But we didn't get dowm fearing shortage of money. Stayed at the same hotel. Remaining three left to kanpur in evening by bus. At kanpur one went to his home. Other to allahabad and myself back to my room. 

*** Overall this was a very nice trip to have a glimpse of Rajasthan beauty. No doubt it earns maximum revenue in tourism compared to any other
state and tourism has max share earnings of Rajasthan.

*** A better trip, with same time duration could be something like this. First day at Jaipur. Jaipur can be nicely covered in one day. There is a
train, Chetak Express, at night ( meter gauge) which goes to Udaipur from Jaipur. In that train go till Chittaugarh, which has the largest fort in
the world. It comes in early morning at around 7am. Fort opens at 9am. See the fort and Vijay sthambh by 11:30 noon. Leave to Udaipur. It takes about 3 Hours. Even if we reach udaipur by 3:30pm we can easily cover the Palace before its closing time at 5pm. Then the temple. Next day morning at 6am govt bus leaves to Mt. Abu. We reach abu by 12noon and can get sufficient time to see the whole place.

cheers

Vishwesha G

PS ; I've left one impt aspect - the mistakes that we did and the probable reasons for those. since its getting too lengthy I've skipped them. After
you completely read this mail me back. I'll write about that.