[MX6]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Great to see you had a nice time during holidays. The photos tell a graphic story, very nice start.

Thanks ramkya. I infact had a terrific time during the holidays. And I highly recomment Ranikavav and Modhera only for the art lovers. Every sculpture has a story to say there. Those places are not the run of the mill been there, done that places.

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Interesting place, what was the name of palace?

That is more of a Haveli. I stayed there. www.karohihaveli.com.

Originally Posted by laluks

Yes I too am curious about the same.

When were you in Udaipur? I was there just a few days back for New year

The Lake Palace with that fancy boat is a beautiful capture

KS saar. We have out secrets too. heh heh heh. Was there during Diwali. Just was lazy to post a log here. Even now lazy to post a full fledged travelogue. Hence the title - Photologue.

Originally Posted by BolBolero

MX6 Sir,

Nice start to your photologue and lovely captures on your DSLR. Am looking forward to all the details of the trip and many more fantastic snaps too!
Just goes to show that India in its vastness has so much to offer for the discerning traveler!
BTW how many Patolas did you pick up for the ladies of the house?? (just curious)

Now. Let me state it once again as before. Shopping as I expressed earlier was restricted only to Art. I will put a list of items I bought at the end of the log. Or probably take pics of them and load them here too. Even without the Green Grin, I wouldn't mind your curiosity. Am not touchy about shopping.

Originally Posted by Nitrous Power

It is Lake Palace. One of the most beautiful palace-converted to Hotel.

The lake palace is not what I believe netfreak asked about. It was the other haveli I stayed at (and have given the link)

Originally Posted by deky

I think they meant the Haveli where MX6 stayed. Looks like Jaiwana Haveli to me!!

Some lovely photographs MX6. Its nice to see the Lake full of water. When we went there 3 yrs back it was a big cricket field.

The single HDR of the Darbar Hall in the palace is awesome. Were they going to have some banquet function there as its all lit up?

Did you see the crystal Gallery and the sound and light show?

I think the Udaipur Palace is one of the best kept palaces as its managed by the trust and not by ASI

Regards

Deky, I saw the crystal gallery. Sadly no photography allowed there. Else I'd have loved to post how much of opulence the later Maharanas lived with that could have actually used for poor people. Came out fuming thinking that the current ministers are no different from the earlier kings. Especially when I heard about the Crystal Bed that was made for the king who never lived to sleep on it, I thought, wow, what a waste.

Originally Posted by arindamray

So many places to see, so little time :(

Mani, the pictures have come really nice, loved the perspective of elephant saluting... will wait for the story to unfold...

Thanks Arindam. Yes. So many places. So little time. Will load more pics shortly.

Originally Posted by VLOCT

Real nice travelogue, MX6. Pretty cool pics. Regards.

Thanks VLOCT for your appreciation and kind words.

Now back to the story.

Diwali. No Crackers please. No noise please. I'd done my bookings in Karohi haveli a month and a half before to ensure that I don't run out of rooms when I stay in Udaipur. I'd singled out Udaipur alone (and didn't want to add Kumbalgarh, Chittorgarh etc to it). And thanks to Ramkya I added Ranikavav to the itinerary. He knows my tastes well. And I knew that he knows it. So I didn't bother to do any further research in the web about the place. Every research will happen in ground zero.

Mt. Abu falls in the route from Patan to Udaipur. No. I'm not going to Mt. Abu. Nothing there to interest me. If Modhera and Patan turn out to be brilliant I want to go to a place that will equal or exceed that in expectations!

On the return, I thought of adding Akshardham. Been there in early 2000 and loved the show of Swaminarayan's life shown there. Thought my daughter would love it.

I packed my 7 year old DSLR and tossed the P&S to my wife. The photos having watermark of Mrs. MX6 are all from the point and shoot, shot by my wife who is just holding a camera for few days now. We could barely sleep with the noise of revelry and crackers keeping us tossing around in the bed.

So the itinerary fell in place.

26th Oct we left at 5:45 am from home. Thank god for Diwali. There was absolutely no traffic on the Mumbai Surat road. Within minutes we were on NH8 and moved to a steady pace.

The sunrise. Somewhere enroute to Manor.


