Tuesday, March 24, 2009

White water rafting - May 2007

An exciting trip to the white waters at Hrishikesh beckoned. The picture of the majestic mountain ranges and the tenacious Ganges flow through its valleys with beds of smoothly polished stones and white sand banks, sometimes smooth and other times in a silvery rush of rapids, seemed too tempting to pass.

Posting a short video that I had editted from various videos and photos that the group contributed with.



Share on Facebook

Visiting the heartlands of India - South Madhya Pradesh

For details on my  recommended Hotels & Travel operators see the end of this post.

Planning a trip to Madhya Pradesh, the much advertised Hindustan ka Dil or the heart of India, presents a difficult predicament even for the tough rookie traveller. The state offers so many destinations to chose from and a multitude of vacation themes ranging from religious pilgrimages, wildlife sanctums, nature trails and historical heritage monuments of medieval origin and fallen empires, that you will find it difficult to decide your itinerary. 

With a time bound budget, we set out on our trip with a flexible schedule and not too many hotels or tickets reserved. I've found it very useful to take a listing of hotel options from justdial.com and get on the spot discount deals at the hotels directly (yeah, what a sucker for discounts, aint I). Another good to creating your itinerary is picking up a itinerary guide of any national travel tour operator, (we picked Kesari, which in 2007 had MP as one of its national tours). The travel brochure showed a 18 day trip which we cut down to pick the locales and spots that seemed alluring. We had to cut out the wildlife sanctuaries, options of which are aplenty - Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Panna, and therefore most of north MP which would make for another trip for a later a time. 

Off on the Rajendra Nagar Express train, Patna bound express from CST, Mumbai,we had a comfortable journey to alight at Jabalpur, to make our way to our first destination - Bhedaghat .
From south MP Blog pics

For most, this should be easy to relate to the shot from the movie Ashoka, particularly the 'Raat ka Nasha' song. Although I haven't been able to watch the movie, the scenes from the songs were vivid and if not the guides there will oblige with their unique Ehsaan-Quereshi-shayari-styled descriptions. Bhedaghat is popularly known as the Marble Rocks and plainly they are large rocks, towering over a hundred feet of pure rugged marbles of white, blue and soapstone and to add to this is the scintillating Narmada that flows peacefully through the valley in between. The beauty of this is enhanced especially on full moon nights, when the boats take tourists on the Narmada from 9pm uptil 2am in the morning.

Inspite of timing our trip to reach Bhedaghat on a fullmoon night, we had not accounted for the Holi festival and so when we reached Jabalpur station at 3pm, we found a desolate place with rickshaws and taxis at the bare minimum. Having previously checked if the hotel could send a pickup and getting a negative reply, we had to make do with a single riskshaw driver (who seemed the only one in his senses!) who negotiated for a 400Rs fare to Bhedaghat, 23 Kms from Jabalpur station, which normally costs Rs200. Thankfully we did reach safely despite seeing many bikers with colour streaked faces (unnerving!, yet proved safe) all along our route to the Hotel Marble Rocks. 

This hotel managed by MP tourism, is highly recommended. For its price and location it is value for money. Their service is excellent and so thoughtful are the staff that when we asked for some parathas to be packed for lunch for our train journey back, they even packed paper plates with tissues along with the pack without us requesting for it. There are other hotels there too called Hotel River view close by, but not too many, so I would recommend travellers to directly reserve hotels in Bhedaghat rather than Jabalpur as the hot spots are close enough to walk to.

There is nice paved walkway that starts from the main road close to the Motel Marble rocks and winds over the peaks of the rocks which is ideal for a morning or a evening walk. We took one of the locals who seemed a style freak(despite the torn shirt and tattered trousers he had a ghajini inspired hair do and metal earrings), to show us some spots on this trail.  You can get some beautiful pictures from above the marble rocks on this trail.  A unique feature here is the Ehsaan-qureshi-stand-up-comedy-inspired shayari style of commentary that the guides and the boatmen dabble in, while explaining all the various facets of the Marble rocks. A kilometer by walk or a Rs5 rickshaw ride takes you to the rivetting dhuandhaar falls, a lovely waterfall in a mini Niagara formation that flows into the Marble rock formations downstream. It also has a ropeway across the falls that starts at 11am. The ghat or river bank that is the starting point of the boat rides are a few hundred meters from the Motel, where we took a boat ride for 40 mins for Rs 300/-, this can be shared with others who also want to take a ride in which case the prices would go even lower(still a sucker for discounts). The boatmen point out various rock formations that appear like meditating sages, Gandhiji's three monkeys, a Mount Rushmore like faces in rock and even overturned cars in shades of white, grey, golden, pink and blue marble.

