Madai – a safari in the Satpuras

A junior recommends this charming treasure near Pachmarhi, the only hillstation of MP and we are glad to have gone there during our biking expedition. It is that away-from-the-crowd the-road-less-taken type tourist spot. The name is Madai (pics here on Fotki), a resthouse run by the MP forest department in the Satpura tiger reserve. We book our rooms at the Bison lodge in Pachmarhi (bookings have to be done here or at Hoshangabad). We take a diversion on the Pachmarhi-Hoshangabad highway to reach the other side of the Madai resthouse. A boat crosses the Tawa dam reservoir, taking us to the simple rooms there.

Deer welcome us at the resthouse and playfully stroll along us. Just one more foreigner stays in another room and goes on a tiger count with the big officer during the night. How we would have loved to go on a night ride in the park! (Un)luckily, Airtel and Reliance signals are plenty here unlike Pachmarhi and so we are able to speak to our lady love. But it would have been ideal to have had them in this romantic idyll. Post a few experiments, the moon is caught in its natural beauty like this.There are few words to describe the joy of sitting near a bonfire surrounded by deer with moonlight soothing us. There is no electricity in the resthouse, which adds to the charm. Having hot food in such a blissful setting is again incredible. The night passes peacefully, though we occasionally hear sounds from the wild. After all, the tigers and the bears are not far.

The day starts early just like any national park and we are off on a jeep safari at 7am. We spot loads of deer (black buck and sambhar) and some wild boar too. We only see some pugmarks of a leopard. We come to a green meadow where we are delighted to watch our national birds running away. Some bison are also happy to pose for our trigger-happy friend. As we come to the end of our trip, we decide to go on an elephant ride. This is my second such thing in a month’s time, the first having been in Panna during the Khajuraho trip. But my friend has a natural instinct to take pictures and he comes with one (with the shadows) I like most. Soon after this, we hit the road for Indore, having had one of the most unique experiences ever of a lifetime. We will be glad to go back more often!

Orchha – A delightful palace place

Orchha (MP Tourism proclaims it as a medieval legacy in stone – some pictures here on Flickr) forms a part of the tourist circuit of Khajuraho to the north-west. To the south, we have Bandhavgarh National park, which has the highest density of tigers. There is no railway station in Khajuraho and the nearest major one, Jhansi, is 15km away from Orchha, thus explaining the connection. We takethe 8am deluxe bus (the best in its class) to Orchha from Khajuraho. There are plenty of buses covering the 5hour journey to Jhansi and we get down on the highway to take a shared auto to the village itself at 12.15pm. We have half a day to explore the palaces and the temples in this charm of a village. MP Tourism allows stay at one of the palaces called Sheesh Mahal, a luxury one could choose to enjoy and one I could only dream of now. Just like Khajuraho, we spot a lot of foreigners who seem to like it for its quaintness. The eateries are not expensive as in Khajuraho, a lot of Korean food surprisingly. There are the Lonely Planet recommended ones, mandatory to tourist spots preferred by foreigners. The foreigners seem to spend more time by the Betwa river and in the several palaces.

Orchha is a very small village and we go on the day of Sankranti. A Hindu Sammelan is happening at the entrance to the Raja Rama temple, which happens to be the only temple where Lord Rama is worshipped as a king. This has brought in the crowds from the nearby villages of UP. In Orchha at one end you could be part of the UP signal towers, though you are still in MP. After a quick lunch at the first eatery on the road, we proceed to the Jahangir Mahal, the most imposing structure here. A few eateries boast of the Mahal view. We get a guide with us for taking us through Raja Mahal and Jahangir Mahal opposite each other. Both the palaces are full of people today being Sankranti and a holiday. Raja Mahal is comparatively smaller whereas Jahangir Mahal built for Emperor Jahangir, but never used by him is larger and boasts of amazing views of the village and the Chatris (cenotaphs or memorials) by the river. After the very pleasing sights we experience in Khajuraho, palaces are a refreshing change. We spend a little more than 90 minutes at these two palaces. The fact that we have a guide probably helps us move quickly. We do not walk around the palace at all where we could see the beautiful garden Phool Bagh and the camel yard. We also spot some delightful paintings in the Raja Mahal. We are yet to see the temples and our guide has recommended that we walk to the Laxmi temple for more paintings. It is a little away, about a 15 min walk from the main streets of the village.

