delhi_agra_rajasthan_feb_2006

Traveling through the sands of time

A new year and like always I was looking forward to my jaunt to the north of India. A 9 day vacation packed with plans to visit delhi, attend sakets wedding, check out agra and fatehpur, finally head out for the deserts of rajasthan and pack in anything else in between. Two weeks before the start, all my free time was spent ogling at the desert packages of jaisalmer, forts of jodhpur & booking tickets for the various laps of the journey.
So one fine Friday I set out from b’lore city, ajay picked me & my bro from the airport and we headed out to Faridabad where we stayed at ravis place. After a late night session of gupshup we caught some sleep coz we planned to check out the sights of delhi the next day. I am going to resort to a diary style coz that would help me keep the train of events.

Day 1:
This trip was meant to be a gourmands delight and it was flagged off by ravis moms yumm parathas and uncle ke haath ke banaya hua bindi sabzi (my mouth waters when I think about it ;-) That day we checked out the India gate and the delhi metro. Highlights : The flyovers in delhi are commendable ; we had the audacity to pose for a pic right in front of the security check at the metro station, thankfully we were stopped before we clicked else we would have had to shell out 500 bucks as fine (Note : Do check out the rules of the land before u board the tube else it can prove to be very expensive) In the evening we got back to faridabad, dressed up and headed out to sakets home from where the barat was to set out. Everything was so colorful and beautifully done up. The women looked so gorgeous in all the bright colours and finery.
We discovered the dance floor a little late nevertheless with our MJ Mayur at the lead we were the last ones to quit once we started dancing. Did not wait for the wedding ceremony to complete since like all punju weddings it was slated for the wee hours of the morning and we had to set out early morning the nest day. Got back to romis place, unpacked and repacked for the two day trip to agra and fatehpur.









Day 2:

We (me, ashish, ajay, romi, mayur & gera) set out in a quails from delhi at 6 in the morning. With short breaks for b’fast & lunch we reached Agra by 1 in the afternoon. Since our hero Raj babbar was visiting there were lots of crowds on the roads. Our first visit was to the fort at Sikandra which houses the tombs of akbar and wife. An impressive structure in red sandstone with well manicured lawns all around. Those kings did live & live after death in style. From there we headed out to the Agra fort. What stays in my mind is the beautiful carvings in marble and the view of the Taj from there. Other points of interest here were the Diwan-e-khaas & the Diwan-e-aam where the emperor addressed his council of ministers and the commoners. The Sheesh mahal stands testimony to the fact that every facet of royal life is really royal. From there we set out to fatehpur sikri, the capital city during akbars reign. The highpoint of this visit is the man from the past who guided us through the ramparts of the old fort. Let me introduce Kalakar, a man with copper colored hair & beard whose language was poetic loaded with urdu-hindi & shayari. We first visited the tomb of the shaik salim chisthi. The jaali marble screens are remarkable here. It is believed that if you tie a thread around the jaali here and pray your wish will be granted (we did try it & I am waiting for my wish to come true ;-) The 54 m high Buland Darwaza or the Victory gate is the main entrance to the compound that houses the jama masjid & the saints tomb. I found this during my google search on fatehpur.
A koranic inscription upon the gate read, "The world is a bridge, pass over it but built no house upon it. He who hopes for an hour, hopes for Eternity, for the world is but an hour". (very cryptic)
He told us of Akbar’s 3 wives & 300 girl friends (did that make all the guys jealous). The palace of Jodhabhai, akbars hindu wife was the main harem in the enclosure. The Hawa Mahal where the king must have spent some lovely evenings watching the sun set with his wife (wives ;-) is made entirely of stone latticework. There was mariam’s (the christian wife) palace which was at one time completely gilded with gold. The Diwan-e-khaas is a single vaulted chamber with the massive central lotus throne pillar which is intricately carved. To me the most audacious display of power was the huge pachisi gameboard (similar to ludo) drawn on marble on the Diwan-e-aam courtyard where Akbar and his courtiers used slave girls dressed in colorful attires as the pawns in the game…
When we were about to leave the place we came to know that kalakar is the man who used to dive from the top of the buland darwaza into the well below. He was featured on many television channels. Since the government banned the act he has taken up to being a guide.

We then returned to agra and found ourselves a place to stay. Since ‘Rang de basanti’ was the theme for the trip we headed out for the nite show (for ur info we had one fourh timer, two third timers, 2 second timer & one first timer amongst us). Worthy of mention is the adventurous travel in the ‘autos of agra’ (Jintax is the word I would use to describe those boom boxes) Atleast my auto driver was sober unlike romis. She was fighting with the guy to put the loud music (aka noise) off, atleast while passing through the residential areas. And believe it or not at one in the nite (or early morning) there were 6 crazy souls walking the streets of agra knocking the doors/gates of every hotel and asking if they had a coffee shop or a disc (since gera insisted that one guy had told them that every hotel had a disc, it took us some time to realize that maybe that guy had mistaken a disc for a dish or whatever..) We finally accepted defeat & got back to our rooms where the nite outers had a “who sips tea the loudest’ competition.

