I love visiting historic places and exploring the past.
What travel makes you?
Travel makes you speechless at first and later makes you a story teller… #Shared
Diary as on 29th April 2017
Places visited
- Haridwar
- Hrishikesh
The day started with us - me, mom and dad arriving at New Delhi airport by noon 12 from Chennai. We started our journey by Panickar travels bus to Haridwar/Hrishikesh at night 10pm from New Delhi (Karol Bagh).
The bus which was nice and comfortable with a nominal charge took us to Hrishikesh at 4am on the next day. It was a hot summer month all over the nation, but I was literally shivering on this place of Hrishikesh with the great Ganges river running outside our refreshment room.
After refreshing, we were taken to Lakshman Jula.
Do you see the bridge in the pic below? Its lakshman Jhula and crossing on that bridge with the fierce river running below gives immense peace. For returning to the other side of the shore, we hired a boat.
Catching coins business: -
While we were bathing, there was a small kid with a magnet inside the river held by a rope in another end by his hand. I asked him in broken Hindi “What are you doing?”, he told me that pilgrims would throw Indian rupee coins into the pure river and I’m trying to catch it with my magnet.
I would say we can throw copper coins as copper has benefit to the body of those bathing in the river.
But throwing Indian coins into the river which are stainless should be stopped.
Why is river ganga so pure and considered to be as goddess?
River ganga gets created from the mount Himalayas with the ice breaking into water. This water passes through various herbs in the Himalayan range before getting down and reaching us. After having a bath in this river, I got a special health resistance and I would recommend everyone to add to your - At least once in a lifetime visit.
Did something bother me in this trip? Yes, one thing did.
Some people threw plastic water bottles into the Ganges river which bothered me too much. We blame the government for not purifying river Ganga but before blaming we too have some responsibility for maintaining the beauty of the river clean and not littering.
Next day
DAY 2: -
Jaipur
PLACE 1: - Jantar Mantar
It took almost 5 hours from New Delhi to Jaipur in Panickar travels bus which started at morning 6 a.m. The first place visited was Jantar Mantar built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II in 1734.
This place shows how great scientists India had. It had a sun clock, astronomical devices and many other scientific devices.
In the pic below, do you see a round shaped structure? At one point of time, the sun will cast 2 lines of shadows, a short clock hand and a long short hand showing the exact time of the location.
PLACE 2: - JAIPUR Palace
There was this beautiful palace with precious gems and marvelous architectures made on the wall.
Highlight in Jaipur palace: -
The pot you see behind me in the below pic is the silver pot weighing 300kgs+.
It is said that the one of the kings who ruled Jaipur, went abroad once and he wanted to bath only in holy Ganga water and so he filled this pot with Ganges water and took the pot along with him in the ship.
AMBER FORT: -
Amber fort had a great architecture and there was this beautiful garden. My salute to the local management for protecting these heritage sites which represents our real India.
Those who have seen Jodha Akbar movie will recognize the below pics. Yes! These 2 vessels were made for the Jodha Akbar movie and the movie crew decided to leave it in the place as a historical mark.
Who knows? In future, historians may say that this pot was used by the original Queen Jodha.
A Giant heal: -
Fatehpur Sikri
In the pic below, you can see one side of a giant Ludo game and I’m a coin standing inside one of the squares.
Agra
Taj mahal
