Fond Memories of MP - Bhimbetka

We arrived at Bhimbetka pretty early in the morning. Looking at the parking lot we didn’t expect too many people at the rock shelters. The first task for the day was to find a guide. This was one place where we made a mistake of not enquiring about it in the MPSTDC Office. We took the first person who approached us.

This turned out to be a big mistake. The so called guide didn’t know much except the obvious details. We ended up interpreting drawings on our own or listening to other guides who seemed slightly better.

The place as such is scenic. One can see amazing rock formation

along with ancient drawings. The paintings are said to be spread across 10 acres in different caves but 14 caves are cordoned off for the visiting tourists.

There is a good attempt made to preserve Bhimbettka, but there is no education among tourists about preserving this. While we were there a group of students were trying to chip of the rock corners. Worse still was the fact that their lecture joined them instead of preventing from doing any damage. And the so called guard just looked away. Considering the importance of the place I only wish they would be a lot stricter.

We were done with out sight seeing or should I say cave exploration by 2 hours and were ready to head to the next destination.

Tips: Stop at the MPTDC highway restaurant to get information about guides.

Siddarbetta and Blackbuck Sanctuary

Krishna took the initiative of planning for one day trek during the long Good Friday weekend. After looking at some options we finally agreed on Siddarbetta. Since it was just 4 of us we decided to take one car. Again it was Krishna who was getting the car (Balli ka bakara). Anyways he claims to love driving so I don’t think he minded.

We started at 6:30 from my place. The car that Krishan was driving was given by the TATA service centre since his car was under repair. It showed signs of over use. We had bald tyres.

The journey was smooth. We stopped at KAMAT on Tumukur for breakfast only to realise that we had missed the deviation that we had to take. Once we hit the state highway the bird watchers stopped every now and then to take pictures. The drive was beautiful, everywhere we looked we found trees that were in bloom.

We reached Siddarbetta by 10:30am. I was disappointed to see steps made all the way up. As it was Sunday there was lot of people visiting the temple at the peak. Our ascent was slow. Krishna was impatient with the pace we maintained. I was cursing my laziness to do exercise.

When we reached the top we hired the Bhel Puri seller to take us to the caves. Our first stop was of course the shrine. Just in front of the idol there is a water source which according to locals doesn’t dry up. We filled our bottle with this water and started with our cave exploration. There were some interesting

sights here like the grave of a saint, living quarters of another saint and wild grape veins formations. After crawling and doing duck walk for about an hour we reached where we stated. We walked around for some more time and started our descent.

Our next programme was to have lunch at Madugiri (a slightly bigger village) and proceed to Maidanahalli (Black Buck Sanctuary).

About 4 kms from Madugiri we had a flat tire. The spare tyre had its metal showing. We decided to use it, and proceed till Madhugiri. Fixing the tyre took us nearly 2 hours by then it was 5:30. We decided to take a chance and visit the sanctuary.

There are no proper directions or boards to this place. We stopped every 5 kms to ask directions. Finally we managed to find the mud road that lead to the Sanctuary.

As we drove we started spotting the animals. They were very gracefully and pretty. The place is poorly guarded and maintained. But this is a place that I would classify as a must visit.

We headed to Bangalore at 7:00 pm. At that time little did we know what was instored for us. We asked for directions at a village and that guy directed us to the longest route to Bangalore. The road took us all the way to Dodbellapur and back. The roads were bad and never ending. The only good bit about taking this road was that Krishna spotted a Leopard. And just as we entered Bangalore we had a flat tyre again. Since we had used the spare one already we were in a fix. We deciced to drop the car at a friend's place and head home. It was 1:30 am by the time i slept. Over all a tiring but good trip

Fond Memories of MP - Bhojpur

When we arrived at Bhojpur early in the morning, through the mist we saw this half constructed temple. It was a lone structure amidst fields and rocks.

Bhojpur was a place that Sharan was determined to go. Every time we went to Shiva temple during our Madhya Pradesh trip he would say wait till you see one at Bhojpur.

It looked like we were the first people to visit for the day. It was quite and peaceful. As the sun rose we walked around to get our perfect shot. As I walked closer to the Linga (idol), I realised how huge it was. It was 4 times my height. And the Linga was made of one single rock. It was really amazing to see it.

