ghumakkar.com

In 16^th Century, childless and desperate for a heir, The Great Mughal Emperor Akbar undertook a pilgrimage on foot to the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer. On the way he visited Sheikh Salim Chisti – a great Sufi Saint of that time. Sheikh Salim correctly prophesied that he would have three sons. Soon after, when Maharani Jodhabai was pregnant, she was sent to Sikri and gave birth to Akbar’s first son in saint’s cave. The grateful king named his first son, Salim(who later became Emperor Jahangir), after the Sufi saint and moved his capital to Sheikh’s village of Sikri to give Mughal grandeur to this spiritual abode. He created a city, away from crowd and congestion of Agra, that perfectly reflected his imperial power and artistic interests. This magnificent fortified city, built between 1565-1585, was the capital of Mughal Empire for around 15 yrs during Akbar’s reign.

Sikri was the first planned city of the Mughals. Akbar chose to construct this capital on the natural feature of the terrain. Terraces on receding level were used for three main complexes: The mosque complex at the highest level – comprising of Jami Masjid, Tomb of Sheikh Salim Chisti and Buland Darwajah. Royal complex on the lower level comprising of Raniwas, Mahal-I-ilaahi, Shahi Bazaar, Meena Bazaar, Baithak and gardens. And the public complex at the lowest level comprised of Panch Mahal, Khawabghah, Shahi kutub khana, Ibaadat khana, deewaan-i-aam.

The city did not last long as the capital; it was abandoned around 1600, according to some, the meager water supply that proved incapable of sustaining the population was the cause for it and according to others it was because Akbar shifted to Punjab owing to political reasons. Now deserted it is perfectly preserved, a masterpiece in sandstone, glowing in subtly changing shades of pink and red as day progresses & light fades.

7th Nov. 2007 - We decided to drive to Fatehpur Sikri. The route we took was Delhi-Faridabad-Palwal-Mathura-Bharatpur-Fatehpur Sikri. We started at 8:30 am and with a small lunch break reached Fatehpur Sikri at around 2:30 pm.

I am always fascinated by sight of a temple on a hilltop or distant ruins sometimes standing in perfect solitude. They make me wonder about the stories behind those constructions – who, why and how constructed them and left them to be forgotten. For me Fatehpur was a real treasure with so many stories of by gone era enveloped in its red stone. When we reached Fatehpur the silhouette of the fortified ghost city was looking very impressive.

(more…)

It all happened in a jiffy.

Our daughter, Shaguna, who was doing a project along with three of her colleagues at Geneva, called my wife and asked if it would be convenient for her and me to visit Switzerland for a couple of weeks.

Eager to see our daughter more than a visit to Europe, she called me immediately and asked to make the requisite travel arrangements. Our Travel Agent advised that all we needed was a valid passport, an invitation from our daughter and a copy of her work permit and of course, money to buy the tickets. The formalities were completed in a week’s time and since my wife had not been to London, we decided to spend 4 days at London and then head for Geneva.

British Airways flight from London to Geneva took around an hour and half and after clearing our baggage and custom formalities (which took less than 15 minutes), our daughter drove us to her apartment at Rue de La Athenee. It was around 8.00 p.m. After settling down, we along with Shagun, Ankur, Sachil and Aditya (now our son-in-law) were on our way to Gare Cornovini (Railway station) to buy “Swiss Rail Pass”, which entitled us to 6 days unlimited travel by train, tram, bus, boat, etc in any specified part of Swiss. It cost us around Sw. Fcs. 308- each. We had our dinner at one of the small time Thai restaurants and had some mouth watering dishes.

With a view to make the best use of our investment in the Swiss Rail Pass, we planned to visit the Bernese Oberland (2 days), Lucerne (1 day), Zurich (1 day) and Zermatt (2 days).

The Bernese Oberland

The Bernese Oberland is one of the greatest tourist attractions in the world, the most accessible and also the most spectacular, best known for a grand triple-peaked ridge of Alpine giants – The Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, cresting 4000m. Additionally, two of the largest lakes, the Thun and the Brienz are located in this area. Between the twin lakes of the Thunersee and Brienzersee, the bustling town of Interlaken is the main transport hub of the region. Interlaken is most popular as a summer resort, while Gstaad, Gridelwald, Kandersteg and Murren are both summer and winter playgrounds.

