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.