This post is on our short trip to Kurukshetra and Karnal in Haryana state. Its been long time since i had travelled because of certain family constraints, my last travel was to Siliserh Lake during June 2012. So I needed a break very desperately and travelling for me is a stress buster as well as a good break from day to day.
Started doing search on google for one nighters around Delhi and shortlisted few destinations like Jaipur, Agra, Dabchick (a resort on Delhi Agra Highway), Dam Dama Lake, Karna Lake, Nahan etc. Considering the time my kids will permit, leaves i am having in hand and of course expenses, Karna Lake was finalised. Did lot of research on the same, the pics, review about resort, nearby places of interest, cost. Sadly there was no dedicated post on Karna lake, people just covered it as a stop over while travelling between Delhi- Chandigarh.
After finalisation of Karna Lake and 3 days leave in hand i.e. Friday to Sunday, the itinerary was planned as follows:
Friday – Leave Dwarka (New Delhi) and come back on Saturday or sunday. Along with Karna lake we decided to cover Kurukshetra as well as there are lot of places of interest from Mahabharata times.
Morning at Karna Lake
Decided to travel by own car, i had my wife, 2 kids and brother in law. We started at around 8 am in the morning with tank full of my Alto and packed breakfast to avoid outside food. It took around 1.5 hrs to cross Delhi and reach National highway to Chandigarh.
Please be very careful while driving on this highway for speed limit and your vehicle papers, police is strict and DL vehicles are generally caught. Speed limit of car is only 90 km / hr. We have also been stopped and after paper verification we moved and took a break at some dhaba for our tea and break fast.
There will be 2 toll one Rs 25 and other Rs 98 at Panipat and after Karnal to reach Kurukshetra, please keep left as soon as you see Pipli on the signage board above higway and from there take left for Kurukshetra.
After taking left you will find proper sign boards to reach Brahm Sarover as that was the first thing we wanted to visit in Kurukshetra. Brahm sarover is at a distance of 6 kms from highway and this 6 kms road is very badly maintained.
We stopped at Brahm sarover took a walk , checked out the possibility of taking a dip in this holy pond. The pond was quite clean and had stairs to go into the water with precautions written not to go beyond a certain level.
We took holy dip in this water, quite chilling, changed, did some shopping of local items from my elder daughter and then moved to the next very exciting place, the place where Lord Krishna convinced Arjuna for war and this is the place of birth of Holy Bhagvad Geeta.
Banyan Tree jyotisar
The Banyan tree is still there where Lord gave Geeta ka gyan to Arjuna. This place as a whole is know as Jyotisar and is just 4-5ms from Brahm sarover, while going to Jyotisar on the left you can see Kurukshetra University as well.
At Jyotisar
Myself at Jyotisar
At Jyotisar we saw the immortal banyan tree, roamed around the complex and then moved on the Bhism Kund , our last destination for Kurukshetra as it was already 4:30 pm we had to reach karna lake.
Bhism Kund is a place where Bhism Pitamaha laid down during battle of Mahabharata and Arjuna with his arrow created a stream of water to be offered to his Bhisma Pitamaha.
Family at Bhism Kund
There is a small pond and temple of Bhism. After doing darshan, we left for Karna lake which is approx 30 Kms from Kurukshetra towards Delhi, so to reach Karna Lake from Kurukshetra you have to go back on NH towards Delhi after about 30 kms a Haryana Tourism complex with name OASIS will come on your left from there there is a service lane going to Karna Lake, you can ask for direction.
Wow as we saw the lake, huge, beautiful, people were doing boating in colourfull boats, couples were roaming around, kids were playing, there is a fastfood corner, ice cream parlour, juice parlour, Bar, restaurant and of course rooms as per your requirement.
View of Karna Lake
We parked our vehicle , checked for the room, the lowest category room costed us Rs 2150 but when we entered the room, it was worth it, huge, clean, well decorated and had a big balcony facing lake, dressing room and a big bedroom with split AC and LED TV for our comfort and entertainment.
As we got tired ordered for tea and some snacks and rushed for a quick bath.
About Karna Lake, this place is suitable for those who donot want to travel much from Delhi, loves peace and looking for a short break. My suggestion, this place is very good for 2 days and one night kind of itinerary and one will enjoy this place. Take a walk on the well paved path along the lake, it takes approx 30 minutes for one round, enjoy the beauty of the place. Sit near to lake , you will feel very good, this place gives lot of peace, do boating. I must state here that i have never experienced such a wonderful service, ambience, maintainence, food from a government tourist place, the staff is very polite, is ready to help to their level best, every thing on the food menu is availabe which we generally don’t see in hotels run by tourism department.
Food is little expensive but the service, taste and ambience of the restaurant is up to the mark. They also have a well packed bar besides restaurant in case somebody is interested and small gift shop.
We roamed around the lake in the evening, took our dinner and called it a day at 11 pm. Woke up at around 7 am in the morning , took some pics of Karna lake from the balcony, it was looking so awesome. Went for a walk around lake, came back had a break fast of tandoori parantha and puri bhaji.
After that we visited the OASIS complex also, there were shops, ATM, restaurant etc for the needs of a traveller, we had DOSA and noodles, came back to our resort, checked out, cleared our bills and started towards Delhi at around 1 pm.
Had lunch at MacDonnalds on the way and reached home at around 5 pm (little late because we took 2 stops of more than 1 hour)
It was a nice short break…..
Total Kms : 375 round trip
Total Expenses : Approx 7000/- for 3 Adults and 2 kids (All inclusive)
Take care, keep travelling and good bye till my next post.