Pushkar: Land of Sarovar and Sands

Those eyes!!

Pushkar is considered to be one of the holiest cities of India for the existence of Brahma temple that is believed to be built in 14th century AD. Also the lake (sarovar) in Pushkar is believed to have been created when Lord Brahma dropped a lotus flower on earth which turned into a lake. Pushkar is also famous for the annual Camel Fair that is held here in November. Of late, Pushkar has become quite popular with foreign tourists for handicrafts, fusion music, cheap rents and the intoxicating atmosphere.

Fire seems to be his food

The town of Pushkar is situated 14 kms northwest of Ajmer. The road condition from New Delhi to Ajmer is quite good though there is still a possibility of traffic jams due to construction work going on the highway. However, the road from Ajmer to Pushkar is full of potholes. Thankfully its not a long stretch. Overall, Pushkar is at a distance of about 390 kms from Delhi and the distance can be covered in about 7 hours.

Brilliant performance

We went to Pushkar on a office trip and departed from Gurgaon at midnight in Volvo bus. As our driver demanded a nap midway, so we reached Pushkar quite late at around 10 in the morning. We stayed at Ananta Resort located about 4 kms before Pushkar. The resort is quite nicely maintained and seemed impressive at first impression. The rooms are luxurious and are mostly in the form of villas with a private porch/balcony for each room. However, it was their service that really disappointed us especially in the restaurant. Also, the resort staff failed to provide us with TV connection over our two day stay in any of the 30 rooms that our group had occupied.

In action

In the evening, we went to Pushkar town for sightseeing. Our first visit was to the famous Brahma temple. However, I was a bit disappointed with the temple as I couldn't see any reason for the temple to be famous. It was just like all our regular temples and I personally didn't feel the positive energy that comes to us at some of our famous temples. A short walk from the temple lies the sarovar or Pushkar lake. Years back, the lake was surrounded by almost 500 temples and 50 palaces. However, the mughal king, Aurangzeb demolished most of these. But many of them were rebuilt just like they originally were and today you can see them doting the banks of the lake to give it an enchanting feel. The lake area seemed quite peaceful due to the absence of huge crowd at this time of the year and spending a quite hour sitting besides it felt refreshing.

Qawwali Session

Next day, a paintball competition was organised in the resort lawns. I had never played paintball before and enjoyed it totally. However, the blood clots left from the bullets that hit me kept reminding me the game for a couple of days.

This evening, we left for sand dunes to enjoy a typical Rajasthani evening. From the point where bus dropped us, there was a camel cart to carry us to the event site. Here, we enjoyed rajasthani folk music followed by a Qawwali session. Apart from the music, the acts of fire by some local performers were amazing. After our return to the resort, we left for our return trip to Delhi early next morning.

Breathes of fire

Places of Interest:
In Pushkar:
1. Brahma Temple
2. Pushkar Lake
3. Pushkar Camel Fair (Annual event in November)

Around Pushkar:
1. Ajmer Sharif Dargah (14 kms from Pushkar)

Dadhikar Fort: A tryst with history

View from the porch

This year, I wanted some change for my birthday. So, we decided to go to some heritage hotel for celebration. Our first choice was a Neemrana Property, but they don't allow you to carry your own liquor inside the property. Not even if you want to drink it within the confines of your room. Upon exploring on Tripadvisor, we decided to go to Dadhikar Fort in Alwar district. This heritage hotel located in Aravali hillss, the oldest mountain range of the world seemed like the perfect getaway for a short trip.

Front

This fort came into existence as a residential camp of Chand Dynasty around 9th century, when they lost everything due to flood in their capital city of Abhaneri. Later, when they moved to Bala Qila,  this fort was used as a military camp. With passage of time, this fort went into a very dilapidated condition. The current owner purchased the property in 1997 and started restoring it to its original grandeur with modern amenities in 2004. Finally the hotel was opened to visitors in 2007. I must mention that the restoration has been done quite tastefully and most rooms seem exquisite. However, it doesn't seem as huge in size as you would expect from a proper fort.

Chitrakute, one of our room

We left for the hotel around 2 pm on Saturday from Gurgaon. The route we took was NH-8 till Daruhera and then moving towards Bhiwadi and further towards Alwar. The fort is about 8-10 kms away from Alwar town and the route diverts couple of kilometers before Alwar. Enroute, you pass by the magnificent Vijaymandir Palace, built by Maharaja Jai Singh in 1918. This 105 roomed palace was built by the eccentric king after he didn't like Yashwant Niwas, a palace that was commissioned to be built with Italian architechture. Barring a small patch near Daruhera, road condition was brilliant and we reached there around 5 pm. While we were climbing the stairs towards the entrance of the fort, view of the green harvested fields with hillocks acting as boundary gave it a feel of a vast protected arena.

Ultimate Balancing Act

Dance performance

We were received cordially by the hotel staff and shown our rooms. The hotel entrance opens into a courtyard with rooms along its periphery. A gully from this courtyard opens onto a terrace which is set nicely along a hill. There are some rooms on the opposite end of this gully. Every room here has a different feel to it. While some rooms give you a lavish feel, living in others you can get the feel of living like a General of the king's army in a military camp. One room I really found interesting was Malay. This room is located in the turret and you have to climb down a flight of stairs to reach the seating area. There are a number of small roshandans besides the bed that provide a neat rustic feeling. However, this room might not be perfect for claustrophobic people.

