Mount Abu – Fact sheet

Time to visit – Summer destination. Winters get very cold. Rains are not so heavy, so doable then as well.

Getting there – By rail – Aravalli Express leaves Mumbai at 9 p.m. and reaches Abu Road station at a convenient 10 a.m. Cabs to Mount Abu are available outside the station on hire. Costs 300 rupees for the half hour winding drive. We used Ummed Singh (98289 22692) who turned out to be quite helpful for the rest of the trip. By air – Closest airport is Udaipur. The other option is to travel via Ahmedabad, which takes about 6 hours by road. I am told the roads are excellent, (which also probably explains why roughly 70% of the tourists are Gujarathis)

Stay – We stayed at Hotel Udaigarh. This is located atop a steep driveway and hence does not attract too many huffing and puffing middle aged people with children. (It is another thing that we were also huffing and puffing after multiple climbs). Backpackers usually stay at Hotel Ganesh, where rooms cost Rs. 150 – 180. Mt Abu was choc-a-bloc with hotels, so there is no dearth of choice. Unless you are here during the peak tourist season (all school holidays) in which case it is better to book ahead. The cabbie told us conspirationally that tourists have been found forced to stay in the footpath.

To do –

The usual tourist round comprises Dilwara Temples, Nakki Lake, Achalgarh temple, Adhar Devi temple, Guru Shikar, sunset point and other places of increasingly lesser significance and attraction. A full day tour of these places by car would cost 800 rupees and a half day tour would cost 400 rupees (Ummed Singh is available for these). We chose to focus on a few

- Dilwara Temples – Definitely must see. Two of the five temples are so stunning that no amount of gaping at the intricately carved work on the marble is going to satiate your appetite for more. There is a free guided tour in Hindi frequently. You just hang around till you spot a large group being herded by a loud person and then join them. English speaking guides are apparently available outside the temple. The Hindi guided tour was useful in pointing out the statues which we were especially supposed to gape at. Otherwise they did not have anything further to add to what you would find on the net.

- Achalgarh Temple and fort – The temple has interesting myths around it but is not spectacular otherwise. The climb to the dilapidated fort is nice. There is a steep winding road, after which there are about 270 steps which takes half an hour to climb. You can get a great view of Mt Abu from here. Though I am told you can do even better in terms of view at the area’s highest point, Guru Shikar. Achalgarh’s peak has the merit of being practically deserted and free of tourists

- Trek – there are lots of tiny treks to choose from. Mr Champak (9414219013) from Hotel Ganesh took us on a 3.5 hour end to end trip based on our fitness levels and time availability. The top point of the trek had really stunning views of the entire countryside.

- Nakki Lake – This can equally morph into Kodaikanal Lake or Nainital Lake or ‘Lake in whichever commercialized hill station you can think of’. It had boating facilities, a lovely 3.5 km walking area around the perimeter and lots of crowds. It is pretty large and clean since drinking water supply to the town is from the lake.

- Sunset point – The point was jam packed when we got there almost an hour in advance of the sunset. It mostly had young men, dressed to the hilt in jeans and dark glasses and posing for ‘I am a cool dude’ snaps. The sun had almost set by the time we could peel our eyes of the antics of this crowd. Definitely not meant for a communing-with-nature experience but total paisa vasool if you want to have a good laugh at the vanity of youth.

To eat - Lots of places that serve yummy dal-batti and churma, the speciality of Rajasthan. I liked Jodhpur hotel near the Eiffel tower structure. Veena and Arbuda restaurants recommended by Lonely Planet were average.

To shop - Lots of Rajasthani print bed linen and joothis.

Others - This place is the global head quarters of the Brahma Kumari society. Expect to see a lot of people dressed in white wandering around. They run the Global Hospital which is spotlessly clean and very inexpensive.

Hither and thither

The cool thing I discovered about Bombay last weekend was the number of resorts within a one to two hour driving distance. The obvious choices are of course Matheran and Alibaug. But even tiny beaches like Manori, Utan, Gorai have something to offer and in no time, I had picked out one, paid for the rooms and we were on our way to the place.

Things to remember about family resorts

1. People love listening to music on a holiday. If it involves playing your car stereo loud enough for people in neighbouring rooms to hear, so be it.
2. When the pool says ‘only lycra swinwear’ what it actually means is that men can wear Bermudas displaying their ample paunches and women can wear swim wear on top of tights/track pants and t-shirts.
3. Children in a swimming pool love to scream whether they are having fun or are scared.
4. The best way to communicate with your family visiting the pool at one end of the resort is to scream from your room at the other end of the resort

These are however generic features of all family resorts and should not be held against U-Tan which was very reasonably priced, had well maintained premises, small but warm rooms and a friendly staff. Infact, after the day trippers had left, it was absolutely beautiful to sit by the swimming pool and watch the sun set into the sea.

