Leaving for Mt Abu - our 24th District.
Last night we slept late, we talked till almost 2 am. We had also received our laundry yesterday, so had almost finished packing our bags last night.
6.45 am - Woke up early, and the toilet paper roll we got yesterday was finished again. The toilet paper in India is very short in length - more of the cardboard inside than the actual toilet paper - and we had to request for more in the morning. I would highly recommend visitors form the US to carry the travel size Charmin rolls with them, the kind you get at Walmart for around a dollar, I would carry atleast one per week, for emergency use only. All the hotels do provide the toilet paper, only it is not enough. Hotel Arya Niwas always placed 2 rolls in the bathroom, and always gave you 2 whenever you requested for more.
9.28 am - After breakfast - omelletes, toast/butter, orange Juice and a bottle of mineral water (Rs 177 + tip), we paid the hotel bill for 2 nights (Rs 2500) and left Hotel Raj Palace for Mt Abu.
We did not stay in any other hotels in Udaipur, so cannot compare, but this hotel was quite nice, close to Lake Pichhola and shopping. Service was friendly, they offered a computer room at Rs 30 minimum for upto an hour usage. I would recommend this hotel also because their food was nice and hot. They serve it on the roof top restaurant, which offers covered as well as open areas. Since it is a family run business, there is atleast one family member sleeping in the hotel so the customer service is great.
9.52 am - Left Udaipur.
12.17 am - Reached Pindwara on the way to Mt Abu.
1.18 pm - Stopped in Podarla on the highway, Hotel Deep Palace, and ate Sada Dosa and Pav-Bhaji. I had maslaa tea and Pavan had black tea. We paid for Sarawan Singh and told the waiter to serve him whatever he wanted. I recommended Sarawan to also try the Pav-Bhaji, knowing he may have never eaten it as it is a purely Maharashtrian fast food item
2.30 pm - Sarawan took us to Hilltone Hotel. We had not booked earlier, and they seemed to be booked to capacity (except one suite available at Rs 5000) so we went to another hotel by Lake Nikki called Hotel Lake Palace (not to me mixed with Lake Palace in Udaipur). They too had a full house, but a group of students was on the way out, so they asked us to return at about 4.30 and they would have a room ready for us. We could not even see what we were committing to. Anyway, we had to go explore Mt Abu, so without much ado we decided to return at 4.30 pm, since their rates seemed to be really good- Rs 600 to Rs 1500) and the hotel was at the perfect location by the Lake.
Information on Nakki Lake from wikipedia:
Nakki Lake is a lake situated in the Indian hill station of Mount Abu. It is an important visitor attraction of Mount Abu.There is the Toad Rock on a hill near the lake.Toad rock is so called as it looks like a toad about to jump into the lake. Raghunath Temple and Maharaja Jaipur Palace are also on hills near the Lake. Boating in the lake and horse rides around the lake are available.
2.50 pm - Left the hotel to see Mt Abu
3.20 pm - After a long winding drive, reached Guru Shikhar, which is really high on a hilltop. Sarawan Singh left us at the gate, and we decided even if we could go all the way to the top, we would atleast try. We were adviced to hire the services of locals who actually carry you in a sort of home made palaquin, but ofcourse that was out of the question. So, we started the climb up. On the way, I saw a swamiji, who had a very calm expression, totally content with life. Something made me ask him if I could take his pictures. He just smiled his consent. After a few shots, asI thanked him, he asked me what was I going to do with his pictures? I replied it was my hobby. He offered me his business card, in case someone wanted to know his name. I was very impressed that he even had a business card. Then he asked me if we would give him a ride leave him at the bottom of the steps when we drove down. I told him it may take us a awhile, he said, he was in no hurry and would wait for us.