End of long day 2


Day 3:
Early morning get ready & head out to see the colours of the rising sun on the Taj. By the time we got there the sun had already risen. I guess I had set my expectations very very high and so in some sense I was disappointed. (One Mr. Reginald Massey is to be blamed for this. We had a lesson in our 12th std English course in which he had written about the taj “When you have seen the pictures of a building taken from every possible angle by the worlds best photographers, it still cannot prepare you for what you experience as you walk through the doors on whose walls are inscribed the holy koran”). The place was swarming with groups of tourists from foreign lands. We took a lot of pictures there. After the most expensive bfast at Udupi park we started our return journey to delhi. Oncce we reached delhi myself, ashish & ajay set out to the station to start the next part of our trip to the exotic rajasthan. Here mua-the trip coordinator did the first goof-up. I assumed that the train would be from new delhi station wheras on arriving there we realized that it was from old-delhi & so we had to race against time (& delhi traffic). Fortunately we made it to the station on time. Me friend Neelu (pal from school) joined us at the station. So four of us were all fresh & geared for the next 3 days trip into the deserts of rajasthan.

Day 4:
We reached jaisalmer station at noon. We were attacked by touts from various resorts and hotels the moment we set foot outside the station(I wish we had that scene on camera where each one of us were gheraoed by a group of drivers promising various things). We then headed out to a restaurant called “Bhilwara”. Jaisalmer truly is a golden city since all its buildings are made of yellow sandstone and the fort at the centre of the city on a raised plateau reminded me of pictures of sandcastles on beaches. The food at Bhilwara was truly lip smacking and both the food freaks we had with us truly freaked out (the pic will help u guess them).




After consulting with the man at the counter at the restaurant we decided to head out for the deserts of khuri rather that the dunes at Sam (though our cab driver was pitching in heavily for Sam). Khuri is an hours drive away from the city of jaisalmer. Enroute we got to see the dry deserts of rajasthan, with just a few shrubs for vegetation and no human habitation for miles together. At Khuri we checked into the Khuri desert resort which had the option of huts or tents or dune stay for accommodation. (No guessed, we chose option 3). Immediately we set out on the camel safari to watch the sunset from the dunes. Mounting and dismounting the camel is as scary as a roller coaster ride but it was very different experience. They took us through the village where we watched a potter make a pot and also visited one of the traditional huts in the village. I really dreaded each time we had to stop and get off the camel (Thankfully we had to do the entire circus of getting off & on only thrice). The sand patterns on the dunes are really beautiful. Here we could see one big expanse of sand dunes surrounded by scrubland (I guess the sahara desert is where we would get to see dunes till where the eyes can see). After the sunset we headed back to the resort where they had some cultural programs organized in the courtyard between the huts. There was a local rajasthani troupe that performed. The guys played some local musical instruments ( called ….), that part was very good. Also there was a rajasthani dance recital (me & neelu also joined in towards the end). After a not too impressive dinner we returned to the dunes. They set our cots on the dunes. The most memorable part of this place was sleeping under the canopy of the star studded sky (simply fabulous – it was like being in the worlds biggest planetarium).

Day 5:
The next morning I walked into the dunes (though it does get scary if u r alone and u reach a point where u r all alone and wonder if u can find ur way back). After the sunrise we headed back to the resort, freshened up and set out for jaisalmer fort. We were low on energy so we did not go around the whole fort, just checked out the museum there. The fact that sets this fort apart from the others we saw is that it is like a colony with lots of people living inside it even to this day. Then it was bye bye to jaisalmer as we boarded a local bus to jodhpur (one really long 7 tiring journey which as always ashish slept through). Reached jodhpur in the night & caught a rick to the place I had chosen to stay. It is a homestay called saji sanwri. As we passed through many twisted and narrow gallis to reach the place I wondered if it was a good decision. Thankfully the saving grace was that we could see the jodhpur fort from the terrace. This is run by a very friendly jain family. Though Neelu will never ever forgive me for taking her there (the artificial flowers and lamps all over the place psyched her out – she gets nightmares to this day ;-)

Day 6:
I guess there was something wrong in the dinner coz 3 of us had severe stomach upsets. I even thought of ditching my visit to the jodhpur fort. Thankfully with the medicines I was able to manage it. The Meherangarh fort is privately maintained by the maharaja family. Very well maintained place. You can hire a guide to take you around or do a self tour with a walkman guide that gives a commentary on different points along a marked route through the fort. From the fort you can also see the blue painted houses in the city below from which the city gets the name of ‘blue city’. From here we set out to the umaid bhawan palace, since we were told that the entry into the hotel part of it was Rs. 500. However on reaching there we came to know that prices have been hiked to Rs. 1700 and since none but neelu had an appetite we returned without seeing the palace. That night we started back from jodhpur to delhi.

After five full days on the road we really needed a break. I spent two more days at delhi recuperating and reached home sweet home.



Handy tips:

1. Try to visit the Taj during a full moon, so that you can visit it in the night. (night entry is permitted only during the full moon time & they charge Rs. 500 per head)
2. Check out the roof top dinner at meherangarh fort in jodhpur
3. Drink a lot of water to avoid dehydration while in the desert
4. take the rear seat on the camel ride if you are not the “enjoy roller coaster” types.