The Rajasthan tour - (day 6,7)- Bikaner - the land of artistic jewels.

Here comes the final destination of our trip Bikaner - the land of artistic jewels and lots of bhujia....

We reached this city in the second half post lunch  as its been long journey from Jaisalmer , a wholesome travel of 329 kms .

For tourism, majorly there  are only few places in here ..

Post freshening up we started with our first destination in Bikaner and thats the Laxmi Niwas palace . 

Laxmi Niwas Palace is a former residential palace of the king of the former Bikaner state, Mahārāja Ganga Singh, in Bikaner in the Indian state of Rajasthan.It is now a luxury  managed by Golden Triangle Fort & Palace P. Ltd. The magnificent structure in red sandstone is one of the most popular destination for tourists in Bikaner. 

Upon its completion, plans were already drawn up, again by Jacob, to extend it into the much larger Lalgarh Palace

This hotel have different wings named after the era of their build. The stay there leaves you with immersed in the feelings of complete royalty.

And for those who have greater interest in the vintage cars , for you its a complete bliss as the vintage car museum is worth your time and feelings.

For the next day we started for the Junagarh fort after awesome buffet breakfast in the palace.
This palace is located in the city itself and very near to the Laxmi niwas palace. Its architecture says a thousand words about the efforts invested in it. However , the stairs and the passages inside the fort are quite small but depicts the proper architecture for safety concerns. Their you have the kings bed , rooms and queens rooms accessible to understand their livelihood ways.

One thing i remember the most is the bed of the king being of size 5.5feet when the king himself was of 6 feet (approx figures) and the height of the bed was also kept too low for safety measures. So that nobody can hide beneath the bed and if some one even enters the king's room and ties his feet or hands ,but will not be able to tie him to the bed . So he can get up and free himself from the intruders. So you can understand the thoughtful architecture , at that time they used to have.
The fort gives you amazing view of the whole city leaving u in feelings of complete awe.

After this fort, next is the Karni mata mandir, a temple where you can find immense number of rats . Its believed there , that the rats are their ancestors who had some magic lewd upon them by some goddess and are bound to stay in the temple itself and they cant leave the temple. This might scare you a little but worth viewing .

Last stop point is the Camel Breeding Camp, a camp one of its kind in the whole India to have camels breeding carried out .
They have a museum also in which its depicted that after camel's death , their skin, bones and whole of body is utilised in what all ways.Here you can see camels of all age group , even they have few babies also . Its really wonderful to see such large animals grow from the scratch.

This marks the end of the day for the men of our group  ;) but not the women's . You see unless we do some good shopping its not and end.
So for the most heard jewels , we went to the local market in search of some best shops that I had heard about , so we went straight down to that shop named B C Jain and Co. in Baidon ka bazar.
It was little hard to find but we finally reached there and had the finest taste of jewellery .. And in few minutes we all had 2 -3 packets of exquisite jewellery .. You must go there


So a happy ending to a very long tour with way too many people. 
I  must say solo, family trips and these kumba trips each have their own happiness..
What next , Gurgaon it is or still few left ..

Okay , So as planned we got ready to return from Bikaner to Gurgaon. But when you lots of constructive minds you may end up to something more better.
So guess what happened .. To give this trip final touch of holiness , the bade log decided to take up a different route visiting Salasar Balaji Dham Mandir and Rani Sati Mandir. So this trip's end could be blessed with the Gods too..

So now our new route is Bikaner - Salasar Balaji Dham - Rani Sati Mandir - Gurgaon..

And I must say this was great decision. With all that bhajans singing and Godly chants we visited both places having some good food at the  cafetaria of Rani Sati Mandir having super good food at cheaper rates , just to serve the people.

And finally by end of dark night we reached gurgaon with everyone half sleepy and tired.

But memories created for a life time.

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The Rajasthan Tour -(day 4-5) - Jaisalmer - sand dunes and all of it

On the 6th day of our trip we started heading to Jaisalamer , 329 kms from Jodhpur making a timeline of 5.5 hours but with lunch and so many people altogether it was of 7 hours . We left from Jodhpur after breakfast.

On our way to entering the city, we had the Jaisalamer fort because the stay was in the sand dunes.
The fun of visiting Jaisalamer is by staying in the sand dunes itself.
You may find many tents from different properties there and everyone of them offers display of cultural programs including the rajasthani dance with several equipment , fire show and DJ music.

