There are 3-4 different aiports to enter Madhya Praesh - Indore, Nagpur, Bhopal or Gwalior. Depending on what you want to cover, you can chose the appropriate airport.
I had made 2 plans.
Plan A
night Indore (Dont miss street food)
omkareshwar temple - day trip night halt indore
Ujjain and back to Indore
train to Jabalpur
Kanha/Bandavgarh - 4 hours
2 nights in kanha
drive to bhedghat near jabalpur - 4 hours. Stay in Bhedghat
boat ride and relax and stay Bhedghat
morning drive to chitrakoot and stay there
4 hours drive to khajurao - see the place and stay
4 hours drive to Jhansi. stay - see the place
afternoon start towards gwalior - 3 hours
gwalior sight seeing and evening flight
Skip chitrakoot and just see khajurao to save a day.
Plan B
Morning fligt to gwalior
afternoon/evening -see gwalior
drive to jhansi see the place
start towards khajurao - see the place and night stay
chitrakoot and stay
come to jabalpur and checkin at bhedghat and stay
boat ride and go to kanha by night
2 days in kanha
Feel free to end the trip by going to nagpur for a flight to bangalore
Else, contine to Indore for Ujjain and mahakaleshware visit
I stuck with plan A.
Route map
There are 2 Jyotirlingas in MP. To reach them, it is best to start the trip from Indore. I will capture my trip itinerary
Day2:
For Day 2 travel from Indore, there are several options to book cabs - like Ola, redbus, savari.com etc. But based on my friend's recommendatin, I booked cab from https://www.gozocabs.com/
Visit 2 Jyotirlingas - Omkareshwar and Ujjain Mahakaleshwar. In 2019, the roads were not so a great, so we had start early in the morning and Visit Omkareshwar. The temple closes by 1.00 p.m. and reopens after a couple of hours. You can opt for special Darshan. Try to avoid Pundits. Finish the darshan early and head towards Ujjain.
If you reach Ujjain early, visit Harasiddhi Mata temple. This is more than 1000 years old maha kali temple in Ujjain and it is having two pillars and each one is having 1001 lamps. At the time of evening aarthi, all the 2002 lamps are cleaned everyday and lighted again.
See how this task is done perfectly and quickly.
The main Mahakala temple is open till 11 p.m. So, try to get a darshan either before or after dinner. It takes about 20 min for Darshan.
Day3:
Ujjain Mahakala temple is famous for Bhasma Arati. This Arati starts at 4.00 a.m. People stand in the line from 12.00 a.m. I am told that first 50-100 people who enter the temple will get a chance to go close to god and do Jalabhishek themselves. To get this chance, people stand in line from 12.00 a.m. If you are not particular about Jalabhishek, but want to get a good Darshan of Bhasma Arathi, it is good to get in to the line by 2.30. Any later than this, you might not get a good seat to view the Darshan. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
For Stay, there are multiple places to stay in Indore, but I chose the Dharmashala attached to the temple. It is not fancy. It is a very basic, but clean accomdation. Advantage is if you want to go to temple for Arati, you can get up and walk 200-300 mts to reach the temaple. Other good hotels are more than a km away. Booking can be done from temple website 30 days before the darshan http://dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx
Since the Darshan gets over by 6.30 or 7, you have rest of the day to take rest and visiting near by temples. There are plenty of Auto rickshaws that you can hire for the same
My next destination was visiting National parks in MP. Most famous ones are Kanha Tiger reserve forest and Bandavgarh National Park. These national parks are more than 600 kms from Ujjain. So, instead of wasting an entire day travelling by road, I took AC train to go to Jabalpur. Jabalpur is the closest railway station to any of these National parks.
Day4:
There are a few local attractions in Jabalpur - Marble rocks at BedaGhat, Dhuadhar falls, 64 yogini temple, Jain temple, Madan Mahal fort, Sharada temple, Kachnar temple. Depending on your interest you can visit any of these places.
Enjoy the boar ride in Beda Ghat. Get a glimpse of it from the famous song from Ashoka movie "Raat ka Nasha Abhi"
Unfortunately there was an extended monsoon this year and Narmada river was over flowing. So, we couldn't go no a boat ride.
For traveling in Madhya Pradesh, I booked cabs from http://www.guptatravelsjabalpur.com/
I found them online and they gave me a good service.
Day 5:
For the next segment of my trip which was for 6 days, I booked a Tempo traveller from Gupta travels.
Roads are not great (as of 2019) and it takes long time to reach places.
We started by 8 a.m and reached BandavGarh National park by lunch time. We had booked 2 safaris. People say that tiger sighting is better in BandavGarh National park. But the best time to sight tigers is Dec-March. We had booked an evening safari (3 p.m. to 6 p.m) and a next day 6 a.m. to 10.a.m.)
