GUJRAT TO JAMMU IN 11 DAYS: PART II

GUJRAT TO JAMMU IN 11 DAYS: PART II

The Plan:
http://amitalks.blogspot.in/2012/07/gujarat-to-jammu-in-11-days-plan.html

Part-I:
http://amitalks.blogspot.in/2012/07/eleven-days-to-remember-1-of-3.html

Wed, February 15th, 2012: Abu Road to Udaipur via Rajasthan State Road Transport

The train dropped us at Abu Road @ 00.30 hrs. It was a chilly night with gusts of wind here and there. The initial plan was to take a cab from Abu to udaipur. But as we spoke with the cab wallahs, we figured out that it was not just worth it. Also, the local station master told about safety issues of the road from Abu to Udaipur and hence decided to go by first bus in the morning.

It was going to be a long night for us as the first bus to udaipur starts at 7AM. We kept sipping tea and sleeping on the bench. The only drama for the night came from a pervert who tried to harass a Foreign tourist. As often the case, he was thrashed and kicked out.

The bus was a local one and charged Rs 120. The highway was quite majestic but the local bus kept entering the villages and crawling to drop us at Udaipur only at 11AM.

Exotic Udaipur

Planning:

It was a legendary planning done for Udaipur. Vishnu had made plan and given options to choose from around 2 and half months back.

• Plan A: check in to TAJ LAKE PALACE (In the evening we can start walking to Delhi, to catch our flight 5 days later)
• Plan B: check into some budget hotel, save our money so that we can further continue the trip.

Sandeep never bothered to check it, probably he trusted too much on our plan or he was busy with his frequent official tour to Delhi... What ever!!

During one tea break some 1 month back, he asked what we finally did for the Udaipur trip plan. Vishnu told him that we have already spoken to TAJ and with booked a suite for 4 members (myself, Vishnu, Goatie and Sandeepa) for one day at cost of 25 grand. The TAJ also agreed upon to book against a DD which we had sent to them via post.

You should have seen his face. He was shocked and started swearing at us as usual. 

I told him that it was a mutual decision taken which you didn't give your opinion for. It was a one time opportunity (though self sponsored... so be it). We showed him the dreams of staying like a king in the TAJ which was situated in the centre of the lake.  All our colleagues too started pushing Sandeep to agree for it. We told him whether he chooses to join us or not, he has to pay, as the money was already paid. It would be a EXPERIENCE TO REMEMBER!! Finally, we were able to convince him.

Sandeep researched about TAJ and next day told us that they would provide boat to reach to the hotel and they have spa which will be on the boat and that we should try even this. He said he would ditch our Udaipur city tour and stay there for all 24 hours for the paisa vasool!!

Background:

We never knew or even inquired about the TAJ and instead had booked in CPWD quarter. All our colleagues knew about the prank. I am surprised, "how Sandeep could not figure it out in those many days". In order to cope up with the extra expense, he choose to return back from Udaipur and that too by train... Poor Sandeep!! 

Hum bhi to kaminey hai hi... we didn't reveal the truth, instead planned to hire a cab at Udaipur and ask him to take to the TAJ and just as we reach there giving all the "dreams come true feeling" to Sandeep, take us to the CPWD quarter without stopping there. 

Execution:

When we reached Udaipur, it was kind of sunny and we were already late... thanks to the state local bus. We had already hired a cab in Udaipur who was waiting for us.  Unfortunately, the CPWD quarters and TAJ hotel are on opposite sides of the city plus we were hungry too and just half a day left for local tour.

Finally, it was revealed.... Sandeep's dreams were shattered and that was the time he didn't stop swearing at all. I went to take shower and I could hear him non-stop!!

It was late afternoon when we started after ablution and lunch. The driver took us to places like:

• Fateh Sagar Lake (Maharana Pratap Smarak @ Motimarg) [Entry fee: Rs 30] 
• Saheli Ki Badi [Entry Fee: Rs 5] 
• Pichola Lake where we went for boating [Boating for Rs 100] 
• Ropeway to Mata ki Mandir (near Pichola Lake) [Ropeway for Rs 70]

While boating over Fateh Sagar Lake, Sandeep took many snaps with the TAJ and the boat Spa!

