The Great Western: Rajasthan

As a family of passionate travelers every holiday ensured that we took the car and drove to a new state every year. After a lot of arguments the chosen state for this holiday was Rajasthan.

Rajasthan the state of pretty towns with their colour schemed architecture, deserts and forts. We set off from Pune in the wee hours of morning in our old trusty car and left for Jaisalmer the first city in our Rajasthan journey. Since we were travelling since childhood we had gotten used to the long hours in a car, listening to the same CD on repeat and watching each city pass by with the countdown to reach the destination. Since jaisalmer was a long drive, we decided to make a night stop at Ahemdabad to avoid exhaustion. As the sun began to set and the Mumbai-Ahemdabad highway began to end we reached Ahemdabad and started looking for places to eat an authentic Gujarati thali. My family loves it's food and that is always a priority. After eating a wholesome Gujarati thali of khandvi, dhokla, khichdi, rice, various curries (including sweet and spicy dishes), soft rotis and ofcourse dessert of shrikhand and kadhi. After dinner it was an early night before we set off again the next morning for Jaisalmer.

Our first day in Jaisalmer was to be spent at a resort in the middle of the desert which is a National Park called 'Sam Desert Camp'. We reached the tent resort in the middle of the desert in the afternoon. Once the sun had eased we took a camel and explored the desert. The bumpy ride was not a pain as the clear path ahead had us excited. Soon the sun was setting and the weather was getting chilly so we all headed out to the common ground near the tents and sat near the bonfire. The rest of the night was spent listening to traditional Rajasthani music, watching local performers and interacting with the others staying at the resort. Since we had booked ourselves for an early morning desert safari we soon headed back to the tents. To avoid the desert heat we woke up early in the morning and took a jeep to explore the desert. We went up and down sand dunes, walked on the sand since the guide told us that sand has healing powers. For breakfast they took us to a nearby village where the villagers had prepared traditional breakfast of bhakri, gavar and gud (bread with jaggery and beans) since this is what is locally found and what the locals eat daily. After hearing different stories from the locals we headed back to the tent. We soon checked out of the resort and headed to the city of Jaisalmer.

Jaisalmer an ionic city of Rajasthan known popularly for it's rich history and culture. The city is full of Forts like the Jaisalmer Fort and havelis some open to tourists and some that still house ancestors of the royal family or their ministers. In the two days that we had in Jaisalmer we walked around the city trying to see every sight that we could, we ofcourse started at the majestic Jaisalmer Fort that overlooked the whole city as it was situated on the top of a hill. The fort was built in 1156 and still houses some members of the Rajput family. But the fort was deteriorating and not well maintained. At a 10 minute walk from the Fort are various Havelis that once belonged to wealthy people of Jaisalmer and has intricate stonework and artwork. Some popular Havelis include 'Patwon ki Haveli', 'Nathmal Haveli' for it's gold paintings and 'Salim Singh Haveli' for it's unique design. The whole city had a yellow hue due to the colour of all it's structures.

The next city on our odyssey was Udaipur, Udaipur situated on Lake Pichola is one of the more popular tourist cities in Rajasthan and is known for it's grand palaces, forts and lakes. The grandeur of the palaces were unlike I had seen anywhere else in the world. From the City Palace city which overlooks the lake to the Lake Palace or Jagmandir Palace (a hotel) which is located in the middle of Pichola Lake. The white architectural marvel which is partly occupied by the royal family and partly open to tourists had the entire amazed. As avid travelers we realised how much we overvalued palaces around the world even though we had even better palaces with greater history and stories of struggle and bravery that were not getting as much recognition. Some other places we visited was the Vintage car museum and Eklingji Temple which had a close resemblance to the Konark Temple. Udaipur had a contrast from the rich resorts like The Oberai, The Taj or The Leela and the poorer city where the locals lived showed poverty and dirt. But despite all this Udaipur had a beauty like nothing we had ever seen and the palaces are worth the once in a lifetime visit.

Our last stop on the trip was Ranthambore but since we were driving we decided to make a pitstop on the way at Chittorgarh to see the Chittorgarh Fort. This fort was built by Maurya rulers and is one of the largest forts in India. The fort once had 84 water bodies around it and is the pride and joy of the state for it's architectural magnificence. The two major attractions of the fort are the towers Vijay Stambh and Kirti Stambh. Vijay Stambh refers to the tower of victory and the Kirti Stambh means tower of fame. Other than the towers there multiple temples worth visiting. After spending a few hours exploring the fort we hit the road again to reach Ranthambore before nightfall.

Ranthambore is a National Park known for the Royal Bengal tigers, deer, leopards and other birds and wildlife. Since I am fond of adventure it was added to the itinerary on my request. On the first day we joined a group on the Canter Safari with our trusty camera and binoculars to catch a glimpse of the tigers and every other animal we could see. As the safari started everyone's eyes scanned the surroundings for any movement, noise or growl of any animal we could see. We saw a few heard of deer, fox and jackals but the Royal Bengal tiger was still nowhere to be seen. The tour time was ending and it was time to turn around. Just as we were losing hope our guide spotted paw marks on the ground. Before he announced his spotting we saw a tiger come out of the forest and it started to walk along our canter for a while. The crowd hushed and tried to catch a glimpse or take pictures. Soon it walked back into the forest and disappeared. The excitement of seeing the tiger so close kept us shook for a while. We were soon back at the hotel. Since safaris were restricted to the day we explored the Ranthambore fort for a while. We quickly headed back as we had booked a night safari to see some leopards that come out at night. The night safari was in a jeep and with the luck we had in the morning we had high hopes for the night too. But alas the luck was not the same, we returned after two hours with no leopard sightings.

With a bit of disappointment from the previous night we set out again in the morning to see more wildlife this time on a jeep safari. Just a few minutes into the safari and we spotted a tigress and it's cub drinking water near the lake. Since it is recommended to keep a distance since tigress' tend to be protective we quickly moved on in the safari. The next hour we saw a few deer herds again and spotted a few rare birds and flying squirrels. Just as we were relaxing in the jeep a tiger crossed the road ahead of us and we got the close up view of a tiger. While crossing it stopped gave us a glimpse and walked back into the forest with little regard for us and flaunting his pride. We were ecstatic about our luck and were content leaving Ranthambore. Our week long road trip had come to an end and we headed back to Pune. This time via Indore (Madhya Pradesh). After two days on the road we were soon back home.

After the trip we were all overcome with a realisation that we had a lot of India yet to explore. India is known for it's history and culture but often we are blinded by international holidays and forget to give credit to the architectural beauties we have in India that could easily compete with others around the world. The palaces and forts in Rajasthan had intricate artwork and designs all around and the attention to detail had us all astounded. The simple lifestyle of the locals and their kind nature, hospitality was felt everywhere we went. Rajasthan should be one everyone's bucket list and it would have you beaming with pride on our history.