The temple itself was half constructed and some parts of it had fallen off over the years. ASI was trying to build back the fallen pieces.

As we finished walking around the temple we remembered that the blue prints of the temple structure were said to be on stones near by. We walked around and could not find it initially. Just as were about to give up we saw a watchman walking up to the temple. We approached him to enquire and he turned out to be quite helpful. He took us to the spot and explained the drawings to us.

Just as we were about to leave he mentioned to us about an old Jain temple that was situated near by. This place had a tall statue and is said to be over 300 years old. Other than that the place didn’t offer much. We spent 10 mins there and headed to our next destination. On the whole Bhojpur lived up to the hype that Sharan had created

Fond Memories of MP - Ujjain

Ujjain was the only holy destination in our whole MP trip. After a heavy breakfast in Indore, we headed towards Ujjain at 8:30 PM. We covered 56 KMS in about one and half hours.

When we entered Ujjain it looked like there was a fair taking place. There were people everywhere. Looking at the crowd I was sure the queue for Darashan at Mahakaleshwar temple would be long. The thought of it was not appealing.

We started the day at Ujjain by booking our train tickets to Bhopal. Having seen the crowd when we enetered we didn't want to take any chances. We finished doing this pretty quickly and moved on.

From experience we knew that the MPSTC would have information about guides. So our next step was to look for MPSTC office. Only in Ujjain this turned out to be a bad idea. The people at MPSTC didn’t help much. So we decided to follow Rough Guide (a book like Lonely Planet) and see places on our own.

One temple that was a must on our list was the Kal Bhairav temple. The offering made here include alcohol along with the usual coconut, flowers and incense sticks. There was crowd at this place too. We were later told that it was new moon day and that since it was on a Saturday it was a special day for Shiva.

According to Akshata this was scariest of all idols she had seen so far. The stone idol had 2 sockets that looked like eyes and a crescent shaped mouth. Half bottle of the liquor offering is poured through this opening and the rest is given back to the devotee. The locals say the liquor that’s poured into the idol doesn’t flow out and just disappears. We never investigated that bit of information. Close by there was a cave that one had to crawl into to get darshan of another idol, but looking at the crowd we decided to give that a skip.

From Kal Bhairav our next destination was a village called Bhairavghad. We had read that 'Batik', a cloth dying art, originated here. It was very close to the Kal Bhairav temple so we didn’t have to travel too much. We went to Anwar Bhai's factory, the most popular according to the people. As we drove through the village we realised that almost all houses had ‘Batik’ cloth hung for drying. At Anwar Bhai's factory we were shown the process used for Batik design making. Luckily or unluckily for us he had some stock that was ready for sale and he volunteered to courier our purchases to Bangalore. We spent the next one hour shopping.

Our next stop was Sandheepini Ashram, this is supposed to be the place where Krishna, Balaram and Sudhama (Hindu Gods and their friend) received their education. There is a Shiva temple at this place and one can find Nandi in a standing position. This is not found anywhere else. We hardly spent about 15 mins here.

By the time we had completed all this it was time for lunch. Rough Guide suggested a place called New Raj Kumar .We went all around Ujjain looking for this place. People were so helpful that even though they didn’t know where we had to go they would guide us. Finally after about an hour we found the place. We were disappointed to find out that this place did not serve local dishes but only punjabi food. Since we were hungry we decided to eat here. The food was good. We had Makki ki Roti and Sarso ka Saag (Corn Bread and Mustard Gravy). Akshata and Sharan drank lassi (Beaten Yogurt) and I gave that a skip.

Post lunch I was keen to visit Mahakaleshwara Temple. This is one of the twelve Jyothirlings and is considered special because it is a Swayambhu (risen from the ground) ling. Another speciality is that it is south facing. Hence a lot of Tantriks (wizards) visit this place for worshipping.
Akshata and Me went looking for a special darshan ticket so that I could skip the queue and finish the visit fast. With the ticket I was able to come out in 30 mins. Though the temple is a really old one, it has been modernised and no longer had the charm of the ancient times.

