A Monsoon Trip : Udaipur, Ranakpur, Kumbhalgarh and Mount Abu

Monsoon brings not only green and coolness in weather also provoke us to visit the places in India having scenic view of nature.

Udaipur, a city of lake also called the capital of Mewar is an historic as well as a natural beautiful place. Lakes in Udaipur Pichola Lake, Fatehsagar Lake are the two very big lakes that make this place to call as a city of lakes.

As we (me and my lovely wifey) were so eager to visit this awesome place. We started the planning our trip and the very first thing was the budget. We decided to visit 4 places in this trip to utilize the trip and minimize the budget, we won’t have more than 25000 for this trip, and we included these places in our trip.

Udaipur
Ranakpur
Kumbhalgarh
Mount Abu

Our plan was to start from Udaipur and end to Mount Abu. We started gathering information regarding how to reach and how much would it be costing.

As we decided to start from Udaipur, and our journey’s source is from Gurgaon, we have several ways to reach there

By Air (IGI Delhi to Maharana Pratap Airport Udaipur)
By Train (Delhi to Udaipur)
By Bus (Delhi to Udaipur)

When we gathered all the information, we found the train is a best suitable for us as it take an overnight journey from Gurgaon to Udaipur.

These are the high level expenses that we listed out here.

  • Booked our tickets in Chetak Express from Gurgaon to Udaipur in 2868/-
  • Booked our boarding in Hotel Royal Palm, Udaipur**,** and Got a deal in MakeMyTrip in 2500/- for 2 nights Deluxe AC Room.
  • Booked a cab for local sight-seeing in Udaipur in 1500/-
  • Booked a cab for Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh trip in 2700/-
  • Booked tickets from Udaipur to Mount Abu by a Tempo Traveller in 350/ each i.e. total 700/-
  • Booked our boarding in Hotel Sunset inn, Mount Abu, Got a deal in MakeMyTrip in 1472/- for one night Deluxe AC Room.
  • Booked a two wheeler vehicle in 300/- per day + fuel expense.
  • Booked return tickets from Mount Abu to Gurgaon in Ahmadabad Shatabdi Express in 3500/-

And here we started our journey from Gurgaon Chetak Express 27/07/2016

It was huge rain in Gurgaon on that day when we took the cab from our home to Gurgaon railway station at 6:45 PM, it took us 45 minutes for 8 km (After all its Gurgaon traffic Jam due to rain, everyone knows), and here we started enjoying the rain. We reached station at 7:30 PM; Train arrives at 8:13 PM, and departed at 8:15 PM.

Day 1: 28/07/2016

And here we arrived in Udaipur at around 7:50 AM, it was very nice weather over there, it was cloudy, windy and very pleasant weather as we expected.

We got out of station and took an auto for the hotel, as it was not that much far (around 2 km. only).

We reached hotel at around 8:45 AM, and got check-in at around 9:15 AM. Although the time was quite early but we had already informed them about our train timings and all in advance via phone, and they allowed us in early check-in.

As we booked a cab for local sight-seeing with the help of hotel staff in 1500/-.

After breakfast we left for the sight-seeing at 10:30 AM.

Sajjangarh palace 11:00 AM

Sajjangarh palace is also called monsoon palace, is a hilltop palace in city of Lake Udaipur, it is in the overlooking of Fatehsagar Lake. It is built by the Maharana Sajjan Singh in 1884. The palace offers a panoramic view of city.

We arrived at 11:00 AM, as this is in the top of hill; it was very cool and cloudy weather over there. It was raining slowly. It was very pleasant of having cool rain drops. Greenery surrounding the hill and palace is awesome. Scenic view of city makes this place to be captured in pics. There are many photo points in the hill of Sajjangarh.

Fatehsagar Lake 12:30 PM

After spending around one hour in Sajjangarh palace we left for the Fatehsagar Lake. We reached at the boating point in Fatehsagar Lake at around 12:30 PM.

Fatehsagar Lake is one of biggest lake in Udaipur City, there is a big Park in the middle of this lake called Nehru Park**.** One should take a ride of Ferry to reach this park. Ferries are continuously running one after one and take around 20 minutes of ride in the lake to reach the park.

Park in the middle of lake is very scenic; one can have photographs in local ethnic dress of Rajasthan in this park. Luckily we got awesome weather here as it was raining slowly continuously.

Lunch Time Dal Bati 2:00 PM

Trip could not be completed in Udaipur until you eat the famous *“*Dal Bati Choorma of Rajasthan” in the city. We reached the *“*Natraj Dining Hall and Restaurant” at 2:00 PM, The food was awesome and we enjoyed a lot.

City Palace 3:00 PM

It was time to get an overwhelming view of one of the awesome palace in India that is “City Palace of Udaipur“ . This is a historic place in Udaipur which is in the side of Pichola Lake.

One should buy the entry tickets for the palace to get enter, its cost around 250/- per person, there are some other museums inside the city place for which you can buy tickets at this time.

There is also a boating service from City palace to Jal Mahal.

The Palace is very beautiful and takes around 2 hours to visit completely.

Celebration Mall 5:00 PM

After spending a whole day in the scenic view of Lakes, Palaces and Greenery with the rain drops and cool monsoon winds, we decided to go somewhere to have fun and relax and it brings us to the Celebration Mall. We reached here at 5:00 PM.

This is one of the largest malls in Udaipur and it’s nowhere looks different than a palace.

And it’s time to get back to the hotel at 6:30 PM, had some rest and then we had dinner at 8:00 PM.

“It’s time to get sleep: 10:00 PM”

Day 2: 29/07/2017

On the second day we woke up at 7:00 AM, Our cab was waiting outside for Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh

It was drizzling outside, cool winds are making our body more refresh and the environment to more pleasant. We left for Ranakpur at 9:00 AM.

