Part 1/4: Roadtrip From The City Beautiful to The Blue City - Exploring Bhangarh & Alwar

Day 1

“Robby lets at least meet once and decide the tentative itinerary before setting out on this road trip tomorrow morning”,  I frantically said realising that we hadn’t even decided on the basic route before venturing out on the 2000 kilometre long road trip, leave aside the packing and other arrangements. Sensing the urgency Robby immediately coordinated with Boney (the third member of our group) and we all decided to meet at the Sukhna Lake in the evening.

A couple of days ago, Boney had randomly come up with this idea of accompanying me for my University’s Convocation ceremony in Jodhpur. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we had chalked out a rough plan for a four to five day long road trip to Jodhpur. At the Sukhna Lake all three of us came up with numerous suggestions after an hour long session of brainstorming and finally it was decided that we’ll start for Jodhpur early in the morning. We were bursting with excitement and the wait for the sunrise grew all the more difficult. Just as we were about to head back to our respective homes, Boney casually expressed his desire to begin the journey as soon as possible. It was at that moment that I proposed to leave for our destination at night itself. The spark in my friends’ eyes, upon hearing this, was more than sufficient to indicate their willingness to this new exciting proposal. The more we had tried to plan, the more unexpected this journey unfolded to be.

We started the packing right away and in less than a couple of hours we were good to go. It was the month of January and we began the journey at 11pm. It was decided that at all times two out of the three members would stay awake and the back seat of the car would be used as a bunker by the third member. Boney decided to drive first and Robby gave him company in the front while I dozed off on the back seat to get some rest before the long drive ahead.

First Leg of the journey: Chandigarh to Neemrana

Just as we left the City Beautiful behind, we encountered our first big challenge. What had been a clear winter night sky had suddenly been engulfed with dense fog and the visibility dropped to less than 20 metres.

We were left in a dilemma whether to abort this plan and wait for the sunrise or to continue our journey towards New Delhi at a snail’s pace. With hope of encountering better weather conditions ahead we continued travelling towards Ambala on NH-21. After Ambala, dense fog and the busy traffic of the Grand Trunk Road posed even more difficult driving conditions. It was not before crossing Karnal, that the fog cover had become lighter.

Robby now decided to take a nap and I moved to the driver’s seat. At Panipat, we took a detour and decided to avoid Delhi’s traffic by going towards Rewari via Rohtak. This was an excellent stretch of highway but the only peculiar thing about it was the unexpectedly large speed breakers at irregular intervals. As it was secluded to a great extent, we didn’t feel very safe while travelling on this stretch of road in the wee hours.

Our first stop was Neemrana Fort Palace which was about 40km from Rewari. We reached there at 6 in the morning and found the gates of this heritage property closed. In the meantime we roamed around and explored this Heritage hotel property from outside. The entry fee and the meals at Neemrana Fort Palace were steeply priced at roughly Rs 2000/- per person. Not having such an exorbitant budget and with the option to explore loads of other attractions in Rajasthan, we decided to move ahead towards our next stop Alwar.

Neemrana Fort

Nikhil (me), Boney and Robby at the Neemrana Fort Entrance

With the break of dawn we got our first glimpse of the changed vegetation and topography. The 80km drive from Neemrana to Alwar was scenic and there were a few barren hillocks and plain patches along this state highway, which tempted us to indulge in some off-roading.

The aerial view from the top of this hillock was breathtaking

Alwar is a big town in Rajasthan and houses a number of tourist attractions. The Bala Quila and City Palace are worth a visit but what really left me and my friends awestruck was the majestic Siliserh Lake. This lake is on the outskirts of Alwar and is in close proximity to Sariska National Park. It is quite big in size and is surrounded by Aravalli Mountains. There was an entrance fee of Rs 50/- which was totally worth the panoramic views offered from a restaurant/hotel maintained by RSTDC. Boating facility is also available here.

Siliserh Lake

Panoramic View of Siliserh Lake

Our next stop was Bhangarh which was the highlight of our trip. The two and a half hour drive from Siliserh Lake to Bhangarh was not very comfortable but the sheer excitement to explore India’s most haunted place kept us going. The bumpy ride through rural and forest area was rewarded by the awesome view of the ruins of Bhangarh and the Aravalli Mountains.

Neemrana Fort to Bhangarh Fort via Alwar

One needs at least 2-3 hours to explore Bhangarh properly and no person is allowed to stay back at this spooky place after sunset. As we climbed up and explored more and more ruins, the three of us definitely felt some sort of supernatural and negative vibes emanating from the surroundings. By late evening, good sense prevailed and we dropped our perverse idea of staying back at Bhangarh after sunset.

The Ruins of Bhangarh Fort

We continued our journey towards the Pink City which was roughly around 2 hours drive (85km) from Bhangarh. The entire stretch of road from Alwar to Jaipur via Bhangarh is deserted and in bad condition. Hence it’s advisable to carry sufficient petrol and a spare tyre. It was around 8pm when we reached our hotel in Jaipur.

Bhangarh Fort to Jaipur

 
After taking a quick shower, we stepped out to explore Jaipur. The roads here were in an excellent condition and we drove around to get a feel of this city. Jaipur offers a number of places to hangout and the culinary delights available here are hard to resist. After indulging in some gourmet delight at the famous World Trade Park, we went for a long drive to Nahargarh Fort.

Hawa Mahal at Night

Spotted a deer en route Nahargarh Fort

Long Drive on Empty and Winding Roads

The winding road to this fort (located on a hill top) offers spectacular aerial view of the pink city. We hadn’t taken proper rest for more than 24 hours now and we didn’t even realise when upon reaching the hotel room we dozed off and slept like a baby.