We started next morning at 5.02 by bus to reach the station (the bus was dot on time) and after a quick tea and croissants at the station bakery shop, we headed for the platform and within 2 hours and were in the tourist capital of the Bernese Oberland. Cableways and cog railways designed for steeply inclined mountains connect it with the most of the region’s dazzling sites, including the snowy heights of the Jungfrau. Switzerland’s most popular (and perhaps most expensive) mountain railway excursion, emanates from Interlaken.

(more…)

My travel tales are becoming more of hotel reviews which I don’t necessarily enjoy writing, unless they’re too good and I can brag enough, so this one - Hotel Inn Season in Jodhpur met the prerequisites. Besides being able to benefit from a review, it is also a good candidate to be in the books of fellow ghumakkars.

On our second lap on Delhi-Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Delhi triangle, we were to spend two nights in Jodhpur. We got some rave reviews about a place called ‘Devi Bhawan’, yet we first checked this Welcome Heritage Property called “Bal Samand Lake Palace” but it was a little too expensive. ‘Devi Bhawan’ looked quite charming and sophisticated on “find-a-hotel” kinda websites but despite a lot of googling one could not find the official site. There is devibhawan.com which seems to be landing on someone else’s backyard. And finally after getting to get across to them, we could not get us rooms.

So the first tip : If you are not getting availability in a hotel of your choice, then always ask the guy on the other side to suggest options. Most of the times you won’t get cheated, more so because he is more worried about his own image. We were referred ‘Inn Season’ and it sounded like with a lot of conviction. With a phone call at ‘Inn Season’ we had a booking @ Rs 1500 for a Deluxe room for two nights. With that kind of price-tag we were not expecting wonders but from pics it looked like a small cosy place to hang-out. It was only two days and two nights, we thought.

(more…)

Essentially, we had only a day and two nights in the beautiful hilly heartland of North Wales, Snowdonia. Wales is Castle country, North Wales only more so. We had booked our bed and breakfast at Queens Hotel in the shadow of the majestic Harlech castle, a short walk from the beach.

That is the beauty of the mountains of Wales and even Scotland at times, the sea is never far away. Turn the corner around a hill and you are greeted with splendid views of a bay, with yatchs (or sometimes a cruise ship if you are lucky) or simply blue expanses. We reached the hotel at dusk and had just about enough time to walk around town hunting for some good food (it is another matter that the vegetarian Indian fare we finally managed to find was pathetic). The hotel owners were Welsh and had a cute little kid who kept running around and trying to converse with us in a mish-mash of Welsh and English. We were to find later that Welsh is seeing a revival as a language, and most Welsh make it a point for their children to learn it. In a time, when everything else is dictated by commands from London, I guess it is a sane method to preserve one’s distinct heritage.

Snowdonia gets its name from Mt. Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales and second highest in Britain. Many enthusiasts spend a few days in the area to scale the mountain and its adjoining peaks, and detailed tracks and trails are available readily with tourist offices, hotels as well as online.

Our day in the region though, was mainly planned along a drive, which I charted out using websites and google maps. It read something like this -

Harlech to Beddgelert (pronounced Be-”the”-gelert) - 30 min drive

Beddgelert to Betws-y-Coed (pronounced Betoos-ee-Coed) - 30 min

Betws-y-Coed - Blaenau Ffestiniog - 25 min

Blaenau Ffestiniog - Criccieth - 40 min

Criccieth - Portmeirion - 20 min

Portmeirion - Harlech - 20 min

All these difficult names do not appear that difficult to the Welsh and also highlight how different the two languages are. What we decided to skip were as usual, the more beaten paths, namely the Caernarforn Castle (the most popular castle among visitors because of its size and the fact that this is where the Prince of Wales, currently Charles, is anointed; but then we were already visiting what I think were more enchanting castles in Harlech, Criccieth and Cardiff) and the Welsh mountain railway from Porthmadog to Ffestiniog (the oldest running railway in the World, a kid’s delight but again very similar to the mountain railways of Ooty and Darjeeling).

(more…)