We walk through the crowded streets, alive with participants of the Hindu Sammelan which is having a session. One of us is advised by a friendly policeman to be careful about our things. The Raja Ram temple opens only in the evening and so we continue walking to the Laxmi temple. The nice walk up here is less crowded and so we find ourselves having the temple pretty much to us. It is thrilling to walk on the little stairs up the temple and peep from the top as some of us discover. We also see the cute colourful paintings recommended to us. We sit here and relax for some time amidst the cool breeze just like this sadhu and that foreigner . We walk back to Orchha.

The more sight-seeing guys among us continue to Chaturbhuj temple, the second biggest structure in Orchha. The views from here (of the main streets and of Jahangir Mahal) are also amazingly good. After that, we stop by for a sizzler (which is very tasty) in one of the eateries just before the bridge to Jahangir Mahal. Very soon, the auto which we had booked to take us to Jhansi (the land of Rani Laxmibhai) arrives. Our bus back to Indore would start at 8pm from there. Orchha has been a pleasing little stop in our Khajuraho exploration.

Khajuraho – Celebrating life

During the Pongal break (!), we go to Khajuraho (some pics here) on a study tour Khajuraho is the best known tourist destination in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The first erotic pictures we see at the Western Group are really very very interesting. A sample here. Having only read about the temples in history books, seeing them is an enlightening experience. Khajuraho is full of foreigners and a lot of the kids call out “Hello”, “Which country from?”, “Money” regularly. It is a surprise to see so many exotic restaurants in the village that is Khajuraho. Khajuraho is difficult to reach as it is so away from the main highways and the roads are a shame around the area in MP. We are a group of 8, which includes one of the French guys Arn on exchange here. All the guides swarm around him, promising several things. There is one particularly nagging guy, who speaks fluent French to the surprise of the rest of us. We spend roughly a day at this place, which speaks volumes about celebrating life. The Western Group is the most popular, being in the middle of the village and having the best temples and the most sensual sculptures. We see the Jain temples in the Eastern group, the Southern group and even a being-excavated ruins, all by cycle. Cycling is the best way to explore Khajuraho, as all the temples are within a radius of 4-5km. We have authentic Italian food at the Mediterraneo restaurant, which is a little pricey but Arn likes it. In the evening, we check out the Sound and Light show at the Western group, describing the history of the place.

I must write about our experiences with the MP Tourism office in Indore, which we approached to seek advice about a Khajuraho trip, as it is our first long trip within the state. MP markets itself as the Heart of Incredible India. The marketing manager there was very friendly and gave us a very big tourist map of the state when we asked him for directions. This has proved to be our biggest reference thereafter. Also, we stayed at the dorm in Hotel Rahil, Khajuraho for a pricely sum of Rs.90/-. The staff at the hotel too were quite friendly too and the stay overnight was pleasant. I must also mention the MP Tourism motels spread through out the state (I have been to Khalghat), which serve quality food.

Here’s a very popular image of a playful couple from Khajuraho.

Biking to Ajanta and Ellora – 2

Sorry guys for being late, I was away on a mindblowing Khajuraho trip the Pongal weekend. But that has to wait. Having done one stage of my longest bike ride in Ellora, both of us had a simple breakfast near the caves and proceeded to Daulatabad. There is a scenic ghat section on this stretch of the highway. Daulatabad is pretty close to Ellora (15km) and very soon we passed this beautiful lake . The landscape is also pleasing to the eyes. We could have had fresh guavas on the very pretty look-out point, but I was a little sick and we took no chances. Our next stop was the famous Daulatabad fort itself. Every history fan knows of Mohammad bin Tughlaq’s experiments in failure. The shifting of India’s capital from Delhi to Daulatabad is a prime example. The day being a Saturday morning in late December, Daulatabad was full of folks. We parked our bikes and proceeded amidst the heaps of crowds. There were quite a few guides willing to share their knowledge. But we decided that we could not do much in this crowd and so did not go all the way to the top in the narrow stairs. Daulatabad reminded me a little of Golconda. This Chand Minar is the big minaret in this charming fort. School kids were playing in the big courtyard.

