November 18, 2006 Mandawa to Fatehpur to Ramgarh to Churu to Jhunjhunu

Mandawa Palace - the Heritage Hotel, Mandawa, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.

November 18th 2006

Woke up early, had tea in the room, finished packing and had breakfast on the open terrace, facing the front of the building. In the morning, the Mandawa Hotel looks quite pretty. We ordered Parathas and yogurt with pickles. Talked with our children in the US, Payal and Sagar. Took a lot of pictures while we were waiting for the breakfast, and saw a female with a huge lens for her camera, the kind that Courtney has. Overheard them talking about our D70S.

When we came down, Sarawan Singh was not yet ready, he said that he could not get access to the bathroom as yet. But we still had to go sight see the Havelis so we spent an hour photographing local Havelis, Sarawan Singh hooked us up with a guy from the hotel to show us around Mandawa, who took us along the narrow lanes, most of them were clean, except one or 2 lanes. Saw a bus load of tourists, mostly Europeans. Took some really good portraits of this guy who lives in one of the Havelis. He was sitting outside, and invited us in silently to take more pictures. As usual, Pavan tipped him well.

10.00 am - Left Hotel Mandawa for Mandawa Castle.

10.30 am - Left Mandawa Castle.

10.42 am - Left Shiv Temple for Fatehpur.

11.36 am - Left Fatehpur, gave the guide Rs 20.

12.15 pm - Arrived at Ramgarh.

12.25 pm - Left Ramgarh in Ratangarh.

1.00 pm - Reached Churu.

1.15 pm - Reached Churu Fort.

1.20 pm - Reached Sunheri Haveli.

1.40 pm - Left Sunheri Haveli.

Sunheri Haveli is owned by the Poddars, and they have let this humongous Haveli rot. There is a woman who was standing in one of the balconies who requested us to close the small door within a gate when we left. The left side of the Haveli was dirty while the right side at least looked somewhat cleaner. But considering this is a National Heritage, rather, an International Heritage, how can our Government let these monuments/havelis go down? The Poddars do have a smaller newly built mansion close by, where they must be coming to visit. Maybe, they are waiting to cash out one day and meanwhile have someone stay there as caretakers, without having to pay them anything.

3.02 pm - Went past Jhunjhunu RTDC

3.30 pm - Reached Hotel Jamuna Resort, a very nice place, bargained to pay Rs 800 for the room, learning the tricks now. It is a fairly decent, very clean room, with 3 beds and plenty of outlets. We had lunch (Rs 200) and decided to settle down for the night, asking Sarawan to meet with us next morning.

Retired to our room (# 209) and uploaded the pictures, had some tea, took a nap. Pavan woke up at 5.45 pm and I at 6 pm. Had a good 2 hour rest. Had some tea, changed and freshened up to go and eat dinner. We had earlier asked the waiter if we can get some mutton curry, which he reminded us about at dinner. We ordered the mutton curry with chapattis, beer and mineral water. As we were about to finish our dinner, Sarawan Singh saw us and brought the owner - Mr Laxmikant Jangid - to meet with us. He sat with us for over an hour and the conversation was becoming very interesting. Meanwhile, Sagar called, so I went out of the Gazebo area in the restaurant. I talked with Sagar for over an hour, meanwhile, Pavan also came out and we continued to talk with Sagar in our room.

Had tea, finished up the uploading of the days photos and went to sleep after midnight.