After searching unsuccessfully for an inexpensive air ticket, I decided to give Indian Railways a chance, I love them - in my country (read Bihar) trains reach those places where there is no road, trains are like part of people out there, and started looking at trains from Delhi which do not take more then a night to reach somewhere meaningful. Udaipur was on our list for a long time and it was more then delighting to learn that Mewar Express takes only a night to reach there. Its starts at 7 in the evening and you are in Udaipur next morning at 7. So we decided to go to Udaipur, few phone calls and old pal
Sanjeev agreed to give us a company. We were travelling by train for the first time with a young baby (Pihu would have been less then 5 months old) and it always helps to have one-two more people with you, esp oldfriends since they dont ask too many questions
We started on Oct 28, 2005 and were there at the stations next morning. The station was clean, took an auto and checked-in at Hotel Shaalimar (booked through an acquaintance at a good tariff). Hotel Shalimar is a nice and small hotel with clean rooms and clean loos. They do not have a great dining area or any open place to boast about but the staff is helpful and polite, food is decent and all in all a decent place to hang out.
Unlike my usual travelogues where I go day by day, I would just write about places which we visited and try to remember all the good things.
City Palace
Its a private property of His Highness Arvind Singh jee and is beautifully kept. Its one big building which oversees Lake Pichola and has its usual dose of claustrophobic stair cases, hidden rooms, amazing stone work, carvings, mirror work, old artifacts and what not.
Its an old one but I would try to remember as much as I could. It was Oct 2, 2004 and was a national holiday. Good news was that it was falling on a saturday (see how much +ive person I am) so me and Smita decided to head north. One of our old friends (now married, pun intended) Vijayant Kohli (you might have seen him on TV playing Chhupa Rustam on Star Plus) was the man behind the mission.
Smita was in her first trimster and we wanted to do an easy one, which means better roads and a comfy place. After some non-eventful discussion, we decided to check out ‘The Parkwoods - Shoghi’, a small hill side resort with not too many tents, some small adventure games and hopefully a wonderful weather and serene silent views.
After some googling, we figured out that some ‘caravan tours’ are sort of their only booking agents. After speaking over phone to Miss Ranjana (not so pleasant) and their insistence of getting some advance amount, we were not too happy but then our travel have so far taught us to not worry too much on these things. So we sent Vijayant to do the booking at their Kalaki ji office and negotiate tariff and he came as a winner warrior nicely settling for 1K odd a day per person with complementary breakfast and lunch. So finally it was myself, Smita, Vijayant and Henry (a recent friend who had time and shared interest in travel and traveled with us to many destination during 2003-2005)
We started early morning and were off to NH1. If you leave Delhi by 5 on a saturday then there is a fair chance of hitting that famous ‘Delhi Lahor Bus’. It usually catches up with you when you are somewhere in Panipat / Kurukshetra and passes you quick courtesy the escort police vans. Anway, coming back at the route, its pretty simple
Delhi -> Hop on to NH1 -> Sonipat -> Panipat -> Kurukshetra -> Ambala.
From Ambala, take the left exit towards Chandigarh. Now you on NH21 which is (more…)
Van and Vilas do not go well together. Van means jungle, usually a place where it would get a little difficult to have Vilas (luxury) but then I guess the people who christened this particular hotel didn’t care.
Cut the Crap Mr. Jha and lets get back to topic. We were there on a tiring and wet weekend in July 2007 and wanted a decent place to kill the night. After checking out a couple of dingy ones, more so because of season, we saw this hotel right on the bank of Bhim Tal. If you are coming from main Bhim Tal bus stop (the point from which one road goes up towards Naukuchiatal), then you keep driving along side lake and look for a signage on your right. You would need to climb up and the rooms are set against the rock facing the lake.
There are 8 odd rooms and 6 odd cottages. Rooms are decent, clean loos, ok furniture and a breathtaking view. The only thing which is between you are the lake is that 15 feet tar. And since you a way above the tar, it feels like as if you are actually in the lake.
There is a common dining area but they serve in rooms as well with no extra service charges, the usual tariff is Rs 2200 on MAP and Rs 1800 AP for a deluxe room. We got that for Rs 1000 since it was an off season. They do not have Bar, but the state run shop is not too far and the guy can get you stuff for a tip of 20 bucks. But as always, its better to carry then to buy.
I did take the brochure and contact details but I dont have then handy now but I will get that and update it later.
