Jodhpur - The Blue City

Then the last part of my North India tour had come- Jodhpur. I reached here at 5 o'clock in the early morning. I got a room near to the railway station and had sleep for about three hours. My plan was to start around  9 am and see only the important places.

 Jodhpur is situated midway between Jaipur and Jaisalmer. Mehragand Fort and Ummaid Bhawan palace are the main tourist spots in this place. Jodhpur is also called 'Blue City' because of the blue colored  houses in  the old part of city. It was the capital of old Marwar kingdom.

Mehragarh Fort

The first thing I enquired after getting off the bed was about best means to get around the city.  As per hotel  guys advice, I hired an autorikshaw for Rs200. He had agreed to take me to two places - the fort and the palace.  It took around half hour to reach Mehragand fort. This fort stood on top of a hill overlooking the city. This fort can be seen from almost all parts of the city.

Jaisalmer - The Golden City

 Jaisalmer, Known as Golden City is situated in the center of Thar desert.  It is famous for the magnificent fort overseeing the city. Jaisalmer got this name because of  the golden yellow sand stones used in the construction of the fort and other buildings. It is surprising to see that entire city is made of the same  stones. It is known as the only 'live fort' in the world, that means  people live in this fort even now. This fort is also called 'Solar Quila'(Golden Fort). You can see palaces, temples, hotels, houses, shops etc inside the fort. Jaisalmer is also called 'City of Palaces' because you can see a large number palaces or havelis inside it.

Maharaja palace inside the fort

It is estimated that around 4000 people still reside inside the fort. They are living there for generations together. But only Rajputs(Kshatriya) and Brahmins occupy houses in fort. Other lower castes

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