Rajasthan & Varanasi

Forts and Desert, Ghats and Temples

I love to travel, mostly in Himalayas, but I had a long desire since youth for traveling to desert, specially after watching Sonar Kella movie of Satyajit Ray. Last year I made up my mind to make a plan for visiting Rajasthan. One of my cousins lives in Udaipur. I find it easy to reach there and start my journey. I did not want to make my journey hectic, so I didn’t make my itinerary complex. It was just Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur. Coming back to Kolkata from Jaipur was another long journey. I planned to break the journey at Varanasi and come back taking a day break there.

I booked an A/C two tier berth in Shalimar-Udaipur Weekly super-fast express. It started 2 hours late. The train reached Udaipur at 9-30 AM instead of 5-35 AM. My cousin and his wife came to receive me at the station. 1st day we chatted a lot and also planned for my next day local sight seeing. My cousin in law arranged an auto for me. Driver’s name was Rashid. He was a nice person. After early lunch I went out with him. He took me to Fateh Sagar, Saheliyon ki bari, Wax Museum, Maha Rana Pratap Statue, Handicraft Museum, City Palace, Gulab Bag(without Gulab) etc 12 places.

I took a boat ride at Fateh sagar. The most interesting place was City Palace that I went at the end. I took a ticket from the counter for visiting the whole palace. It is a huge palace beside Pichola Lake. It takes a long time to visit the whole palace. There was a small toy train service to reach the palace from main gate. The ticket costs 50 rupees per person for one side.

Views were amazing from the top of the palace. The palaces of Rajasthan show how luxurious were the lives of the kings. There were amazing, huge, hand painted photographs. “Battle of Haldighati” was famous among them. I lost my cap which I had borrowed from my cousin. I was so engrossed going through the narrow high staircases that I did not notice where and when it fell from my head. Lake palace hotel can be seen from here.

I came back home in the evening. Next day in the evening we went to Fateh Sagar for sunset photograph. When we were going through a one way road. Suddenly a motorcyclist came from the wrong side and broke the side glass and scratched the car. We were a little upset. After taking photographs we went to eat chaat. Chaat of Udaipur is quite famous. It was really tasty. We took two plates of chaat.

I booked night coach bus ticket for Jaisalmer for next evening through Red Bus. Next day when I woke up from my afternoon nap, I found that my cousin in law kept a bandhni chunni ( stole ) on my bed as gift. After dinner my cousin and his wife dropped me at the bus stand.

In the bus, I came cross a lady who introduced herself and had a conversation with me for a while. She was married to a rich family and they had seven deep tube-wells to irrigate their land. She said, she came to her parents’ place to put mehendi (hena) on her hand. She showed me pictures of her family that she took before leaving her home. She also showed me her new chunni which she was wearing. She informed that it is a custom there that a new chunni is given to the daughter of the family at the time of leaving.

In the morning, when the bus was about to reach Jaisalmer, a man came to me and asked me if I had booked any package for desert safari or any hotel in Jaisalmer. I told him that I have talked previously to a couple of local travel agents before coming with whom I would contact after getting down from the bus. He requested me to check in to his hotel and put a glance to their package. I agreed and went with him. I liked their package as it seemed cheaper and convenient to me. He added me with a Gujrati group of five people. The package included: stay in the hotel till 3 o’clock, transportation from Jaisalmer to Sam desert and back, jeep safari, camel safari, night stay, dinner and breakfast.

After taking breakfast and tea, I went to explore the famous Golden Fort of Jaisalmer. People still live in this fort. Its a kind of huge building complex. There were shops, hotels, restaurants, market etc inside the fort premises. I went into the palace taking a ticket. It was though not as large as city palace, but still very high and big castle. There were rooms and balconies and high, narrow stair cases and terrace. It spoke about the tough but grand life of the royal family. There was an open space with a large decorative chair like structure where the queens would sit when any of them was angry, the king would come to compose her bringing gifts.

At 3 o’clock in the afternoon we started for Sam, on the way we visited Kuldhara village. That village was abandoned and called haunted. Though I did not feel anything eerie, I learned from a car driver that the village people shifted suddenly on one night, being threatened by one local land lord due to some inter-caste love affair issue.

We reached a place near desert just before dusk, where we were shifted to an open jeep. We enjoyed the ride through the uneven path of sand dunes. There were many people at that time who were enjoying desert bike ride, some were taking photographs or enjoying camel ride. There was pollution and haze, so photographs did not come out satisfactory. We also took a ride on camels. It was scary when a camel stands up taking someone on its back.

After a lot of enjoyment we were taken back to the place where we had to stay. There were two types of tents. One was completely made of canvas, and the other was semi-permanent with canopy over the brick wall, with attached bath. We stayed in the second type.

