Kumbhalgarh is a fortress built by Rana Kumbha of the Mewar Dynasty. You can plan a budget trip to the longest wall in India (The second longest in the world). The trek is moderately easy but the view from the top of the fortress is worth all the effort.
This trip is one of my personal favorites. The reason behind that is it not only provided a breathtaking view but was in parallel, an accidental romantic one. I have shared that memorable experience of mine towards the epilogue.
How to plan your trip?
Kumbhalgarh is located in Rajasthan, at a distance of 2.5 hrs from Udaipur and around 4 hrs approx by car from Mount Abu. We chose our itinerary via Mt. Abu which we explored in a day and stayed over in a hotel, few photos of which I have uploaded in a separate photo blog.
We returned back to Mt. Abu the very same day. There is a haunted myth behind the place owing to its historical significance. Hence, the fort is best explored during the day.
What to expect?
We entered via the Hanuman Pol (the gates are called pols), which is one of the entrance guarded by huge walls.
The top of the fort has a temple. The wall is huge and covering it by foot does take time which I wish to do on my next visit.
The palace inside the fort is known as the Badal Mahal from where you can get a clear view of the picturesque unending wall on one side and a view of the dome-shaped structure of the fort touching the sky on the other side. The sun was setting, the tip above the dome cast a beautiful silhoutte in the panorama on one side.
What I brought back from the trip?
It was a cold November in 2017 and we were travelling from Ahmedabad. We got onto a Tavera and set go.
The thermoreceptor neurons can be presumed to differ largely when sensing cold signals in people. On top of the fort, a girl survived in minimal outfit while I was struggling to keep myself warm by various means! From asking for friends' jacket to sharing a group hug, I had left no stone unturned to escape the shivering cold winds.
In the owl light, we set fast towards our car. A stall with its warm tea was a delight for tea lovers like us. We then set ahead in the car amidst the road flanked by mountains and forest.
Trips catalyse bonds like nothing else.The fort is known to be infamously haunted so we tried spooking each other as the car steered along the middle of the dark road. I got onto the front seat along with an amazing friend whom I had less known then.
A writing read out by a fellow friend had filled sadness into the air. Melancholy was the medication that was injected into all of us leading to insomnia. The road trip could be enjoyed for a little longer owing to this. The rest of the idle night and the long road was the foremost reason of my talking to the person next to me. He provided his shoulder for me to rest which was an unusual one for me on trips. He was a quiet soul who otherwise opened up on rare discussions of good songs, series or memes. Trip songs on loop and a touch of melancholy lasting from the recited prose concocted up stories from the past and many more about both of our lives. There was a wall of prior misunderstanding between us that was perhaps shaken by the wall we visited. There is a reason we went on trips despite of the hectic schedule.
It was a different kind of romanticism in the trip induced by the mountains, the recitation and the spirit of togetherness above all.
Trips always repay us much more than we invest in them by adopting unplanned routes literally, don’t they?
#romantictrip #roadtrip #memorabletrip