From here we went to Ved Shala (Observatory). This place was built by Jai Singh. It is a very interesting place to visit and one can learn about calculations of time, occurances of eclipses, degree of the Sun etc. Since it was after 4 by the time we got here some of the instruments could not be used. We had an interesting guide by name Jagadish. He was an employee there and was passionate about sharing his knowledge of the place and astronomy. Since we showed some interest he spent lot of time with us.

From here we went to Chintamani Ganesh temple. This again is considered to be the biggest Swayambhu Ganesh idol. There was a huge crowd here as well. Sharan and Akshata decided to wait outside while I went in and came back. I managed to get out in 15 mins.

By now we had enough of temples and sight seeing. So we decided to go to Shipra (MPSTC Hotel) for some snacks. We relaxed for about 2 hours before boarding the train to Bhopal. This marked the end of our Western MP trip.

Amedikallu

I had heard about Amedikallu when I first started trekking. People had told me that the best of trekkers had given up and this was one of the toughest treks in Karnataka. Once before the plan to trek there had failed and when the group suggested we do this I was excited. All our planning was done through mails. Everyone was advised to carry 4 litres of water (a must); ready to eat meals, sleeping bags and sleeping mat. Aravind had taken on the responsibility to call the Guide (Chenappa- 9379081785). This turned out to be a difficult task, till two days before the trip we had not been able to get through to the guide. When Aravind finally managed to talk to the guide , he agreed to organize for breakfast and packed lunch from Vishnu Gokhale’s house. This was a good thing as we got some yummy food.
Our bus was scheduled to leave for Dharmasthala at 9:15 PM. 2 people were supposed to join us at Dharmastala as they were coming from Mysore. The trip till Dharmastala was uneventful except for bad roads. At Dharmastala we were to take a bus or jeep to Kokkada. We decided to take the bus. The conductor convinced us that he would drop us at the right stop. The distance, we were told, was about 7 - 10 Kms (its actually 15). But it felt like we had been in the bus for long. Aravind walked up to and checked with the Driver as well and he said the stop had not yet come. Finally after 15 more minutes the conductor realized he had passed Kokkada. He said it was just around the corner and asked to get down. Just around the corner turned out to be one and a half K.M walk.
At Kokkada we were told that since road construction was on we had to take a different route to Shisila (the village where the trek was to start). Decision was made to hire a jeep as the bus ride would take longer. 11 of us stuffed ourselves into a jeep that can seat 7. The driver was almost sitting out of the jeep and driving. Dhimoy was standing on the footboard at the back and was covered with red soil by the time we reached Shisila.We were dropped off at the beginning of the village since the road was under construction. Luckily Vishnu Gokhale’s house was hardly .5 KM away. He saw us walking and called out to us.


While we waited for our guide we were served yummy Idlies and tea. For someone who hates Idly I took second helping. We were also given our packed lunch
We started off from there at about 9:30 am. A jeep had been organised to drop us at the starting point.
The initial trek was through bamboo growth and then the forest starts. The humidity and heat got to some of us. We took lots of breaks along the way. Our first major stop was to be the waterpoint, the only one in the whole trek at this time of the year. It was a welcome break. We open the packed lunch (Chitranna) and finished it in a jiffy. After that we filled all our bottles and carried on. After this came the tough part, a steep climb and that too in the grasslands. There is no forest cover. The sun was beating down on us mercilessly. The only shade was between the rocks. I kept looking out for them and taking short naps wherever possible.
After the grassland came one more walk through the forest and then the rock climbing. By now mist had started to form and we could see clouds at a distance but not the camp site. Finally the first team made it to the camp site. By now our hopes of seeing a sunset had vanished. We hoped the clouds would clear out in the night and we could see the stars.We sat around for some time and decided we can eat at 8. The guide started the camp fire and Aravind became the cook. He boiled water for our entire ready to eats.Dinner done, each of us were fighting for a place to sleep. Most decided to sleep in the open. Just as we settled it started to drizzle. We didn’t know where to go for cover. The place around where the guide slept was already occupied. Some of us decided to brave the drizzle and take action only if it rained. Good decision coz later in the night the skies cleared and it was a beautiful display of stars.
We were woken at 6 to continue our climb to the peak and see the sunrise. This was a scary climb but well managed by our Guide. And guess what… the clouds were at it again. All we could see was clouds. We waited for a while only to be disappointed and we climbed down to get ready to leave. Just then, the sun came out and we saw an ocean of clouds. The hills at a distance were slowly becoming visible. After a photo session we started our climb down
For breakfast we were back at the water point and we cooked noodles. We quickly finished and started out decent. By 1:30 pm we were at the starting point. Initially since we could not get through to the jeep driver some of us took a ride on the Dumper Lorry that was working on road construction.We reached the village, had some tender coconut and walked to Vishnu Gokhale’s house. Hot lunch (Rice, Sambar, Jackfruits Palya and yummy Payasam) was served. After that all of us took bath, slept for some time and set out to Dharmastala stuffed in a jeep again.In Dharmastala some of us went to the temple and the rest loitered around. Dinner was at the temple. This was the fastest dinner i had eaten. In 10 mins after we had entered dinner was done.Took the local shuttle to go to the new bus stand, boarded our bus and was asleep. And next thing I knew we were in Bangalore. All in all it was a good trek after a long time. The only disappointment was that we didn’t get to see the Charmudi range from the peak.

