Skywatch Friday - Great Stupa @ Sanchi, India

We visited the World heritage Site @ Sanchi in Central India during our Grand road trip to Central India. 

This is a very serene and tranquil place on a small hillock near Bhopal, the capital of the State of Madhya Pradesh in Central India. Sanchi is famous for its famous stupas and ruins of Buddhist monasteries built around 3rd century BC by Mauryan kings. 

It was around mid day when we went there. The fall sky was clear but dotted by few clouds. The light red colour of the stupa was nice complement to the blue sky in the background.

If you want to know more about Sanchi, you may click this Wiki Page here

Wiki on Sanchi

Road trip Vignettes - Amid "Agave Land"!

Plusses of a road trip is the freedom it gives to enjoy the journey at your own pace. Many times we have noticed that journeys are more interesting than the actual destination itself. When these vignettes are captured on the lens, they remain cherished memories forever. We will share some of these in our blog and hope you like it.

We had been to Mango Range Estate for a weekend sojourn. (Please this post for details :- Monsoon Experience at Mango Range Estate, Nilgiris). The monsoon was in full swing and we took our regular route via Kanakapura. On the way back, as soon as we crossed Gundlupet in South India, we saw a strange landscape. 

It looked like a scene from Avatar or Star Wars!

I went near to see what exactly they were. To my surprise, it was the "Katthale" or "Bhutale" (in Kannada) bush - a variety of Agave - whose leaves were cut by the farmers leaving only the cone behind. This bush being thorny is used by farmers as a hedge in many parts of Karnataka. The leaves are dried and fibre is used for household use. 

A bit of research on Agave ( Wiki on Agave) gave me the information that it is an useful plant with many parts edible and plant having medicinal properties as well. Not sure whether it is used as an edible plant in Karnataka. 

Will check that out with framers next time around!

Chhattisgarh Chronicles VII - Painted rooms of Chhiukhadan Palace

The drive from Kanker to Chhiukhadan was very good except for few KMs in Rajnandgaon town. 

Chhiukhadan – many including us would not have heard of this small town in Chhattisgarh. When we were browsing Outlook Traveller, we stumbled upon this palace and its painted rooms. We had made up our mind that we should stay here some day. We were excited that that will happen today.

Giriraj, the Yuvaraj of Chhiukhadan - a young man in late twenties - met us as we arrived at his palace. This is not a huge palace like the ones you see in Rajasthan or elsewhere. It looks more like a large Haveli. We were disappointed when Shivraj told us the painted rooms were under renovation and offered us different rooms. 

Chhiukhadan palace is built over 10 acres of land by Giriraj’s grandfather. With abolition of privy purses, the family moved to Raipur and the palace had gone to ruins. Jai, the Kanker yuvaraja during one of the visits to the palace happened to see these beautiful paintings in the rooms and that was when he and Giriraj - they are cousins - thought of restoration of the palace into a heritage hotel. They have started the restoration and lot of work is needed to bring back the place to acceptable standards. Once done, I have no doubt that this will be sought after place in Chhattisgarh. 

We went around the painted rooms and were zapped to see beautiful paintings on all sides of the room. No one knows who and when these were painted. There are scenes from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Ras leela and surprisingly there are scenes of British dancing, dining etc! The rooms somehow look surreal and once done up should provide a different expertise for guests.

The evening was exciting. Giriraj offered us a night picnic to a nearby reservoir in the middle of jungle. He is the Chairman of Town municipal council and has huge clout. But the guy looked simple. We drove up a small hill overlooking a reservoir under clear night skies. The whole place was pitch dark and quiet. He had got his team to cook and serve hot dinner. 

It was an experience we had not bargained for but came as a sweet bonus! 

Badami in Monsoon!

Badami in Karnataka, South India is mesmerising. More so when it rains.

We never went to Badami in Monsoon. 

Ever since we saw the picture of waterfalls as back drop to Bhootha Natha Temple hung in Hotel Badami Court where we stayed in, we always wanted to be there when it rains.

I happened to see this wonderful picture by Arun Bhat - could not resist sharing this - shot during monsoon last year. A quintessential traveller and outstanding photographer, he conducts photography workshops and workshop in Badami has just got completed. We should see some lovely pictures from him soon on his blog.

