rdbday4

To my surprise we woke up on the first alarm. Quickly we packed our stuff, checked out and went to the bus stop. I carry 3 sets of rechargeable batteries for my camera. In the morning I realized that I had already used 2 of them and the third one was in use. This was a major cause of concern because the last thing I wanted was the batteries to runout in the middle of the day. I asked a book stall person at the bus stop, if I could plug the charger in his shop. He refused saying that it will consume too much power. The tea stall person let me plug the charger but charged Rs. 5 for it. At 6 the bus left Jodhpur. The journey was uneventful and uncomfortable. Although I was sleeping most of the time but the it wasn’t a peaceful sleep. I kept on waking up at regular intervals. We reached Ranakpur at 9:50am. We got a room in the temple dharmashala for which I had to give Rs. 200 (out of which I got Rs.80 back later when I was leaving). The room was huge in which around 10 people could sleep easily. It had 2 single beds and 3 bathrooms , all very clean. We had a bath and then went to have food. The canteen had thali system with Rs.25 per thali. the food was good especially the khatti-meethi daal and chutney. Then we wnet to visit the temple. It was almost 12pm and unknowingly we were at the right time. Cameras and visitors (non-Jains) are allowed inside the temple only after 12pm till 5pm. I had heard a lot about the carvings inside the temple but when I entered the temple, I was simply spellbound. Exquisite is the only word that comes to my mind. Such intricate carvings. And it not that a few pillars are beautiful, all 1444 pillars have been made different with equally fine handwork. You felt like photographing each and every pillar. I went around clicking pics, in the mean while Sunil was talking to a pandit. We met after almost half an hour and till that time he knew enough about the temple that he could conduct a guided tour, which he infact did for me. The information below along the pics has been provided by him only.

After spending some more time at the temple, we went to find about transport to Kumbalgarh. The tea stall person near the bus stop told us that there is no direct bus from Ranakpur to Kumbalgarh. We could take a bus till Saiyara and then from there either a bus till Kumbalgarh or take jeep till Kelwara and an auto till Kumbalgarh( 5kms from Kelwara). I thought lets rest for an hour and then we will leave. But my tired body had other plans. Once I went to sleep, I did not get up for 2:30hours. In my dream I saw that it was night and I was still sleeping and this made me wake up with a jerk. I woke Sunil, we quickly packed and ran to the bus stop. It was 4pm already. I calculated that we had to go 50kms, that would mean 1.5hours. I might still catch the sunset. Luckily there was a bus standing there which would take us till Saiyara. Time saved, I would definitely catch the sunset. We dint get any place to sit but there was ample space to stand. The 20km journey till Saiyara took around an hour through the single lane mountain roads. The only saving grace was that the roads were in good condition, hence the ride was not bumpy. There was still time. If I reach Kumbalgarh fast from here, I will still catch the sunset. From Saiyara we could either take a shared jeep or a bus. We decided to take the bus. Soon we realized what a wrong decision this was. The bus driver was driving as if this was the only journey he had to make till the end of the day. It stopped at every village on the way loading and unloading goods and people. In one village they loaded gas cylinders on the roof. Then in the next village in front of a gas depot, they unloaded them. Once he just stopped the bus to say hi to someone on the road. The journey of 30km took 1.5 hours on empty roads. Once again sunset missed!!! The bus dropped us off at a crossing where the board said Kumbalgarh 2kms. The conductor had recommended a cheap guest house called Lucky, a few metres from the crossing. But the place was only cheap in its facilities. It has no beds, toilet was also shared and the whole place was dirty and the guy was asking Rs. 500 for that room. We immediately rejected it and started moving towards Kumbalgarh. It was almost dark now. The road started climbing up and walking with the tons of weight on our back was getting very tiring. Soon we were walking in total darkness. After sometime we saw the lights of the fort at a distance. Thank god we were almost there. After walking almost 1.5kms we came to a place from which there was a great view of the fort. Talking to the guard standing there revealed that there was no place to stay ahead. There was only the fort. I almost fell down with disappointment. We had walked all the way uphill for no reason. I felt like killing myself for not asking anyone before stating to walk towards the fort. We rested for a short time and started walking back towards the crossing. From the crossing one way goes uphill to the fort, the other downhill towards Kelwara. On the road downhill there are many hotels but these are resort type places and expensive. You get budget hotels only in Kelwara, 5kms from Kumbalgarh. We managed to convince a restaurant owner to give us a room behind his restaurant. It had nothing except a bed, quilt and blanket. It was already 7:30pm. The bus conductor had told us that a cultural festival was going on in the fort. We arranged a taxi and went back to the fort. This festival is held every year on these dates. We dint know about and happened to by be there at that time. the whole fort was lit up beautifully. A lot of people were going in. there was a huge tent in the ground with Odissi dances going on. We watched for some time, then left. We took some more pics and returned to the room. The dinner the restaurant made was unexpectedly tasty and we went to sleep as soon as we hit the bed. There was a direct bus to Udaipur from Kumbalgarh at 9am. So we had to get up by 8 and we should reach Udaipur by 12pm. But how I wish things go the way I plan them…


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