Winter Holidays: Trip to Gwalior

We left for Gwalior and on the way we stopped at a palace called the Datia fort and palace. The Datia palace is very nice and it was also built for Jahangir. The palace took many years to make. It seems Jahangir stayed there only for one night. The palace is seven fl

oors tall and has domes which were covered and painted in mosaic.  The palace had more than 100 rooms or so. The outside part of the palace is completely painted, but now the paint is wearing off. Nobody visits the palace; it’s quite rare.

From there, after spending an hour in that beautiful palace, we went to Gwalior. We reached Gwalior and went to our hotel: Tansen’s Residency by Madhya Pradesh Tourism.  The food was very good, rooms were big and spacious.  We were in a suite, that had a drawing room, dining room and bedroom. After this we went to the Scindia Family’s palace. It was big, grand and magnificent. It was influenced by European architecture. Only a part of it is open, Then we were heading towards the Gwalior fort. While going uphill to the fort, on the sides of the road there were rocks which had Lord Mahavira and other Jain sculptures sculpted on it.

Close by there was a Jain temple. The Gwalior fort had a very South Indian architecture. There was Persian, Afghan influence too. The whole fort was like a temple. It has two floors which were underground. The whole fort had very nice ventilation. The first basement floor had the swinging rooms for the eight queens of the kings. It was a room where there were 8 eight swings. (Now they are not there) and the queens used to have fun. The second basement floor was the bathing room of the queens. Both of these rooms in Aurangzeb’s time were used as hanging rooms. He had hanged one of his brothers in one of the rooms.

Second place was the Shan Jahan Palace and Jahangir Palace. It was nothing great. The palaces were quite small and not very decorated. There were horse stables and also elephant stables. Both the palaces were built on a large ground. After this, all these areas were used by the British. All these forts and palaces were built in a large compound. There was a huge jail built for one big gangster. There were two temples a.k.a  the Saas bahu temple. All these temples were vandalized by Aurangzeb. The temples were very intricate.

 The Scindia palace was huge and luxurious. I wish I lived in such a palace! The chandeliers were very big, almost the size of a room. We went back to the hotel, took some rest and went back to the Gwalior fort for the sound and light show. It was freezing cold and a cloud passed through us brrr....there were not many people for the show, just some ten of us. The show was okay and the voice over was by Amitabh Bachchan. We headed back to the resort  and had our dinner ; the best part of the dinner was a live ghazal performance. We enjoyed it as our tiring day ended.

Next morning, we went to the Birla Sun temple and Tansen’s tomb. We also saw the Tansen’s guru’s tomb called the Fakir Gaus Makbara and other small tombs.

Winter Holidays: Trip to Orchha

After spending two days at Chambal Valley Resort, on the third day we left for Orchha, around 10.00 am and reach Orchha around 4.00 pm and went to two forts and one temple. Orchha is a very historical place. There is Orchha fort , in that there are two forts – Jahangir fort and raja fort. The Jahangir fort was only made for Jahangir. It has 230 rooms or so. 

The Raja fort is very unique. Next is the Lakshmi temple; most of the temples are in square shape, but this temple was in a diamond shape.  From a distance it looked like it had three sides but it did not. Everyone mistook if rot having three sides. The temple has the whole Ramayana and Mahabharata painted in its ceiling. The architecture of the temple is beautiful. We were told that the idol of the goddess was stolen long ago.

Orrchha Fort, Sound and Light Show

In the evening, we watched the sound and light show and we also ate Mungodi with chutney. Mungodi is basically moong dal pakoda with pudina chutney. In the Raja Mahal, in one of the halls, the ceiling is completely painted, it was the design of the Persian carpet which was laid down on the ground right below the ceiling.

Orchha is a small town and Orchha means hidden. In the olden times, the whole city was surrounded by dense forests. Ochha belonged to the Bundela kings. The Bundela Dynasty build many forts in and around Orchha. This main places to visit are: Cenotaphs of the 14 king, the Orchha fort, Raja Ram temple, and Lakshmi temple.

