Day 53 and 54 – Varanasi
Day 53 – Wednesday, 18th Dec 2013
Day 54 – Thursday, 19th Dec 2013
It’s Wednesday morning 5:30 am, my slumber is briefly interrupted as I check our train status from Allahabad to Varanasi. The train arrives from Hyderabad so I was anticipating that it might be late but to our surprise, it is running dot on time and scheduled to arrive at 10:50 am.
It’s 10 am, Khyati and I are ready, packed and eagerly awaiting for our journey to Varanasi. We take an auto rickshaw to the station. The station is crowded in the morning hour and we slowly make our way to Platform 8. We get into our coach – S5. Only one other couple occupy the adjoining seats, we are comfortably seated. I check the chart and find out that the remaining seats are empty and other people will get on from Varanasi. Lucky us!
The train covers a distance of 130 kms and arrives in Varanasi by 1:15 pm (15 minutes before time). We had reasons to be happy. Varanasi station is a much organized and clean station in comparison to Allahabad. There was counters for prepaid auto rickshaw and we hop into one to go to Bhelupur Jain Dharamshala. It’s 4 kms from the station and an easy ride.
Varanasi station
As our rickshaw pulls into the complex, we see many monkeys hovering around us. Khyati advises me to watch out. We fear they will gang up on us but the staff at the Dharamshala did an effective job to shoo them away. It’s 3:30 pm and we have checked into our room.
It’s 5 pm and post dinner, we head towards the Ganga ghat area to witness the grand Aarti held at Dasashwamedh Ghat. On our way, we visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple. As we walk towards the temple, some people in normal clothing tag us along and offer to say our prayers to the God. In return, they ask for money and sometimes you are obliged to shell out a lot. We were forewarned about this and politely declined every invitation that came our way. These people are called “Panda” in local language. The Ghat is beautifully decoarted with lanterns, lighting and the stage is set for the grand Aarti. We grab some seats on the high steps to get a good view of the Aarti being performed. The Aarti began sharp at 6 pm and the inaugural was the blowing of Shankh (musical instrument in the shape of a shell). There were 5 priests performing the Aarti. The songs played on the loud speaker were mesmerizing but one thing that we thought was the synchronization of the priests could have been improved. Each seemed to do a bit of their own routine. The Aarti lasted an hour. Most tourists like us remained glued to our seats all throughout.
Ganga Aarti at the Ghat
It’s 7:30 pm and we walk back to our Jain Dharamshala. We call it a night around 10 pm.
It’s Thursday morning, 7:30 am and Khyati and I walk across the street to our Jain Bhojanshala. One thing I fail to understand is why do car drivers have the need to blatantly sound their horn at that hour? There was hardly any traffic and we were the only two people crossing the road. Annoying as it is, there is nothing we could do.
It’s 10:30 am and we leave for another day of sight seeing. Our first stop is a Jain temple in Bhadaini area of Varanasi. We take a cycle rickshaw there. There is a beautiful Jain temple on the Ghat and the Ghat name is “Jain Ghat”.
Jain Ghat on the banks of Ganga river
The sun shone bright and overlooking the Ganga, we spend some time near the river. As we trace our steps back to the main road, we notice a sign board for Rani Laxmi Bai’s museum. In history books, I have always known her to be Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi but what’s her relation to Varanasi? Apparently, this was her birthplace and there is a nice monument erected the place she was born. We visit the museum and admire her valor and fight against the British Raj.
Rani Laxmi Bai
Varanasi should be called the religious capital of India because at every nook and corner, there is a temple. During the afternoon, we visit other temples – Birla Mandir, Tulsi temple, Sankat Mochan mandir and Nariya Jain temple.
It’s 4 pm and we are a bit tired of walking in the afternoon sun. We cry for some shade and in the distance, we see the campus of Kashi Hindu Vidyapeeth (Benares Hindu University).
BHU – Benares Hindu University
It’s a sprawling campus laden with trees. We walk in the university and find a park to rest.
It’s 6 pm and we head back to the Jain Dharamshala. We call it a night around 9:30 pm.
Hope you enjoyed this post with us. Tomorrow we visit Sarnath. Stay tuned for our next post.
Thank you all for your comments and continuous readership.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 51 and 52 – Allahabad
Day 51 – Monday, 16th Dec 2013
Day 52 – Tuesday, 17th Dec 2013
It’s 8:30 am Monday morning, our train has just pulled into Manikpur station. The train is running 2 hours late and our expected time of arrival in Allahabad is 10:30 am. Khyati and I eat some dry snacks and sweets.
We have some time at hand so both of us work on sorting our pictures. So far, we have taken over 5000 pictures and we need to go through the incredible lot and delete some unnecessary ones. It’s 10:15 am, the train is about to pull into Allahabad, our eyes haven’t wavered much from sorting our pictures and we are down to dealing with 3000 pictures now. Yea! good work…
Train route to Allahabad
My cousin put it aptly, we had arrived in Amitabh Bachchan land and the place of the confluence of India’s three most beloved rivers – Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.