After spending a little less than a hour in the fort, we left for Aurangabad, our initial destination for the night primarily because it is well-connected. Aurangabad is 15 km away from Daulatabad and we reached it pretty quickly. We hoped to see the duplicate Taj Mahal, otherwise known as Bibi Ka Maqbara, built by Aurangazeb inspired by you-know-what. The Taj in Agra is simply the grandest man-made spectacle my eyes have seen and this Aurangabad imitation pales badly. But the similarities are clear. The Mughal garden and the marble (here unclean) are amazing. But there’s no Yamuna to lend that magical finish here. After this whistle-stop, we went to Panchakki – the water wheel system of those olden days. At this place, we met an Australian STA agent who’s here on a holiday. We chatted with him and wished him a good time. STA is not very useful in India to me. I also spotted the Paithani sarees and Himroo shawls showroom (both Aurangabad specials) here, but this is no shopping trip! We had asked the locals near Bibi Ka Maqbara about good restaurants to have biryani. The Muslim influence hopefully gets very tasty biryani. But the local guys were not very helpful and so we sped off on the Ajanta highway after this 2hour Aurangabad tour.

The Aurangabad-Ajanta road (about 100km) is also very good and we hit our top speeds on this stretch. We had a quick lunch at a dhaba midway and still managed to reach the Ajanta shuttle point at 3.45pm, in roughly 2 hours. This point is 4-5km away from the caves and no private vehicles are allowed beyond here. The MTDC charges a park entry fee, a parking fee, a shopping plaza fee (wasteful) and a shuttle fee, which we paid in 3 different places. Why can’t they make the fee structure simple? The Ajanta caves are located in a beautiful gorge and that explains their charm apart from the fact that they are very very old. We had less time (two hours) to see these cute paintings as some of the caves close by 5.30pm. There are 29 caves in all and the Australian had recommended us to walk to the top on the other side of the stream to have an awesome view. We are forced to drop our shoes at every cave, thus losing some time. The cave guards directed us to the ones worth seeing – which are 3, 5, 10, 16, 17, 29 and we ended up seeing only these caves. These caves are supposedly monasteries and we could see different images of the Buddha in these. Here is an image of the Buddha inside a stupa and here is a mural . The guards did not let us use the tripod and so my companion went livid at them. It is astonishing to note that these murals and sculptures have survived more than 1500 years and some 2000 years and we know what they were meant for! We were tired of our adventure in just about an hour.

We decide that we will go back to Indore riding in the night (just about 330km away) not through the way we came back, but through Bhusawal, Burhanpur and Omkareswar road. The road is fantastic and we ride all the way till Burhanpur in MP, about 140 km from Ajanta and decide to take a break because it has become too cold by 10pm. An early morning start at 7.30am the next day takes us back to our college by 12.30 noon, a distance of 190km, just in time for the new year celebrations. My first long ride has been a great success!

Biking to Ajanta and Ellora – 1

Now that I’m in Indore, my popular Indore getaway posts will get more additions. I’ve been harping too much on geography the time I’ve been in NZ. But India is where all the history is. Though all of us (read my bschool mates) complain about the huge location disadvantage that Indore has in terms of connectivity to all the happening cities (read good jobs), the fact is that Indore is the heart of incredible India (just like the cute MP Tourism ads promote MP)! If we get 5 days at a stretch, we would be able to go in every direction imaginable and visit places like Rajasthan, Himachal, Uttaranchal, Agra, Khajuraho, Gujarat, Goa, Hyderabad, Bihar, … But we had 3 days to spare just before the year ends. So this will be my first multi-day trip around Indore. Also, I’ve been dreaming of a long bike ride for a long time. In NZ, bikes are so expensive compared to cars and they need special licences. After a little research, we chuck destinations inside MP and plan for the World Heritage sites of Ajanta and Ellora. Aurangabad – the base to visit these 2 places – is a little over 400km away. Two of us start on the 29th morning at 8.30am (planned time 7am) on two bikes. My companion Anupam is a veteran of long trips with Indore-Ahmedabad-Indore and Indore-Mumbai trips to his record.