We reached Vapi at around 8:20 am or so. Got to see the exact timings when I analyse my GPS logs (again blame my laziness).
Stopped at hotel Parivar for some tasty Idly, Vada and Sambar (alag se as I had to state everywhere). And Gujarat welcomed me with amazing chocolate milkshake for as less as 35 bucks!
Here's the location of Parivar.

Parivar Restaurant, NH 8, Vapi, Gujarat, India - Google Maps

The wonderful 3 lane roads in Gujarat - stretch towards Ankleshwar from Vapi.


Thanks to HVKumar, I'm aware of the snarls on the Narmada Bridge on NH8. Hence decided to take the old Golden bridge. Even if there were no snarls, I'd love to take the bridge as this is a piece of history.


The Golden Bridge. Narrow. Two Scorpios can barely pass each other without the ORVMs touching.


I just noticed that they'd put lamps on this bridge throughout the length, hanging from the top with the complete electrical wires running over the entire length of the bridge. Guess in the night the bridge must be even a better spectacle to see while crossing!


The Bharuch end of the Bridge. The wordings on the bridge state about when it was completed


Soon we got back on to NH8 at Bharuch and proceeded towards Vadodara. Decided to have lunch at Baroda.


Hotel Plazzo is a great find. Again thanks to HVK for letting me know of this. Place was good enough for us to eat and also prepare food for our daughter.


While I was browsing through the menu, my wife was keeping my daughter engaged with some art work herself! With her food already prepared and ready to be fed! Before my 'critics' again pan me for having the copyright against my wife's name for this pic which, incidentally was taken by me, let me quickly add to it that this was done by batch processing and am lazy to change the watermark for just 5 or 6 pics in the whole lot of 450 odd clicked by my wife using this P&S.


That's a quick snap in my P&S of my Ikonic vehicle in front of the Golden Bridge!


Road conditions were excellent from home till Plazzo hotel at Baroda. 2 lane roads from Ankleshwar to Bharuch through golden bridge reduced my speed to 40s. But then I'd saved hours of potential traffic jam and also went through a piece of history. One can easily keep 3 digit speeds on these roads once crossing over in to GJ side!

Up next - Lunch at Plazzo.

[ramkya1]

Hay,

You've blocked off the Reg. No. of your car, many people here do. I wonder why?

The last time I passed the Goldenbridge, I had to tuck the ears in, it would have touched passing traffic, that was for going inside Navsari in search of a jeep. Other than that I have never taken it to beat traffic on NH8. NH8 is like a lottary, if you get a jam its just pot-luck if not you can sail through.

=====

[gd1418]

I too am intrigued by this practice. Dunno why people do so?

Originally Posted by ramkya1

You've blocked off the Reg. No. of your car, many people here do. I wonder why?

=====

[AvonA7]

Originally Posted by MX6

When was the last time we went on a holiday? No. not the ones in which I drove for most of the time. Not the ones where we had lot's of relatives to catch up with. Not the ones where we had to hunt around for budget hotels to spend the night, landmarks to see and cover, stringent timelines to keep up with.
When I posed this question to my wife, we were amazed to find out that in the last 60000 kms of travel, we couldn't call anything as a holiday actually.

Ok. What do we do now? Let's get away from the city. Let's book a nice resort that's kind of elegant and worth spending once in a while (not those other end of spectrum expensive kind).


The famed puppet show
Attachment 865129

Thanks for sharing.

Can you please elaborate on the puppet show.

Many years ago have seen these puppet shows where a string was tied to the puppet and the puppeteer used to control the puppets (expertise required I must say) using the strings and also use his voice (both male/female) for characters in the show. Is it one of those ?

Originally Posted by MX6

That's a quick snap in my P&S of my Ikonic vehicle in front of the Golden Bridge!
Attachment 866495

Any Team-BHP stickers missing from your car bonnet?
Seeing this particular snap, was like ... Team-BHPians love cars but Mrs MX6 !
OK OK, got your point, read the quote and the previous paragraph too

Shall keep an eye on this thread as you add more details

[MX6]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Hay,

You've blocked off the Reg. No. of your car, many people here do. I wonder why?

The last time I passed the Goldenbridge, I had to tuck the ears in, it would have touched passing traffic, that was for going inside Navsari in search of a jeep. Other than that I have never taken it to beat traffic on NH8. NH8 is like a lottary, if you get a jam its just pot-luck if not you can sail through.