I reached Delhi airport at night, and we were off towards Corbett right away. Corbett National Park - famous for the tiger, the most popular of the Indian wild cats. The journey was made in a taxi late at night, and made pain-stakingly slow by the thick blanket of fog that descended on us when we were not more than a hundred km out of Delhi. But the fog rather increased the adventure spirit of the journey than be a dampner. Not being able to gather where we were headed and what kind of an area we were passing through, and the mist falling on the windshield was so much like an old black-and-white classic mystery movie. I and my friend gazed out into the lonely winter from the back seat of the car in the chilly night as the driver struggled bravely through utterly poor visibility, it was a most exciting beginning to the holiday…
Reaching Corbett in the morning, we took up our Cottage at the resort where we were booked. The resort was a nice small one on the river Ramganga’s edge, dotted with cottages, nicely landscaped lawns, pool n spa, activity centre and restaurant et all.
After breakfast, we immediately decided to go take a walk upto the river. The little river had lovely clear water and we could see huge fishes right from the vantage point we stood on looking down at the water and the entire landscape. Deciding to be adventurous, we trekked down right to the water’s edge, where it appeared ever so tempting to wade into and have a refreshing dip. Deciding against that, we just sat at the edge and hummed, as we watched some local boys fish with their lines thrown into the river at many places.
Getting back, we decided on taking the Tiger Safari before dawn next day. So, we whiled away the subsequent afternoon hours looking around the resort.
In the evening, I decided to take the “nature” walk that the guide at the reception had mentioned, all by myself. Walking on the dusty road parallel to the river, I keenly looked at the few houses that existed in the area and the people who appeared to reside in them. Living inside a forest, how would that be like? Quite different I am sure that the urban jungle we are used to! Little children played within fenced areas, often running upto the riverside, seemingly unconcerned about any sort of danger there might be in being too adventurous.
I reached an old creaky bridge and crossed over to a path that lead to a temple in some distance. There was absolutely no human now anywhere in sight, although quite clearly it was an often used route by the locals, but somehow I felt quite isoltaed. I looked at the trees and other vegetation around, hearing the chirping of the birds and rustling of leaves interrupted sometimes by sounds of a distant truck on the road across the river. There was a small cliff rising on to the other side, and I suddenly got a feeling that the Tiger could easily be watching from the top of the cliff and I wouldn’t know! How much time would it take for the wild beast to come charging and grab my neck… not much for sure. All these thoughts were of-course interspersed with the realization that I was just at the periphery of the forest and there were not more than 200 odd tigers in all of the huge expanse!
On my way back I sat at the riverside for a while, and as the mountain river sparkled in the setting sun’s rays, I imagined the resemblance of the setting to a Hollywood movie I had just watched a while ago.
In the evening we watched a nice wildlife film about wildlife in corbett, played some tabletennis and wrapped it up with a nice musical event with the hotel guests gathered around a bonfire and lovely music on the guitar by a local lad.
We set off on the wild safari before sunrise, and by the time dawn set in we were well within the main forest area. The first observation: Corbett is full of spotted deer! There were all sizes and kinds of them, merrily jumping around, not really afraid of our jeep, ratherly looking curious if anything else.
Apart from spotted ones, the other deer we bumped into were Sambhar and the little barking deer. There were also wild boars, wild fowl and langurs to be seen.
Of course, the main attraction for me was the forest itself. Vividly colourful apart from the omnipresent green and a variety of terrain… We found ourselves driven through shrubbery, tall grass glistening golden in the first rays of the sun, the mountain river in the middle of the forest, small hillocks and open grassland with hundreds of deer grazing merrily. The forest is so alive, even when you do not sight a single animal, there is a sense of them being there, watching you curiously at first, then getting back to their life with boredom of having seen it before.
Highlights of the safari included a deer alarm call, when a tiger was supposedly very near and our driver tried frantically to facilitate a sighting. We also saw fresh paw marks made on top of tyre marks that were not more than an hour or so old, but the shy beast remained elusively out of sight. We did manage to get a good dekko at some wild tuskers though. That it was a big group of elephants gathered near the river’s edge, was evident because of the rustling and shaking of trees till quite a distance.
Heading back, I found myself not a trifle disappointed at not being able to actually see a tiger, the forest was enough to make its presence felt.
And so, the first part of our weekend ended as we boarded our car and headed off towards a quiet lake destination, Bhimtal.
has its usual dose of claustrophobic stair cases, hidden rooms, amazing stone work, carvings, mirror work, old artifacts and what not.