Day 6:
Get up early and head to Tiger safari. The resort guys generally pack breakfast. After the safari, you can come back to hotel and get ready for next journey.
We started towards Khajurao in the afternoon. Due to bad road conditions in 2019, it took us 8 hours to reach Khajurao.
Day7:
The entire day was dedicated see different temples in Khajurao. We travelled in September and weather was still in 30s and very humid in Madhya Pradesh. So, it is better to start sight seeing as early as 6 a.m. Early morning is also good for photography.
We went to the main khajurao temple (western group of temples) at 6 a.m. It takes 2-3 hours to see the temple (depending on your interest). Return back to hotel, have breakfast, and then head to Rahen falls which is about 30 min drive from khajurao. It is a beatiful falls formed due to volcanic eruption. You can spend about an hour there and head back.
After lunch, you can take some rest. You can resume visiting eastern and southern tempples after the temperature cools down (say after 3 p.m.) Finish all temples by 6 to be back to main Khajurao temple for light and sound show (english show at 6.30 and Hindi show at 7.30)
Day 8:
After breakfast, start journey towards Orchha. Due to road conditions, we reached Orccha by lunch time. After lunch time, we visited Orccha fort. Try to finish the fort visit before sunset to visit Chattris. https://www.windhorsetours.com/sights/india/Chhatris.html
It is a beautiful view at that time.
After sunset, head towards Jhansi.
Day 9:
Start towards Jhansi fort early in the morning. Jhansi fort was not as exciting. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to see the place. It is even ok to skip Jhansi. Post lunch, we headed towards Gwalior.
On the way to Gwalior, if you have time visit Datia. There is a fort and Pitambar temple (Shakti Peeth). Due to Navarathri festival, the temple was crowded, so we skipped it.
We reached Gwalior by evening.
Day 10:
Start early at 6 a.m. to cover Gwalior fort. It is a beautiful fort. It takes about to cover all the places in and around the fort. In the same premisis, you can visit Gwalior fort, Saash Bahu mandir, Gurudwara and Teli ka mandir.
Return to hotel, have breakfast, take some rest. After lunch, visit Jai Vilas Palace in Gwalior. It is a beautiful palace and you can easily spend about 2 hours.
You can do some shopping in Gwalior
Breakfast - Famous Poha
Lunch/Dinner - kwality restaurant. For chats -(at your own risk), try Phool Bagh chaupti Shopping - Topi bazar, sarafa bazar, subhash market Sweets - Bahadura for Gulab Jamun, Shano-Shaukat for assorted sweets especially Boondi laddu, Daulatram Gupta, Gazak
Day 11:
Return to Bangalore
Other places of interest in MP
I didn't have time to cover it. But if you happen to go to bhopal, visit Bhimbetka rock shelters
Bhimbetka rock shelters are in Bhopal, MP. It is a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 kilometres. At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE),
This was my itenirary of my recent Family trip to Gujarat covering about 2300 km
Day1 and Day2 - Ahmedabad sight seeing, shopping and Gujarathi Thalis
Day 3 - travel to Bhuj -Enroute visit Lathol (an arhcealogical site from Harappa and Mohenjadaro times, and HiraLaxmi park, Bhujodia
Day 4 - Local sight seeing in Bhuj followed by a visit to Mandvi Beach. Visit to Vijay Vilas palace (Hum Dil de chuke sanam was shot here)
Day 5 - Local sight seeing in Bhuj (Parag mahal where Lagan was shot), followed by a visit to Rann of kutch, India bridge and Kaladungar (magnetic hill and sunset point)
Day 6 - Travel to Dwarka from Bhuj - Visit Dwarkadeesh temple followed by beach
Day 8 - Sunrise, beach time, Somnath jyothirling temple visit and other local tourist attractions. Continue journey towards Diu. Relax in Diu followed by a good evening stroll at the beach
Day 9 - Visit to Diu fort and continue journey to Gir forest. Relax and go to Safari
Day 10 - travel to Ahmedabad and fly back to Bangalore
Bhuj was a clear winner with too many interesting places to see both in the city and surrounding areas. Also the beaches are clean and can spend good time as the evenings are very pleasant
I saw a guy parking his car in front of the other car. There is no way that the other guy could remove his car unless this guy removes the car. I got wild and approached him
Me: Sir, if you park your car this way, the other guy will not be able to take out his car Him: Is it your car? Me: No Him: (Trying to ignore me)Then, whats your problem Me: I have faced this problem 4 times, when I have not been able to take out my car because someone else parked their bike/car for their convenience Him: That has happened to me also Me: Then why are you doing this. Him: I am not troubling the other guy. I will take out my car early. He will come later and pick up his car Me: How can you be sure Him: I come early by 5 p.m and will take out my car. He will come later and take out his car Me: Do you know him and has he told you that he will come later than you He: (Irritated), no, but I will take out my car early Me: What you are doing is wrong. Since you have been troubled by such incident in the past, you can't be doing it He: (wondering how to get rid of me) I am not doing anything wrong.
