Gajner Palce turned into heritage hotel

Gajner is a tiny oasis in the Thar Desert, near Bikaner, filled with blackbuck, chinkara, neelgai and fox. It was once the private hunting reserve of the maharajas of Bikaner. Gajner palace is a flamingo pink sandstone palace with jharokhas, jaalis and was designed by a British knight. It was all Rajput from outside but the interiors were all English to my surprise.

From the palace courtyard we watched a stream of blackbuck and chinkara and were roaming at the lake side. At the edge of the palace is a small little Dargah of a pir, it is said if we tie a small talisam around his mazaar and pray passionately then his prays will come true one day. Every September there is a fair in this Dargah and many devotees offer their chadar.

In the evening Gajner looks pretty and the sound of drums and prayers in the twin temple of Ganesh and Shiva in the outer palace courtyard are all over the place. The priest was a young boy who with one movement, divests himself of T shirt and jeans and then fills into sacred thread and spotless dhoti. The sound of the aarti spills over the lake like a tide and the first stars glimmer.

HRH chain took over the Gajner palace and they restore and repair the place into exactly what it used to be. The hotel is pretty good heritage hotel with their rajasthani cuisine which was delicious. The best time to go to Gajner is from September to March

Find Driving Directions from Delhi to Bikaner here.

Kuchaman fort

Kuchaman fort is built atop on a steep hill in Rajasthan, and was built by the Gurjar Prathihara dynasty near to the Sambhar Salt Lake from where they used to do the salt trading, and if I believe the locals here they did it for around 200 years, till they lost their dynasty to the Chauhans, what a history man. A Weekend Getaway from Jaipur, the fort itself is now a luxury hotel and when one is working in a travel industry you get opportunities to visit these types of places.

The Kuchaman ramparts are having 32 bastions and 10 getaways also enclosed is a complex web of underground passages, hideouts and dungeons. So when we got bored in the conference and were free we went to explore the fort.

The Meena Mahal had paintings all over it on the life and times of the Rathore poet saint Meerabai, who married the son of Rajput. Ranjit singh has built this Mahal along with a temple within the Mahal which comprises of lok devtas, and the gurus of the masses. The temples were interesting as I found out that the idol in Maa Kaali Mandir was around 1200 years old and was brought to Kuchaman all the way from Karnataka by the Rathores. The other temple Krishna Mandir is also older around 2000 years I suppose.

The formal chambers of Sabha Prakash had polished walls with semi precious stones inlayed in the wall and then the court room called the Sunheri Burj because of its frescoes of birds and animals framed lavishly in gold.

There are two swimming pools in the fort, one was Jal Mahal which was an underground pool, and when I saw it suddenly those Turkish hammams visualized in my mind which was made for the queens.

The last was the Sheesh Mahal in the fort where the Maharaja used to play the chess in the courtyard outside using the real man as pawns. And then there was the Meena Bazaar where the royal family used to shop.

The Kuchaman fort hotel took us for 4 hours sight seeing which included all these Mahals and temples including the old market area. They had also organized a trip to the Sambhar Salt Lake. We were there only for 2 days otherwise we would have also gone to the Tal Chhapar Sanctuary for blackbuck which was only 100kms from Kuchaman.

Find Driving Directions from Delhi to Jaipur here..

Ranikhet, a perfect getaway of Himalayas

Ranikhet is in Uttaranchal and a perfect hill station to visit. Ranikhet is a very silent and beautiful weekend getaway from Delhi. It is 58 km away from Nainital. Its story goes like this; many years ago, a beautiful Kumaoni queen Rani Padmini fell so deeply in love with the green glades and meadows of a tiny hill paradise that her king, Raja Sukherdev, built her grand palace there and named the place Ranikhet, or queen’s meadow. My dad have always talked about Ranikhet as a paradise on earth, but today when I see it I understand why dad liked Ranikhet and still now wants to visit it. As I approached to Ranikhet my eyes were watching the best views of all to the left, the ancient, snow clad Himalayas. I wanted to relax under a pleasant sun and gaze leisurely at the beautiful Himalayas with sipping my cup of tea.

There are government orchards at Chaubatia, 10km to the south of Ranikhet. We went with a picnic basket and buy some seasonal fruits from the orchids. Then there was Bhalu Dam which supplies water to the Ranikhet and is also famous for fishing.

From the bus stop there is an Army Golf course at Upat which offers golfing at high attitudes. Also there is an old temple dedicated to goddess Kali from where the town of Kalika gets its name lies just a kilometer away from Upat.

Another 13km down the Almora road this village had many beautiful picnic spots. We wanted to take a walk in the forest so we strolled down Ranikhet from behind the Army Holiday home to the AMU guest house. We liked the walk from the Mall towards this same guest house as we saw many old British bungalows here.

Then a little path took us towards the Kumaon Regimental Centre. The KRC Museum displayed memories of wars that the regiment had fought.

I picked up some woolen fabrics and few small things from the Mall. Ranikhet comprises of two main areas of tourist interests; the Mall and the Sadar Bazzar. The Sadar is full of hotels and guest houses, the crowded ones and the Mall is peaceful place.

Find Driving Direction from Delhi to Ranikhet here..