Part 3/4: Roadtrip From The City Beautiful to The Blue City - Exploring Ajmer & Jodhpur

Day 3

Early in the morning we bade goodbye to Jaipur and headed towards Ajmer. The 130km long early morning drive on the NH-8 was very comfortable and refreshing.

Jaipur to Ajmer via NH-8

Jaipur to Ajmer

We had breakfast in Ajmer and paid obeisance at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah. The shrine has the grave (Maqbara) of the revered saint, Moinuddin Chisti. It attracts million of pilgrims not only from India but also from abroad. The dargah is situated in the heart of the city and can be easily accessed by auto or other modes of transportation. Expect a lot of rush and plan your visit accordingly. 

An unknown jewel, hidden away in Ajmer is the Nasiyan Jain Temple which offers an intricate display of the Jain religion's view of the structure of the Universe. Every article in this temple including the walls and floor platforms are gold plated. Next we did boating at Ana Sagar Lake which is surrounded by Aravalli Mountains.

Ana Sagar Lake, Ajmer

Soon it was time to hit the road again in order to reach my University in Jodhpur on time. I enjoyed the drive  from Ajmer to Jodhpur specially after crossing the town of Beawar.

The Aravallis played hide and seek with us and this discontinuous range of mountains gave us company for quite a while.

En route Jodhpur

Ajmer to Jodhpur - 205 KM

We reached Jodhpur in the afternoon and I took my friends for a tour of my University campus. After meeting my professors, batchmates and juniors, we decided to head towards the cleanest and most prominent fort in India i.e. Mehrangarh Fort.

Moot Court Hall, NLU Jodhpur

The aerial view of the Blue City from this Imposing fort situated at a height of 125m always brings a smile on my face.

The Mehrangarh Fort

We were lucky enough to reach here before it got closed and once again our student ID cards came handy to purchase dirt cheap entrance tickets to this fort. There is an option to use the elevator to reach the main fort but being high on energy we three decided to race our way to the top. We explored this fort and clicked loads of pictures here. The beautiful Umaid Bhawan Palace is also visible from the terrace of this Fort.

Umaid Bhawan Palace as seen from the Mehrangarh Fort

The huge collection of cannons kept at the top of the fort was impressive.

Panoramic view of the Blue city from Mehrangarh Fort

Sunset

After exploring a few more spots in Jodhpur my friends dropped me back to my college where the Vice Chancellor was hosting a dinner for me and my batchmates. It was a day well spent and meeting all my college friends in the evening after a long time and reliving good old times with them was truly the cherry on the cake.