UJJAIN INDORE MAHESHWAR
The planning
Life is full of uncertainities.
To a travel buff, the most uncertain aspect of a professional career is the
inability to plan your vacations with any degree of certainity. It is with this
thought in mind, that we booked train tickets from Mumbai to Ujjain.
Now, all of you who have been
blessed with children would be in awe of the fact that we planned a 12 hr train
journey with a hyper active seven month old. What can I say, we are brave J (Read: Stupid)
With a trip decided two months in
advance, train tickets were easy. It may be of relevance to note that Avantika
Express from Mumbai to Indore is one of the most difficult trains to get a
reservation in. So we had booked tickets early and were delighted with our
planning efforts.
A hotel room was a significantly
difficult proposition. Surprisingly, there are very few decent hotels in
Ujjain. A search on tripadvisor will validate this statement. We reached out to
people we knew but to no avail. Finally, we put our faith in the state tourism
department and booked the Sipra Residency, property owned and maintained by
Madhya Pradesh Tourism. Similarly for Maheshwar, we booked the Narmada Retreat,
a MPTDC resort. We were at least sure that the location would be great even
though the maintenance might be dicey.
So we were all set to travel over
the weekend when we were gripped with this terrible sense of fear. Long story
short, we booked flight tickets three days before the journey. God bless the
lazy people at Air India who had not increased the fares on the tickets.
The location
We can proudly say that we have
seen a fair bit of places around Mumbai. One place that was always planned on visiting
was Maheshwar. The capital of Rani Ahalya Bai Holkar's kingdom situated on the
banks of River Narmada is located around 80 kms from Indore.
Maheshwar, is close to the two
jyotirlingas of Mahakaleswhar and Omkareshwar, which makes it an ideal three
day religious and historic circuit.
The trip
An very early morning flight later,
we landed at Devi Ahalya Bai Holkar airport. The Indore airport is a pretty standard small town airport, which
means you walk to the terminal. We had arranged a pick-up service from the
airport for the three days.
Ujjain, the ancient city of
Avantika, on the banks of the River Shipra is the residence of Lord Mahakal in
his temple abode of Mahakaleshwar. Ujjain is also one of the four cities where
the Ardh Kumbh Mela is held. It is also one of the 5 places where Maharaj Jai
Singh built a Ved Shala/ Jantar Mantar.
To be brutally honest, Ujjain is
a disappointment. In my mind, I had
imagined a city like Khajuraho or Hampi; a place with the small town charm, big
temples, quaint houses, decent eateries, opportunity for short walks, etc.
Ujjain however is the other spectrum of small town, dirty streets, cows
everywhere, no decent places to eat, high levels of poverty; something which
you would expect in rural UP but not definitely not in a popular touristy
place.
Ujjain today attracts the
religious Hindu, who has a mental checklist of the 12 jyotirlingas. They come
in, have darshan and leave. The city thus has very little to offer in terms of accommodation
or dining options. Similarly there is no development in the tourist
infrastructure.
Ujjain however has some saving
grace. There is a Ghat-ki-kali temple, where the poet Kalidasa worshipped Kali.
The temple has one of the most charming depictions of Kali. She is completely
unlike the Kali you would have seen anywhere.
The Ved Shala at Ujjain is
completely absent from the tourist circuit. When we visited, there were a bunch
of rowdy tourist who were bored within 5 mins. After they left, we had the
place to ourselves for almost one hour. Please do read up on the instruments
before you go, as the local guide/ security guard has no knowledge of them.
Non veg lovers may try the food
at Hotel Ritz, opposite Shipra Guest House. The food is good, service quick and
the pricing is economical. Shipra Residency is a good choice to stay with a
decent breakfast spread (Indian). The hotel is expensive though with room rents
around Rs 4000/- which is steep for a Tier III city.
We left Ujjain around 10 in the
morning and reached Maheshwar around 4 pm. The weather being pretty hot in
September, it made sense for us to reach in late afternoon. We checked into the
Narmada Resort, where we had booked a tent. Now this is an interesting choice.
I remember repeatedly asking my wife to not book the tent, she insists that I had
asked her to book the tent. J
We managed to convince the manager to shift us to a room. Unless you are
travelling in the peak of winter, tents are not advisable as the air
conditioning would never be effective.
Maheshwar is sublimely beautiful.
The town is spread along one side of the River Narmada. The ancients had built
multiple ghats along the river side. These ghats are still in use today by the
local populace. A short drive from the hotel, leads us to the main gate of the
fort. There is a Rs. 30 parking/ access fee to the fort. The fort was the
residence of the late Ahilya Bai. Her humble personal abode and her temple are
the key places of touristy importance here. From the fort, there is a huge stepped
path to the river front. The moment you cross the gate of the fort, you see the
beautiful multistoried temple. We were
lucky that we were there around 5.30 pm. We spent almost one hour within the
temple precints, taking photographs and generally enjoying the views. To the
religiously inclined, darshan is easy as there are no crowds here.
After the temple, we took a boat
ride on the Narmada. There are two options here, one is the motor boat and
second the hand rowed boat. The motor boats are cheaper but are just too loud.
I would suggest the hand rowed boat which has a laidback romantic feel to it.
The best part, they have cane chairs where one can sit and relax. For the two
of us, the boat man charged us Rs. 300 for an hour’s ride. These boats are the
property of the Ahilya Bai Resort and their patrons get first shot at them.
However as there are more than 3 boats, there is hardly any waiting time.
We spent a leisurely one hour
being rowed around, took multiple photos and watched the sun go down. Maheshwar
is indeed a very beautiful place.
The next morning, we walked down
from the Narmada resort back to the ghat. We also saw the chattri of Rani
Ahalya Bai’s daughter, which has highly carved panels on the outside walls.
Sadly, the locals have built a gymnasium adjacent to it. I am sure in the next
few years, the relics will be destroyed.
In the afternoon, we started back
to Indore via Omkareshwar.
Omkareshwar has a VIP darshan
facility with a ticket cost of Rs. 100/ person. Darshan time is less than five
minutes on normal days.