=====

Well, for simple reason that anyone who I might have irritated in some birth of mine can just bribe the RTO to get my details and stalk me. Actually, that might sound far-fetched. But then for simple reasons, just that in an open forum, that's open to the whole world, why give out my vehicle registration number? May be I'm being overtly paranoid. But I saw this practice earlier in the forum from others, so I followed it too.

And regarding the jam, Saar, I view it this way. Through the old route, I might take extra 20 minutes. But if I manage to get stuck in the Jam on NH8, I'm stuck for hours. I'd rather wilfully waste 20 minutes in a more scenic route than get stuck for hours in traffic (as I got stuck once near Shilphata from 1 in the night till 4:30 am in the worst ever nightmare after a long drive from Bangalore) in a potential bottleneck. With the Golden bridge the good thing is that trucks aren't allowed!

Originally Posted by gd1418

I too am intrigued by this practice. Dunno why people do so?

No idea gd saar. When I eventually find out, I will be in a better position to discontinue this or not!

Originally Posted by AvonA7

Can you please elaborate on the puppet show.

Any Team-BHP stickers missing from your car bonnet?
Seeing this particular snap, was like ... Team-BHPians love cars but Mrs MX6 !
OK OK, got your point, read the quote and the previous paragraph too

Shall keep an eye on this thread as you add more details

Yes. you got it about the puppet show. In this case there is a live orchestra performing for the puppets to dance. And we had some nice stories coming up with a lot of humour in them. I became a kid too watching this. Will upload some videos when we come to the show.

And I had all the 13 stickers on my car. Damn theives. No limit to what they would steal. I now have only 7 on my car. I'm waiting to catch a miscreant peeling off any of the remaining 7. When that happens, I will make him wash my car as punishment.

Will be coming back later in the night to add more photos.

[adalvi]

Hi MX6, it's a nice travelogue. Surprisingly, I also went to Udaipur during Diwali. From 26th Oct - 1st Nov. Did you happen to stay/take a halt in Hotel Surya Palace, on Nana Chiloda ring road? B'cos I did saw a red Ford Icon with MH passing and team-Bhp sticker on it:-) Not sure if it was you though?

Cheers,
Ashish

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by MX6

Hope I manage to finish this before you leave so that it leaves you options for last minute additions and deletions. Thanks for the interest shown.

Hello MX6,

I understand you are writing this travelogue & it will take time. As you know I am leaving for Udaipur on 14 (most probably) I have just one query for you. I have currently planned approx 1.5 days in Udaipur. Will 1.5 days be enough to cover most of the places in Udaipur or should I consider staying at Udaipur for 2 or 2.5 days for complete sight seeing.

Just for your information, I am travelling with wifey & 5 year daughter.

Thanks,

[MX6]

Originally Posted by adalvi

Hi MX6, it's a nice travelogue. Surprisingly, I also went to Udaipur during Diwali. From 26th Oct - 1st Nov. Did you happen to stay/take a halt in Hotel Surya Palace, on Nana Chiloda ring road? B'cos I did saw a red Ford Icon with MH passing and team-Bhp sticker on it:-) Not sure if it was you though?

Cheers,
Ashish

Hi Ashish. Did you also stay there in Surya Palace? I'd parked my ikon right next to another car having T-BHP stickers. If that's you, then yes we missed each other. I couldn't meet up due to a personal emergency.

Originally Posted by Jignesh

Hello MX6,

I understand you are writing this travelogue & it will take time. As you know I am leaving for Udaipur on 14 (most probably) I have just one query for you. I have currently planned approx 1.5 days in Udaipur. Will 1.5 days be enough to cover most of the places in Udaipur or should I consider staying at Udaipur for 2 or 2.5 days for complete sight seeing.

Just for your information, I am travelling with wifey & 5 year daughter.

Thanks,

I messaged you separately so that the flow of this log is not impacted. Hope that information helps you. If not feel free to ask.

We had some sumptuous meals at Plazzo and took a rather long break. Food was good and the sunshine was good too and my daughter had a nice time running all around stretching herself.

That's baby MX6 running around chasing squirrels and butterflies


Nice place to sit in Plazzo before the reception. And my daughter kept running around there as well.


One of the beautiful birds (seems a heron) outside Plazzo.


This chap sat on my car's antenna. Didn't want to disturb him so was busy clicking photos till he decided it is time to leave.


