Greetings from the land of Marwad: 2

Day 3: August 1
We were close to Jodhpur station as I said hi to the beautiful day. It was 6:30 AM when the train touched platform No. 3 at Jodhpur station. Right in time. The beautiful architecture of the Railway stations gives a perfect impression of what the city is about. Beauty, royalty and hugeness. And the city doesn't let you down at any moment.

The tourist guides and rickshaw hawkers will approach you as soon as you exit the gate. And they won't leave you easily.. Looking for a good place to stay is not much difficult in the city, being a famous tourist spot. We didn't had a night halt plan so any normal lodge was ok for us. We stayed at a place called Sinla Haveli. The person seemed to have converted his haveli into a small lodge. Nice place to stay.

After freshing up, we left for the place called Masuriya (Snaps awaited). This is a religious place and is considered to be the samadhi of sage Balinath, the guru of Baba Ramdeoji. All through the way to Masuriya, we were having a fantastic view of the Mehrangarh fort. (Refer the image above) The sahyadri forts must be looking like this once upon a time, I was wondering.
The Masuriya is actually a cave carved out of giant massive rock. There is one temple of Baba Ramdeoji and Balinathji. The view from the top of the place is just awesome. I sould not go to the top of the rock as they have jammed the way using a gate and glasses.

After this place, we got back to the hotel. Within an hour, we were ready fo out further journey to Ramdeora, our actual destination. There are three ways to go to Ramdeora from Jodhpur. Train, Governement buses an private buses. We decided to take the private bus cause they have good frequency and speed. We left Jodhpur by 1:30 PM.
The journey to Ramdeora was great. I had taken up the window seat and was just looking out of the window all through the way. The journey passed through the desert of Rajasthan and I was enjoying taste of sand with the wind flowing. And I was enjoying. Cause it had the essense and fragrance of my land, Marwad.

The "Rani ki Smadhi" en route to Ramdevra is a beautiful example of Rajasthan architecture. This small but fascinating spot is considered to be tomb of some queen. I could notfind out much information about the same but it must be a tomb of some queens from the Tanwar family which ruled at Pokhran. I will check out for more info ext time I will be at the place.

We reached Ramdeora at around 5 PM. There are lot of Dharmashalas (small lodge kind places, run by trusts). They are cheap and provide very good facilities. Also there are few lodges newly constructed. After getting fresh at the Dharmashala, we left for a visit to the Ramdevji temple. This was the main reason we were to Rajasthan. So I could not just wait much.

Situated about 12 kms. to the north of Pokhran (Jaisalmer), the village of Ramdevra known after Baba Ramdev, a Tanwar Rajput and a Saint who took Samadhi (conscious exit from the mortal body) in 1458 A.D. He had miraculous powers and his fame reached far and wide. Legend goes that five pirs from Mecca came here to test his power and after being convinced, paid their homage to him. Since then he is venerated by Muslims also as Ram Shah Pir. The Hindus regard him as an incarnation of Lord Krishna. There is large number of followers of this god, Spread across whole Rajasthan, Gujrat and many other parts of the country.

After having Darshan at the temple, we just wandered a little in the market, had our dinner and got back to our halting place for a deep sleep. Looking forward to the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Greeting from the land of Marwad - 1

I was on a tour of Rajasthan for one week. Here I will be putting up about my travelling and the places I had been to.

Day 1: July 30
Left for Jalna at morning 6:30. It was 1st Birthday of my sweet cute niece Netal. So just attended the birthday party. We were supposed to move further to Mumbai from here where we would catch train for Jodhpur.
Left for Mumbai at 2300 hours IST by Latur-Mumbai CST Latur Express.. In short nothing much to be written about in the day.

Day 2: July 31
Reached at Dadar at 7:00 AM. Took up a taxi and reached Bandra Terminus, we were to take up train to Jodhpur from here. I would recommend take up a local to Bandra from Dadar. The terminus is just 1.3km away from the Local train station. Or even better, alight at Khar road which is 0.4km away from the terminus.
The station is very clean and well maintained. So getting fresh here was no problem at all. After getting fresh at the waiting hall of Bandra Terminus, we planned to wander a little. Went to my new college (CIMR) and my new hostel. Wanted to show the places to my mom. he was happy and satisfied with the places I'm gonna study and live at.
After getting back to the terminus, we straight away went to our train and rested in the boggie through which we were supposed to travel. The train we had taken up was "Bandra Terminus - Jodhpur Suryanagri Express". Very fast and comfortable train. It stops at Borivali, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmadabad, Abu Road, Palampur, Marwad, Pali, Loni, Rani and Jodhpur. So you can see, very selective stations. I will recommend this train to those traveling to Rajasthan.

The train left Bandra at its scheduled time, 01:30 AM and was running on time throughout. Enjoying food at various stations, we were traveling through the route, looking forward to reach Jodhpur at 6:30 AM next day.
I will specially recommend the Rabdi at Abu Road station. Its very delicious.
At 9:30 PM, I was in my bed, looking forward to next morning.

TO BE CONTINUED...