I wonder what took me so long to pen this blog. It has been about 2 months since this trip and today is the day I finally get to check off writing this blog from my ‘to-do’ list.
Kumbalgarh fort had been on our bucket list for at least five years. We kept procrastinating it since it was a good 11 hour drive from Gurgaon. Earlier our daughter was a little one and could be easily convinced regarding any destination, but now she is a pre- ‘pre-teen’ and so we need her to be on board when we plan a trip. Luckily for us, we were travelling with friends and their children, so all of us were sorted, at least company wise!
We decided to break the journey at Jaipur while taking several ‘tapri chai’ pit- stops along the drive. Once we reached Jaipur, our first stop was the famous City Palace. Although the Amer fort is more majestic , intricate detailing and allows access to several parts of the fort, the City Palace isn’t all that bad . The pictures will definitely do more justice than my words:-)
The City Palace, Jaipur houses 4 major gates – one which represents each season. A nice place for pictures for sure:-)
The above is the entry to the City Palace. After a quick tour of the same, we headed to Rawat for some lip smacking Chaat and Kachoris. Tired, post a 5 hour drive we called it a night and hit the bed!
The next morning after a satiating breakfast we resumed our journey. Enroute we stopped at the Ajmer Dargah. The vibrations inside the main sanctum is something one needs to experience in order to believe.
Post our stop over , we continued to drive towards our main destination – Kumbalgarh. By the time we reached it was 7 pm and we could see the 36 metres wall lit up and standing tall in all it’s glory!
With adrenaline levels on a high, we quickly gobbled the yummy ‘dal – bhaati- churma’ and retired to bed!
The next morning we headed out as early as we could to trek up to the top most part of the fort. The fort is one of the longest in the world. The collage below shows several pictures clicked at different parts of the fort.
The fort is just about 2 hours away from Udaipur and most people visit the city of lakes too, however since we had already visited Udaipur about 12 years ago we decided to skip that and explore a little less known architectural splendor – the Ranakpur Jain Temple. This temple was mentioned in the list of the 77 nominees for the Seven Wonders of the World because of its divine and splendid ancient architectural design.
This is a three-storied marvel completely made out of light-coloured marble. There is an obvious dip in the temperature inside; you can feel the coolness in the air in contrast to the scorching heat of Rajasthan. It is famous for its intricate carving, and sculptural work.
Fun fact : it is supported by around 1400 intricately carved pillars and legend says that no two pillars in the temple are the same.
No place in the entire temple was left plain. The ceilings, the pillars, the walls – everything had something significant embellished on them.
With a sense of pride we began our journey back towards Gurgaon, on our way back we visited the Amer fort for the third time. But there is something about the fort that we love revisiting it over and over agin. The government has done a fantastic job in terms of restoration and the fort looks even more splendid than before !
The Amer fort houses both Mughal and Rajput architecture. The vegetable dyes used as colours on the walls of the fort have been treated and restored.
With this image in our head , we headed back home just in time to ring in the new year!!
musafirmusings 
That was a great description & picturisation of your visit to the Ranankpur temple & Kumbhalgarh fort enroute Jaipur! Beautifully described & I too can relate to these destinations having myself toured them a long back!I have also blogs on them if you feel interested to go through them!
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