To balance out all the fun from saving on travel time during this holiday, work travel reared its ugly head this week, complete with early morning flights and late night returns. Which became not so ugly once I realized that I would have a couple of hours to spare for a quick sightseeing trip close by.

The advantages of visiting a fairly large company located in a semi-urban town are several. The company sends a nice car to pick you up. You are taken to their guest house where you can have another go at breakfast despite hogging on airline food. Then you can nap a bit. Eventually you land up for the eleven thirty meeting and spend the rest of the day cooped up in office. Which ranks higher than traveling two hours from town to the suburbs in Bombay for an eleven thirty meeting and spending the rest of the day cooped up in office.

Or atleast this was the plan. Turns out the driver meant to pick us up had no clue where the guesthouse was. He spent quite some time asking vendors for ‘O.S.S. Colony’. The piece of paper he carried gave clear enough directions ‘near petrol pump. Opposite Reliance Fresh’ including the road name and so on. But mysteriously enough for a small town, no one had heard of the place. The driver gave up after five minutes and seemed quite content to spend the whole day searching for El Dorado. After a good forty five minutes of circling around the same place like a devout pilgrim, we were overhead by a stranger at the petrol pump. He kindly led the way and there we were at our destination

In big bright letters it said ‘The Oasis’

No time for breakfast or nap. But colleague and I had a good long (and I suspect hysterical) laugh.

The grass is greener on my side

I spoke to a friend who had gone to the Ranthambore sanctuary over the Republic Day weekend. We both started on how we had to contend with a miserable set of co-visitors in our respective sanctuaries. It turned out that despite all my whining about Gujjus in Gir, I lost the cribbing competition fair and square. Here is what the friend said

The sanctuary is a popular stop in the North Indian tour circuit and was consequently filled with North Indian tourists (who are apparently even louder than Gujjus)

The rooms cost twice as much as what we had paid since accommodation is in Havelis and the thumb rule in Rajasthan is that if the owners can boast of royal lineage, they double the prices. (Though I suspect my friend chose the Haveli route when he could have very well stayed in normal hotels like us commoners)

A bunch of spoilt brat Delhi kids decided that Ranthombore had more potential as a party place than a sanctuary. Consequently on day one they jumped into a pool and made a ruckus at twelve in the night and on day two began to blast loud music at three in the morning. The fact that some of the guests gave the kids the firing of their lives was a very thin silver lining

But most of all, after doing four safaris, he did not spot any tigers. Instead had to bear jokes like this on each of the safaris -

Guide (pointing to a deer) – That is a Sambar

Loud Sardar tourist – Arey if this is the Sambar, where is the idli?

Everyone in Loud Sardar's group - chortle chortle chortle

Atleast I saw a lionness

Gir Sanctuary – Fact sheet

The Gir National Park and Sanctuary is accessed from Sasan-Gir, a sleepy, one-street village without any character whatsoever.

Best time to go – Summers if you can put up with the 40+ temperature then. Apparently lions move about a lot more freely and can be spotted a lot more easily. We went in the winter when temperatures are more bearable (daytime 20 - 25 degrees) and can come down to 8 degrees in the night.

Getting there: Flights go to Rajkot – 3.5 hours by road and Diu – 3 hours by road. Trains go to Veraval (1 hour by road) and Rajkot.

Stay – A handful of resorts and very few recommended both by Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor or even Holiday IQ. We chose Anil Farmhouse which was neat and clean and had nice rooms. But it was also the most popular choice for Gujju families, who as it turned out, are really loud (defying all rules of civilisation where one would expect noisy young ones to grow into soft spoken adults. Just the opposite happens here). The other resort in this price range (3000 per night on twin sharing, including 3 meals a day) was Maneland but it had bad online reviews

Eat – At the resort. Unless you are a Gujju family in which case you would have remembered to carry loads of theplas and farsan and eaten it loudly at the dining table.

To Do –

Lion Safari – Happens at 6 a.m., 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and lasts three hours per session. We went for the 3 p.m. round and spotted a lioness. Apparently it is fairly easy to spot a lion if you manage to do a couple of safaris atleast. Even if you do spot a lion in your first try, doing another safari could be interesting.

Gir Conservation Centre – An enclosed area where there are lots of animals, including lions. Can see animals much closer than in the non-enclosed forest area.

There are tons of birds in Gir. Carry binocs if you are an avid watcher.