And he tried to walk out
Me: Sir, I know you are doing wrong and you know that you are doing wrong. I will leave it to your conscious to do the right thing. If you think you are doing the right thing, you can walk away, else please take out your car
I walked away without waiting for a response. After walking 100m, I turned back to see what was happening. I could still see the guy moving around his car in a dilemma, what to do - whether to leave or not. I think had touched his consciousness ;)
Zoom photo and see how people park vehicles at Nayandhalli Metro Station I have had to leave my car 4 times metro station as I wasn't able to take out my car. I had to return back after 8 pm to take my car out Who should take car of this.
My 3 year old : 'Appa, moon yaake hardhogide' (Dad, why is the moon torn). He was looking at half moon Me: huh ??? - speechless Son: Moon light off maaDidre hoTogatta (Will the moon go off when the light is swithed off) Me: huuuuuu (thinking) ...... Howdu (yes) Son: Aamele light on maaDidre vaapas baratta (will it come back after the light is switched on) Me: hhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmm(thinking really hard). Howdu (yes)
He was talking about how moon rise during night and disappering in the morning
People often ask me where they can buy or rent camping/trekking equipment in Bangalore. I am trying to compile a few of them
1. After the opening of Decathlon in Bangalore, I suggest people to blindly go there and pick up there equipment from there. The items are slightly expensive, but worth it because of the quality. The items last long.There are two outlets in Bangalore
a. Bannerghatta Road
b. Sarjapur road.
Google should help you get there
2. Slightly cheaper pairs of shoe can be purchased from Woodlands
3. For people who want hike only once or may be go on pilgrimage in himalayas, I suggest buying hunter shoe. Earlier, Bata shoe rooms used to sell them. One can check them there or try some stores in Shivaji nagar, Bangalore. Hunter shoe give good grip and are very very cheap. If you are going for treks in the Himalayas, then, these can be purchased near the base camps of the trek routes
4. Some good rucksacks can be bought from Wildcraft stores in Bangalore. They are of really good quality
I will get info on the places to rent and update this post as and when I get them
Apple announced that Mavericks is free. I regret upgrading to it. My Mac hangs quite often these days. Sometime twice or thrice a week. I was a happy using Snow leopard for last 2.5 years.
I moved out of using windows as it used to hang very often and used be very slow. I enjoyed my mac for a while and now having serious troubles.
I am desperately waiting for some updates from Apple with fix
A man brings his best buddy home for dinner unannounced at 5:30 after work.
His wife begins screaming at him and his friend just sits and listens in. "My hair & makeup are not done, the house is mess, the dishes are not done, I'm still in my pajamas and I can't be bothered with cooking tonight! What the hell did you bring him home for?"
Extract from Adukale site
“Sankethi” is a small smartha-brahmin community mainly settled in the south of India in the state of Karnataka. They are believed to have migrated from Shenkottai a millennium ago and settled predominantly in Kaushika and Bettadapura in Hassan and Mysore districts of Karnataka respectively. The community has two "factions", the Bettadapura and the Kowshika Sankethis. The community is traditionally famed for intelligence, hard work and its expertise in music, vedas and in growing the areca palm
The language of Sankethis’ has no written script but is more of a sweet spoken language comprising of a healthy sprinkle of Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam languages.
Two main unique traits of every Sankethi family are music and of course mouth watering food preparations.
The sankethis are known to be great cooks and even better.....awesomely generous servers! While tasting delicious, the sankethi cuisine eschews the extent of spices and heat traditionally found in south Indian cuisine.
Sankethi style of cooking is completely different and incorporates a blend of tastes from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Their signature dishes are Chomai (Steamed Rice vermicelli) made from scratch, Gojjavalakki (peppered broken rice) and Kolakattaes (Steamed rice dumplings).
In Sankethi, “Adukale” means kitchen- traditional Sankethi cuisine. Most of the original recipes have been passed across generations more by choice than by design for the love for food is more in the genes.
“Adukale” is an attempt at reviving and reliving the original Sankethi epitome of good food. Each of the products has a healthy sprinkle of spices which appeal to the culinary senses of the old and young.
Each of the mixes combines knowledge, experience, dedication, perfection and passion to give you the gastronomic experience you have always been waiting for.
Go ahead and let your taste buds tingle….with our wide range of products to choose from.