 
AT BHEDAGHAT
- Marble Rock boating (full moon nights is a plus)
- Dhuandhaar falls

Other fun things to do
- Dhuandhaar ropeway ride
- Marble rock walking trail

All these spots being close to one another, a day to enjoy them leisurely suffices and to go onwards to Pachmarhi we travelled back to Jabalpur station. There are about a dozen trains to Pipairya, the train station to get to reach Pachmarhi, our next destination. A good train to catch back is the Somnath express that starts at 12pm from Jabalpur and stops at Pipariya at 2.45pm. No bookings may be necessary as tickets are available at the station itself, so you can keep your schedule flexible.
From south MP Blog pics

The scenic train journey takes you through fields of golden wheat stretching without any shrubs to cloud your view, interspersed with lush green fields constrasting into a pattern and lovely leafless trees adorned with red flowers during the March month. After a pre-packaged lunch during the journey, we reached Pipariya where you can negotiate for a car ride of Rs50-75 per head to reach Pachmarhi about 45kms away. Pachmarhi doesn't resemble a typical hill station as we know it. None of the lush tea plantations or the thick jungle of tall trees swaying close to each other. Infact at the first look I was a little let down with the high expectations that I had carried with me. But to really enjoy the place's beauty and soak in the slow paced simple countryside and a town that almost resembles a forgotten colonial era, you need to go past the Pachmarhi town into the open countryside where the MP tourism hotels are located. I would recommend highly a stay at any of the hotels there rather than settle for a cheaper option of staying in Pachmarhi town which is just 1.5 km away. There are about 7-8 hotels that are located about half a kilometer from each other, which is the average distance between any human settlements in this area. A large golf course completely golden, again with just a few trees to hinder your gaze fall in between these hotels and some gardens. 

We spent 4 days in Pachmarhi which one can actually cover in 2 days for a concise tour schedule and we enjoyed 3 of the MP tourism hotels. Hotel Hilltop is a sweet 6 room colonial bungalow styled hotel, stands on one end of the colony of MP tourism hotels, is managed in tandem by the staff at the Hotel Amaltas about half a km away. The hilltop one has minimal staff and for any food you need to walk to the Hotel Amaltas where the food is decent. The cost was about 2,500 for a night and the service left so much to be desired that we decided this wasn't value for money by any means. With a survey around the other hotels, we got discounts uptil 25% at Glen View and Panchvati hotels since it was the off season. The Panchvati hotel have AC and aircooled cottages that have 2 bedrooms each  and for Rs 1200 a night for 3 people it was a deal. The China bowl restaurant serves close to its reception and has a very pretty garden surrounding it. The higher end Rock Manor hotel is uphill from behind the Panchvati and has very few rooms but is a colonial looking hotel overlooking a quite valley and has prices inclusive of food. Glen View is managed by another manager in tandem with Club view hotel which is close to the Protestant church. The Club view seems like a small bungalow turned into a guest house and when we went to check, there was no response to our knocks and calls at the hotel, the doors locked and a desolate church nearby just increased the eerieness and I guess that the service would therefore not be anything worth writing about. Glen view has a beautiful garden with large dahlias of various colours just like the China bowl restaurant and beautiful trees of purple flowers that are shed off at an equal pace as flowering new ones, so by midday there is a bed of purple both around the entire ground that it gives shade to and aloft the tree. The Glen view hotel offers their AC cottages and AC tents at the same price (all prices are inclusive of buffet breakfasts, lunches and dinners) and AC deluxe rooms a tad better in interiors. We took Ac tent and enjoyed the stay on the last day there, another great value for money along with the Panchvati with great food and service.

