Sunday, July 25, 2010

Bikaner-A travelogue

One good feel I get by working for my company is I get to explore so many remotest locations of India, which I shall never do otherwise. Bikaner is beautiful in its own inexpressible way. I am staying in a Hotel Jamna Nivas which looks like a simple single storey, un cemented building from outside. But the food is good, homely and simple, something which is difficult to get in these parts. People here add a huge amount of oil in everything they cook. Reason: Rajasthan has water scarcity. Oil films the thirst and keeps body cool for considerable length of time. You can start the day by visiting the Karni Maatha temple, the famous rat temple.It is 35 km from Bikaner railway station. I felt irky at first to see 1500 odd rats, ambling about the temple, sipping milk by forming the periphery of a "parat"(a wide circular two inch depth plate), eating laddoo from pujari's hand, the remnants of which is distributed as prashad to the devotees(I did not eat it though). Jerry time: a must visit place, makes me wonder how so many rats live in harmony with people without any record disease.

Next stop: Camel park. Camels at various stages of development. Some were beautifully adorned in traditional camel clothes , a feast to eyes. Camel bone keychains are available at low prices. A good buy. Camel milk kulfi, sluuurrrrppp :)

Kundh Sagar: Minarets of the entire dynasty of Bikaner kings who had ruled for 300 years. Beautiful monuments made of rich marble, arranged in a neat matrix. Maintenance however is not very good.

Chotu Motu Joshi: You will curse yourself if you go without visiting this place. World's unbeatable lassi in such a huge stainless steel glass, can easily make up for breakfast. Big things come in small packages. So true when it comes to this place.

Return to hotel by 7 p.m., calling it a good memorable trip. Getting geared up for Monday morning blues already.
PS: Shall upload pics sometime later. Poor net connectivity.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Good narrative...do post some pics though...

Jack said...

Preeti,

You are making me feel so jealous. Lucky you. I too had a good time visiting so many places while in service, North to South, West to East. Enjoy as long as you can. Looking forward to see photographs.

Take care

vinny said...

hmmmm...somebody is having fun at work ;)

did remind me seeing the rat temple on TV...pls do post the pics yaar!

have fun girl!

Vicky said...

Hey! Did u hear about the ONE white rat, which they say brings you luck? I had a chance to see that and also took a snap to keep my luck with me ;-)

vanilla sky said...

Working and enjoying :)

G.S.Vasu Kumar said...

Nice Blog:) Check my blog http://gsvasukumar.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Took me time to read the whole article, the article is great but the comments bring more brainstorm ideas, thanks.

- Johnson