Allahabad Jn
We take an auto rickshaw from the station to our Jain Dharamshala in Bai ka Bagh area. It was few kms from the station but the ride was very dusty. Khyati and I cover our noses with handkerchiefs to save us from possible allergies.
It’s 12 pm, we have checked into our room and we grab some lunch at a local restaurant.
Jain temple, Allahabad
Sharing rickshaws are common in Allahabad and at every nook and corner, you can find rickshaw drivers calling out for destinations. You hop into the rickshaw you want and they charge a nominal 10 or 15 Rs. Our first stop for the day is Allahabad fort. We were not aware but visitors are allowed in only a limited section of the fort. Most of the fort is occupied by the Indian army and you need permit from army folks to enter the main area. It’s usually hard to obtain so don’t go through the hassle would be my opinion.
We visit the Hanuman temple near the fort. It’s 3:45 pm and we walk down towards the Ghat (a series of steps leading down to the river). There are several boats parked there and many offer a ride to Triveni Sangam (meeting place of the three rivers). In Hindu mythology, these three rivers are goddesses and people consider themselves lucky to have a holy dip at the confluence point. We take a shared boat ride from the Yamuna river. There are 4 other people with us. The boat charges a nominal 60 Rs per person. Private boats are available but they go in the range of 400 – 600 Rs (depends on your bargaining abilities).
Boat ride
It’s a sad state but locals and tourists hardly respect and maintain the sanctity of any place. We observed people spitting Paan, washing clothes, bathing cattle, having a bath to taking a holy dip all at the confluence point. This is the confluence point of three rivers, people say – they can see the different water color from the Ganga and Yamuna. We could not tell the difference.
Triveni Sangam
As we set out on the return journey, we could see the absolutely gorgeous sunset.
beautiful sunset
On our way back, we head to a Gujarati restaurant and have some sumptuous dinner. Enroute, we visit the Iskcon temple.
We call it a night around 10:30 pm.
It’s Tuesday morning 9 am, we are having some breakfast and Khyati googles for some destinations to visit for the day. If you check out the map of Allahabad, there is an area known as Civil Lines. the roads are well laid out and looks like a modern town to us. Our Dharamshala was in the old part of the town where zigzag roads were aplenty. We decide to check out this new part of the town.
Close up of Allahabad and Civil Lines area
Civil Lines area is worth a visit, Shopping malls, some fine restaurants, Allahabad High court and All Saints Cathedral are present here. We walk through the lanes and spend our morning here. It’s 1 pm and we are craving some lunch. Earlier on, our eyes had stumbled upon a restaurant – Dosa Plaza which claims to make over 140 types of Dosas and have trademarked over 35 types of Dosas. The food is good here.
Cone dosa topped with a cherry
It’s 2 pm and we head to Anand Bhavan. It was the residence of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and his family and was extensively used in India’s freedom struggle. This place has been converted into a nice museum. We enjoy our visit here.
Anand Bhavan
Next to Anand Bhavan is Swaraj Bhavan, the residence of India’s lady prime minister – Indira Gandhi. There is also a planetarium in the complex and we enjoy a show of the mysterious universe.
It’s 6:30 pm, we head back to our Dharamshala and relax for the evening.
Hope you enjoyed our Allahabad experience. Please let us know by leaving a comment.
Tomorrow, we head to Varanasi, the religious capital of India.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 49 and 50 – Sanchi & Bhopal
Day 49 – Saturday, 14th Dec 2013
Day 50 – Sunday, 15th Dec 2013
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
We have reached our halfway milestone in today’s post and what an incredible journey it has been so far. We have dreamt this travel together and are living it. To 50 more days and many more in the future.
It’s Saturday morning 8 am, we are all seated at the dining table having some breakfast. Atul uncle mentions that there is a annual Mela [Fair} going on at Sanchi Stupa and there will be hoardes of tourists. It’s also good because there are special exhibits by locals and Sri Lankan people. Sri Lanke is primarily a Buddhist country and for those people, Sanchi Stupa is a religious destination and many come by to visit it.
It’s 10 am and we leave for Sanchi. It’s 10 kms from Vidisha but there are scores of police and barricades all along the way. An official stops each car and notes down it’s car plate and telephone number. Wow! talk about strict inspection.
We park 500 meters from Sanchi Stupa and walk towards the main entrance. The monument is on a hill and there is a nicely laid pathway and stairs to the top.
Sanchi Stupa
We hire a guide and he takes us through the entire monument. There are 4 main doors – Stupas to this monument (North, South, East, West) entrance and an inverted bowl shaped tomb. The story has it that when Buddha’s disciples asked him what monument would he like erected, Buddha didn’t give any answer but turned his food bowl upside down and kept it in front of the disciple. Hence, the inverted bowl shaped tomb.
Stupa
Us in front of Sanchi Stupa
We also visit the temple, archaeological museum and exhibit area. We really enjoyed revisiting history and learning about the times of Emperor Ashoka and the Gupta dynasty. It’s 2 pm, we head back home and have some lunch. We have the rest of the afternoon free. Khyati and I unpack and pack some of our stuff and parents visit a Kutchi family nearby who happened to be our distant relatives.