Fond Memories of MP - Maheshwar and Indore

The night at Mandu seemed to have passed really quickly, in no time the alarm was ringing and it was time for us to leave. To save time we paid our bills the previous day. We had to dig last bit of our money as we had underestimated how much we could drink and eat.

Having done all that to save time we reached rcar and found the driver sleeping peacefully. He had not set his alarm. It was half an hour delay before we started.

Originally we had planned to skip Maheshwar, but the guide had convinced us that it was must see. This place has the largest ghat for River Narmada. He told us that there was a short cut that we can use. Said the road was bad but manage able.

Little did we realise how bad it was… after a point there was no road. It was an abrupt end and the car had to get off the concrete platform to a path of just stones and mud. There was not a single soul around to ask if we were on the right track. Finally after an hour we managed to get to the main road and head towards Maheshwar.
At Maheshwar we asked the driver to stop at some place which served poha. He promised to take us to the best. We stopped at a small roadside shop. Our breakfast was going to be poha and jeelabis. Being a sweets freak I was hoping to eat only jeelabis for breakfast, but I was disappointed the jeelabis didn’t live up to the hype. The poha was good, AK who loves poha approved it.

From here we headed to the Ghat, wanted to be there before the crowd. Almost managed it. We walked around in our own pace taking pictures. It was peaceful. There were some temples and a fort to explore. But decided to do it after a short boat ride. Though we thought 100 Rs was too much for a short ride, we enjoyed it. It helped us get some good shots of the place.

The next bit was tiring. We had to go up the stairs to Ahilya bhai’s palace/ temple (She is worshipped in this region). The view from the top is nice. The palace itself was a disappointment. I expected more I guess.

But the best bit of the climb was that we saw a handloom factory and showroom called REWA. They manufactured Maheswari cotton and silk. We got permission to walk around the factory. It was an awesome experience. Both ladies, AK (non shopoholic) and me (the other extreme) went mad shopping when the guy confirmed that they accepted credit card. But when we finished and time came to make payment the cards wouldn’t work. After couple of tries he said we could try the ATM. The only ATM in this town and in the neighbour town wouldn’t work. So finally the people at the factory suggested that we make payment in Indore at their show room (Rarely you get to see ppl trust someone like this).

After a quick cup of tea in Laboo’s café (a café and hotel by the local prince) we were off to Indore.

The journey to Indore was dusty and tiring. We took short cut through villages and bad roads and finally we reached Indore. In Indore we did a quick stop at the Lal Bhag Palace and then checked into the hotel. The hotel was a good surprise. All of us were very excited about our rooms.

Quickly changed and headed to Chapan Dukhan (56 Shops). This was mentioned as a must visit for good food and sweets. It was a disappointment. Only thing that we liked was the shop that sold smoke work (a kind of embroidery). While we shopped Sharan went and paid at the REWA showroom closeby for our purchase in the morning.

From here we went to Rajwada Market. We had to walk, walk and walk. Suggestion would be to take an auto from Chatri. Only saving grace was Shikanli (drink like badam milk ) that we had. It was yummy and AK, who belongs to I hate sweets club liked it and drank a whole glass. The shopping complex is large and you have people at every 2 steps inviting you to their shop and willing to help. Shopped again and one more hole in our pockets.

