While Travelling: May 2018

This essay, the piece attempted is concoction of my travel experience and brief info about the destination which I know or I heard of. So, pardon me for vague and unnecessary personal briefing in and around the piece.

It was Saturday evening when I got a call from one of my travel buddies saying "Pack your bags, we are leaving for #Khajuraho". That whole conversation was so elusive that I totally ignored it and got back to work. Later that evening, he was at my office to pick me up. That's how and when we began our #RoadTripToKhajuraho.

As it was subtle decision to go for a Road Trip of about 2500 km, initially we decided to move forward as far as we can to reach our destination and plan our trip gradually.

We were 3 of us this time too.

Day 0 -

So, we embarked on our journey the same night this Road trip was planned and decided to reach Aurangabad for night stay. But by the time we reached Ahmednagar, it was past midnight and too late to get any lodging in Aurangabad, so We stayed in the Hanuman Temple of Nirmal Nagar near Ahmednagar only.

Day 1 -

We got up early in the morning and started moving forward and decided to reach Indore. At that moment, one of the travel buddies got call from our another friend and asserted to join. So we took detour towards Shirdi and decided to wait for him there. There is quite peaceful place just 5-7 km away from Shirdi, Swami Nittyananda Maharaj's Ashram in Pimpalwadi Village. Maharaj there was very friendly and helpful to us. We decided not to have lunch as we had heavy breakfast in the morning, it was very kind of him (Nittyanand Maharaj) that he offered us one watermelon each and we couldn't resist as Summer Sun was sucking water out of us. We stayed there until our friend reached Shirdi. We began travelling towards Indore when our friend joined us in the journey.

We reached near Indore and stayed at the hotel.

Day 2 -

Next day, we decided to see Royal Palace of Indore (Holkar Palace). But the palace was closed that day as it was Monday. The Temple part of the Rajwada Mahal was open, it was none less than Mahal. The artifacts paintings and pictures exhibited there were magnificent.

The museum of Indore was also closed. We wanted to see both but moving forward towards destined place was more important.

But, before that we didn't forget to try Indore Special Shahi #Shikanji (Nagori Shikanjvi). One must taste Shikanji when in Indore. Later that day, we started our journey towards #Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. While moving towards Bhopal we crossed a line which is geographically significant, #TropicOfCancer. This was one of the unexpected bonuses of the #RoadTrip. There is this place which #Geography teacher taught us is real.

The #TropicOfCancer #Raisen

We moved forward towards #Bhopal, #HindustanKaDil, one of my favourite cities now. We stayed near #Sehore only.
Later, while wandering in the buffer zone of Sanctuary our Forest Guide went little out of the way and took different route other.
Serendipitous is what you call yourself when you decide to take detour from your travel plan then this being decides to show up and stays for more than hour with you. #Tigers of #Vindhya. #Tiger

Day 3 -

On the third day, while reaching Bhopal google helped us to pin point what we were supposed to see. That is, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (#AnthropologyMuseum). The decision of visiting the museum was perfect but time to see the museum was limited as we reached there at 05.00PM. We saw museum as much as possible. We were there till 07.15PM. We got out the museum when we were literally thrown out of there.

We moved on towards Sagar. Stayed in Temple at Sagar.

Day 4 -

We started moving towards our destination #KHAJURAHO and reached there at approx. 04.00PM and decided to take help of local guide. The guide was more burlesque than information. Actually he was only fun no information. Such tourist destinations are full of people trying to earn bread and butter in various ways. We need to be wise to choose what to buy or otherwise. Getting good local guide for precise information about historical places is always difficult task. We said bye-bye to this "Local Guide" in couple of hours and went to see folk dance and performing arts performed by local communities in Madhya Pradesh. Later we went too see Light and Sound show of Khajuraho, near Western Group of Temples. It was good but not upto the mark, I guess. We stayed at hotel Isabel in Khajuraho itself.

Day 5 -

On this day, we went to see Western Group of temples. Human discretion requested.

The place known for its one of Kind temples.

A #WorldHeritage site where engravings and sensuous sculptures of temples are portrayal of titillation and explicit sexual desires.

The #TemplesOfKhajuraho must be depicting the yore when hoi polloi celebrated, famed and glorified the act of love making without any inhibitions.

One notion of Khajuraho also adumbrates dichotomy of human life. #Vyala

The #Quest of life where one path leads to adoration of worldly desires and another leads to self-realization.

One can veritably say, this place grants the beholder what he seeks.

#WorldHeritageSite #TravelIndia #MadhyaPradesh

After watching the Western group of temples till the noon, we had lunch and later subtle decision came up to go to Panna #TigerReserve. This was another best decision of this #RoadTrip. After many inquiries we did at the Khajuraho regarding Panna WildLife Sanctuary and getting negative responses we took chance and went directly to Panna. Everybody including Forest rangers were saying "it is difficult to have a site of Tiger these days". So, we decided to go on a boat ride to see crocodiles in the #PannaWildLifeSanctuary. On the bank of the river Crocs were resting like they never cared of the world.

This sanctuary is full of various wild animals and birds. #Sambar, #Crocodiles, #SpottedDear and different species of birds.

The unique combination of grace, strength, agility and enormous power.

#NationalAnimal #TigerReserve

#PannaTigerReserve #VindhyaRange

In total, that was very well spent day. A day to remember.

On the same day, we embarked our return journey and headed towards Wardha.

We stayed in some Dhaba on highway that day.

Day 6 -

We started our journey and reached Wardha in the evening to see #Sevagram Ashram, Wardha. We cannot spend much time in the Ashram as it was about close. Later, we went to Shegaon for night stay.

Day 7 -

The last day of our trip was non-stop journey from Shegaon to Pune.

Overall it was awesome trip.

Let’s go explore more places.