29th is a plain bike ride day. We start on NH3, cross Mhow, the Narmada at Khalghat and reach the MP border. We are alarmed to find that our average speed is just over 40kmph. The NH3 is the worst highway I have found. To our surprise, soon after we cross the border, Maharashtra PWD takes over and NH3 becomes unimaginably good to ride. We hurry past the sugarcane factory at Sirpur and leave NH3 at Dhule (say Dhuliya). Our lunch in a dhaba takes a long time. Of course, we get our direction tips from mapsofindia.com and mapmyindia.com. Here we take NH211, which goes to Aurangabad and beyond. In spite of we hurrying, there is a bye-pass road at Chalisgaon, which is the most horrrible stretch of the highway. And to our horrors, they have a toll post on this stretch, how sad! Bikes don’t have to pay any toll and so we continue our journey unhindered. The road gets worse as we progress. It is evening when we approach Ellora village. We grab a cup of tea and are close to the Ellora cave sites when we see a few hotels advertising availability.

End December is the peak travel season everywhere! More so in India, as the weather is ideal this time. Anupam suggests we stay here itself and proceed tomorrow. It is also getting cold. We check one good hotel, Hotel Kailasa, which is expensive at Rs.1500 and one passable place where we don’t bargain much and settle at Rs.450 for two beds. That definitely is an atrocious price to pay for an ordinary room. I spot quite a few notices in Kannada. Just like Belur and Halebid attract a lot of Tamil tourists, I guess Ajanta and Ellora attract quite a few Kannada ones. Also, this being the half-yearly holidays of the school kids, there was one big gang in 2 buses from Gujarat. Even before we have seen anything, I start getting a cold and a headache. We pick my favourite pill DCold at the in-demand chemist in the Ellora village. We decide that we’ll have decent food at the Kailas restaurant which has a few white faces too. Hotel Kailas has to be the most convenient place to see the caves, which are a few metres away.

We start by 6am early in the morning. The Ellora caves open at 6.30am, which makes it an ideal place to start your day with. Also, they certainly are worth more time to spend than the Ajanta caves, say half a day or more if you don’t want to miss anything. We are the first to check with the gatekeepers, who ask us to come after a tea and 5 minutes as there is little fog yet. But as we have our tea, the school kids party walk in a file and beat us to the entry. The teachers order the kids around and this reminds me of our own school trips. Educational tours are so much fun! There are more kids coming early in the morning from Andhra. We are the first ticket-takers to the biggest temple in the caves, Kailasa temple. As the 34 caves are spread out, we are allowed to take our bikes inside till the very end, i.e., Cave 34.

Ellora caves are distinct for their secular aspect. They have sets of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain caves. The Kailasa temple is Cave 16 and stands right at the entrance to the World Heritage site. We start with caves to the other side of the temple, i.e., 17 and above. We have lots of Nandis just like this one . The kids are curious and keep peeking at our sleek digicams. We wait for the crowd to disperse. These kids stop soon at Cave 23 or 24 and are ordered back by their teachers. We continue further when we see a strip of water fall into a pond. Later, a guide book tells us it is the famed Ellora waterfall . Both of us walk by the dangerous cliff up thorough the cute stairs to Cave 29. Cave 29 is definitely worth the walk. It’s got the best pillars and the figurines we have seen so far. We see that we could have taken our bikes to this place, but the road is a little long and so we walk back along the picturesque rocks. Our next stop is the biggest attraction here, Kailasa temple.

As expected, all the structures are preserved very well in this temple, thus deserving the entry fee they charge only for this separately. Also, most of the tourists prefer to stop here and not visit most of the other caves as it involves a walk. Those who have their cars can take them to caves 29 and 34 also. The Kailasa temple needs at least an hour to explore properly. But we have 3 hours for the whole of the caves and so we just rush to the first floor and through the prakaram(walkway?) on the ground floor. We spot this beauty on rock, the story of the Mahabharatha . That’s our last delight in the temple. We aim at seeing the lesser numbered caves too and the Jain caves which are beyond 29.