It’s Sunday and we bid goodbye to Vidisha today. Our parents have an afternoon train from Vidisha for Mumbai and we have an evening train from Bhopal to Allahabad. In a way, it worked out best that we left Bhopal for the last day. The plan was for Futkul – Atul uncle’s driver to give us a tour of Bhopal and drop us at the station in the evening.
Vidisha to Bhopal
We leave Vidisha around 11:30 am and reach Bhopal in an hour. Enroute, we get to see the imaginary Tropic of Cancer line. I always knew it passed through India but it’s the first time, I saw a signboard for it. We were glad we crossed it.
Tropic of Cancer
As Futkul drives us through the lanes of Bhopal, we are reminded of towns like Udaipur. Bhopal is also known as the city of lakes. Our first stop is the Manav Sangrahalay. It’s a nomadic collection of artifacts, houses, history all clubbed into one place. There was a designated area for each state and a replica was created for that place. We spend 3 hours here and really enjoy this place. If you are visiting Bhopal, this place should definitely be on your must visit list.
Manav Sangrahalay
Us in Rajasthan enclave
K at Madhya Pradesh enclave
Khyati refers to me as so tall but am still so small
It’s 3 pm and we head to the lake. There is quite a rush and we find out that the “All India 13th Police water games” are being held at Bhopal lake. We see people representing different states and we cheer for Maharashtra and Gujarat. Jai Maharashtra! Jai Gujarat! The stars from those teams look around and give us a thumbs up… Yea!
at the lake
It’s 5 pm and Futkul drives us back to the railway station. Enroute, we see Bhopal’s famous markets and have some light dinner at a local restaurant.
It’s 6:30 pm and we are waiting on Platform 3 for our train – Tulsi Express to Allahabad. We have completed our one week stay in Central India. Thanks to Atul Uncle, Rashmi Aunty, Nanima and Bhavya, we had the most memorable stay.
family pic
Now we head East. Stay tuned for our upcoming posts. We explore Allahabad and Triveni Sangam in our next post.
Please let us know if you enjoyed this post by leaving a comment.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 47 and 48 – Sonagir
Day 47 – Thursday, 12th Dec 2013
Day 48 – Friday, 13th Dec 2013
Flashback – Two days back, as we were heading to Panchmarhi, my father and I discuss the thought of traveling to Sonagir, It’s 6 hours from Vidisha and a key religious destination for us. We hadn’t pre planned this trip so we were checking the best mode of transport to get there. If we hired a car, it would take us over 7 hours to get there. Alternatively, we check train availability, it says WL – 75. [WL – Waiting List]. It means that you don’t have a reserved seat and if it remains like that, you gotta travel in General unreserved coach which we wanted to avoid.
Atul Uncle asserts that WL will be converted into a confirmed seat, no problem! It’s hard to believe that over 75 tickets will get cancelled in two days time but we proceed with the train booking anyways.
It’s Thursday morning, we are at the breakfast table and we have a beaming Atul uncle holding our tickets to Sonagir. He says that our tickets are confirmed and we are traveling in S3 coach – 12,13,14 and 15. I can’t believe it.
It’s 10:30 am and we hop into Atul uncle’s car to visit their farm. Their farm is on the outskirts of the city. As we enter their tree laden farm, Rashmi aunty points us to trees of lemon, guava and amla (gooseberries) and mangoes. Lemons and Guava were so ripe and tasty, we pluck a few and eat them. One of their farmers assists us with plucking gooseberries and guavas and we have more than a full bag to carry home. This reminded us of apple, strawberry pickings back in the US. Fun times!
plucking exercise
our collection
We head back home by 1 pm and have some lunch.
Good news is that Atul Uncle’s mother – nanima also plans to join us for Sonagir so it will be the 5 of us. It’s 3 pm and we get our bags ready for our trip to Sonagir. Mummy and Khyati cook some Theplas for our journey.
It’s 4 pm and we reach Vidisha station and await our train LTT – ASR express (Lokmanya Tilak – Amritsar) to Sonagir. The journey is smooth and we reach Sonagir by 9:45 pm.
train route
We have a car waiting at the station to take us to the Jain Dharamshala. We call it a night around 10:30 pm.
It’s Friday morning, 7:30 am and we visit the Jain temple in our Dharamshala complex. It’s beautiful and has a miniature setup of our Sammed Shikhar Jain tirth.
Sonagir is actually situated on a hill and there are 78 individual temples. Post breakfast around 8 pm, we leave to climb the hill. There are around 400 steps and we have to walk bare footed. We offer our prayers at each temple and we reach Temple no. 57 at the very top of the hill. All the temples are beautiful with their intricate carvings and marble work.
Manstambh
Sonagir Jain temples
We walk down the hill via another route to our Dharamshala. It’s 11 am and we are all having some early lunch. We had a 12 pm train back to Vidisha. The Dharamshala staff were kind enough to arrange a taxi to drop us to the railway station.