We were quite tired as we were sleep deprived and asked the driver to take us to "Royal Vintage Car Museum". Ah!! the museum.... The erstwhile Maharaja had collection of all Rolls-Royce starting from the 1st generation. The guide there explained us about the different models, and asked us why there was a color change in their logo. When the two founders were alive, the logo used to be "RED" in color. When they deceased, the color was changed to "BLACK"

Thu, February 16th, 2012

The forenoon was dedicated to the Udaipur City Palace. It took us almost 4 hours to navigate through the palace, that too when we skipped a lot of places in between.

In the afternoon, we headed towards Jaisamand Lake, Asia's largest artificial lake. It was a huge lake, and the travel there took almost 2 hrs. On the banks of the lake, there was a deserted palace, which was built for the Queen. After that, we returned back to our guest house, though not before enjoying Dal-Bhati-Churma for one more time!

In the evening, we were back to Udaipur and went to Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandir where we witnessed the puppet show and folk dance.

Udaipur city had a lot of South Indian restaurants much to the liking of Vishnu. So we decide to have Dosa for dinner. Vishnu and me took the train to Ajmer, Sandeep left for Mumbai on train!

Fri, February 17th, 2012: Ajmer - Pushkar

As planned, we reached Ajmer quite early in the morning, so took the dormitory and crashed for a couple of hours. We woke up at 8 and after ablution headed into the city for some vist. We kept our luggage in the cloak room took a bus to Pushkar where the only temple of Lord Bramha had been built. On the way to pushkar, there was a temple of Lord Vishnu, built in the style seen in South India. The Pushkar lake was quite different and the pigeons on the steps of the lake were good subject to try out some Photos.

We returned from Pushkar and headed to the famous Ajmer Dargah and a Jain Teerthankar Temple. Had lunch in the railway station and got into the train @ 2 PM for our next destination.

Sat, February 18th, 2012: Jammu

We reached Jammu around 10AM and checked into the CPWD quarter. After having lunch, we left for local tour. The triveni water was very very cold. The Jyotirlinga's model was another place to visit on the bank of the Triveni (river). We went to the revolving hotel to have lunch @ 4PM in the evening. We then had gone to the park and the aquarium. After lunch, we went into the market to buy sweaters and gloves, then went back to room. We got a bit adventurous, and so took the bus. The last bus point was some 1KM before our guest house, and so we had dinner in a local dhaba. By the time, we reached our guest house we were very tired.

Sun, February 19th, 2012: Katra - Vaishnodevi

We started our trip early @ 5AM. We got a local bus to Katra where we made the entry for Maa Vaisnodevi darshan. We bought a walking stick to assist us on the inclined road. We had put on thick multiple cloths to keep us warm. As we started moving up, one by one the layer of clothes started coming off. Even though it was cold, we were sweating. There are two routes after you reach Adhkwari. One that is just a plain road with occasional steep slope. The other route was completely stairs. We decide to take the longer route like others, as we would have company and could enjoy the Scenic beauty better. We reached Vaisnodevi in 3 hours and went for devi darshan.

Later, we had Rajma-Chawal and then we started our ascend to the Bhairon Nath which is further top hill. On the way, I saw the snow for the first time and played in the snow for a while. This distance was 1/3rd of the the distance we just covered but it was very steep and we took another 3.5 hours to reach the top. We were quite tired. We went for the darshan and then later started out descend. The descend was more risky - firstly because of the snowfall that had happened few days back and secondly because of the negative slope. Unlike what is thought, descending is quite tough.

Finally, we reached Katra and took return bus to Jammu where we retired in our CPWD quarter.

Mon, February 20th, 2012 (Mahashivratri holiday)

Got up late in the morning and had aloo paratha, which had been the breakfast across all the CPWD quarters we stayed. We went for local sight seeing in an auto-rickshaw and came back to our quarter in the noon. We did the packing to leave for the airport which was near to our quarter.

We boarded the Indigo Flight 6E551 from Jammu(14:25) to Delhi(15:20) and the connecting flight 6E125 from Delhi (17:45) to Bangalore (20:30).

A tour to remember....

It was a well planned and executed tour to cover so many places in just 11 days.