We check with the security guard and find out that Caves 10 and 12 are the ones not to be missed out. We start with Cave 10 and explore the big Buddha statue inside a stupa. We glimpse at the Hindu caves 9 and less and decide that we have no time for it. Next we see Cave 12, Teen Taal . It is quite spectacular. The top floor is serene and is good if you want to spend a quiet moment away from the crowds, who don’t seem to spend much time in the Buddhist caves.

Our last stop at Ellora is the Jain set of caves, 33 and 34. We take our bikes out here, which is a little far from 16. These caves are also delightfully carved, the stand-out example being this statue under the peacock , the description of which I overheard it from a guide and then realised the presence of the peacock feather. The gullible Anupam had bought an Ellora picture book, but at a bargain price of 20 though the printed price said 55. We could always refer to it if we needed any info or we should be able to get more info on the net. One more cave later, which is full of the Jain tirthankaras, we conclude our Ellora visit. What an amazing treat for the good year we had!

PS: Some more pictures on flickr.

Tincha Falls – a photo log

Tincha Falls is a waterfall about 10km off from Simrol, a village on the Indore-Khandwa road. Tincha village now has tar roads and so the ride is pleasant. From the village, the falls is just a km away and the genial villagers help you find the way easily. It helps that there is a signboard where we need to turn right from Tincha village.As we enter the falls area, we are enraptured by the huge flowl and the valley . We decide to get down to the bottom. Two villagers show us the way before they disappear in a jiffy. That is the most difficult stretch of the whole trek down. Two of us first venture down and the third descends past the difficult stretch . After spending some time seeing the rushing waters and the white vapours which do not allow us to get anywhere closer, we begin our upward climb. We are glad to be on top! On our way back, we see a farm family at work. There is a cute treehouse , which captures our attention.

Having enjoyed Tincha Falls, we proceed further towards Khandwa till the first dhaba after the first ghat stretch. Here my friend provokes one of the numerous monkeys, that responds with this snarl. Undeterred, we ride till the second ghat where the view is amazing. After a quick halt, we reach our original destination Choral village. It is Rakhi day and it is very colourful there. The joyous villagers do a Dandiya right in the middle of the road, stopping all traffic in the busy road. These sisters seem to be carrying some Rakhi plant , for all I know. We stop by the Choral river, just in time to see a train crossing the bridge . What amazing sights we have seen in a span of 4 hours! We are truly blessed to be here during the monsoons

Patal Pani – a pleasing waterfall

1 Aug 2006: The monsoons have enriched our environs. After an early morning class, 3 of us decide to go to Patal Pani on a whim. The clouds are out and it rains often. That only adds to the delight. Well, a bike trip in the rains is the most pleasing to the senses. We go to Mhow. In spite of going there so many times, we get lost. The newness of a familiar place! We ask a dozen people and end up on the other side of the rail track – an alternative road to Patal Pani. Last year, we had gone via Kothariya. My natural instincts prick up and we prefer to explore the new route. What a tragedy it proved to be!

We struggle past the slushy routes. We are immensely relieved when we reach the silver falls without any mishaps. The green meadows, the grazing cows, the missing crowds and the gushing waters make up a great sight. Here are our pictures. You have to see them. Maybe, I shall experiment with a photopost. Determined to go all the way down, we discover the route. We are the only souls at the bottom. The pond is muddy and we could not enjoy a refreshing dip sadly. The climb back up is tiring. One of us has hurt his feet and we decide to turn back, though I wish we could walk through the railway track past the tunnel and find some more spots of rare beauty. Thus ends another sweet little trip. Here’s what I have written last year.

Toranmal – the hidden hillstation

The third in the series This is what you do if you have one class each day just ahead of a hectic week. Toranmal (our pics here) had been in my mind ever since my neighbour told me about their trip last year. The famed Google does not give you much info for a “Indore to Toranmal” search. Every site assumes Toranmal is meant for people from Maharashtra. I am left with the Badwani (MP) and the Nandurbar (Maharashtra) district maps to make a best guess of the route. This would be my first cab trip here. We talk to a few cab operators here none of which were sure about the route. Finally we fix one operator to pick the 8 of us on campus at 4am on a Sunday. Two possible obstacles – 1. a World Cup semi 2. Saturday party fever. I choose to skip both whereas the rest choose to postpone their sleep to the time when we travel on the Qualis. We had asked the cabwallah to send us a driver who is well-versed with the route.

