Mandu to Hanumantiya

11th April, 2017

I was up by 5 rather unwillingly. Yesterday's weariness, courtesy the extremely monotonous Mandu fort, had almost vanished. I came to my senses and felt my stomach grumble. Mom was also awake. I informed her about my hunger. She gave me dates. Then I did the work that has to be done​ in the morning (😉😉). By that time the sky was a bright blue. We got ready by 7. We actually wanted to get out of that place as quickly as possible, the reason being the pitiable condition of the hotel. We had breakfast by 8:15 and left the damned place. I was just eager to leave the mysterious and gloomy Mandu fort. But before that, we visited the Neelkanth Mahal. A specimen of the Indo-Islamic architecture which is prominent on the fort, probably influenced by Emperor Akbar's Din-ai-Ilahi.

In no time we were hurtling down the super-curvy road towards the highway. In half an hour, we were on the highway. Relief!!

>>>>>>>>>>(Fast forward 4 hrs)>>>>>>>>>

1330 and we reached

Hanumantiya Tapu. A sprawling resort perched on the bank of the reservoir of the Indira Sagar dam on the river Narmada. We found our abode in 1 of the five wooden cottages lined up with the lake behind. We ate, took rest and started sniping(With a DSLR. Not a rifle!) for pictures of the reservoir, sun and the picturesque resort. We also experienced the stunning, wind-in-the-face speed boat ride. Then some super pictures of the sunset. And we had dinner. It is 9:53 now and I am waiting for this write-up to end. Sleepy!!😴😴😴😴. Now I will end my rant. Bye

-Nihar Apte

Maheshwar the Divine city.

9th April, 2017

6:20 am: I was up, and guess what the sun was up too. There is little to no obstruction in the Malwa Plateau for the natural elements.

7:30 am: We were all washed, dried and ignited at 1000°C to obtain pure alumina. Wait!!! What??

We washed, dried ourselves and were ready to leave. The water couldn't have been anymore hard, it must have been super-saturated with god knows what.

7:45 am: We left our room after two of us faced the usual belating factors (not me!). We enquired about the breakfast. The receptionist said, "We are serving in the respective rooms, you have to wait for some minutes for breakfast. So instead we had a walk. The hotel which was 30-50m off the Highway, the gate was situated immediately on the side of the highway and it was a long walk till the reception.

8:10 am: We were eating breakfast, a rather hefty one, comprised of 2 (giant) aloo Parathas and a small bowl of dahi. It was quite exhausting to finish it!

9:30 am: Having finished all the tasks that have to be completed in the morning, we finally left the hotel, sat in our car and returned to Mahakaleshwar temple complex. Why?... Because we wanted to find the dealer of Batik (what is that) print bed sheets and other women's clothing. Having spent some (a lot) time there, we were off to Maheshwar.

1:30 pm: We arrived at the hotel Narmada Retreat. The hotel is superb. Perched on the north bank of the R. Narmada, like the whole town of Maheshwar, it is a very calm and serene place, replete with nice gardens, huge trees, cozy cottages and even a small pool.

2:30 pm: We completed our lunch, went to our dainty room and slept (Zzzzzzzz Power Nap zzzzzzzZ).

4:20 pm: We woke up rather unwillingly and proceeded to the car. We went to the Ahilya Fort. Now that fort is a sight to behold. The fort isn't actually a military fort, instead it is a भुईकोट fort (meant for residence). On entering, there is a small temple (actually a Chatri) which was closed at the time of our visit. Right opposite to it is a bigger temple, as big as 3 floors. And like most of the temples in MP it is Shiva temple. Between the two temples is the entrance to the sprawling Maheshwar ghat. There is a temple right at the centre of the R. Narmada, which is accessible by boat.

7:00 pm: Having finished seeing the fort as well as Devi Ahilyabai Holkar’s humble abode, we entered a shop of the famous Maheswari silk sarees. I will refrain from commenting on the shopping (it is dangerous to do so).

8:45 pm: Having arrived at the hotel, we ate and slept a good night’s sleep with dreams and all.

The end

My second air travel.

8th April, 2017.

Our day started with last minute preparations for our trip. After following the standard trip-going protocols (and usual factors that can belate you), we left our home by 8 and occupied our seats in a Hyundai Xcent (Obviously an UBER). After a rather uninteresting trip to the international airport, we grazed the Terminal 2 and moved forward to the domestic airport or Terminal 1. With the ATC tower towering over us we entered the gate assigned for Indigo airlines' flights. We had checked in via the internet so the luggage check in procedures were smooth. After a rather long wait (and refreshing ourselves), we went for the security check. There were some miniscule snags in the process due to various factors. There was a nice Ashok Leyland bus waiting for us on gate 13. We quickly boarded the bus and were off to reach our Airbus A320 parked somewhere  in the airfield. And boy oh boy, the airfield is a sight to behold. After a long wait for apparently no obvious reason, we alighted the bus. The ramp to the ‘hawai jahaz’ was a nice blue in colour. We were greeted by the airhostesses and all three of us occupied our window seats.

And after a long wait on the airfield and the taxi way (I guess there was an air traffic jam) the jet engine kicked on and quickly accelerated our plane into the air. The distance from Santacruz to Virar was cut by us in a record 5 minutes. While in air, the tiny windows offered a majestic view of the sea, coastal towns, big canals and sprawling wheat fields.

We landed on the small but decent Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport of Indore, relieved ourselves and occupied the car waiting for us (meanwhile mom spotted a singer in the midst!). We were directly off to Ujjain. The roads were very very nice. We soon took a stop at a roadside restaurant named Meghadoot ‘Dhabba’ for some reason (maybe the owner is a fan of Kalidasa). We ate to the fullest and took of in our Tata Indigo (yes we like things with that name). We reached hotel by half past two, had a rather long rest. Then we were off to see the various temples of Ujjain. This joy ride started by 4:30 and ended by 7:30 when we returned to our lodge. Now today's adventure has ended with me writing this 'travelogue'. I am looking forward to tomorrow's Maheshwar trip. So bye bye and goodnight.🌃