It’s 12:30 pm and we have boarded the train. The train is running on time and we hope to reach Vidisha by 6 pm. It’s 4:30 pm and our train reaches Bina station. Many locals without reservations get into our compartment and there is nothing you can do other than sharing your seat with them. These people are daily commuters who work in Bina, Ganj Basoda area and live near Vidisha / Bhopal. We happily share our seat (well – we are used to the 4th seat concept in Mumbai locals – Bhaisaab, zara jaga dena! (Sir, please give us some seat!)
It’s 7 pm and we are having some dinner with the family. We are glad we went ahead with our plans for Sonagir. It was a successful short visit, would love to go back for more days some other time.
Tomorrow, we visit the World Heritage site – Sanchi Stupa! Stay tuned all of you.
Thank you for your comments, keep them coming.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 45 and 46 – Panchmarhi National Park
Day 45 – Tuesday, 10th Dec 2013 and
Day 46 – Wednesday, 11th Dec 2013
It’s Tuesday morning 7 am, we all are at the dining table having some hot breakfast. We hear a few car honkings, that’s your car – Atul Uncle says.
Saurabh – our car driver helps us with the luggage and puts it in the trunk. It’s 7:30 am and we are on the road, the distance is 210 kms and takes around 5 hours.
Road to Panchmarhi
The roads are in good condition with a two lane highway all throughout. In rural India, a common sight is that farmers would bathe their cattle in the rivers. We observed a tractor being bathed, we were wondering if he would immerse it completely for a holy dip. haha!
tractor getting cleaned
We make few stops along the way. We cross a bridge over the Narmada river, it’s the 5th longest river in India and major part of it flows through Madhya Pradesh.
parents with Narmada river in the background
It’s 12 pm and we are near Pipariya town. This is the nearest railway station to Panchmarhi national park and we begin our final 50 km climb to Panchmarhi. The temperature was 25 degrees when we were in Pipariya but we could suddenly notice the temperature drop as we neared Panchmarhi. We stayed in New Hotel – Sada Panchmarhi. It’s a government run hotel and very well managed. We check into our room and have some lunch at the restaurant.
It’s 2:30 pm and we head out for a few sight seeing spots. Our first stop was the Pandava caves. The story has it that when the Pandavas during their 14 years of exile had to stay hidden for a certain number of years and could not be traced, they found resort in these caves and hence the name – Pandava caves. The lower section of Pandava caves has been converted into a beautifully formed garden and there is a hut to rest.
like father, like son
garden at Pandava caves
Our next stop is Handi Khoh – It’s a 300 ft deep valley, the story has it that it used to be a lake guarded by an evil snake demon. Lord Shiva fought with the snake and their battle fury dried up the lake and left open a dry bowl shape valley.
Handi Khoh
It’s 4 pm and nearing sunset. We inquire around and there is a famous sunset viewing point. It’s Dhoopgarh and the highest point in Central India at 4500 ft. The area near Dhoogarh is managed by the Indian forest department and we need special permits. These permits are easily available in the central museum.
The road is a steep climb and some suggest that we take a rented jeep there. Our driver was brave enough and suggested that we take our own car and he will manage the steep climb.
We reach Dhoopgarh by 4:30 pm and sunset is about to occur in an hour. Dhoopgarh is like a hill top with 360 views of the world around. There are sunrise and sunset viewing points there. There is also a small museum which we visit.
Us at Dhoopgarh
There were few hundred people there to witness the amazing sunset and true to it’s popularity, the sun didn’t fail to amaze us with its natural beauty and capability.
about to set, trying to stop it from falling.
nice
It’s 6:15 pm and we head back to our hotel. We have some dinner in town and call it a night around 9 pm. The weather was a bit chilly in the night and we had to request few extra blankets.
It’s Wednesday morning 8 am, we are all sipping some hot chai and munching on some snacks and fruits. We plan to cover a few more sight seeing spots in the morning and leave for Vidisha in the afternoon.
There are many caves in and around Panchmarhi and we visit Mahadeo caves. The names go by Gupt Mahadeo meaning hidden temples. We do a bit of walking around the caves. We see a lot of monkeys hovering around, we try to preserve our valuables hoping that one of them doesn’t attempt a snatch.
The roads are one lane but well maintained. Most drivers follow the practice of honking at each turn to announce their presence to other drivers. We found it annoying but hey, most drivers speed on these roads and this promises our safety to some extent.
We visit Priyadarshini View point on our way back from Mahadeo caves. These viewing points have telescopes installed and we could see the mountains and temples faraway.
It’s 12 pm, we are back at our hotel. We check out of our room and bid good bye to Panchmarhi. We begin our drive down towards Pipariya. It’s 1:30 pm and we have some Jain food at Ashok Hotel in Pipariya.
We continue our journey back to Vidisha and enroute, play games, quizzes. Dipti – we remembered you a lot here and we have some new puzzles for you. Come join us!
In our final 25 km drive, our car faced a flat tire. Saurabh immediately pulled to the side of the road and changed the tire in a jiffy. Took him less than 10 minutes, he was on the job!
We reach Vidisha by 7:30 pm and post dinner, relax for the evening. I catch up on my writing and we call it a night around 10:30 pm.
Hope you enjoyed Panchmarhi National park with us. Please let us know by leaving a comment.