Alarmed at 3.30, I have a quick bath and am ready by 4am. The red-themed party is still going on in the wee hours of the morning. Our cab is there by 4.20 am and we are off by 4.30. What punctuality! The driver did not know the route. Our best instincts at map reading had told us that our next stop had to be Badwani – the last district in MP. We thought of finding our way from there. We sped on NH3 past the Ghat sections after Mhow. We cross the Narmada at Khalghat. It has been a journey of leg pulling and great fun. One of my friends points to us the portion of the river which parts to form a map of India though I could not see it much. Soon after, we part off the NH to take the SH to the district HQ Badwani. The SHs are sometimes much better than the NHs, at least in MP. We reach Badwani at 7.30am, happy to cover a distance of 150km in 3 hours. Time to have the aloo parathas packed from our night canteen.

We get the shock of the day. The friendly folks there tell us we had come to the wrong place. There is no motorable road to Toranmal. We could walk to Toranmal for a distance of 20km. Khetia is the town to go and we would have another 150km to go through not so good roads. We retrace our route and go to Khetia (10am) – the last point in MP, going an extra distance of 50km. Soon after we cross the borders and we are in Shiv Sena territory. Further ahead on the Khetia to Shahada road, we see a road to the right and a signboard saying 40km to Toranmal. We are greatly relieved. On the sides of the road, we see banana fields and other crops. About 10km down, we hit the Shahada to Toranmal SH2. Kabu wonders if we have enough petrol in the Qualis. This brings fresh bouts of laughter in the cab. The last 25km stretch is entirely Ghat section including the picteresque ‘Saat Paira’ or the seven bends of the road. We are enthralled during the climb. The sight of mist-filled mountains allures our senses. Mid-way we see a stunning View Point.

We go further ahead, see the Kala Pani board not the waterfall and the Saat Paira board too. We make haste, having lost time in going around. The beautiful Yashwant Lake comes in our view very soon. Somehow, this place reminds me a lot of Munnar. Toranmal is much more unspoilt than Munnar. On the way we also see the temples of the place and the Lotus Pond. Local kids try to sell us lotus buds. Our next stop is the Sita Khai which has scenic valleys and cliffs. The strong guys have a go hearing their echoes here. We see a stream and gather around it. We find our way to the decent Toranmal restaurant at one edge of the lake. We order our food. We had two guys who can speak Marathi and they converse at ease. As our food gets ready, we go to the highest View Point Khadki Point. This point has panoramic views of the valley and the board lists the Narmada among other places that can be seen from there. The donkey snap comes out well. The tribal huts look like cute match-boxes from up above.

We proceed to the restaurant and have our food. It is time to go boating at the lake. The only boats they have are pedal ones and our legs get some hard work. We get tired very soon and do not use our one-hour quota. We had a target to start our return trip by 3.30pm. But this excessive pedal exercise advances our plans and we return by 2.45pm. On the way back, we stop at the Machindra Nath cave pathway. Learning that we have to walk about 1.5km to reach the cave, we turn back. As is often the case, our return journey is quick. We reach Sendhwa on NH3 which has an ICICI Bank branch (yippee). From there, Indore is about 150km away. The return trip takes just about 5.45 hours as against the 7 hours we spent on travel in the morning.

Info:
Toranmal is about 260km from Indore. From Sendhwa on NH3 (Bombay side) [150km], proceed to Khetia [60km] and Toranmal is about 50km away. Like every hill station, it has an ubiquitous lake (boating too), seasonal waterfalls, a cave, innumerable view points and delightful walking meadows. It remains hidden from the public view partly because it is so far from civilisation and there are other popular spots like Mahabaleshwar, Lonavala, … There is no mobile network here yet. There are few hotels and fewer people. We regretted making such a short trip. Ideally we should spend at least a whole day walking around. The Maharashtra tourism website identifies it as a trekkers’ paradise. The weather, they say, is pleasant all year round though I feel the monsoons are the perfect times to adore the place. In short, a real getaway

Mandu – the mood of the monsoons

The plain Dewas trip left us a little disappointed to be frank. But as compensation we had the pulsating Arg match that extended late in the night which ended with Arg as the winners. It had rained heavily in the evening and in the night, never mind that it had been raining the previous day as well. I managed to get up by 8am. A peek outside revealed the moody day it had turned to be. Clouds covered the sky and the cool breeze was so typical of the place, called Shab-e-Malwa. (Side mention: This excellent article (no contribution from us) in wikipedia about Malwa has some pictures taken by my friends on our trips.) It was perfect weather for a ride and I woke a guy up at 9am. Thus started our waking up spree and by 10.30am, 6 of us were ready and eager to go.