Ok so the Jaisalamer fort we visited even before going to the tents booked for us in the sand dunes.

The fort is so strongly built that it stands firm against the sandy expanse of the great Thar desert on Trikuta hill.
The fort has numerous eateries, including Italian, French and native cuisines.
After the visit to it we moved toward the sand dunes tents which was about 50 kms away from the city .

The welcome in the sand dunes itself was so magical with the girls decorated in the rajasthani dress with all the cultural welcome with tikka and performers performing welcome dance for us.
This whole thing overwhelmed us with Joy.

The weather and the atmosphere was so perfect with the stars tinkling in the sky seeming to be a bedsheet of sparkle , an ocean of serenity , gazing at the sky will in itself take you away from everything.
The cold weather with angithis here and there and hot tea served with hot snacks made the evening most of it .
And then was started the great night starts with cultural performane with lots of awe making art works in it .
the firework performances added charm to the whole evening.
finally the DJ let the people to take out the performers inside them with the performers even dancing with us .

A perfect night  followed by the dinner and a little time for your self.

Next day , we woke up early to catch the rising sun and the ultimate painting it has to do on its own personal canvas , the clouds. Believe me its worth waking up to catch that picture in your eyes and memories for ever and ever .

After freshening up , we decided to go for the patwon ki haveli in the city which is bit far from the place we stay .
It took us an

We then went for camel safari for which the safari people were available in abundant outside every hotel ( i mean tents) .
Hold on , take a deep breath and some light breakfast because this race in the camels gonna swirl everything in your stomach to the fullest and for those feared with this like me , hold it tight . :D

This is a must do experience for everyone and for every age group people, even the old ones can do it with the camel gaadi rather than to be climbing on the camels and feeling the swirl from head to toe.

Final is the desert jeep safari , in which thee jeeps take us to the deserts making us feel the ride as of the roller coaster  and drops to the deserts where they have few shops and the local people performing and collecting the rewards from you.

Being in the lap of deserts with the sun ready to settle down and temperature dropping suddenly from scortching heat to serene (little)cold weather giving a mystic view all around your eyes go.

It was a feeling to be felt deep inside and to hear what the dunes had to say to you .

Finally we return to our camp,where already cultural program similar to last night was going on and this marked the end of the Jaisalamer tour for us .

With the super cold water flowing from the taps , next day we started erly morning around 5 o clock because this is yet another 329 kms with lots of perople altogether, to start to another distant and long journey  to Bikaner , a small yet royal land .

The Rajasthan tour -(day 2 ,3)- Jodhpur, city of magestic royalty

Jodhpur , the next destination

After the quite tiring day of Jaipur , we started early morning after breakfast for Jodhpur , the land of havelis and eternal royalty with Khatu Shyam Ji on our way . The visit to Khatu Shaym Ji was planned instantly so we moved for the temple and suddenly people were filled with the spirituality and love for khatu shaym Ji.

After visiting the temple we went out for some quick snacky bites in the outside thelas little distant from the temple , well that was the parking area moreover where this all thelas and shops were there.

Then from there we moved for Jodhpur and finally by 2 we reached jodhpur. The places that we visited on the first day in Jodhpur were Mehrangarh Fort - a true display of the royalty . The local people sitting inside and playing songs over the intruments that will certainly make you dance.
Just enjoy the magic this place has to offer you .
For us the most interesting thing in there was the flying fox , giving you a spectacular view when you slide down from one pole to another over the lakes .  For flying fox its said " Glide serenely over its two desert lakes, trek through the Rao Jodha eco-park and enjoy the best view of Mehrangarh and the Blue City of Jodhpur."
The fort has the spectacular musuem that holds may magistical things including the clothes , the weapons , the day to day life things , the helicopter etc. used by the maharajas of it .
And the sovenier shop there also is great but be aware not to get cheated . But yes that will give you a great memory .
The time for visiting this was almost 3- 4 hours including the flying fox that itself took 90-120 min (1.5 - 2 hours).

There is a restaurant in it nearby to the flying fox counter , thats a must try and feel the royalty . The food is also good and the staff too.

Umaid bhawan yet another spectacular and magestic fort which is now converted to hotel. So most of its part is controlled by the hotel but a part of it is open for the visitors.
And moreover the royal family still resides there in a section of the palace.
Jastwant thada is on the way to the mehrangarh fort , a cenotaph made in memory of father of Maharaja Sardar singh
The mausoleum is built out of intricately carved sheets of marble. These sheets are extremely thin and polished so that they emit a warm glow when illuminated by the sun.