2 boys aged 6 and 9 were talking to me in the park.
9 year, pointing at 6 year old told to me "Uncle, he talks bad words". I ignored the his comments.
After a while, the 6 year old starts singing "Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh"
The 9 year old quickly points to me and says, "see he is saying bad words - Tsamina mina eh eh
F&*Ker F&*&ker eh eh". I was stunned - how does a 9 year old know the "F" word. The 6 year old quickly retorted and said " I didn't say F*&Ker, I said waka waka". I almost fainted
I had called up the goAir call center today and the call center representative called my friends a 'bakra' I was very upset and registered a complaint on the goAir website
Here is the extract of the complaint.... -- I had a complaint aginst the call center rep (Tajinder) whom I spoke to today (at 3.20 pm IST, 16th Feb, 2012). I have booked tickets for my friends who are in Ahmendabad, who unfortunately don't have access to Internet to take print out of the ticket. I had called in to enquire if they can get the E-ticket at the airport. After listening to my question, Tejinder (without muting his line), turns asked someone in hindi "Ek bande ne 6 logon ke liye ticket book karayi hai, and un 6 bakron ke pass internet access nahi hain. Kya unko airport me ticket mil jaayegi …..". Then the phone went to mute Wow, is this how you talk about your customers? What right does he have to call my friends a 'bakra'. It is none of his business to pass comments on us.
After a while, Tejinder unmuted the phone and got back to me. When I inquired about why he called us a bakra, he denied it and said that he was not talking about us, but about someone else.
Then I asked him to connect me to the supervisor. He agreed and turned around (without muting the line) and told someone in hindi ' usne, mujhe bakra bolte huye sun liya.' . After some low back ground conversation, the phone went mute. Before the phone went mute, I think I heard him asking one of his colleages to talk to me like a supervisor.
I spoke to the supervisor Pradeep Pandey and complained. He too denied the incident and apologized.
I regret having booking a ticket on goair which doesn't respect the customers. Please take action
Regards Nagendra HK ---
This is the response I gor from goAir
Dear Mr. Nagendra Warm Greetings from GO Air! Further to your email, we are sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience at Call Center. We empathize with your concern and apologize for the same. We wish to inform you that we have terminated both the representatives after listening to the call recording. We at Go Air, always believe and are trained to put our Customers first. A seamless, comfortable travel experience is what we aim to go about every time. At times, as in this instance, we do fall short. Feedback such as yours helps us improve. We hope you shall view this as an exception and consider giving Go Air an opportunity to welcome your aboard once again. Mr. Nagendra, we once again humbly request you to treat this case in isolation it deserves and do not let it deter you from patronizing Go Air. We would appreciate if you could grant us another opportunity to serve you better in near future. For further information on Flight schedules / fares / booking, please revert to us at feedback@goair.in or contact us at 1800-222- 111 / 9223-222-111. We would be glad to assist you. We would request you to frequently visit our website www.GoAir.in for updated information. Thanks and Regards, Aparna Desai Customer Care
Heard from a bunch of folks at office while heading towards stairs to go down.
First Guy: Lets take stairs, we just have to go one floor down
Girl: Nooo, we have to go 2 floors (won't it be difficult, you moron) Another guy: Ok then, lets take the elevator
.
.
And the whole gang followed .... :-)
Just 7 days in to the rule being introduced, I paid my first fine for not wearing the seat belt.
Another blunder happened. When the cop stopped me, he also told me that there was an older fine(ticket) of Rs 100/- for a violation at Ashwath Nagar. I didn't even know where this area was and don't remember travelling there. The cop also didn't know where this area was. I also told him that i had cleared all my traffic dues 3 months ago. The cop told me that this was a 2010 violation which probably was uploaded to their server recently (in last 3 months) and hence I have to pay up. Relentlessly, i paid and came home. While looking for Ashwath Nagar on google maps, i realized that it was somewhere near Marath Halli and i have never been to that area in my car. I cross checked the receipt again and realized that the cop had mistyped the car number :( . Instead of 2450, he had typed 2550 and I landed up paying some one else's fine. I checked with another traffic cop (my neighbour) and he told me that there is no way I am going to get this money back :(
I caught the traffic cop again the next day at the same spot and asked him why he did this blunder the previous day. He laughed about it and told me that he cannot do anything about it and cannot refund. He told me that next time I violate traffic, he will let me go without collecting fine. So I asked him if he expects(wants) me to violate traffic. He wasn't expecting me to say that and told me that I shouldn't violate traffic, but if I were to, then he will let me go. I pursued that for me to go to him, I have to violate traffic only in his jurisdiction. He was clueless on how to reply to my question and wanted me out. And I did .....