Mandu is called the City of Joy and we will see the reasons shortly. You can find excellent descriptions of Mandu here on MP Tourism and here on Outlook Traveller (Thank you Google). It is a 100km away from our rooms. We had aloo parathas packed from our mess and were on our ways. The sun at times peeked out of its honeymoon with the clouds, that too for very short times. The rainy season is definitely the best time to be in Indore. All the seasonal streams and waterfalls come alive filled with water. The plateau is bedecked with green sensations and provides a rich feast for the eyes. The monsoons have only started and I am so happy at the change in weather and the so many trips that seem promising to us this term.

We drove nonstop past Indore’s SEZ, Pithampur and reach NH59, the Indore-Ahmedabad highway. I always feel the highways here need big improvement and a stretch near Ghatabillod was pathetic. We cross the infamous Chambal river, which is very much seasonal and has no water. We stopped 60km away at Dhar for our teabreak. We took a shortcut at the outskirts of Dhar to reach the Mandu road. This road has lots of bumps in one particular stretch of 10k. It has been a year since I last came on this road and this stretch has not changed an inch. We had been riding at an average of 60kmph and sped past the Y junction (about 21km from Dhar), leading to Mandu or NH3. The road beyond this junction is very good and Mandu is about 15km away from that point.

Our first halt in Mandu was at the place I call Valley ViewPoint. My helmet holder broke at this point, having served me faithfully for a little over 3 years. An old local fed us info about the tales of the area. We took our first snaps of Mandu. I had been here a year back, before we willingly lost our way in the depths of the valley, never getting a chance to see Mandu properly. I have uploaded some of our snaps here. We spent a little over 15 minutes. There is a Fossil Museum just next to this point, which is almost always empty. I have never found a reason for that. One thing I could observe was that there was absolutely no vendors this year and the crowd was a little less. We had come right at the start of the tourist season (Jul – Sep 1st week) which is synchronous with the monsoons and so we would enjoy our trip more.

Our next halt is a small artifice called Jali Mahal. Here we take our staircase photos and also try our monkey tricks . This picture does not fully capture the dangerous nature of our climbing. More pictures at this Mahal here. We then proceeded to Saat Kothadi, a small diversion from the main road. A temple inside a small cave is located here and a mini cascade flows here when the rains are IN. We did not have the patience to walk down the cave. In any case, the aunty who gave us all this info also told us that nothing was good that time. This was close to the point where I had got lost the previous year. This time, we went past the Darwazas of the Mandu fort.

We went to a ruined Chishti Khan Palace, jumping past the closed gates (pics here). The view was great and the breeze just excellent. Here is a classic lover-perfect pose . By this time, we had exhausted our lone water bottle and we were hungry and thirsty. We halted at the Relax Hotel near Jami Masjid. We opened our food packets and finished the Aloo Parathas. Having satisfied our mouths, we enquired with the owner about the places to see in Mandu. We had not done our research and left our travel to the will of the hour. The friendly owner elaborated on the 3 groups of monuments in Mandu as described in the MP Tourism place. The Jahaz (ship) Mahal group (external pics here) was the pick of the lot according to him.

But we were closer to the Central group, consisting of the Madrassa, Jami Masjid and the tomb of Hoshang Shah (inspiration for the Taj?). More pictures of all these places here, here and here. We had a good look at the bat-infected tomb. It seemed eerily similar to the Taj and more like a mini-version. The story goes that Shah Jahan sent his architects to be inspired by this tomb. We were a little sad that we could not go to any of the top floors. The tomb charges an entrance fee of Rs.5 for Indians and 2$ for foreigners. But it is majestic. It is under renovation and definitely deserves better for its impressive looks. Our next step was the Asharfi Mahal, where we relaxed a little. It had got hotter after lunch and we were sweating. The change in weather prompted gentle teasing from my friends.