Tomorrow, we head to Sonagir.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 44 – Vidisha, MP
Day 44 – Monday, 9th Dec 2013
It’s Monday morning 7 am, our train has pulled into Lalitpur station. A tea seller gets into our AC compartment and sings loud chants of “Chai, Chai”. Some people eagerly place an order while some other grumble for waking them up. Our train is on time and we should reach Vidisha by 9 am. I call up my father to check on their train status. Yes! My parents are joining us on our travels in Vidisha for a week, how exciting. We were looking forward to seeing them soon.
It’s 9:30 am and our train reaches Vidisha. Bhavya is there to receive us and takes us home. We freshen up and wait for our parents to arrive, their train was delayed by an hour.
It’s 12:30 pm and we are all having lunch together. Atul Uncle suggests that we visit Udaygiri caves. It’s an archaeological site from the 4th and 5th century of the Gupta dynasty. Currently, it’s under the supervision of Archaeological society of India. The drive is a mere 10 km but the roads are in poor condition. I have hardly seen roads in inner cities cemented. It would be nice if the local government took some steps.
At Udaygiri caves, We hire a guide who explains us the historic resemblance of some of the statues in the caves.
Ganesh statue
There are 14 different caves and we can hike to each one of them. With our guide, we visit 4 different caves. There were nice views of the nearby farms and Vidisha town from the top.
caves site
us!
Most cities and towns in the world were built around rivers and Vidisha is no different. It’s on the banks of Betwa river. The reason I say this is because on our way back, we encountered a journalist who was filming a documentary on rivers and happened to bump into us by chance. Atul Uncle was interviewed by them and it was fun for us to see and learn some history about Vidisha and the river.
documentary on rivers – interview
In the evening, we visit a few Jain temples in Vidisha. Some of these temples are over 600 years old with intricate carvings.
Jain temple
In the evening, Khyati and I were lucky to attend one of their friend’s wedding functions. It was a music and dance night and we enjoyed the festivities and food.
performances
Hope you enjoyed our first day in Vidisha as much as we did. Please let us know by leaving a comment.
Tomorrow, we leave for Panchmarhi National Park. Stay tuned.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 43 – New Delhi
Day 43 – Sunday, 8th Dec 2013
Nothing beats being at home. Khyati and I are lucky we can call New Delhi our home as Vasant Uncle, Hema Aunty and Priyanka made our stay so pleasant and memorable.
It’s Sunday morning, we are having traditional Kutchi breakfast. Bajar ji maani (Bread made out of Pearl millet). The food is so filling. It’s 9 am and Khyati and I along with Vasant Uncle leave for Pitampura metro station. There is a Jain religious discourse at the temple and we are going to attend that. It’s organized by Gujarati Samaj in Pitampura area. Being a Sunday, I was expecting the Metro ride to be empty and hoped to find a seat. To our surprise, Sunday was the most crowded. There were lots of students traveling and most of them had competitive exams that day.
At the religious discourse, some young kids sang songs and performed a skit. It was good to see such tender kids being encouraged at such a young age.
kids performance
Jain temple
It’s 12:30 pm and we have lunch at the venue. Post lunch, we leave for some more sight seeing. We take the Metro to Connaught Place. Today, the Delhi poll election results were out and we could see Aam Aadmi Party workers celebrating their stellar show. Nobody had expected them to perform so well. Party workers were carrying the broom (party symbol) on their head and singing praises of the leader.
We ask for directions to Birla Mandir and walk towards it. For most people in India who give directions, everything is just a few hundred meters away. The actual distance from Connaught Place to Birla Mandir was around 1.5 km but we kept getting told that it’s slightly further ahead each time we ask. hehe! Imagine our plight. Khyati was seriously contemplating taking a rickshaw for the final two hundred meters but stopped when I showed her the temple dome in the distance. hah!
Birla temple
Security is quite tight at most temples and we weren’t allowed to carry mobile phones or cameras inside the complex. The temple is beautiful, parts of it was currently being renovated. Paint job was going on and we must admire the braveness of Indian workers. With minimal safety equipment, we can see them painting a dome. We are observing their work as a worker looks down and we wave our hand, he waves back. We feel a connection.
On our way back, we visit the Buddha temple, Sacred Heart Church and Bangla Sahib Gurudwara. All these places of worship are in the same vicinity. It makes us believe that God is one, it is us humans who have divided his house of worship. God is present in all of us, we just have to realize our own potential and pursue our goal towards spiritual upliftment.
In front of Buddha temple
Sacred Heart Church
Bangla Sahib Gurudwara
It’s 6 pm and we head back home. We pack our bags and have some light dinner.
It’s 9 pm and Khyati and I are on the road waving our hand at any passing auto rickshaw. None seem interested in offering us a ride but we patiently continue our quest for a rickshaw. Finally, after 10-15 minutes, we hop on a rickshaw which agrees to take us. It hasn’t even traveled 300 meters when it reaches an abrupt halt. The clutch wire had broken and he could no longer change gears. It was a busy road and cars, jeeps were honking behind us and started hurling shouts at the rickshaw driver. Poor fellow – what could he do? He dejectedly looked at us and said that you will have to find another rickshaw. We offer him some cash but he declines the money.