We headed back to the hotel by now we had a better car; the one we used earlier had broken down because of the bad roads I think.

After some rest we were to head to the food street called Sarafa Market. AK backed out as her back was hurting. Sharan and I were off at 10:30 pm. This place is a paradise for junk food eaters. We started with Kachori and Samosa at the first shop. This place also had Garod (Tapioca) marinated, fried and serve with spices sprinkled a local delight and awesome tasting.

After we ate that we went looking for Bhutte ka kees (This is a dish made of grated corn). We were directed to a shop which was the best and featured on Times Now. Having tasted it we packed some for AK as well. The shop’s dahi ballas were also popular, Sharan tried it. As we walked we found sweets like Gajak, Malpua, Kulfi, Badam Milk, Jamoon, Icecream, all of which we ate. I am sure I weigh 5 kgs more after that.

Having stuffed ourselves we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep. Had another long day coming up.

Fond Memories of MP - Mandu

When I started the Madhya Pradesh Trip I didn’t expect it to be a adventure. We had everything planned and booked well in advance. Bags packed we started on our 11 days vacation. We were 3 in the group, Akshata, Sharan and me. Our adventure started with us almost missing our flight thanks to 2 people; the taxi driver who wouldn't go faster than 30KM/hour and the Chief Minister of Karnataka who was travelling and traffic was blocked to give way for him. Luckily KF was kind enough to accommodate us.
The flight itself was uneventful, met some locals from Indore who spoke about the must see in MP and also the local food that we had to try. Got some good information from them. The best one was on hiring taxi, we managed to get a good deal thanks to tips from them and good negotiating skills of Sharan. Of course, how can I forget charming smiles from AK and me.
Trip to Mandu, our first destination was uneventful except for our driver (Nitin) not knowing the way and having to stop every now and then to ensure we were on the right track. We stopped for lunch at a highway. After lunch the only thing we knew was what happened in our dreams.

As Mandu neared we started spotting ruins everywhere. Later we were told that it was the 2nd largest ruins site in India after Hampi. Our resort as promised online was on the banks of a lake. Clean decent accommodation at a relatively low cost. Food was not so good though but manageable.
Quick round of freshening up and we were off to see the sunset. As the sun went down life in Mandu went to sleep. Deserted streets, no restaurants except the MP tourism ones and one more local one. After a quick hunt by Sharan for local liquor (Mahuwa) which we finally managed to get thanks to our driver we headed to the hotel. We were fast asleep by 9 pm (unimaginable) it might be that awful local drink (cant explain how it tasted).

Next day started early, managed to go to some old ruins near by and watch some birds as well. The guide arrived as promised at 8:30 am. This name was Vishnu Tiwari, he is the most sought after guide and we found him thanks to MP Tourism Office. We had hired him for the day and asked him to give us detailed history of the place. He did a good job. Showing us the places like mid wife's palace ,Roopmathi’s Pavilion where one can see Narmada, the Taj Mahal of Mandu, the pleasure place of Baz Bahadur , the shop of Gada Shah and all other hotspots in Mandu. He also told us about the local stories, about river Narmada, and about the local tamarind bought there from Afghanistan.
We had some good pan at the guide’s shop while we waited for him to get his set of rechargeable batteries for Sharan. Sharan the professional photographer for the trip had taken so many shots in the morning that by noon his camera cells were out of charge. He was disappointed that he could not take as many pictures as he would have like.
By the end of the day we were too tired to do anything other than eat and sleep (no wonder there is no night life here ppl must be tired after walking around the ruins ) . Dinner was going to be local dish Dal Phaniya. Our guide had suggested this and said it was something one should not miss. He also said his wife made the best Dal Phaniya but refused to take the hint and invite us home. The dish was different. It was like South Indian idlies made of corn and then roasted on fire, served with dal curry. Along with this we also go jeera rice, papad and rava ladoo. This dinner is not served by the hotel, it is from the dabha outside just outside the hotel. A must try!!
Dinner done and our stomachs full we hit the bed and were dead to the world till 5:30 am next morning.