We decided to see the Echo Point and the Rewa Kund group before we would wind up with the most famous Jahaz Mahal. One local helped us with the echoes at the obscure Echo Point and forced two of us to part with some cash. We reached the Rewa Kund, which too charges an entrance fee. We parked just before the Roopmati Pavilion, having chosen to ignore the Baz Bahadur palace near the entrance. We were not very inclined to climb the pavilion which boasted of superior views of the whole valley. Finally we did and were glad to get some scenic delights (snaps here). Here is the best of our ones there . This time we had some lime water. The sun really saved its best for the afternoon, we felt.

It was 4pm. We had another break at the Relax Point. Though I insisted that we should see the Jahaz Mahal, the majority opine the other way and we started our return journey. It was certainly one of our memorable trips. We rode leisurely on our way back. We were all tired and could feel the bad stretches more obviously. This time, we came through the main roads of Dhar, covering a few extra km. One of our pillion riders got stuck by a stone and his eye went red just before a tollgate. We were close to our campus by then and did not stop further. We reached our parking lot by 7pm before enjoying our daily quota of football. I resolve to see it once again when it is in its full splendour. There are so many things I have not seen in this rightly named City of Joy.

Bonus:
Mandu is a romantic retreat, the tale of a Hindu(Roopmati)-Muslim(Baz Bahadur) love. Jahangir loved this so much that he even composed a poem on this.
“What words of mine can describe the beauty of the grass and the wildflowers? They clothe each hill and dale, each slope and plain. I know of no place so pleasant in climate and so pretty in scenery as Mandu in the rainy season… What I have noticed is but a small part of the many beauties of Mandu.”

Dewas trip

A long weekend, ie, we had our Saturday and Sunday for ourselves. It’s just beginning to rain here and the weather is looking good. Some of my fellow travellers had spotted this hilltop in Dewas, which had a temple and recommended that we go there. None of us are really keen about religion, but still we went. Most of us had stayed awake in the night to watch the Arg-Mex match last of the league matches. This would be my first trip in the second year. We had planned to start early in the morning and get over with the trip by 10am. The worldcup has screwed our sleep habits. It was 11am by the time the six of us got out of our campus.

It is a little over 50km away. We took the ByePass road (NH3 Agra-Bombay) and we saw the parts of Indore we had never seen before. We saw Sahara’s residential project, an ISKCON temple, a college boasting of assured admissions to prestigious American universities and the branch of Delhi Public School, one of India’s prestigious schools. We had travelled the periphery of Indore on a 30km stretch at a carefree pace when we reached the end of the byepass. We spotted an A1 Plaza and I was tempted to dine there some time. But we continued nonstop. About 10km down, we crossed the holy Kshipra (with a silent k) river. Very soon, we passed the Bhopal byepass to enter into the town. We could spot quite a few industries in this small town.

The temple was at the far end of the town. It was being renovated. We parked our bikes right at the foothills. Quenching our thirsts with lassis and chach (buttermilk) at the Sanchi Point (Aavin equivalent) just opposite the entrance, we walked the stairs to reach the 300ft high Chamuda cave. It was so hot and we were quite happy to rest in the relatively cooler temple when we reached there. For an instant, I prayed after a long time. The Jain temple located there did not open at that time and so we had to skip it. Two of us went the other way and promptly climbed up, huffing and puffing to join the others.

On our way back, we had another round of drinks at the Sanchi Point. Having heard of amazing leather goods from the Tata International surplus shop at Dewas, we hunted for it. As we asked our way around to a guy, he replied fluently in Tamil to me, having identified me as one rightly. I was delighted, but the shop was closed on Saturdays. I rejected any plans for a movie (Krish). We halted at the A1 Plaza and had a long lunch. It did not have any South Indian dishes that day. The food was good, though the service was pathetic and the quantity was less. We trooped back to our rooms by 4pm. One more direction is conquered

PS:
This post is intentionally dull.