Luckily, we find another rickshaw which takes us to the railway station. It’s 10:15 pm and we settle in our compartment in Dakshin Express. The train pulls out on time and post ticket check, we call it a night around 11:30 pm.
Here is our train route from New Delhi to Vidisha.
Train route
This completes our wonderful journey in North India. We head to Central India and will explore the incredible land of Madhya Pradesh.
More soon, please stay tuned for future posts. We look forward to reading your comments.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 40, 41 and 42 – Shimla
Day 40 – Thursday, 5th Dec 2013
Day 41 – Friday, 6th Dec 2013
Day 42 – Saturday, 7th Dec 2013
It’s 4:45 am Thursday morning and our alarm rings. Another early start today. We force ourselves out of bed still feeling half asleep. It’s 5:30 am and after finishing the check out formalities at our hotel, we walk down towards the railway station. We don’t see any milkman, newspaper vendors or rickshaw wallahs on the roads but a sudden noise erupts as we are walking through this dark silence. It’s none other than a rooster crowing. We are a bit shaken, we look around us and continue our walk.
We reach Kalka railway station and the train to Shimla is stationed on Platform 2. This train journey has been accorded the status of a World Heritage site and is filled with scenic views of the valley. The distance from Kalka to Shimla is 96 kms. You can read more about this on Wiki – Kalka Shimla Railway
train route
The train starts on time at 6 am. The max speed this train goes is 15 – 20 km / hr. As the sun rises, we enjoy the morning sunshine and beauty of the valley on the way up. The train makes few stops and passes through a record 108 tunnels.
K in front of toy train
enroute to Shimla
While planning this marathon India trip, Khyati and I had so many unknowns, uncertainties but we have hung in there, had faith in our abilities and things have fallen in place. For all you folks, if you are facing any problems – always remember that there is light at the end of a tunnel.
Ray of hope!
We reach Shimla by 11:30 am. The railway station is quaint and still has British influence.
Shimla rly stn
We hire a porter to take us to the hotel. It’s a nice km walk and we can see buses plying on the busy Cart Road, taxis honking and people walking in the middle of the road. There are two parralel roads in Shimla – Cart Road and Mall Road and there are multiple stairs / lift connecting the two roads. On one such stairway, our hotel was located midway. I wonder if we could have managed to carry our luggage all by ourselves? We thank the efforts of the porter and admire his hard life.
It’s 1:30 pm and we are craving some food. We head to Mall road and grab some local fare. There are many bylanes in Shimla and we walk through them in the later part of the afternoon. Mall Road is crowded and buzzing with activity. Out of the 3 other hill stations we have visited – Mussoorie, Dalhousie and Dharamshala, we find Shimla to be the most sophisticated one. We plan local sight seeing for the next day and book ourselves on the Himachal Pradesh tourism state bus leaving tomorrow at 11 am.
On our way back, we are lucky to find a Jain temple in Shimla. We stop by to visit the temple, it’s over 100 years old and immensely beautiful glass work adorned the temple.
Jain temple – Shimla
It’s 7:30 pm and we head back to the hotel. We catch up on some writing and call it a night around 10 pm.
It’s 9 am Thursday morning and Khyati and I are climbing the stairs towards Mall Road. There are about 100 stairs and we are panting as we climb few stairs. We wonder how the local people live here? Maybe, they are used to this life in the same way as Mumbai folks are used to the hustle bustle and crowdedness of city life.
We eat a heavy brunch at the Jain Bhojnalay and walk towards Himachal Pradesh state tourism office by 10:30 am. Soon, few other people join us and we introduce ourselves and chat around. By 10:45 am, there are around 6 other couples. Soon, a small hefty man joins us and introduces himself as Kishanlal – our guide for the day. We walk with him to Rivoli Bus stand in Shimla and there is a state tourism 2×2 bus waiting for us.
tourist bus
Our first stop is Fagu Valley. This road from Shimla goes all the way to Tibet and as per our guide’s notes, we could see the Himalayan mountain range in the distance. It was quite cold and windy up there. We were shivering but that didn’t deter us from taking lots of pictures and roaming around.
K @ Fagu valley
There are lots of apple orchards in Shimla and we saw a lot of them along the way. Our next stop was Kufri. There is a pretty good zoo here and we visit it. We saw some leopards, mountain bears up close.
The leopard in this picture was continuously walking back and forth at a brisk pace and even looked to pounce if it was left free from the cage. We were happy to be on the other side but hoped that these animals were sent back in their natural habitats.
Leopard
Our next stop was the Chini Bungalow – this is the famous place where Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto signed the Indo Pak Shimla agreement in 1972. We were hoping to see a museum here but instead, this has been converted into a fancy restaurant. Most of us have some lunch here. It’s 3 pm and we head to our last stop for the day – Naldehra. This place has been converted into a members only golf course. In the 90′s – this place was available for film shooting and as per the guide, many Bollywood films have been shot here.