Now before I lose myself completely describing these hotels, the spots here are so many that 2 days is what you can concisely fit in to cover the minimal ones. For transportation around Pachmarhi there are only open jeeps and Gypsys or you will have to walk it out. For Rs100 per head you can join a shared tour for a day. The first day was a tough one where we visited a Shankar temple called Jata Shankar in a deep ravine that has lovely rock formations as you go down. Before I forget I had better mention that several of the day 1 sights need you to enter into forest areas and hence the tour hires a guide from the Satpura Forest reserve costing Rs500 to be shared by the members touring together. Expect a lot of terrain to be covered so wear some comfortable walking shoes or floaters with a little climbing required. The rock formations here are interesting as they are natural and the place is cool even in the summer.
Next stop is the Bee falls, about 250 feet high which provides drinking water to Pachmarhi, requires a short trek down to the bottom to enjoy it in full glory. Its a favourite picnic spot, so expect some cantankerous groups to deride you the peace that would otherwise have enjoyed. For the others that do not want to trek down, there are some smaller streams that are at the top that can be safely enjoyed in the shade. There are a number of spots that are close to each other which are the Rajat Prapat or the silver falls, the tallest of the falls in Pachmarhi at 350 feet in height, that can be viewed at a distance from a viewing point. A trek down would be a day trek that needs to be arranged as a seperate day trip and I've been told there are many such trekking spots that can be taken with the forest reserve guides hired seperately. The panch kund, or the 5 ponds is a walk away from the silver falls. Get your water and drinks along with you as this walk can tire some people. The Pandav gufa or caves are the next spot close by, are said to be caves that the Pandavas lived in during their exile. The caves are very basic with only a single one having several rooms and some carvings. It has a beautiful garden surrounding it and a great view of the garden if you climb to the top.

The next day we started on another days tour with the Handi Koh, a deep ravine, also known as Pachmarhi's suicide point, although I doubt any thoughts of suicide will ever settle on anyone who comes to Pachmarhi. A open jeep ride is so joyous giving a unhinder view of the outside, it was my first and the journey to the Priyadarshini point and later to the Gupt Mahadeo and Mahadeo temples are roads flanked with layers of golden autumn and tall trees of red, yellow, orange leaves, the colours of the summer fall, or should I call it the Indian fall.

The short walk over paved walkways gets to the Gupt Mahadeo which is a small temple inside a rock hill, the entrance of which is barely a foot in breadth and continues with the same width through a narrow tunnel with little light, the dead end of which is a small Shiv ling where you can offer flowers during your worship. Not more than 6-7 people can actually stand at a time in the main sanctum and the the tunnel is a one way street, so be prepared to feel a little claustrophobic. The Main Mahadeo cave temple is some distance away is a large cave with water dripping from the walls and the ceiling of the temple, the majority of which falls into the natural water tank in the center of the temple. On the ride back, you can see many Satpura hill ranges
From south MP Blog pics
which have an intersting skyline of godly forms such as the sleeping Buddha (spot it in this picture). Reechgarh is a beautiful naturla amphitheater with yellow and pink soapstone, here you can notice the peebles which are normally seen on seashores embedded in the rocks that form the hills, a proof that these were rocks that existed with this area was part of the sea bed. Our jeep driver cum guide, seemed conversant with herbology (Harry Potter fans would be really interested) and asked us to chew a leaf which he pulled out from the shrubs near Reechgarh, after which out sense of taste disappered. It was only after we reached our hotel and ordered for some salt and swirelled it around in our mouth that we got our fifth sense back.
The Protestant church is one of 2 churches in Pachmarhi, is just infront of the Hotel club view and was built in memory of a British General by his family and friends, is made entirely of stone and is in a shape of a cross. It has some very beautiful stained glass paintings visible only if you are able to gain entry to the church. It is open only on Sundays in the mornings as told to us by the locals. Inspite of this we found the church closed and were able to get a viewing only by pursuading a puny boy who holds the keys to it. Ask at the vicarage which I found to be just opposite to the church and adjacent to the Hotel Glen view.

So ends the spots that we could do within 2 days. For the other spots that we didn't get to enjoy, click here.