Huge bursts of fire

A fiery mouth

And he extinguishes it in his mouth

The hotel staff organized a cultural program for us in the evening with some folk music and dance performances. This was organized on the hotel terrace and all of us enjoyed a small dance ourselves as well. The program was capped by a scintillating fire performance by a troupe member. That performance held us spellbound. The cultural program was followed by a nice Rajasthani dinner in the restaurant downstairs. Though there wasn't much variety, but the food was delicious. After a light dinner, we started our drinking session on the terrace and the staff was cooperative. Some drunk discussions took us deep into the night which resulted in all of us missing our breakfast. Weirdly enough, they were unable to provide us with some Ala Carte food after we had missed our breakfast. Starving, we left the hotel around 12:30 pm consuming lunch at a highway dhaba.

Vijaymandir Palace

Where Tigers rule: Ranthambore National Park

When I visited Ranthambore last year for a day and failed to see a tiger, I had decided that I will come back here again. I always had a feeling that I missed seeing one by a very slight margin. So I decided to drive to Ranthmabore on a Friday night, have four safaris over Saturday n Sunday and drive back after the evening safari on Sunday. Last year I committed a big mistake of doing these safaris in a Canter, which is like a minibus with its top removed. Though you can still see a tiger but the canter with its inability to maneuver easily and the time it takes in picking up all the tourists reduces the probability of seeing a tiger significantly. So I booked my safaris in gypsy with Ranthambore Bagh. I would highly recommend this place to anyone going there. With the owner himself being a wildlife photographer, this place is built with a passion that won't be seen in other resorts in Ranthambore.

Safari 1: We got zone number 3 in our 1st safari. Its surely the most scenic zone with three lakes here. Also, the chances of sighting a tiger here are good as these lakes provide nice habitat to a tiger with enough water n prey present. Zone 3 falls into the territory of T-28 male tiger, T-17 female and T-19 female with her 3 cubs. However, we were out of luck as this zone was totally dry during our safari. No pugmarks, no warning calls. We had to make do with just crocodiles, deers, monkeys and a number of birds.

Safari 2: When we reached back to our hotel, we found out that people in zone 4 and 5 had seen multiple tigers, so we requested the agents to get us those zones for the evening safari as tigers hardly move during the day. We got zone 5. Its the biggest zone and the ride is quite harsh on your back in this zone. Sundari(T17) The start to this safari was similar to the earlier safari with just deers, monkeys and birds to give us company. However, i still had hope as tigers normally move late evening when its a bit colder. After about 2 hours, we saw a canter and a gypsy parked saying that there is a tiger nearby. We moved closer to them and there she was. Sundari(T-28), a female tigress big enough to ruling a territory as big as male tigers of 40-50 sq kms, sleeping on a rock. After lying there for sometime, finally she got up to move towards the stream. This was our chance to have a closer look at her. With atleast 7-8 vehicles there, our gypsy driver drove in reverse gear for over 100 meters on such difficult terrain to get us probably the second best view of the beautiful tigress. She sat in the water for about 15 mins giving us enough time to take pictures. After that she walked into the woods and we exited the park for the day. Safari 3: Though we didn't want it, but we got Zone 3 again. By now, I had started trusting my luck though having seen 3 tigers in my last three safaris. I actually did get lucky as we had just entered our zone when a gypsy came backwards with the guide announcing the approach of a tiger. After a bit of commotion with all the gypsies moving backward and forth, he came out of the bushes, crossed the road and climbed onto the ruins to analyze his territory before disappearing into the bushes on the other side. T-28, Star Male Fort Territory This was T-28 or Star Male, the biggest tiger of Ranthambore. Though Sundari was big but T-28 seemed massive compared to her. More than that, I just loved the attitude with which this tiger crossed the route totally unperturbed by all the cars around. Rest of the time in this safari was spent looking for T-19, the female with 3 cubs. However, she is known to be shy and not easily spotted. That belief was proved when we couldn't find any trace of her but still came back mesmerized by T-28. Safari 4: I wanted to see the grand old dame of Ranthambore, the oldest tigress in the wild, 17 year old Machli or Crocodile killer or Queen of the Lakes. While male tigers are known to be dominant and stronger, it was Machli's 10 year reign of the highly desired Fort territory of Ranthambore that made her a legend. She finally left the territory for her daughter, Sundari. With her canines broken and a weak old body, she now lives in Zone 4. For this very reason, I requested my agent to provide us Zone 4. However, we were again allotted Zone 5. Though we were pretty disappointed, but our guide almost promised us that he will show us atleast one tiger. That helped in soaring our spirits high. T-39 He didn't have to work hard to keep that promise. We had just entered the National Park and were on the common road for the park and Ranthambore Fort when we saw almost all the jeeps parked. We understood that we are in luck again. It took about 15 mins before we could spot the black n yellow stripes in the woods. It was T 39 and she was walking towards us after drinking water at the stream below. Finally she came out of the woods right next to our jeep and looked towards us. She seemed hungry and our guide concluded that she must have just fed her cubs by looking at her nipples. A forest guard present there was happy to see that as that confirmed that there were new cubs in the Park. After staring at us for a few seconds, she moved parallel to the road before jumping onto it and move into the woods on the other side. She was the closest I could be to a tiger. Anymore closer, she would have been in our jeep. Then we went into our zone hoping to find Sundari again but that didn't happen. We came out of the park after our final safari of the trip and were more than satisfied after seeing 3 tigers from close. RANTHAMBORE TIPS 1. If you are going from Delhi by road, go to Jaipur. From jaipur move on Tonk Road(NH 12) before turning left from Kothun. Continue on this till Lalsot and turn right from there. This is the best route among all you will see on Google Maps. 2. Do whatever it takes to get a gypsy for safari. 3. Do atleast four safaris to enhance your probability of seeing a tiger and enjoy the wildlife. 4. If you still don't see a tiger, go back again!!