padhaaro.com http://www.padhaaro.com/blog/rustic-rajasthan/

RenukaManghwani

The Rustic Rajasthan

Radiant….Amazing…Josh…Awesome…Scintillating…Thrilling…Heroic…Astonishing…Natural…That’s a gist of the COLORFUL Rajasthan – a vibrant state where tradition & history blend with contemporarylifestyles!!! (quite literally.. what with Jodhpur being the Blue City.. Jaisalmer being the Golden City.. Jaipur being thePink city and Bikaner the Red City)Rajasthan - the land of Kings… brave warriors… camels… bandhini… fascinating forts and palaces…romance, warsand tragedy!

Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur | Image Credits: Vishnu Shiv Kapoor

Our firstdestinationwasJodhpur –as boring &ordinarily asthis placemay sound,in reality itcertainly isnot so! TheMehrangarhFortperched ona rockyridge isspectacular!The intricateCarvingsmade withGolden andRed SandStone andbrilliance ofthisarchitecturalheritage willamaze every visitor. On the way down from the fort is Jaswant Thada – the graceful marble cenotaph of MaharajJaswant Singh. The much hyped 340 roomed Umaid Bhavan Palace – which houses Maharaja Umaid Singh, partiallyis a museum and about 90% is now converted to a Taj Heritage hotel (which now is too pricey after Liz Hurley & ArunNayar tied the knot there) is the kinda place I’d like to live in Before we knew it was time to bid farewell to Jodhpur but not before we enjoyed a roof top dinner at Pal Haveli (our hotel in Jodhpur) at 4 degrees.Next morning we left forJaisalmer, which is a beautiful 4hrs 30mins drive. Must mention that Rajasthan has remarkable roads, with amazingviews of peacocks and deer’s all through our drive. Jaisalmer – the golden city – with its hostile terrain ( ‘guldanphathar’- as our driver wud say ;)) and brilliant deserts – houses some amazing havelis which is a treat for the eye.The intricate designs, carvings are breathtaking and it’s difficult to stop admiring these architectural marvels.

Gadisar Lake Image Credits: Ramnath Bhat

The GadisarLake built inthe 14thcentury hassmalltemples &shrinesaround it,making uswonder ifwe hadreachedBanaras byany chance!TheJaisalmerFort , theonly Fortwhich isactually atown initself,housesmore than5000 people, houses, shops, 1000 year old Jain temples. The quaint & narrow lanes offer a spectacular collection ofstuff to shop.

Jaisalmer thrives mainly on tourism! It is amazing how everyone there speaks accented English and a variety offoreign languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese… no formal education, just picked up thelanguage from tourists! We chatted up a 8 year old girl, dressed in the rajasthani attire, selling trinkets and she cudspeak English, French & Italian.. amazing!!!! Memory cards, camera roles, CD’s etc are sold like ‘chana- mungfali’ onthe streets here. The entire city has adapted itself completely just for the foreign tourists (to an extent that we felt likealiens there, as at times the locals gave us the ‘ you bilady Indians’ looks.. lol)

About 50 km from Jaisalmer are the Sand Dune Camps, where we had a camel ride (on Hrithik & Rocket- yeahthose were their names!) The sunset on the dunes was breathtaking!!! The bumpy journey was made interesting with

Jaisalmer Sand Dunes Camp Image Credits: Avinash Rupani

the yackity ‘chatur’ Charlie’s – the camelwalas… extremely streetsmart!!! As the ball of fire submerged, the goldensands changed it colors from gold to orange to yellow to brown. This was followed by a Rajasthani Welcome at theTent Camp,a few hrs oftraditionalsinging,dancingaround thecampfireand theauthenticrajasthanimeal.Rajasthanifood istypicallymade withfewingredientsthat areavailable inthe region,as theregion hasbeen inclined tothe war-like lifestyle of the medieval times. Food that could last for several days and could be eaten without heatingwas preferred, more out of necessity than choice – gatte ke sabji, dal bhatti churma, ker sangri, pyaaz kachori, mirchipakode, dal khichdi.

Bikaner- the ‘Camel Country’ which houses the only Camel Research and Breeding farm in Asia and the largest onein the World – also tasted the Camel Milk. We actually got to see the stud “Mr Bikaner” in person… Talk, Dark andhandsome!!!! Well pampered for being the best amongst a few hundreds of Camels…yeah.. a Camel… we clickedpics with ‘Mr Bikaner’ (lucky girls.. ;)) Visited Laxmi Nivas Lalgarh Palace – a masterpiece in red sandstone is a fusionof the Moghul, Rajput & European architecture, the exteriors contrasting with the oriental interiors – an amazingcollection of well maintained paintings, hunting trophies and sprawling lawns.

A visit to the magnificent Junagarh Fort, Prachina Museum, Jain Temple and finally to the ‘Borld Phamous’ Karni MataTemple which has been featured in Discovery Channel. This temple is a really interesting one – it houses about20,000 mice!!! All in ONE temple…. people live, eat, drink in the temple WITH the mice crawling all over them whilethey sleep, eat the same food as the mice do and yet.. till date.. no-one has ever fallen ill, nor has the temple been hitby plague. Not a single mouse is spotted outside this temple and if a ‘local’ mouse does enter the temple, it is killed!Fascinating seeing the mice strolling around.. taking a walk in their garden … while people moving around the templejust did not seem to blink an eyelid.

The last lap was to Jaipur – seemed like another crowded city with the malls and works – until we saw themagnificent monuments- Amber Fort, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, Hawa Mahal and a huge collection of buggies,axes, knifes, deadly weapons, pistols, jewellery, ivory collections, exotic ceilings. The Amber Fort itself (pronouncedas Amer) – was the capital of Rajasthan before the Maharaj shifted the capital to Jaipur a few centuries ago – is a

Shri Karni Mata Temple | Image Credits: Koen

fascinating blend of the Hindu & Muslim architecture, made is red sandstone & white marble… a fusion of expressivepaintings, precious stones, mirrored walls, marble sculptures.

Late in the evening we went to Choki Dhani – an ethnic village resort – which showcased the culture of Rajasthan inone single canvas… puppet shows, elephant/ camel rides, folk dances, kothris, mehndi, authentic food, bangles etc.Ended the trip with a rushed 2 hours of shopping (how can 3 women go on a holiday and NOT shop!!!)

Amer Fort in Jaipur

Poolside at Shahpura House in Jaipur

Choki Dhani in Jaipur