AT PACHMARHI
- Jata Shankar for an introduction to the rock formations
- Bee falls for the view from the foot of the falls
- Silver falls and Panch kund (only for the nature trailers and people who love to walk and climb)
- Apsara vihar or the Fairy pool for picnic goers
- Handi Koh for the view of the mountain range and the deep gorges
- Gupt Mahadeo, for the beautiful ride around the hills to reach there and the cave temple
- Pramukh Mahadeo temple, close to the Gupt Mahadeo for the water dripping caves
- Reechgarh, for the natural amphitheater, caves and rock formations
- Protestant Church, for the beautiful stained glassworks. Open only on Sundays from 8-12 noon and only if you are lucky. Inquire at the Vicarage opposite.
- Jain ayurvedic Udyog, since Pachmarhi is famous for the potency of the herbs that grow there, some of the medicines are known to be potent and worth a try. The dealer here seems honest as he clearly tells you what can and cannot be cured with his herbology.
Near Jain temple, Tel 07578-252138, jainayurvedicudyog@yahoo.com

Other fun things to do
- Pandav caves and garden adjoining
- Priyadarshini point

The not so hot spots
- the Lake for the boating novice
- Rajendragiri or Sunset point that may have a good view if not for forest fires

From south MP Blog pics
A smart way to cover more ground during the travel out of Pachmarhi to Bhopal was to do it with a private taxi service, which took us to Bhimbhekta and Bhojpur. The two-laned roads in MP are in a good shape unlike a few years ago. They are bound to become 4 lane higways in the near future especially near Indore where the idea is to connect it to the golden quadrilateral. 

Bhimbekta is a plethora of 750 caves of which 500 odd have cave paintings that date to the early stone age and is India's richest collection of prehistoric cave paintings that were discovered by a Indian archeologist, Mr Wakankar belonging to the Archeological society of India (ASI). The Old stone age ended in 10,000 B.C., which means these cave paintings are about that old at the very least. The paintings cover a range of years and start at the beginning with white or brown in colour depicting humans fighting on animal backs, their tools and weapons, etc. Paintings from further years are in more colours of green, yellow depicting a variety of animals and human activities and tools from that era. 

Bhojpur is 28 Kms away from Bhopal, has a Shiv temple cut out from rock from the 11th century on the banks of the river Betwa, which was dry when we visited. It has a 20 feet high Shiv linga and the walls of this temple had been broken, until a restoration project pieced together this temple where worship is not done, there is a adjoining temple at the forefront where a small shiv linga is worshipped. The temple columns and the ceilings are beautifully ornate. As is evident the whole of MP seems to favour forms of the lord Shiv and this is evident from further temples of Omkareshwar and Ujjain which are near Indore and famous for their Jyotirlingas. The temple folklore mentions that it was here that Kunti abandoned Karna with much strife.


Our main intention of visiting Bhopal was to visit the Sanchi stupa about 50 kms from it. MP tourism hotels are present in Sanchi itself, so you can plan to directly stay at Sanchi as well. The journey is about 375 Kms from Pachmarhi to Sanchi, so an early start is necessary if you want to schedule it this way. There is nothing else to visit in Bhopal, which is more of a large town rather than a city. Although it has the political clout due to it being the capital city, it underdeveloped as compared to Indore which was our next destination.

Sanchi takes about 2-3 hours to enjoy with a proper guide who insisted on Rs 200/- inspite of the MP tourism book (we bought much later there) saying guides cost Rs 150 for a group of 4.
The Sanchi stupa was in complete ruins until the early 1800s. Abandoned and appearing more like a round hill covered with creepers and trees, much work was carried out by a famous British archeologist as part of the early ASI, Sir John Marshall to bring it to its present glory. During the early 1800s post its discovery, many treasure hunters ravaged it in search of treasures. The stupas are generally burial places of human relics of the Gautam Buddha. The bone relics post the passing away of the Buddha, were fought over by various buddhist kings and it was later in the life of King Ashoka post his turning to the buddhist path of life, that the relics were brought together. The King then undertook building various stupas and burying the bone relics in each of them. Now a UNESCO world heritage site, none of the Buddha's remains are buried in Sanchi. Some relics of his disciples that were buried in the stupas adjoining the main stupa do exist but in England. 

What is interesting here are the carvings on the four main gateways of the main stupa, each with a single theme. One that depicts the Buddhas early life as a prince, another that shows the 7 incarnations of the Buddha, yet another shows the miracles by the Buddha and the Jataka tales and the last that shows the birth of Gautam Buddha. There are many ruins of temples, monasteries and it is difficult to complete it with the sun scorching above. Very noteworthy is the fact that this monument houses the Ashoka pillar, the national emblem.


