Desert Safari

 Then the most awaited part of the tour came - the desert. It is perfectly contrasting to my native, Kerala, where we can see sand only in beaches. Here in desert you have to travel kilometers to find any significant greenery.

 I reached Jaisalmer at around 12o'clock in the noon. The train took around 12 hrs from Jaipur. Thar desert welcomed me when I woke up in the morning in train. One interesting stop in between was Pokhran - the place where India exploded the atom bomb. Anyway I couldn't see anything around, but only dry lands and some army men.

Khuri Sand Dunes

 Jaisalmer is a city completely dependent on tourism. It is quite a beautiful place. I will tell about it in the next post. The first thing I inquired, after getting a room was about desert safari package. The hotel guys offered me a package at Rs4000 which includes camel safari,  folk music in the desert and sight seeing in Jaisalmer on the next day. And they arranged a Toyota Qualis just for me. This seemed to be expensive but I took it as I didn't want to go out and search for a better deal. And I didn't want to miss the desert safari.

The camel safari was arranged at Khuri Sand dunes which is 52 kms away from Jaisalmer. The road was very good and only a very few vehicles crossed us. On the way we saw some

Jaipur -The Pink City

 Jaipur is best known as 'Pink City'  because of the pink painted building in the old part of the city. It is said to be the first planned city in India. Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan, is located in the desert lands and was home to the Rajputs.

 I reached Jaipur at around 8pm and quickly took a room near to the Bus stand. We had nothing to do at that time but to take rest. The next day was going to be the day to explore Jaipur. We had a deep sleep . And  in the next day morning took an Auto Rikshaw and proceeded towards the Old city. It is where most of the monuments like Hawa Mahal, City Palace etc are located.

Entrance to Old City

We can feel the difference while entering the old city, where you will be surrounded by pink colored buildings. The first stop was 'Govind Dev Ji Mandir'.  Govind Dev ji is an incarnation of the Lord Krishna. You can see a number of people  singing 'jai Govind'  chants. They are seen singing it continuously for a long time (may be as long as the darshan is there) and it creates an awesome atmosphere there. Another interesting thing you may see is that some people will be

Pilani Diary

BITS Pilani Main Building.

Then the day of the travel to Pilani came. I had allotted one full day only for the travel  because I had heard that it would be the hardest part you will have to face. This happened to be very true of course. The viva was on the next day. So I could stay one night at Pilani and attend viva in the morning.

 The information I got was that there would be buses to Pilani from ISBT Terminal in Delhi. I came to ISBT at around 11am and got to know some hard facts. The important one was that there are only a few buses after 10 o'clock in the morning. The next buses are at 11.45 am, 2 pm and then 4pm. But there are regular bus services before 10 in the morning. 

 At the same time, one friend called me and said he was coming with one another guy. They were also coming to Pilani and he was  currently at Airport.  The other guy was only coming. So we decided to travel together. Finally we took the tickets for the bus at 4 o'clock. It was a very ordinary bus that can be expected from normal bus services. It took around

Agra - The City of Taj

 I was quite excited in the next day because I was going  to visit most famous mausoleum in India. The 'Taj  Mahal' known as the 'symbol of eternal love' is in Agra.  This time also I opted for a tour package which covers Agra in one day. That seemed to be the easiest and most comfortable mode of transport.

Taj Mahal

 We started at 6 o'clock in the early morning from Delhi and reached Agra at around 11 am.   The journey was comfortable although it was in a bus. And I was

In the Capital City

The first location in my tour plan was Delhi. I weighed on the possible means of  roaming around here. The best option available  was a one day sight seeing package from a private tour operator. My friend, Vinod had also agreed to accompany me till noon.

Qutub Minar

 The tour started around 9 o'clock from Karol Bagh. The first destination was Qutub Minar. It took around one hour to reach there. We could see many tourists there since it was a Sunday morning. Apart from the minar, there are some ruins around it known as Qutub complex. The minar together with the ruins around is a good sight seeing location.

Iron Pillar near Qutub Minar

Qutub Minar

  Qutub Minar is the world's tallest brick minar at 72 m. It is constructed by Qutb-ud-din Aibak in the 12th century and was completed in the 13th century by his successors. One part of the minar is constructed in Muslim architecture, while the other part is in Hindu architecture. There is a watch tower on top of the minar, but entry is not allowed now. 

 Another interesting thing is the Iron Pillar in the Qutub complex. It is a wonder that, this pillar has not corroded for centuries. Nobody has ever found out the exact