Soon we entered the NE1, aka, Mahatma Gandhi Express way. Was a lovely sight to see the expressway barricaded on both the sides to ensure we don't have pedestrians, cows, bikers, autorickshaws, any other dangerous thing drifts in to the e-way. Wish they did this to all the highways too.


Almost at the end of the expressway we were wondering what exit do we take. Ok, lets take the last one.


Took the exit towards Sarkhej I guess and was soon on the road to Mehsana. We were briefly stopped by Gujarat Cops. Sorry folks, I've done my homework thanks to HVK. I have the yellow sticker.
The cop asked me for license and PUC. I showed him the same. He looked at it for a very long time then asked me where am I headed.

Sun temple, Modhera.

Ok sirji. Bye.
Mehsana town was like any other typical town. And we were ahead of our schedule so we were wondering whether it would be good to catch up with the sun temple this evening itself! Soon we just found some wayside hotel (don't even recollect the name and wouldn't recommend to anyone either) just to quickly dump our bags.


Some temple in Mehsana. But what I liked was the lane separators at junctions. Even inside the town they had service lanes! Didn't know whether this was the case with the other road as well (mehsana towards udaipur)


We were proceeding towards Modhera. With the sun setting quicker than anticipated, I was a bit dismayed. Will we be allowed inside? Didn't want to waste the couple of hours we gained.


And we saw peacocks along the way, with their plumes beautifully spread. Sadly, I was doing a good 80 kph on those magnificent village roads that my wife could manage only the sunset pics


Did we get to the temple before the sun set? Were we allowed in?

Up next - The amazing hospitality of Gujarat. Made me recount my Veraval days!

[MX6]

We reached Modhera shortly after sunset. There was still light. Sadly, the ticket counter is open only from sun rise to sun set.

The villagers were very friendly. They asked me to go inside the village and have a look at the Mandir inside as well. However, I didn't feel like moving away from the gates of the Sun temple. So I was asking for some information about the temple and Rani Ka vav at patan to the persons who were just waiting to lock the gates.

"You are coming all the way from Mumbai? When did you start?"
"at around sun rise today".

They were astounded.
"You people still had the energy to come and visit this temple after travelling so long. That too with a small baby?"

I just grinned.

"Ok sir. I give you 30 mins. Please go in and see it and come back quickly. And tomorrow we open the counter at 7 am itself. If you come at 7 am, you can spend much time here".

How much for the tickets?

"Sir. Today we are closed officially. I just don't feel like turning away the little one who has travelled so much to see Suryadev Mandir. So just go in. No tickets as we are closed!"

We thanked them for this 30 min window they gave only for us and walked in swiftly to behold the grandeur ahead of us before the last rays of the sun dies down.
The last time we got such a reception was when we travelled from one end of Netherlands to Keukenhoff only to find the counter was closed. The gentleman there charged us tickets for one person and let me and my wife along with my neice in, just because my neice told him that she didn't want her uncle feel dejected after having travelled so much. Nostalgia.

Last glimpse of the setting sun.


First view of Modhera Sun Temple.


Magnificent stepped tank in front of the temple.


That's Mrs MX6 and Junior MX6 in front of the temple.


One lone person who was walking out last perhaps.


We then decided to return back to Mehsana and then go back early again next morning. Now the next big question. Where do we eat?
We first went to some pure veg retaurant. But found it very dusty. So we decided to move out. So after going up and down atleast 3 - 4 times I just thought, ok, let's just go have pizza. There's some pizza place there.

And what a beautiful joint that turned out to be. It was not just pizza. But it was a full fledged South Indian retaurant called Sankalp. And it seems to be a chain too! Amazing food. Very clean and hygienic. Little did we realise that the next 3 days we'd be running around in search of Sankalp where ever we went. And when I came back home after the trip, I realised that there's a Sankalp just 1 km away from my home. I've never ever been there!

Amazingly clean place in a dusty town.


Can you read the two menus? One for Pizza another is mouthwatering dosa/ biryani stuff!


Good lighting to go with the festival season.


And my daughter is clearly happy. She is also wearing her new peacock feather printed dress to go with the theme of the trip!


Finally after sumptuous dinner, we came back and flopped on the bed. But my daughter was looking fresh as ever. After a 16 hour long day of travel and fun!


I strongly suggest people who love south indian and veg biryani stuff to try out Sankalp in Mehsana and Udaipur.