AROUND BHOPAL
- Bhimbekta caves, a world heritage site, for the pre-historic lovers who are enchanted with all things old
- Bhojpur temple, for the over 20 foot Shiv Linga from the 11th century and archaicly decorated temple ceiling
- Sanchi stupa, for the detailed buddhist carvings and stupas part of the UNESCO world heritage site

Indore is 186 kms from Bhopal and takes about 3.5 hrs by a car ride and a an hour more if you take a bus to reach. There are various other travel options here such as train rides, which need 
From south MP Blog pics
to be booked in advance as this travel mode seems most preferred and the number of trains are just 3 at the moment which run full generally. The buses are very rudimentary resembling the Maharashtra ST bus services, running hourly from the main bus stand. A more comfortable ride is the MP tourism managed bus service that plies a few times in the day from Palash residency, the only MP tourism hotel in Bhopal. Tickets need to be booked atleast a day in advance, if not earlier, as this is also another preferred mode of transport. Online options to book this bus ticket are available, although the server cannot be trusted to be up when you need it the most. For example we couldn't get tickets because the server was down and the ticket reservation counter at the Palash does not have any manual way to sell tickets under such situations! The only other option is to take private non-AC cars on a sharing basis that take Rs 250/- per head, running from several travel shops near Manohar dairy, on Hamidia road. They ply at any time of the day and are dependent on travellers to arrive to fill the numbers. You may need to wait for an hour like we had to, for a single other traveller to share the cab with us. The option is comfortable and only takes you to the Indore main bus stand, in south tukoganj.

Indore is an up coming modern city, thriving more on business and automobile manufacturing. The once known textile mills are now sold off and the latest business is one of education, so there are a multitude of colleges coming up and educational advertisement, agents, tuition classes throng the city. The city reminds one of Pune with wide roads in the new Indore and modern buildings and malls and the old Indore with very narrow roads with dingy shops and old markets and eateries. 

The Sarafa area is supposed to be the foodies corner and samples some much acclaimed chat and indian fast food of Indore. We were unable to make it to Sarafa, which starts at 8pm in the night, but from some fellow travellers on the way back from Indore, we came to know of various dishes I've never heard of like poha made of shredded corn. Something for me to come back to this city. Apart from this is the old Kapda market, in old Indore just for the tiny shops housing saris and dress materials, which are nothing to write about particularly. The LalBagh palace is the only other palace turned museum that is an Indorian locale to visit. It is a palace constructed by Tukojis during the British times and so the exterior walls of the palace did remind me of the Buckingham palace (nothing special by itself either). The interiors of the palace are ornate with rucco architecture and Italian frescos on ceilings. The furniture, the upholstery of which needs mending, is preserved from the old british era. The rooms and fireplaces, the detailing on the wooden staircase railing, even black circular switches with a lever that moves from the ON to OFF position are reminsce of our grandfathers era. On the whole it takes one back to the times of being a child in a setting from the lost pages of our childhood, not that either of my grandparents were kings!

On the day of reaching Bhopal, we went to the Kapda market. The next day we started as early as 6.30am to visit Omkareshwar, a temple town some 75 kms southwest of Indore, where is housed one of the 12 jyotirlinga in the Mamleshwar stone temple, a temple built in stone with carvings. This temple city is thronged by pandyas who chase you in groups, making religion their business, unfortunately there is not much you can do to avoid them other than refusing their services. After visiting the jyotirlinga, a boat ride of Rs 10 for three of us took us to the island that Omkareshwar is famous for. It is an island in the shape of the symbol Om. The locals claim that at the south of the island is the sangam of the Narmada and Cauvery rivers and one brochure of the MP tourism does claim this too, although the Cauvery is hardly visible and the map also provided by MP tourism does not show this river and neither does Yahoo! maps. 

A temple built by the Shankaracharya in white is the one clearly visible on this island. Again avoiding pandyas here is very difficult as a group of them are in the main sanctum. For donations, adjoining the main temple on the terrace like open space sits the temple worker who takes puja requests and gives coupons for lunch served at the temple that can be given to the poor kids that are near the ghat, river banks.