After sometimes it’s started raining heavily. We were enjoying the trip in the monsoon. We stopped for breakfast in a Dhaba in the Highway. The rain couldn’t allow us to get out of cab and we had ordered hot Poha, Jalebi, Fafda and Tea inside the car.

Ranakpur 11:30 AM

Ranakpur is very beautiful place; the beauty in this place is because of the “Hills of Aravali”. Ranakpur is famous for a Jain Temple surrounded with Aravali hills. This temple is one of the best monuments in Rajasthan, beauty and nakkasi in this temple make it looks like heaven.

We arrived at 11:30 AM, it was raining very heavily, and we were totally wet and were not in the position to get enter in temple. Temple authorities don’t allow short dresses. They provide clothe on rent if you are in short dress and forgot to bring other clothe.

This place is very scenic and very beautiful stone art has been done in all over the temple. We spent around one and half hour here and then left for the Kumbhalgarh.

Kumbhalgarh 1:30 PM

Kumbhalgarh has beautiful fort and a very long wall surrounding the town. This wall is world’s second longest wall after The Great Wall Of China.

We arrived at 1:30 PM and ¸it was very awesome weather on that day, this place is in the peak top of Aravali hills. We never ever had seen such a beauty of nature and weather together. It was one of the paisa vasool places for the whole trip. The fort is in the top of hill and we have to trek for that.

As long as we were going up the clouds were getting down. When we reached on the top of fort it was feeling like that we were in heaven as the whole fort was looking like surrounded with the clouds.

We spent around 3 hours and then left for the Udaipur.

We reached hotel at around 7:00 PM, it was huge pain in our body and was too much tired, but we enjoyed the trip till the end.

After some rest we had dinner in hotel at 8:30 PM, and then it’s time to get sleep: 10:00 PM.

Day 3 : 30/07/2016

On the third day we woke up at 7:00 AM, we already had booked the tickets for Mount Abu in tempo traveler, and its timing was 8:00 AM.

“We checkout from the hotel, hotel staff was very supportive, food was so so, Wi Fi was god damn slower than the 2G. But amenities and cleanliness inside the room was good. So overall we will give this hotel as 2.5 stars.

Our suggestions for this hotel are that this is near to bus stand and railway station, city palace and other destinations was also near. We suggest to include meal (breakfast and dinner) options while booking the hotel, it would be cheaper as the food itself is very costly and if you will be tired then you won’t go outside.“

We left for the Mount Abu at 8:00 AM; it took us around 2 hours 45 minutes to travel for 163 km long journey.

Mount Abu 11:00 AM

Rain followed us in all over the way till Mount Abu, it was around 11:00 AM, Bus dropped us at Bus Stand. Here we faced a big problem , taxi drivers didn’t like us to come to Mount Abu, yes I am right! Taxi workers on that day was on strike and we didn’t find any conveyance to Hotel.

We walked around 2 kilometers to reach the hotel. We got checked in at 12:00 PM and had lunch in hotel, we got tired so had rest in hotel.

Sunset Point 5:00 PM

We woke up at 4:00 PM and got ready for Sunset Point. Mount Abu is world famous for fantastic and scenic view for sunset. One can capture great view in their camera, although if you don’t have camera then you can get clicked by the photographers. As this was rainy season so we were very unfortunate that sun didn’t rise on that day, so no chance of having sunset, but we enjoyed the place, the hills and the green surface view from the hills. We spent 2 hours on the sunset point and came back at 7:00 PM and explored the local market.

The market is very good around the Nakki Lake**.** We roam and spent around 2 hours, did boating in the Lake. After that we had dinner in a restaurant and we came back in hotel at 9:00 PM.

Day 4 : 31/07/2016

Earlier in the day when we woke up. it was raining heavily. After breakfast we rented an Activa. “Please make sure to carry your Driving Licence”, if you are interested to ride a bike in the hill.

Guru Shikhar 11:00 AM

We left hotel at 10:00 AM and started riding for Guru Shikhar, this is one of the highest point in Mount Abu. There is also an air force base where they have installed the Radar antenna.

This is a Hindu religious place as there is a temple of lord Shiva. It was great weather on that day, winds were so cool, we found many points on the way where we clicked lot of photographs.

Dilwada Jain Temples 12:30 PM

Dilwada Jain Temples is one of the most famous attraction in Mount Abu, these are the world famous temples and are famous for their stone art work. These are very old temples, by history these were built during the time of Maharana Pratap.

We arrived at 12:00 AM and got queued up to get enter in temples. There are several rules and guidelines on their notice board, like one should have full pants, no camera and all. They allow to enter in the groups of 30-40 peoples and assign a guide to make tour of all temples. It takes not more than 30-40 minutes to complete the tour, there are 5 total temples.

It took us total 2 hours in this place, we left at 2:30 PM.

Dal Bati Churma 3:00 PM

We were starving and reached in a restaurant, this is famous for the Dal Bati Churma. We had to wait for our chance as there was less space and huge customers in that place. we got our plate after waiting around 20 minutes. After that we left for the hotel to pick the luggage.

“We stayed at Hotel Sunset Inn in the Sunset road of Mount Abu. Hotel staff was ok ok. We did not have good experience in this hotel. The room that they provided was not the matched with our booking, it was in basement and due to rain it was smelling. We give only 2 star.”

We got a bus for Abu Road Railway Station (As cab drivers strike was still on) at 5:00 PM.

We reached station at around 6:15 PM.

Our ticket was booked from Shatabdi Express. And that was the end of our pleasant trip.

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Vikas