Nevertheless, if you are a photography buff, this is the best time to there. This picture below tells it all.

You can still join his Rainforest Photography tour of Agumbe. For more details click here

http://travel.paintedstork.com/blog/

If you need more information on travelling to Badami, you may visit this post in this blog.

Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal - The Chalukyan heritage

Skywatch Friday - Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

The Indian Desert State of Rajasthan is dotted with numerous Forts and palaces. Jodhpur is one of the important destinations in Rajasthan.

It is a small town - known as "Blue city" - with a wonderful hillock fort - palace. 

It takes at least two hours to complete the tour of the fort. The fort-palace is managed by Jodhpur royal family and they have done an excellent job in maintenance of the fort-palace and display of the royal artefacts. There are options of audio guide as well as human guides. It is recommended  to opt for either of the two which will help to understand the details of architectural heritage and stories behind the artefacts displayed in the fort-palace.

We were in Jodhpur during our long trip to Rajasthan in 2009.

Chhattisgarh Chronicles VI - Kanker Palace

We never knew that Chhattisgarh boasted palaces before we started planning this road trip. When we started doing some research on stay options, i stumbled upon some real gems – Kanker, Kanwardha and Chiukadan palaces. We decided to stay at least in one of the palaces and Chiukadan was the chosen one. Thanks to Outlook traveller, we were able to get some information about this place and planned our routes to make sure we spend a night in this palace. But we did not want to miss visiting others either. So I called up Jai, the Yuvaraja of Kanker – who also runs Bastar jungle resort where we stayed in Jagdalpur - to tell him that we will have lunch in his palace on the way to Chiukadan.

We left Jagdalpur after breakfast and reached Kanker comfortably by 1 PM. The road was excellent and had a row of trees on either side. It was virtually like going through a green tunnel. It was nice to see that majority of them were mango tress which had just bloomed. We kept our windows open to savour the aroma of these flowers. The road took us through beautiful views of Kanker ghat as well.

Kanker Ghat

Kanker town is the headquarters of Kanker district. It is a small quaint town. This must have been a small principality during British days. The Kanker palace is a huge British Bungalow built for British resident commissioner. It had all trademarks of a good old British bungalows – long corridors, large living room spanked by large bed rooms on either side. The high ceiling kept the interiors cool. 

Ravi standing next to tiger and yours truly on the sofa

Notice the hunting trophies on the wall

As per Jai, the Yuvaraja of Kanker, the original palace which was bigger was donated by his grand father to government and is now the Government office. The living room was decorated with hunting trophies of bison’s horns, tiger heads, stuffed tiger, old crystals, weaponry etc. Jai said that the forests of Kanker had many tigers and his grandfather was a good hunter. We could now fathom the reason for dwindling tiger population in these forests!

The rooms were big and elegant. The rooms sported the charming “Pankha” or “Fan” which was being pulled by servants to generate air in the room in good old days. 

The lunch was good and the "mutter paneer" was god sent. The “Pankha” in the dining hall gave  the room a subdued elegance.

As we left Kanker, we were bidding good bye to Bastar and entering the western Chattisgarh area of Rajnandgaon. Just outside the palace on the highway we saw this small lake with Shiva statue in the middle which was glowing in afternoon sun.

We were now heading to the interesting palace at Chiukadan and looking forward for our stay there.

India Travel Stories from Others - Rakesh Holla explores Udupi coast

Rakesh Holla is based in the temple town of Udupi in South India. 

He and his friends are always on the move during weekends exploring little gems of Western Ghats. When they have more time they venture out to other lovely places in the country. He documents his exploits in the nice blog which he calls as "Voice of Greenery".

Rakesh was exploring the unknown islands off Udupi coast last month before the monsoons set in. These islands look lovely and serene. Good part of the story is that they continue to be away from the glare of mass tourism. Hope they remain likewise for some more days to come.

Till then, enjoy the trip to "Light House Island" and "Kotepare Islands" here

Exploring Udupi Coast -Light House Island

Exploring Udupi coast - Kotepare Island

If you want to know more about Udupi or plan to travel there please look at the following posts in this blog.

Driving Holidays from Bangalore - Karavali and Koffee Kombo

Karavali Vistas II - Udupi, Mangalore and Bekal