A Glimpse of Madhya Pradesh

Welcome readers to my new write-up and to my new travel experience. It’s a mix of official and personal kind of travel trip. Although it’s a very short trip yet can be useful for some of the readers who use to and love to travel on weekends. By official, it doesn’t mean I am going to mention any conference meeting here, but it is also one of the trips that made one of my dream true. I hope that you will also enjoy it while reading my experience when we convert an official trip to a personal trip.

Actually, my husband’s company had organized its Annual Day at Indore, lately awarded as the cleanest city in India and seriously it is as per its award. The annual day was planned for 3rd Feb i.e. Saturday evening. As per the company provided transportation details either we can travel by train on Friday evening or can travel by flight. So, we chose flight as the option from Delhi to Indore and same option for our return journey. The flight option is not expensive for this trip so we chose it to save our time and not to let us feel tired. The flight departure time was 05:30 am from Delhi. So, without wasting my readers useful time I am writing down the itinerary that we planned and executed for 2 days 3rd Feb and 4th Feb i.e. Saturday and Sunday respectively.

3rd Feb – Saturday

As our flight was early Saturday morning at 5:30 am from IGI Airport T1D (Domestic Terminal) so we booked an Ola cab in advance from Noida at 3 am so that we can reach airport before time and not have the last-minute rush. We reached IGI at around 4 am and waited till we had our boarding time. We get seated ourselves on the plane and it departed at exactly the right time. The plane reached its destination Indore airport at around 6:50 am.

Indore Airport

As soon as we collected our baggage and came outside our office shuttle was waiting to take us to our respective hotels. We have our booking in Indore Marriott hotel, one of the best hotels out there. A comfortable stay I would say.  

As soon as we entered the hotel, the hotel manager welcomed us with a soft drink, a respectable Namaste and with a courteous smile. He gave us our room key and then we went to our room to have some rest and then to be ready for our trip to Mahakaleshwar, Ujjain. Yes, why not we wanted to use this opportunity to enjoy to the fullest and to make this official trip successful without wasting any time.

So, we took some rest, refreshed ourselves and had a tasty breakfast at the hotel itself. Although there is a facility of Ola autos and Ola cabs in Indore to our luck I have my cousin brother there, so we took his car for 2 day-trip. So, at around 11 am we started our journey from Indore to Ujjain. Our trip solely depended on Google Maps ☺ Its around 2 hrs journey from Indore to Ujjain Mahakaleshwar. The roads were clean, the traffic was cool, so it was an awesome road trip for us. Finally, we reached to the main temple but sorry I am not having any pics of the same as mobile/camera nothing was allowed there. It is a very huge temple with a very large premise. One has to go on foot for a long time to go back to parking place. Moreover normal/general darshan could take more than 1 hr and we didn’t have much time so we took entry through VIP gate pass. VIP entry costs Rs. 250 per person i.e. it cost to us Rs. 500. And it saved our time. We did the darshan within 30 minutes and came outside the temple. The temperature was at its peak approx. 30 degrees to 32 degrees Celsius as compared to Delhi temperature.

We started our car and again thanks to Google Maps app we drove back to Indore and reached within 2 hrs to our hotel. Actually, there was the main Annual Day event planned at 3:00 pm at The Grand Bhagwati Palace another venue near Indore Bypass. And none other than Bollywood famous music director “Pritam Daa” live music show was going to happen there. So as soon as we reached our hotel we took rest so that we could be able to enjoy our evening. After taking rest for about half an hour we refreshed ourselves and started getting ready for the party. It took another 30 minutes to reach our destination but as we had our car with us, so we didn’t worry about conveyance.

We finally reached The Grand Bhagwati Palace hotel at around 5 p.m. And wow another mesmerizing hotel in Indore. Pritam with his crew himself stayed at the same place for 2 days.

We got seated ourselves in the auditorium. There was awards ceremony going on with some fun related activities side by side. But everyone was waiting for the big event which had some time left. The music event need to be started at 8 p.m. So, till then we enjoyed the fun whatever it was going on there, had some snacks and then it was the time for Pritam’s live music performance. I will not take much time to explain the stuff about that event because this write-up is meant for trip experiences ☺ But if someone wants to have some videos or pics of this event please let me know will share it.

Finally Pritam in Selfie

So, the music event continued for almost 3 hrs unstoppable and after having dinner we went out for our car in the parking and started to drive back to our hotel. We reached there within 30 minutes. As it was late night and we were very tired, so we slept because next day we have planned for our family trip to Mandav. People use to call it Mandu, but its actual name is Mandav.

4th Feb – Sunday

After having our breakfast at hotel, we got ready and checked-out from the hotel. Put our luggage in the car and drove towards my cousin brother’s home. Actually, we all planned for a short family trip to Mandu because our return flight was at 9:30 pm from Indore. Moreover, it was our anniversary, so we didn’t find any better idea than this to celebrate our anniversary with family. We all know that in our busy lives we hardly get any chance to visit our relatives, so we thought to take full advantage of that whole day. Within 20 minutes we reached to my cousin’s flat. My brother, sister in law and cute little 9 months old nephew were ready to go with us. Mandu is around 1-hour trip from Indore. Mandu is place where ‘Padman’ shooting had been done. If you have seen this movie you can see the name of this place as Malwa Resort, Mandu. Malwa Resort is a famous resort for tourists there.

Towards Mandav

My cousin brother had already visited Mandu once, so no one can guide us better than him. He asked us to visit ‘Jaahaj Mahal’ first. This palace has no entry fees. This is a very huge palace and it will take time to roam around. More than roaming, capturing photographs and selfies can take time. So, we all agreed to visit Jaahaj Mahal first. It is a beautiful palace having a small lake and a beautiful garden. This palace is maintained well.  The scenic view is very mesmerizing. Sharing some of the pics with my readers.

Jahaaj Mahal

Another Scenic shot at Jahaaj Mahal

Ruins of JahaajMahal

Jahaaj Mahal Garden

small pond inside Jahaaj Mahal

Taveli Mahal-Museum inside Jahaaj Mahal

But as the temperature was at its peak and we were very tired so had some little snacks and chips there to renew our energy. Once we done we started to drove towards another palace ‘Rupamati Pavilion’. This palace has an entry fees like Rs.20/-. Basically, this is a watchtower house instead of palace. There are no closed rooms and this palace is hard to roam around. There are so many steep steps that one must take care of. And ladies out there please wear sports shoes or flats and not heels if you ever willing to visit this palace. Seriously at one point of time my legs were so tired that I wanted to go back. But still for the photographs I regained my energy, chanted God name and started to step further. This palace has only open roofs and no closed rooms. So, this is just like any other watch tower. But yes, some pics of this palace are marvellous.

Rupamati Pavilion

Rupamati Shot

Rupamati

Rupamati-Watch Tower

Finally, after stepping down from this palace we drove back towards Indore as it was late evening. We need to catch our flight and before that we need to have our anniversary treat ☺

On the way back towards Indore we didn’t find any good family restaurants in Mandu, so we directly stopped our drive at Indore. There we had our treat at the Red Maple Restaurant. The food was very tasty, or you can say we were so hungry and tired that we liked every bit of it. But no doubt the service and the ambience were cool.

Red Maple restaurant

After having our dinner, we drove towards airport. My brother dropped us there. The flight was at the right time, so we boarded it and came back to our working city Noida ☺