Post lunch at Indore (one needs to pass through Indore to reach Ujjain), a visit to Ujjain was our last stop for the day having covered another 50kms from Indore to reach this other temple town. The locals have a saying that if you take a kilo of wheat and offer a single grain to each temple, you might actually run out of grains before you finish visiting all the temples in this town. So we made only 3 stops, the main temple is the Mahakaleshwar temple. Having arrived during the afternoon siesta time, we were less inconvienced from the generally expected long queues and groups of pandyas. Again similar to the Shankaracharya temple in Omkareshwar the temple puja and donations counter can be found after you have been to the main sanctum, leaving very little doubt as to the reason behind the stratergic location of these counters. If first timer devotees would enter the temple, and I'm sure atleast 50% would be first timers, they would easily miss the counter until their prayers and offerings are done with. 

The other stops were the Ganesh temple and Harsiddhi temple, although they seemed very run of the mill temples. Not much of the history of Ujjain is present in terms of historical destinations and the town seems completely submerged in religious frevour and the business that it generates.

The following day was to the most interesting part of our Indore trip, to Mandu, a small town housing the historical ruins of the Malwa dynasty and later the Mughal rulers. A once populous fort city with over 9 lakh Hindu and Jain residents, it was later turned into a pleasure resort for Malwa sultans and their harems. 

In the late Mughal era there was a general Baz Bahadur who took charge of the region. He was also a music lover and greatly enchanted by the Queen of Dhar, Rani Roopmati who was Raja Mansingh's wife. An ardent singer and musician herself, she was bound to a vow to eat only after viewing the Narmada river. To keep her in Mandu to enjoy her music and also adhere to her vow, Baz Bahadur built the Roopmati Pavillion, which is at the highest vantage point of Mandu that has a spectacular view of the plains to the south of Mandu and the Narmada. This view is not very good during the day because of the extreme sun exposure but is said to be good in the early mornings. The pavillion has beautiful dome shaped shades and viewing points and is very windly. A narrow staircase takes you down to a corridor that surrounds a water tank, likely to reduce the temperature of the building. The corridor is particularly beautiful as it has numerous skylights. Apart from the view of the plains, it also gives a view to Baz Bahadur's palace in the distance.

Baz Bahadur's palace is very understated as opposed to ornate. There are various desolate ruins on the way to Mandu and even within the main site area are various small ruins including the Dai's tomb which is being restored, within which I found the writings by a very disgruntled foreigner. Echo point and the ghat near the lake are just near this tomb. A nice joke I heard from a fellow passenger on the train back from Indore about this place, is about a visit of Pandit Nehru to Mandu, where a guide told him that the Echo point has miraculous powers to give you answers to any questions that you shout to it. The guide demostrated this by shouting in Hindi in the direction of the echo point, "Kya Nehruji bure hain ya achche" (Is Nehruji a bad man or good) and promptly came the answer as "achche" (good). Nehru then told him he had a special question to ask and he shouted in the direction of the echo point "Sanjay aur Rajiv pass honge ya fail" (Will Sanjay and Rajiv pass their exams or fail), ofcourse came the answer "fail".

The Malwa resort, one of 2 MP tourism hotels in Mandu is located on the banks of this lake and has wonderful view of the lake. For prices starting at Rs 1130/- per day, this place is a steal. If I do go back to Mandu and I really feel I will some day, I would rather spend a night here than the extra night in Indore. The service at the restaurant was very good and the view and rooms seemed excellent. This being the off season there were only 3 other groups of travellers besides us during the time we were in Mandu, but the guide (at 100Rs for further 2 monuments) told us that they get 3000 tourists during the August to October period per day, most being crowds from within MP. 

The other 2 major sites to visit are the Jami Masjid and the Jahaz Mahal. I would highly recommend you do these with a guide, else the small nuances of history and remarkable architecture made by the Mughals (Khiljis) will not be evident. The Jami Masjid is a place of worship built to offer prayers. It has corridors of pillars and archs with a high seating made in marble at the center of the prayer hall and opens to a large lawn for worshippers of that era. Behind the high seating and in the center of the site is the tomb of the Khilji rulers in white marble Taj Mahal like mosque. It was built some 200 yrs before the Taj Mahal and is said to be the inspiration to the Taj. There is no doubting the borrowed inspiration as all it lacks is size and the minarets at the corners.