We hike up to the golf course and wah la! we find adventure activities here. There is zip lining and Khyati is itching to do it. It was a first time experience for her and she thoroughly enjoyed it.
MVI 8685 from Paras Mamania on Vimeo.
Imagine Khyati’s excitement post completing this zipline.
excited
It’s 5 pm and we head back to Shimla. We were initially apprehensive about the Himachal Pradesh state tourism bus today but the experience was amazing and we would love to do it again in some other city.
It’s 7 pm and post dinner at the Jain Bhojnalay, we head back to the hotel and call it a night around 10:30 pm.
It’s Saturday morning 8 am and we are spending our last few hours in Shimla. We reach the railway station by 10 am and settle in the Shimla – Kalka toy train. The journey takes 5 hours and we reach Kalka station by 4 pm. We have an onward journey to Delhi leaving Kalka at 5:45 pm. It’s a Shatabdi train and we are looking forward to the train journey. It’s an AC chair car and serves food. The ride was smooth and we were being served continuous food – hot snacks as the train started, an hour into the journey, we were served tomato soup and dinner. Just before we arrived in Delhi, we were offered an ice cream. Wow! burrrp!
It’s 10 pm and we take a prepaid auto rickshaw to our hosts house in East Delhi. We call it a night around 11:30 pm.
Hope you enjoyed this post, please let us know by leaving a comment.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 38 and 39 – Dharamshala to Kalka
Day 38 – Tuesday, 3rd Dec 2013 and Day 39 – Wednesday, 4th Dec 2013
It’s 6:30 am, the alarm buzzes off and I have a sneak peek from the corner of my eye. The curtains are nicely draped and not a single ray of sunlight can pierce the room. I shut off the alarm and go back to sleep only to wake up 2 and half hours late. It’s 9 am and we are now in a hurry to get ready as the check out time is 10 am. It’s 9:55 am and Khyati calls up the reception to send a helper to carry our luggage to the reception area. The hotel manager queries our plan for the day – we were just planning to hang out in the hotel lobby after check out and take the afternoon bus to Pathankot. The manager was like you can have the room till 12 pm, check out time wasn’t for another 2 hours. duh! what a folly on our part.
We have some hot breakfast in our room and catch up on our writing and some bookings for our onward journey. It’s 11:30 am and we still have some time for our bus to Pathankot. The hotel staff is quite helpful and suggests us a nearby picturesque spot of the valley. We hike down half a km and there were some beautiful views of the valley. We could see adventure enthusiasts paragliding in the distance.
It’s 1:30 pm and we are back in our hotel and call for a taxi to Dharamshala bus stand. Frequent buses ply this route and no pre booking is required. We hop on a private 2 x 3 bus and the journey takes 3 hours to get to Pathankot.
Dharamshala to Pathankot
During the bus journey, Khyati and I were catching up on emails on our cell phone and I suddenly noticed Khyati’s face get tense. Had to be something in her emails. I asked if her exam results were out? Well, their professor had emailed that their exams had been graded and results will be emailed out in a few hours. Sometimes I wonder that universities and professors do it on purpose so as to increase the anticipation and heart beats of students. Khyati was counting every minute and frequently checking her emails. I could see myself in her shoes when I used to eagerly await my engineering results the day they were given out in Kalina university. Exam stress!
It’s 6 pm and Khyati has a new unread email in her inbox. This is it! she says and hands me the phone to have a first look! I gaze through the PDF of marks and look for Khyati’s student number. My eyes stop as I read – 500320972 and I scroll to the right hand side. My joy knew no bounds as I read – “Merit”. Khyati doesn’t believe it, she snatches the phone to confirm for herself. She did it! Khyati and I immediately break into a jig and celebrate the success. We are hungry and look for a fine restaurant to dine but all hotels and restaurants near us are Dhabas. We celebrate it desi style by having a sumptuous Punjabi meal in a Dhaba sitting on a cot in moon light. These small moments of happiness are the ones you cherish the most.
We call it a night around 11 pm. We have an early morning train to catch for Ambala.
It’s Wednesday morning 5 am and Khyati and I are up excitedly. Blazing hot water is flowing through the tap and we have a refreshing bath that early. It’s 6:15 am and we check out of the hotel and walk towards Pathankot station. The station was a mere 5 minute walk from our hotel and we enjoy the short walk. Pathankot – Dilli Express is stationed on Platform 2 and we settle ourselves in our AC chair car coach. The coach is entirely empty as we board, we wonder did the Indian railway throw a surprise by reserving the entire coach for us?
AC chair car coach
Apparently not, the train is half full as it leaves Pathankot station sharp at 7 am. The journey takes 6 hours but apparently there are some delays along the way.
One interesting thing is that as soon as the train reaches a halt, people get down to inspect, we consider ourselves as experts and can provide valuable opinions and get the matter resolved. Look how many people are down along the tracks including myself as the train is stranded here for an hour.
Stranded train
We reach Ambala station at 4 pm instead of 1:45 pm. In a way, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we had an onward journey from Ambala to Kalka for 8 pm and the delay caused us a short layover.
at Ambala Cantt rly stn
We stuff our luggage in the cloak room at Ambala railway station and take a stroll along the station area. Unfortunately, the roads near the station were crowded due to the evening rush and we head back to the waiting rooms at the station by 5 pm. We still have 3 hours and we catch up on our writing and grab some snacks from the food stall.