The leopard is also a popular animal in these parts, though now pretty much a side-show on account of the lion

Around Gir

Somnath (1 hour from Gir towards the south) – Claim to fame is the number of devasting attacks it endured from raiders. Ghazni managed to destroy the ancient temple and now a new, stereotyped temple stands courtesy Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Looks quite nice though and there is an awesome view of the sea. If you have really keen eyesight (like, say, Sarah Palin), you can keep an eye on Antarctica as apparently there is no landmass in between. There is also a sound and lights show in the evenings though we did not stay to see it.

Diu (3 hours from Gir towards the south if you go via Somnath. Shorter route should take an hour lesser. Road is a little bad in some parts) – Diu has a lovely Portuguese Fort. We skipped the Church and the museum. Guides are available to give you a tour of all these places. The most popular beach is Nagwa, 5 kms away. It was crowded with families. The shacks, sadly, were filled with shady looking men tanking up on daru before returning to the dry state of Gujarat. The water sports are a con job with lifejackets that had thermocol oozing out. The beach had a pleasant breeze and you can walk about a bit. From the Diu Fort, we could see some lovely, secluded beaches though. Could be worth a try.

Junagadh (1 hour, towards the north) – lots of stuff on the net about the fort, Ashokan edicts, Mausoleum etc. We did not have much time but from the quick stop we made at Maqbhara Khan's mausoleum it seemed well worth a visit

Rajkot (3.5 hours, towards the north, past Junagadh) – Nothing on the net seemed impressive and since we got there primarily for the train, did not see much either. Supposed to be good for shopping (which I managed to at Jetpur, about 50 kms away). Time will tell if the colours of the bandini stuff I picked up runs.

Elephanta Caves

The problem with Elephanta Caves is that it is too close to Mumbai. Despite being on the World Heritage list, not too many seemed to have visited it or remembered anything beyond the dirt and monkeys they had encountered during school picnics. Travel guides admitted that most of the sculptures were damaged. So when I decided to visit with a few friends, we decided to make it an easy relaxed trip, as much about the caves themselves as about the ferry and the company.

Boats go from the Gateway of India to Elephanta, starting from 9.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. The ride lasts for an hour, through relatively calm waters and at the disembarkation point, there is a cute toy train. In anticipation of the 200 steps we had to climb next, all of us decided to board the toy train which reached the steps in no time. From there, the climb turned out to be quite easy, wandering past the usual touristy shops. We picked up a guide book called ‘Guide to Elephanta’ by Pramod Chandra. Surprisingly, the one guide who offered his services was willing to charge us just 200 rupees. In the end, the guide book turned out to be pretty good investment since it turned out to be perfect guide to each panel, pointing us the details and telling the stories behind each.

Elephanta has one main cave in which are carved wondrous figures of Shiva in various settings – his wedding, slaying demons, in dance postures, yogic postures et al. I was taken aback by the expressions on each of Shiva’s faces. A lot of the figures were damaged, but enough had survived for us to admire. The most beautiful of the carvings, of Shiva as Tatpurush had three faces – one powerful, one of the destroyer and one of his feminine side. Each of them looked exactly the part.

The Andhakasura Vadh was my next favourite. Shiva as the raged god killing the demon Andhaka practically leapt out of the stone at us.

The Gangadhar – Shiva statue was also charming in its subtle depiction of human (and clearly divine) relationships. Everyone knows the famous story of how when the river, Ganges fell to earth, Shiva captured her in his matted locks and then gently released her to the earth as earth would not withstand the force of the river otherwise. The stone portrait captures Ganges falling on Shiva’s locks but the main story told is of Shiva assuring a rather miffed Parvati by a pat on her arm, that despite the presence of another woman, she was still the love of his life

After the main cave, we were pretty much done with the Island. The Buddha Stupa and a couple of caves were in forbidden forest territory. The other caves were empty or small and had nothing much to offer except for the excitement of going into a cave. ASI has a small museum that tells the story of the panels and has some information on other cave temples in Maharashtra. We did not venture into Cannon Hill, which lies atop Elephanta and has a cannon on display. We were quite tired by then and having reached the Island only in the afternoon, had just about enough time before the last ferry at 5.30 p.m. to lounge around in the MTDC restaurant. It was already winding up time, and the friendly MTDC waiters informed us that they had run out of all food but some stale sandwiches and excellent masala tea. We ordered both and watched the beautiful view of the sea.

On the way back, gulls flew all around us, picking at the food tossed by passengers. Nearer, Mumbai we could see the dull outline of the Taj and the dark silhouette of the Gateway of India.

Elephanta is a wonderful day trip for the winter and definitely worth a visit. Be sure to buy the guide book though.