6.00 am - Woke up early, had tea, dressed, kept the bags ready and came downstairs to get some breakfast. We had ordered parathas to be served around 9 am but wanted to take care of the bill first.
The laundry was ready, the guy who was taking care of us last night really delivered. Tipped him Rs 50.
We presumed that Mr HarshVardhan must have already left, but when he heard our voices in the hallway, he came up to us. He was ready but his ride was late. He had guests - a couple - with him, so we went up to them to be introduced. Mr Chandrakant Singh his cousin and his wife Laxmi had been been traveling and had just arrived in Kota. They stopped here for a few days on their way to Jaipur. Mr Chandrakant Singh is a retired army officer, and was very interested in why we are doing what we are doing - a blog on India! Soon after, Mr Harsh Vardhan left and Mr and Mrs Singh sat with us while we had our breakfast. The conversation became so interesting that both husband and wife wanted us to extend our stay in Kota so they could show us in and around Kota. But, ofcourse, we had to leave as we were looking forward to visiting Chittorgarh now. We talked and talked till we had to leave, and even then Mr Chandrakant was giving us phone numbers and contacts etc. A wonderful couple and truly one whom we would like to meet with again.
We paid Rs 1100 and Rs 140 in tips. Somehow, with everything so wonderful at Sukhdham, the one negative is: the guys who work there. Only one of them took care of us, but now there were 5 more, just standing by to be tipped. Had not seen them at all. Mr Harsh Vardhan should find out from Arya Niwas in Jaipur how well they have handled this situation of tipping. There is no tipping allowed in Arya Niwas.
10.00 am - Left Sukhdham for Menaal and Chittorgarh.
We soon realized that we had left our water bottles in the hotel's dining area and had to buy some water very soon, as it was getting warm already. Saravan Singh stopped within 1/2 an hour so we could buy cold water, biscuits and chips etc.
12.25 pm - Reached Menaal. What a lost paradise. Lots of people go there to ask for boons. As you enter the temple, you notice little stacks of stones, some in the shape of cars, houses, boats etc......The whole walk to the temple has these stacks, and they look very interesting and entertaining. We took some pictures on our way back. Even Saravan Singh wanted to see this temple, and he joined us, although we were concerned about someone trying to steal our luggage, specially our laptops, but he said it's OK, it will be fine.
The temple is very beautiful and a must for anyone who goes to Chittorgarh. There was apparently a very big pond or similar water reservoir, and one can actually imagine how beautiful it must be with water inside. It was dry now, and the area surrounding it naturally very beautiful. We spent some time there, requested Saravan Singh to take our picture together.
On our return, our luggage and the taxi were fine. The people there also very friendly.
3.15 pm - Enteriing Chittorgarh. Saravan took us straight to the Fort, Victory Tower, Meena Mandir & the Jain temple - all in the same area. Saravan dropped us outside Meera temple and parked his taxi a distance away and explained to us where to find him. After seing the Meera temple and the Jain temple, we walked to the Victory Tower. What a magnificant monument. I have been here before with the study tour with J J Institute of Applied Arts way back in late 60's but did not remember much about the area except the Tower itself. I remember, we had walked all the way up, but now, after one storey, one really could not go up, as it was pitch dark and we were told that one of the floors was slightly damaged. We returned after the first floor. Took a lot of pictures from outside and walked back to the temple (Saravan was parked by the tower but apparently, we had misunderstood his directions. We went all the way to the Meera temple, and on asking where the cabs park, came from the main road all the way back to the tower. We saw Saravan waiting for us there.
On our way to the hotel, we went to the Padmini Palace. This Palace looks much simpler and the mirrors in her dressing room were much bigger when I first last saw this place in late 60's.
Padmini Palace is built beside the lotus pool with a historical pavilion that changed the history of Chittorgarh. Allauddin Khilji saw the reflection of Queen Padmini in her mirrors and so mesmerized was he, that the quest of possessing her led to a furious battle which saw the last of Maharana Ratan Singh (husband of Maharani Padmini) and the epitome of beauty-Cleopatra of Rajasthan, became an eternal legend in the history of Chittor and also of the Mewar state. Rani Padmini preferred to end her life than be with Allaudin Khilji, thus committing Sati.
6.00 pm - Left Padmini Palace for Hotel Pratap Palace. Pratap Palace showed us rooms on higher flors per Saravan's instructions to the male receptionist, but we preferred a room on the ground floor, which was the only room by the open lawn that the restaurant opens into. Signed up for the room at Rs 1000 for the night. It had a huge painting on the wall behind the bed, which looked a shipload of people. But the room was big and had enough outlets etc. Ordered Chinese food in the room at night. We had a huge bay window style seating where we ate our food. The helpings were very large and we probably should have ordered less as more than 1/2 the food was sent back. We had some tea in the room and uploaded the days pictures, before settling for the night.
Sunder called. He had been calling regularly. He was as excited as us on this trip of ours to visit all the 32 districts of Rajasthan. He called almost daily to find out where we were on that particular day! We talked a good 20 + minutes. He was almost wistful when I told him we were in Chittorgarh that day. Ten years older than me, Sunder is a real trooper and would have loved this trip with us.
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