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Udaipur and Chittorgarh - March 2007 |
Rs 250 a night for a room and everything else…
It was the usual Thursday evening when I gave a ring to “Mohit” on a possible visit to somewhere during the weekend and as I predicted, he was all set to go. We were nearing weekend so the only undecided question was “Where to go?”. Being a “Punjabi”, he insisted on going to Mussoorie (Nandan will understand why I am saying so) but after exploring, we finally agreed upon Udaipur. The little more exploration about the transportation, city, tourist spots, staying facilities etc, put the final nail into our plans. So, there we were ready to go to Udaipur - The City of Lakes & Palaces.
As Mewar Express was over booked, we both agreed to go to Udaipur by DTC run Volvo. It started at 6:00 pm sharp from ISBT, Kashmiri Gate; the fair was Rs 700/- and after crossing Gurgaon it caught NH-8 route. The best part was that the seats that were quite easily available. I boarded Volvo from Kashmiri Gate while Mohit caught it from Gurgaon. Bus crossed Jaipur and Bhilwara. From Bhilwara, it took a left exit towards Udaipur bypassing Chittorgarh on the way.
Day 1-24th March (Saturday)
After reaching Udaipur at 7:30am, our search for a decent hotel started. As experienced guys, we knew that the area near bus stand will have a decent one waiting for us. Finally, we reached to Sieta Ram Lodge located in Hotel Wali Gali. Yeah, its Sieta and not Sita. As we both liked the room so we asked for the tariff. The caretaker asked for Rs 550/- per day but being smart guys, we started bargaining at Rs 200/- . If I define the scene clearly then it was something like this… the room was on fourth floor, so while coming down from elevator he was decreasing Rs 50/- from tariff as each floor is passing, while in room the rent was Rs 550/- , on entering elevator it was Rs 500/-., on reaching 3rd floor it was Rs 450/- and so on. Finally, we negotiated & brought him down to Rs 250/- per day thing and checked in at around 8:10 am.
After having our usual morning routine, we were back at caretaker’s desk at 9:30 a
m to ask him from where we should start our expedition. And there we found an auto rickshaw driver waiting for us. He asked for Rs 200/- to take us to 12 major spots in the city.
From all the places we went,
For lunch, we went to Natraj Hotel present in Bapu Market – The City’s Main Market.
As we both has a bad hand at shopping so we didn’t even try a bit of it. 
xt day.
Day2 – 25th March ’07 (Sunday)
Wow!! What a sound sleep we had the previous night. After checking out we boarded Rajasthan Roadways busto Chittorgarh (120 km from
On getting down at Chittorgarh at 11:00 am we took an auto rickshaw to reach fort. Fort covers a vast area and is walled from all sides by thick stone walls. Looking at it, anyone can imagine why it was called the strongest fort but currently it is handed over to ruining. As the auto rickshaw moved on fort’s peripheral roads, it brought me the memories of all the historical serials like Tipu Sultan etc that I had seen on Doordarshan when I was a kid.
Apart from “Vijay Stambh” and two temples (that were closed) nothing was there to watch. But as we both share some ape characteristics, we loved climbing the broad fort walls, exploring those fort ruins and doing a bit of wall climbing.
As I did my whole return journey from Rajasthan Roadways Buses, something about Rajasthan Roadways is worth mentioning over here. I can see why it is called one of the best state roadways in
The five category buses that it has – blue line, star line, silver line, gold line and deluxe buses- and its cooperative staff really make your unplanned trip a planned one.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Nicely Summarized, though I would like to know more about the places that you say are worth visiting. What is special about them?
Rajasthan Roadways is definitely one of the best. I have only been as far as Jaipur but do want to visit many more cities as I have heard that every city in Rajasthan has a separate identity.
~Vibha~
March 29th, 2007 at 8:03 am
i am impressed by the hotel rent you ended up paying. when jha asked me to guess how much, i quoted 6 times of what you paid! :(
March 29th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Yup, the hotel rent paid seems pretty low; guess I must have over-paid a lot in the past.
I have always wanted to go to Chittorgarh, but never managed to go.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am
This was something we learned in college days. On guy use to keep on saying that it’s too expensive and the other one acting like a bridge keeps on negotiating. This brings owner into pressure from both side and he ruthlessly can’t say “No”. It’s just a mix of good and bad.
We experience this thing in daily life when we go shopping. Our opinion about something strengthens if someone else also appreciates it.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I am posting this again. Its one of the very early stories at ghumakkar and probably would benefit from some more reading.
Also this was the only story from March’07 so once its moved to current date, ghumakkar gets younger by a month :)
July 31st, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Nandan,
Your logic for making Ghumakkar young is very interesting. :D
Yes, I was benefited by this post especially the hotel room tariff. We many times wary of facing non-availability, book in advance. And the hotel charges us full tariff. One should be adventurous enough to take that small risk.
Thanks for sharing the post.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:42 am
The name Ankur Agrawal is good enough to make me feel happy.
I had somehow missed your post the first time (being a late starter) and am grateful to Nandan for posting it again, which I am sure will will benefit many of us.
Your beautiful and crisply written post has refreshed my memories of the good old days. First time I visited the city, it was on a college sponsored trip and you can well imagine the fun we must have had. After joining NCR, I went there thrice, but strictly on business visits and you know how tight it becomes, when the project is a starter and that too for a private bank like, IDBI Bank.
You are good at negotiations and picking up good deals. The booking of that youth hostel - I think Bahnhoff Hotel, or somehing at Euro 30 was a great deal and so was the book on Switzerland you bought for me from a book shop at Zermatt for merely five francs.
Your post has opened the flood gates of my memory down the lanes. Yes, Rajasthan is simply awesome - the heritage, culture, tradition and most of all the people there are superb.
I would be very happy if you do find out some time and enrich us with your widely travelled experiences.
God Bless You.
August 4th, 2008 at 4:41 am
thats a great deal..I paid quite a fortune during the Udaipur trip