The shopping market includes the tripolia bazaar and the sardar market that we visited near which there is this Ghanta Ghar or popularly known as the Clock Tower .
The clock tower is a popular landmark in the old city. The vibrant Sardar Market is close to the tower, and narrow alleys lead from here to a bazaar selling vegetables, spices, Indian sweets, textiles, silver and handicrafts. It is a great place to ramble around at leisure.

There are few good eating joints in this road as well that serves almost everything .

And this two day tour on the lands of Jodhpur with the visit to the shopping markets marked the end to the jodhpur visit .

Now everyone's bags all packed and ready to leave for Jaisalmer , where the sand dunes are waiting desperately for us or vice versa.

Stay tuned for Jaisalmer

The Rajasthan Tour ....Day 1

Hi Friends,

Here you get all about the Rajasthan Tour covering Jaipur, Khatu Shyam Ji, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer ,Bikaner and not to forget the last moment add ons of Rani Sati Mandir and Salasar bala ji , to and from Gurgaon. This whole was done from 24th December to 1st January 2016. 

Ours was a complete family trip whole big family gathering and the places gave the true feeling or royalty and thrill. The wholesome display of the weapons and everything the great maharajas used at that time takes you in your mind to their time . It drives everyone even for a moment to think of the royalty , discipline and the techniques they had . Truly speaking ,  glancing at every piece of art and remains from their time it took to that era .I kind of started wandering about their lifestyle and the ethnicity of that time.

Lets start with the trip details now. Since it was a big family trip so the whole of the family gathered at Gurgaon at my place only and we started for Jaipur . We got bit late because of the flight schedules of people getting delayed. I had already lived in Jaipur for 3 years in my grads time so I look at it as the second best place after my home. We had a bus on rent for this wholesome big trip. So we started our travel by like 11 am after everyone reached which we had to start by 8. Because most monuments tend to close by 5 pm . 

The trip started on 24th december with lots of ho-halla , antakshari  , looto housie ,cards game etc to keep people entertained and into the whole scene. These days the Rajasthan weather remains pretty cool so we required to have our caps, gloves handy to avoid faling sick and to enjoy the whole trip the most.......We reached Jaipur by 4 pm , the time when going up to nahargarh is disallowed. But , most of us had already visited these places so we decided to stay at the view point for Jal mahal. That area is quite lively with most of the locals having road side shops. 

There you can try the proper rajasthani dresses and get beautiful pictures hand to hand . So we stayed there for next 1 and half hours , had little snacks and then moved to our hotel. The shikha hotel,it was not a very hi-fi hotel but yes good in budget for 22 people . The buffet breakfast is there however you can get your own menu served in separate hall as we saw they did for some big gujrati group.

After some relaxation , those who wanted to do some shopping went to the most famous Bapu Bazaar . The streets itself offers a lot of tradition rajasthani stuff like bangles, decorative items etc. Since our group had a lot of ladies so soon everyone of us had packets in our hands full of decorative marble items, bangles, bandhni suits, kurtas, bedsheets  and yes the world famous jaipuri rajai (we bought two) , its really good to use as ac blanket or even in winters.

The day took halt with the amazing food at LMB (i.e Lakshmi misthan bhandhar) again a famous place to savour the best of food. I remember  we ordered almost everything like chinese, south indian, north indian but nothing could beat their pure rajasthani thali.  Even the chinese was pretty good . 

This commences our first day . Now after getting back to the hotel some slept early as we had to get up early to leave for Jodhpur , and some stayed up whole nights especially the kids to play cards and games to make the most of the time.

In Jaipur the other places to visit are :

1.) Birla temple : For a first time visitor, this is a must go place. This temple has a great art work of white stone. Beautifully crafted walls and ceiling. 

2.) Govind dev ji temple 

3.) Albert hall

4.) City palace 

5.)  Jaigarh and nahargarh fort , as it has great history and its the place where rang de basanti was pictured.

6.) those who like to visit haunted places for their bucket we have Bhangarh, quite scary one.

7.) For shopping the best places like bapu bazaar (for clothes , artificial jewellery , german silver decoration items etc.) , zohri bazaar ( for jewellery, their carving is suepr amazing )..

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Stay tuned for next day to start the travel to Jodhpur......