Pathankot to Kalka
It’s 8 pm and New Delhi – Kalka Shatabdi is dot on time at Ambala station. The journey is a mere one hour and we reach Kalka station by 9:15 pm. We check into our hotel which is again a 5 minute walk from the station. The hotel manager was nice to offer us a bike pickup. It has been a day of traveling for us and we retire for the night by 10 pm.
Tomorrow morning, we have a 6 am train to Kalka so again an early start. Stay tuned for our next post – Shimla.
Thank you all for your comments, please continue to drop a line and connect.
Best wishes,
Paras
Day 25 – Golf and Agra Fort
Day 25 – Wednesday, 20th Nov 2013
Flashback – It is March of 2006 – Spring Break at USC and I flew to Boston to see my cousin – Ashish. Ashish had planned some sight seeing for the few days I was there and then he asked – what else would I like to do? I didn’t have a definite answer. He enthusiastically suggested that we play Golf. I had never ever been to a golf course before, leave playing. I shrugged the idea but Ashish insisted. That day, I played Golf for the first time and though I was horrible in my shots, I said to myself – it’s a new sport I learned and will continue playing in the future when I have a chance.
It’s Wednesday morning 6 am in Agra. It’s still dark outside as I look out the window but I am in no mood to go back to sleep. I am looking forward to playing Golf today at the Agra Golf Course. We see few people on the road – milk man, newspaper vendors and some snacks and sweet stores open as we make our way into the golf club. The walk is a nice km in the morning hours. As we venture into the park, we see a few elders chugging their Golf kit and making their way onto the course.
The reception area is manned by staff from Indian Army and they remember me from last night – “Bambai wale sahab aa gaye”… I fill out the registration form and some other paper work and am assigned a caddy. Per Wikipedia – a caddy is the person who carries a player’s bag and clubs, and gives insightful advice and moral support.
We weren’t expecting this royal treatment meted out to us, but hey, who were we to say no?
Akhil – my caddy is a pro golfer and he gives me tips as we start along the course. The course is a bit watery as I can tell from the fresh sprinklers that were working in the morning. It’s 7 am, I am at Hole 1, at the tee spot, taken my position and ready to play out Tiger Woods. Who was I kidding? My first shot was a mere drag flick along the grass. Akhil was patient enough with me and taught me the basics again and we played a few practice shots.
It took us almost 2 hours to complete 9 holes and I improved as we moved along the course. Khyati played a few practice shots and hopes she can develop this game in the future.
Golf Course
How far did it go? The ball is nowhere to be seen
It’s 9 am and we are sipping some hot chai served there. The staff there was really nice and invited us to become members. One day! was our apt reply.
The main officer then requested one of his staff to drop us to the hotel. What a nice gesture by them. We will always remember this experience and the excellent service.
It’s 11 am, Khyati and I check out of our room and store our luggage in the cloak room. We walk towards Agra Fort – a 2 km walk from our hotel. Agra Fort used to be the capital of Mughals until Shah Jahan decided that he wanted to make Delhi his capital and built Red Fort – Lal Quila there.
Agra Fort outside view
It’s still World Heritage week but no free entry at the fort today. Free entry was only for yesterday – 19th Nov. We purchase entry and audio tickets at the counter. The audio guide was really useful and we take our time observing some of the ruins. I say ruins because Agra Fort seems strong and well guarded from outside but inside, most of the rooms and building built are in poor condition. We can observe Taj Mahal from the top balconies of Agra Fort. It is said that Shah Jahan when in captivity in Agra Fort had a window and could only see Taj Mahal from there. He spent his last years there. We overhear some tourist guide saying that the Indian film – Jodhaa Akbar was shot here.
Ruins
Jahangir palace
the beautiful
It’s 4 pm and our next stop is Rambagh. During Mughal times, it used to be called Aaram Bagh (Rest gardens) but over time, the name has changed to Ram bagh (Ram Gardens). heh! These are the oldest Mughal Gardens and the kings used to spend their leisure time here. Today, it is flanked by vendors and is loitered to some extent.
We have an evening train to catch for New Delhi and we munch on some quick snacks and fruits as we make our way to the hotel by 6 pm.
Our train is the Bhopal – New Delhi Shatabdi and we have an hour to pass before we make our way to Agra Cantonment Station. Khyati grabs some guide book from the hotel library while I catch up on my writing.
It’s 7:30 pm and the hotel staff calls for a Rickshaw and we make our way to the station. This train is the fastest way to reach Delhi. It takes only 2h 10m. It runs like a bullet.
The train ride was smooth and we arrive at New Delhi platform by 10:45 pm. Our hosts in New Delhi were our London friend – Rahul Gala’s parents. We take an auto rickshaw to their place and reach home by midnight.
In our next post, we explore New Delhi as a local. Stay tuned.
Khyati and I love reading all your comments. Keep it coming!
Best wishes,
Paras