The Jahaz mahal was used as a resort palace for the kings and with large manmade water tanks all around the palace, it would make you feel like being in a ship when the tanks would fill up in the monsoons. The palace has some very interesting tales and architectural facets. The smart engineering to keep the water levels of the various water tanks in equilibrium, the water supplies to the pools very intricatly beautiful and yet serving their purpose, the plumbing in the baths that could easily give the bathing royals the sauna effect make this visit very enjoyable.

Another interesting spot is just opposite to the Jami Masjid, the Ashrafi Mahal. The interesting tale goes that the King did not like his queens getting chubby and so whenever they did show signs of it, she would be brought to the Ashrafi Mahal. A striking facet of this mahal is that its entrance is a large staircase whose individual step has a larger than average depth and width, so the climb up forces larger strides. Ashrafi means a gold coin and this was thrown to the top of the stairs which the queen would have to climb up to fetch and when brought down it would then go as donations to the poor.

The folk tales that are based on this very exotic and fascinating ruin city reminds one of Hampi, another heritage site in the south. But that is one for another trip and another blog post. So having hung my travel shoes for a while, I get back to my everyday existence until my next forray.

AROUND INDORE
- Shani temple on the way to Omkareshwar, for a lovely navratna temple and large Shani idol that are very rare to see.
- Omkareshwar and Ujjain for the pilgrimage lovers
- Mandu for the beautiful ruins of the Malwa dynasty that spurs your imagination
- Sarafa area in Indore for sampling the Foodie lovers fast food of Indore

Other interesting things to do
- Lal baug palace, to see the pretty bygone era of the maharajas. This isn't anything that can compare with Rajasthan or Mysore though.
- Kapda market, the clothes shopping in the busy crowded old Indore area.

Recommended Hotels to stay

Motel Marble rocks, Bhedaghat
Tel: 0761-283 0424
mmr@mptourism.com
For reservations : www.mptourism.com

Hotel River view, Bhedaghat
Tel: 0761 - 2830487/6942004

Hotel Panchvati (Budget value for money hotel)
Pachmarhi
Tel:07578-252096
For reservations : www.mptourism.com

Hotel Glen View (Luxury)
Pachmarhi
Tel:07578- 252533,252445
For reservations : www.mptourism.com

Hotel Rockend Manor (Luxury)
Pachmarhi
Tel : 07578 - 252079
For reservations : www.mptourism.com

Hotel Pleasure Inn, Bhopal (business travel)
MP Nagar (also there are several other hotels in this area which you search on Justdial.com)
Ask for discounts.

Hotel Kalinga, Indore (budget)
South Tukoganj (also there are several other hotels in this area which you search on Justdial.com. I'd recommend travellers to stay in this area as its centrally located in new Indore)
For Rs1290/- all  inclusive for 3 persons for a AC room per day, this was good value for money. The service was good and its restaurants serve really very good food. Ask for discounts.
Tel : 0731-2524920/21/22/23/24
www.hotelkalingaindore.com

Hotel Malwa Resort, Mandu
Tel: 07292-263235
For reservations : www.mptourism.com

Recommended Tour or Travel services

Daddy tours, Pachmarhi sightseeing and uptil Bhopal
Tel: Sanjay 9425646812, 9425669271, 9424486865
Any travel outside pachmarhi sightseeing negotiate for the price and hidden terms and conditions such as up and down inclusive fares etc.

Vinayak Travels, Bhopal for Sanchi taxi services & any railway ticketing
MP Nagar, Bhopal
Tel : 0755-4274758, 9826090823
Gave a good service of a AC taxi for 5.5Rs/km with 250KM min per day

Guru Nanak travels, Indore for Omkareshwar, Ujjain and Mandu taxi services
Tel: 0731 - 2540545, 2544993, 4037537
Negotiate for the price and take the terms and conditions upfront in writing. The service was good for  a AC taxi for 5.5Rs/km with 250KM min per day, but the proprietor is cheeky to try to muscle out hidden charges at the end. Be careful and do not give too much in advance as far as possible inspite of his efforts.

Useful travel sites

The Madhya Pradesh tourism site - you can check for accomodation options and book online, get information on your travel destinations

For a map of Tourism spots, Click

Another source for tourist destinations, www.mustseeindia.com

Search for more hotel or travel operator options on www.Justdial.com


Share on Facebook