They welcomed us in traditional Rajasthani manner. Then snacks and tea was served. There was a cultural program of songs and Rajasthani folk dance. I enjoyed the dance program very much. Dinner was served which was typical local cuisine of daal-bati-churma, and roti rice etc. I felt a little worried thinking about my weak Bengali stomach.

Next morning they served early breakfast with poha and upma. On the way back we visited a Jain Temple and Bada Bagh. Bada Bagh was a place where the cenotaphs of the royal family were made. A few cenotaphs have stone images of the kings with several queens who became “sati” with them. The grandsons of the royal family have the right to make their grand parents’ cenotaph. There was a prince who did not have grandson. He had no cenotaph but only a dais, with a metal vase containing his ash.

In the evening I went to the sunset point of the Golden fort to take sunset picture, going through a narrow lane beside the Jain temple of Parsvanath. Jaisalmer Fort has a large complex of seven Jain temples. These group of Jain temples consist of Parsvanatha temple, Sambhavanatha temple, Shitalanatha temple, Shantinatha and Kunthunatha temple, Chandraprabha temple and Rishabhanatha temple. Next morning I went too Gadisar Lake.

In the evening I took another night sleeper coach for Jaipur. Next early morning I reached Jaipur and took an auto to reach Zostel, Jaipur. I booked it previously through Booking.com. Jaipur Zostel is good for solo travelers. After settling there I went to Jal Mahal taking a shared auto. The rent was only fifteen rupees. Jal Mahal lake was full with the migratory birds, specially cormorants. I took many photographs.

From there I went to City Palace taking another auto. Its a huge palace. There were two types of tickets. One was to enter into the palace’s outer area, another was to enter into the residential area. As my legs were tired, so I took the ordinary one. There I watched a small puppet show paying hundred rupees. Coming out from the palace, I walked a little to reach Hawa Mahal. Hawa Mahal seemed nothing but a wall to me.

I came back, and after lunch I took a little rest to prepare myself for Nahargarh fort visit. A Zostel person, named Mr Sultan, took few of the Zostel boarders to Nahargarh Fort. Nahargarh fort was a little distant from the city and situated on the top of a hill. On the way we saw quite a number of peacocks and parrots. Sunset was beautiful there. After sun down we entered into the palace. We saw the night view of Jaipur city from the fort’s roof top. There were many monkeys.

Next morning after breakfast, I went to visit Amber Fort. I took an auto to reach Amber Fort. It was a huge fort. Some people were climbing the fort on elephant back. There were several ways to enter the fort in ancient days, on foot as well as on horse back, and on elephants. I came back by a local bus in a hurry because I had to catch the train

Coming back to Zostel, I collected my luggage, and started for Jaipur station. Entering the station, I searched for lunch. It was a good and sumptuous buffet lunch that was served in the executive class waiting room. As soon I finished my lunch, I saw Marudhar Express arrived at the platform. I boarded the train. This train goes to Varanasi from Jodhpur everyday.

Next morning I reached Varanasi. Here I had booked an accommodation at Wander Station near Chausatti Ghat. It was also a hostel but a costlier one. The position of this place was not only a little confusing, but also difficult to reach. They help their customers if they inform earlier after reaching at the pick up point. They have a cafe at their roof top.

Ganga river at Varanasi was full of migratory birds like Siberian cranes and Sea Gulls. I took a boat ride in the evening to witness Ganga Aarti and the ghats. Next morning I visited the temple. The temple premises was completely changed from what I had seen more than forty years ago. There were huge buildings in the temple premises, old temple was demolished and a new one has been built. I spent three hours to see the deity.

Coming back from the temple I took breakfast of puri-vaji, gulabjamun. As no other vehicle could reach near Wander Station, so one of their managers Mr Sagar suggested me to take a rapido ride for Sarnath. The motorcyclist was an expert to traverse the traffic clogged roads. He dropped me in front of Sarnath Temple. It was a large park where there was a temple and several statues of Lord Buddha. After visiting the park I visited Dhamek Stupa.

When I came back from Sarnath, it was 2-30 PM. As I was going down the ghat to reach my hostel, I found that a big ferry boat was leaving. I got up into the boat to take photographs of the birds. After boat ride when I came back it was a little late. So I took two cups of Lassi from nearby Baba Lassi Shop. That fellow makes different kinds of lassi, like kiwi, banana, chocolate, pomegranate, orange, coconut, apple, papaya etc. Many foreigners were having lassi there.

In the evening I took an early dinner from the roof top restaurant with a cheese nun and an omelette. Next morning I woke up late and went out to have puri vaji and jalebi. I also had malaiyo. Malaiyo is frothy milk cream mixed with saffron. I wished to visit Ramnagar fort for sunset hue of Ganga but I had to catch the train. I regretted missing it because I had to wait at the station for two and half hours as Vibhuti Express was late. It reached Howrah almost 6 hours late.