Post Card From Madhya Pradesh

 It seems like a distant dream, as I sit enclosed in my house during Pandemic, afraid to take public transport. I have been confined to my house since last 8 months, with short trips by car to my sister’s house during week-ends. I love travelling and have been to lot of places, I had plans to explore many more cities during this year, but I digress.

I am happy that I captured some memories on my blog. My MP trip, that I made in November 2019 has been memorable one and I have blogged in 16 parts. 

The tour was of 15 days,  we travelled a total of 2300kms by road plus 2 days of railway travel. Our tour started from Gwalior and ended at Indore, we covered Jhansi, Orchha, Khajuraho, Bhandavghar, Jabalpur, Pachmarhi, Bhojpur, Bhimbetkar, Sanchi, Bhopal, Ujjain , Omkeshwar, Maheshwar, Mundu, Indore.

Part 1.. The trip  

After a long night journey in the train-Punjab Mail, we reach Gwalior at 4pm. The tour operators come to receive us from the station and we are to stay at  Hotel Landmark. There is lot of excitement, we go to each others room to compare the comfort and we discover that some have good rooms and some are average. Our (I shared room with my friend) room is average. 

Part 2 Gwalior

The day was spent moving from Gwalior to Khajuraho. On our route, we stopped at Jhansi and Orchha. The bus was comfortable but the roads were bad. Most of the roads are being redeveloped, There is construction everywhere to built better roads, some of the cities of MP have plans to become smart cities. 

Part 3 Orchha 

We reached late evening at Khajuraho and checked into the hotel- Khajuraho Temple View. There was a beautiful view of lake outside the hotel and on the other side of the lake were the Khajuraho temples.

Part 4 Khajuraho 

After driving all day, we reached Bhandarvagarh late evening. I couldn’t see anything, but a narrow road and thick bushes on either side of the road. It seemed like a ghostly town with not a person in sight. The bus moved slowly  over uneven mud road till we reached the beautiful resort called Mogli Resort. We were to stay in the middle of the jungle. 

Part 5 Bhandarvagarh

We spend lot of time on road trip all over MP, but bus journey was not boring. I am reminded of the movie ‘Bombay to Goa’ wherein you meet all kinds of people. Some are dozing, some fast asleep, some noisy, some want to sing, some want to eat. 

Part 6 Jabalpur

Like every state in India have their own hill station, Madhya Pradesh has its hill station at Panchmarhi at 1067 meters, commonly known as Satpura ki Rani. It has also been recognised as UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Part7 Pachmarhi

On our way to Bhopal, we stopped by at a very interesting site called Bhimbetka.  Here you find large rock shelters that have paintings that date back to thousands of years depicting the life of the people through different eras.  This has been now declared as UNESCO world heritage site.

Part 8 Bhimbetka

On our route towards Bhopal, we stopped at Bhojpur during evening hours.  We were here to see the Shiva temple called Bhojeshwar temple. The bus had stopped at quite a distance, and we walked through narrow, broken roads, passing through thatched house where villagers still use dried cow dung as fuel for cooking. 

Part 9 Bhojpur

We reached Bhopal late evening and checked into a nice comfortable Raj Bhoj Hotel. Bhopal is the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, known as the city of natural and artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India.

Part 10..Bhopal

We drove 46kms away from Bhopal to reach Sanchi stupas that are one of the oldest stone structures in India and important monument of Indian architecture 

Part 11 Sanchi 

Any direction you look, all you see are temples. We visited many temples at Ujjain and all were unique in its own way. We were asked to stick to vegetarian diet, so that we could visit all the temples guilt free.

Part 12 Ujjain

I consider myself blessed that I have been able to visit the sacred island of Omkeshwar that is shaped like as symbol Ohm- the holiest symbol of Hinduism , it has one of the 12 Jyotirlinga shrines of India.

Part 13 Omkeshwar

For my women friends, Maheshwar was the most interesting place, you know why? Because women love shopping and they love temples. 

Part14 Maheshwar

MP is full of rich history and ancient architecture. Most of it has been reduced to ruins or is neglected.  There are beautiful palaces and nature is abundant, but hardly any tourist.  The roads are bad and infrastructure is also poor.

Part 15 Mandu

Indore - one of the cleanest city of India, is the last stop of my MP tour. The charm of the city lies in rich cultural heritage preserved over the years. 

Part 16 Indore

I used to blog during my trip, at the end of the day on FB but writing on this blog has taken some time, because of many distractions during this year. But I am glad to have completed the series successfully.

MP Diaries – Part 16 – Indore

Indore - one of the cleanest city of India, is the last stop of my MP tour. The charm of the city lies in rich cultural heritage preserved over the years. 

We visited Kanch ka Mandir, a beautiful Jain temple where I almost lost my balance on the shiny floor. There are intricate glass mosaic everywhere..on the ceiling, on the walls, on doors and even on the ground. I was fortunate to visit the temple during prayers time. My friend (who was with me) is Jain, so she knew all the rituals that are performed during the prayers. The temple is renowned for the several glass paintings and sculptures placed inside the temple. Dating back to the Holkar dynasty, this was built in 1903 by one of India’s industrial pioneers, Seth Hukumchand Jain. The Kanch Mandir is popular for its stunning architecture and grand celebrations held during Jain festivals.

Next we went to see the Lal Bagh Palace, which dates back to Indore’s 19th-century Holkar dynasty. The palace was very tastefully done with Greek paintings on the ceiling and beautiful oil paintings in large spacious rooms. It even had jacuzzi in one of the bathrooms. I envied the women who had lived in these palaces, they must have had a great taste, because there was comfort and style in the interiors of all rooms. The Indian art historian KK Chakravarty wrote that the palace is: 'A blend of Italian villa, French Chateau, traditional motifs and modern conveniences, the Lal Bagh Palace is indeed a statement of riotous Victorian eclecticism not surprising, perhaps, for a ruler who supported the British.'

Our next stop was at Central Museum, The Parmar culture has originated here in Madhya Pradesh and this museum displays lots of statues that are carved out in the style. Most of the statues depicted the Hindu God Lord Shiva and Harihara, Goddess Parvati in many different poses. These belonged to the 11th and the 12th centuries. Then there were art-facts, tools and utensils on display that were used in that era. There was a nice courtyard in the centre of the museum that gave good vibrations with fresh air and sunlight. 

Since we were travelling with Kesari tours, the food was totally arranged by them, throughout our journey. They had their own home chefs who would cook food for us. But at Indore, the home chefs were sent off and we were enjoying the big spread of meals at the hotel where we were staying. But I love to try the street food of every place that I visit and I was deprived throughout our trip.(the organisers were afraid that we would fall sick and therefore they discouraged us from eating street food) 

So, on last day, we sneak out, on our own, to walk down the city streets and enjoy the local cuisine. The Dal Kachoris and Dahi Wadas were amazing and we even picked up for our train journey.

That brings me to the end of my MP tour. Returned back by train from Indore to Mumbai with bags full of memories to last me for lifetime.