One of the special or you would say tempting thing there was hot milk which has been boiling for a long time. You should try this when you go there. Basically you drink hot milk with cream which is formed on top.

In the Orchha fort, there is a Mahal called Sheesh Mahal which is now a hotel under the Madhya Pradesh Tourism. The Raja Ram temple is a very good temple. It is painted, maintained and used. The story behind this temple is that one of the kings of the Bundela Dynasty had a fight with his wife about which God they can have in the city. The king got very angry and told queen that she can only enter the palace if she comes back with Ram with her. The queen was a true devotee of Ram. The queen agreed to this deal. She went to the banks of the river and started praying for Ram to come to her. She prayed for almost a month but nothing happened. Now, the queen was stressed, she did  not know what do to. The queen decided to commit suicide, she jumped into the river. A few people saw her jump, they immediately jumped into the river to help her. She was saved and returned with a baby on her lap, it was a version of Lord Rama. The queen was now happy as she could return to the kingdom. Ram had made three conditions which were:  1.  the queen should carry me on her lap till we reach the kingdom;  2.  wherever he (Ram) is placed shall be his temple and he shall not move from there; 3.  he should be the only one to be prayed.

The queen agreed to these three conditions. She went back and the king was delighted to see her back with the  Baby Lord Rama. The king ordered the people in his kingdom to start building a temple for the guest who had come home.

At night the queen decided to place Lord Rama on the bed and take him to the temple the next day. She forgot about the second conditions and that became the seat for the God. Rama didn’t move after that. So, they had to turn the queen’s palace into a temple and the temple which was being made became a waste. This is the story of Raja Ram temple.

There is a small sanctuary near the Betwa river. And close to the Betwa river, there is a M.P Tourism hotel called Betwa Retreat. Our stay at the Retreat was good and the food was also tasty. The location of the place is very nice and fresh. It might be difficult for old people to climb up to go to their rooms as there are many steps. Overall,  Orchha was small, historical, rich and fresh.

Winter Holidays: Trip to Chambal Valley

It was a cold wintry morning when we reached the Delhi airport. We started our drive to Chambal. It was an 4 to 5 hour drive. On the way, we were passing by a town called Firozabad. Firozabad was a very dirty town and also the city of bangles. There was a lot of traffic on the road so were driving very slowly. On every side of the road you could find a chudi seller (bangle seller). The whole city was littered and every inch had garbage. There was no Swachh Bharat in Firozabad. We crossed Firozabad and were heading towards Chambal. We were close to Chambal, we had to reach the resort which was a bit off the road. The Google Maps told us some other, inside a village. We took the road, but there was no road at all, it was like a maze. If we took the other, it would have been a lot better. At one point, it felt as if we were on the wrong road, but thankfully we came out on the good road and reached the resort.

Chambal Safari Lodge

We were pretty late for lunch. We reached the resort at 3.00 pm. The resort’s name was Chambal Safari Lodge. I was happy to see the lunch, which was waiting just for us. We were last ones to eat lunch. We took rest as we were very tired. The room was big and very nice. It was homey and comfortable but super cold. In the evening we went for a normal walk in the resort itself. We saw birds and Neelgais; there were wild and not domestic. The food was very tasty and the cuisine was continental and Indian. The next day we went for 2 safaris. 1. A safari to Ater fort on the camel for one hour.  2. River safari to see Gharials and crocodiles.

Ater Fort Safari

The Ater Fort was built by Bhadauria King Badan Singh, Maha Singh and Bakhat Singh in the era of 1664-1668. The fort is very much inside the Chambal valley. The fort is actually in ruins. We went to the fort in the morning and had tea and coffee with biscoots.

In this safari, you have to the Chambal river by car, cross the river and go to the other side by boat, from there you can go on a camel or go walking to the fort. The experience was very nice. It was one person on one camel. You can come back by 12.30 or 1.00 in the afternoon. You cross the river again and on the other side where you parked your car you have a small camp, there you get your lunch which is packed , then you can go for the river safari after eating the lunch. This safari will take two hours. You might see a bird called the Skimmer. After your safari you can return to the resort and have fun and relax and have some awesome food.