Pavan and I started the climb up, and although they claim there are 350 steps to Guru Shikhar, it was not that bad. There was a landing after every few steps and the climb was not steep. So, finding a lot of good photographic spots, we kept climbing and shooting. Before we realized, we were all the way up. The Shikhar is actually a cave - a guffa - and I found this additional info online from Sirohi website:
GURU SHIKHAR-On covering a distance of 3 miles Delwara Achagarh road, a hilly coal-tarred road of nearly 7 kms. leads to highest peak of Mount Abu - popularly known as Guru-Shikhar. It is the highest peak of Mt. Abu, at the height of 5650 ft/1722mts. On the peak is the temple of Guru Dattatreya, who is supposed to be an incarnation of God Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Close to it, there was an old bell with inscription of 1468 V.S. (1411 A.D.) which has been replaced by new one. A little to the north-west of it is another peak on which stands the shrine of Ahilya, the mother of Dattatreya. The landscape of surrounding plains from the high peaks is simply enchanting.
We took some wonderful pictures and even requested someone to take my photo with Pavan, right in front of the temple at Guru Shikhar. Everything is painted pink for some reason, including a very very old bell. We could see age old inscription on the bell, but since it was painted over in pink, it was not readable.
Before the climb up, we saw a few cafes selling cold drinks and snacks.
4.10 pm - Returned from Guru Shikhar, and I saw the swamiji waiting for us, seated on a chair, close to our taxi. I told Sarawan Singh that we were going to give a ride to the swamiji, and he readily made room on the front seat, pushing aside our laptop bag. Sarawan Singh got the directions to his residence, since we were going to see the Delwara Jain temple as our last stop and that was where he lived, we told him we would drop him in his "Guffa".
Went to the Achaleswar Mahadev temple (1412 AD), which is 11 kms north of Mt Abu and has a number of interesting features. The temple has a toe of Lord Shiva blocking a deep hole said to extend to Pataal - the underworld! Outside the temple, there is a beautiful brass Nandi.
Swamiji knew the local priest and asked him to tell us in detail about the history and significance of the big toe. He asked us to pour some water without touching the toe. There was no statue of Lord Shiva only a blocked hole.
Outside, we were shown some damage to the brass Nandi. It looked like it had been hit without any success at an attempt to damage it.
Pavan took some photos as my camera's battery needed to be changed. We returned to the taxi and drove to the Jain temple.
We first dropped Swamiji on the way, he requested us to visit his cave, and offered us refreshment - herbal tea. But, again we were short of time and begged his leave. Pavan left a Rs 100 note in his pooja thali. He had given us such a lot of valuable information on Mt Abu that we all felt very happy at having made his acquaintance. We told him we would definetely like to meet with him on our next trip to Mt Abu.
At the Jain temple we were not allowed to take pictures, nor allowed to take the cameras inside the temple. We were not really interested in going in and so just took some photos from outside. (Big mistake, we should have left our cameras in the taxi as we believe this is a very beautiful temple from inside.) Outside the temple, I bought some esssentials like bread, butter, bags of chips and some biscuits to take back to the hotel with us. The owners seemed to be sindhi, so I tried talking with them in sindhi. I have not spoken sindhi for more than 21 years, so it does not come easily to me, but that day I was quite successful, I think!
5.30 pm - Reached Hotel Lake Palace at Nikki Lake, but the rooms were still not ready. We were told that the kids had just left, the hallways looked like they were hit by a tornado. Before we could settle in, we had to decide which room did we prefer. The rooms were all a mess and smelt quite a bit. I had half a mind to tell Pavan we should try some other places too, but we were assured that we would be happy once the rooms were cleaned. So, we selected one on the upper floor as it looked like it was a bit more detached and private. They cleaned it in about 15/20 minutes. The floors were still damp but it looked overall clean. Only after we had moved in I noticed there was a bit of stale smell, almost as though something was left wet. The drain in the sink was not working, the water from the sink was running onto the bathroom floor. We had to really ask them a number of times to take care of it. They took forever to send someone to dry up the clean the floor.
The bathroom was disgusting, the ceiling was completely wet and it was very low. Anyone taller than 5.7 would actually touch the ceiling while taking a shower. The bathrooms below probably
had better height.
At night we ordered food in the room, soup, sandwich, chole bhature, green salad and mineral water (Rs 151.88 + tip). The food was not bad, so after some work actually went to sleep early.
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