This is more a photologue than a travelogue!
Bhpian sach.sri recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
One more thread in the Hidden Gems series
This one is special, because it introduces a whole new region which is quite close to Delhi and has so much to offer if you are a history / monuments and untapped, unexplored destination. I can almost bet that everyone other than friends from Kota, Bundi and other Rajasthan location will be googling “hadoti” right now .
Interesting story – how the idea for this trip was borne.
In one of my trips I was driving back from Ujjain – after NE4 was inaugurated – and my car started heating near Kota – we stopped, put some water in the radiator to cool it down and backtracked to Bundi to try to locate a mechanic. Long story short – saw the Bundi fort from the road and was instantly enamoured and planned to have a trip in this region
From Wikipedia
This in itself should be enough to excite all of us
But – there is more! I got a reference for an amazing place to stay and use as my home base for the excursions – AND – what a recommendation and find this was! Very well built farm stay, amazing hospitality with a personal touch. Staying there you get the best of both worlds – old world charm and person attention and hospitality with all the amenities that one would expect.
This is a very interesting region with multitude of old forts, ancient temples, waterfalls (this time of year) and i wanted to try to cover it in 4 days. Which i realised was not enough time by the end of the trip and I had to deviate from my original plan and leave somethings for next time.
I have wanted to cover this region for a long time; we even attempted to do so last winter in December; but our plans were laid to waste because of car troubles and we could not do what we had planned. This time i was attempting a redux
So, the plan
Day 1 – Bundi
Day 2 – Ancient Temple Groups – Bhimlat, Bijolia, Menal (also has a waterfall), Baroli, Garadia Mahadev
Day 3 – Gagron Fort & Jhalwar
Day 4 – Mukundra Safari, Shergarh (if you have seen Laal Kaptaan; this is the same place — incidently Laal Kaptaan is one of my favorite movies)
Day 5 – Drive back
What i ended up doing
Day 1 – Bundi
Day 2 – Ancient Temple Groups – Bijolia, Menal (also has a waterfall), Baroli, Bhainsrorgarh
Day 3 – Shergarh (if you have seen Laal Kaptaan; this is the same place — incidently Laal Kaptaan is one of my favorite movies)
Day 4 – Mukundra Safari & boating
Day 5 – Drive back
As you can see – quite a few things are still left out warranting one more visit
The Route – It was a 1500 km round trip approx. Roads were mostly great, especially the NE4 but a lot of tolls, i am afraid that my toll cost would be somewhere in the range of 3K
One thing that I had not quite accounted for was the incredible heat coupled with very high humidity – I thought that due to monsoons the weather would be much cooler; but that was not the case. So my recommendation – best weather to visit is winters.
Some teasers
Warning: Lots and Lots of pictures ahead! This is more a photologue than a travelogue!
Drive to Bundi
I was supposed to leave very early in the morning so that I could reach Bundi by 10 – 11 AM and have enough time to explore Bundi city as i had only kept this one day for Bundi.
However as luck would have it, i slept pretty late and woke up to a totally Grey overcast and rainy morning. This coupled with lack of sleep made me question my decision to go – at that time i just wanted to go back to sleep.
However, thank God that i did not – would have missed the amazing trip that i had in the end.
Also, i had rented a self drive ScorpioN from myChoize and that was another thing because of which i decided to push forward.
The drive was un-eventful; largely on NE4 and under pouring skies most of the way. But as i got close to Bundi; rain Gods relented and Sun came out.
Reached Bundi around 2pm. Now i had only enough time to grab lunch and visit the Bundi Fort.
Entering Bundi – was welcomed by a procession, dont why and for what – but was fun to watch
Bundi has several attractions – Fort (including “Chitrashala – this is similar to the Shekhawati region’s mural painted Havelis and Taragarh fort), Raniji ki Baoli, 84 khambon ki Chhatri being the top ones and then there are also ancient Rock paintings that one can visit. Though these are not govt. maintained and there are no organised tours, etc. There is just one person who take people to the rock paintings and it is said that he is the one who had originally discovered all those paintings.
So – all very raw and un-explored – and in my opinion that is one of the charms of the place. If it gets commercialised the place will loose its individuality and charm.
Entering Bundi when we reach Bundi from Gurgaon; it takes us via Bundi bypass – and you get the first view of Bundi fort from the road. Bundi fort is an amazing fort built on a rock face and constructed over generations of Bundi kings adding some or the other part of the fort.
It is divided into Garh and Taragarh Fort which was the fighting fort built further up on top of the mountain.
Garh Palace Has Multiple Sections – Hathipol, Chitrashala, Chhatrashala, Badal Mahal, Jhoola Chowk and So On.
Hotel Checkin – I had chosen “Hadoti Palace” hotel which was in Bundi town next to the bus stop and centrally located. At the time of checkin – requested for a room with fort view; got a very nice room on 3rd floor which had a great view of the fort.
Ordered food and relaxed.
Garh Palace
Some pics of the Garh Palace as we enter
As this is a hill palace and fort, steep and narrow climbs – very good for protecting the fort and making it very difficult for the invaders
View of the city from the climb to Taragarh fort. This is called the “other” Blue city
View of the Garh from a watch tower mid way up Taragarh fort. By this time it was already after 4pm and also it was very hot and humid and I decided to not go all the way upto the fort and turned back to visit the different sections of the palace
Continue reading BHPian sach.sri’s travelogue for more insights and information.
