“Padharo maare des.” (welcome phrase to invites people in Rajasthan) that’s the message you always get once you see any photo from Rajasthan.
The other day at home in Mumbai; me & my wifey were discussing differences in temple architecture across pan INDIA. “How the temple architecture changes from North to south” that was the topic we were discussing. Over the internet, we learned about temples like Nathdwara, Ranakpur & Dilwara. Those were easily doable by car (less than 1000 kms) and very near to Udaipur. So we planned a Road trip to City of lakes in July this year, though we thought it could be the off-season for Udaipur but we were proved wrong.
We would be starting from Mumbai and we planned a route via Nashik & Indore since we need to attend one family function at Indore. So, planned Itinerary was like this:
Mumbai-Nashik-Indore-Mandsour-Chittorgarh-Udaipur-Ranakpur-Mount Abu-Ahmedabad-Mumbai.
The first leg of a journey started from Mumbai to Indore, around 600 kms & we reached in the late afternoon to Indore. We attended one function & stayed at relative’s place. We can’t go away from Indore without visiting Sarafa & 56 bhog. We were there for the night & had some amazing food. This time we tried “Corn halwa” (that was super delicious)
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The second leg was Indore to Udaipur via Chittorgarh, We started early so to utilize more time in Udaipur. We took Indore- Mandsaur- Nimbheda -Chittorgarh route. Roads are smooth you can easily push your car around 100-120 kmph range. You can easily guess once you enter in RJ. Landscape changes suddenly and you can feel rustic charm of RJ around you.
Without wasting time, we hired one tourist guide near Chittorgarh fort. His name was Abdul and he explained in detail about 7-8 places on the fort (His rajasthani accent still I can mimic 😉) He told us many stories & history about rani padmavati & raja ratan singh. He was portraying old stories in a such way that; that era happened to be a few years back.
Later we moved to Udaipur & we stayed in Chunda palace at Udaipur (Booked by MMT wallet & got a good discount on bookings) this hotel was a palace once by Mewar dynasty. around 20 years back the owner of that hotel embarked on a quest to re-create traditional mewari palaces, albeit with all modern amenities. This hotel was a good blend of that.
We just had a walk around lake Pichola that day. Over a dinner, we chose few places to visit for next day. We started with Sajjangarh (topmost point in Udaipur). You can easily see Fateh-sagar lake & Pichola lake from there. There is a zoo at the bottom of the hill. (We saw that zoo but I won’t recommend seeing)
In evening, we saw the “Bagore ki haveli museum”. This was the most memorable place & experience during this trip. It’s a folk dance & folk singing with amazingly talented people. It’s a 60 minutes show. This show was very much appreciated by all. (there were many foreigner tourists to watch that show)
Next day, we went to see City Palace, here also we took a guide. Worth spending money. (roads near palace are too short to drive, we read that in many blogs so we choose to take auto for roaming around) City palace is a huge & most favorite tourist attraction in Udaipur. We spent 2-3 hours there & printed our photo too in rajasthani traditional wear. ( I‘ll not be sharing that 😉)
There is a crystal gallery nearby where all glass work has been kept. Lake Pichola provides an amazing add-on to make palace picturesque. Its Magnificent site to see.
In afternoon, we saw moti-magri (its maharaja Pratap statue & museum) near the fateh sagar lake & we stayed back on lakefront for few hours. (we got the same feeling like seating on queens neckless in Mumbai)
For Dinner, we went to Hotel Ambrai (bang opposite to city palace & on the Pichola lakefront) decent food with a wonderful view.
Since it was a road trip. I want to raise the bar for max. no. of kms drive in a single day. Earlier, many times I had driven 500 kms in a day. So, I was confident to reach Mumbai from Udaipur in a day.
Though we enjoyed staying in Udaipur, We could get time to see Nathdwara, Ranakapur & Dilwara. Maybe another road trip for these places.
- Zestified Vishal