Up next - Morning sojourn to Modhera with some good photographs from my DSLR.

[MX6]

27th Oct 2011 - Thursday - At dawn.

We quickly took some warm shower and packed up. I vacated the hotel room and got down to the car. As we pulled out and stopped by the service lane waiting to take the left turn, I was just connecting my Navigator as well as the Vehicle blackbox.

And my daughter set her eyes on these.

"I want that beeeeeg horse appa", she said.


I was tempted to buy one of those exquisitely handcrafted toy horse. Decided to buy it later. Didn't want my daughter to climb on that thinking it is just another toy.

Soon we were off towards Modhera. It was getting brighter even before sunrise. And the weather was brilliant. So were the roads.


After a quick drive we reached Modhera Suryadev Mandir. And when the first rays of the sun fell on the temple, we were there.
Your's truly in front of the temple.


The sun bathed the temple in granduer as it rose. And early morning visit is amazing. We were the first people there.


The whole temple outer walls were completely razed to the ground almost. Ravaged by time and perhaps conquests. What remained was the lower plinth that was lined with Elephants. The Celestial elephants that carried the temple!


Soon people started trickling in. Then we realised it's New year for Gujarati folks. And many were decked in almost bridal jewelry and clothes to celebrate new year. And they came to Modhera sun temple. A far cry from metropolis where we ring in new years in a different way! I loved this old traditional way.


And I started climbing down the stepwell to take photos of the sanctums and sculptures that dotted the well.


Going down I caught this candid moment of my family having lost themselves admiring the beauty and peace of such a nice place.


And my wife turns around to see me capturing a candid moment and suddenly stated in a shrill voice. Kingfisher. Right behind you.


Sadly I left my old 70 - 210 mm back home. So that's the closest I could get to that bird. Once he flew away, I went back to what I came for. Sculptures.


Up Next: Some (rather a lot of) significant sculptures of Modhera.

[MX6]

Must have been celebration time.


A trapped squirrel that my family is trying to photograph.


With the sun rise, the temple started shimmering.


A faceless dancer? Or was she some goddess?


A lot of locals went to the right side end of the stepped tank. That's one glorious view I could get.


And a look to the right.


And to the left.


Well, no one is there in the frame now. Time to whip out my 10 mm lens.


As I sat on the last of the steps looking down at something, my wife thinks I'm a very interesting subject in such a mood.


But here's what I found as a more interestng subject, in the tank!


Up next: The circumambulation.

[MX6]

The calmness of the place was broken by a couple of guys. Incidentally they were speaking in Kannada. They were incidentally talking about their childhood trips to Hampi, Pattadakkal, Badami, Aihole, Belur, Halebidu etc.


And I turn around to see my family walking on the grass, searching for something.


How deep and big is the tank? Have a look at the couple at the far end.


And suddenly the water was extremely still to get a great reflection.


All of a sudden, I saw a confluence of Architectural patterns. May be this was the one Shikhara that's still left. But it did look more like Kalinga type of architecture, of which the Lingaraja temple in Orissa is a flagship example! This. Incidentally looked like the miniature of the tower of the lingaraja temple.


Soon we walked around towards a separate platform that had just two pillars. The temple grew in size the more we walked away from it.


And a tiny visitor peeks out from the platform to invite us three.


While this guy came to see us, another took off upon seeing us approaching him.


One of the two identical pillar on that platform. Was it used as some Sabha Mantapa where art forms were performed earlier? No idea. But it did inspire my daughter to break in to an impromptu dance. Here she tries to become Nagavalli from the movie Manichitrathazhu, dancing for Oru Murai Vandhu Paarthayaa? (Did you come to see me even once?)


And while she gave her performance, the little guy stood and watched in rapt attention. I didn't expect this guy to stand there like that and watch us. I'm more used to him feeling shy and running away when approached.


Up next: More of the Mandir

[MX6]

Whoa. Another rating of terrible (1 star) on a photologue? The rating fell from 4.14 from 7 votes to 3.75 from 8! Seems like the person either hates me or hates our rich legacy.

Guys, if the log is really terrible, I'd rather stop. Else, it is sad to see rating options from a wonderful forum like this are being used for personal vendetta.

Anyway, here's the next set of pictures from Modhera.

My family finds a nice shady corner to sit.


The entrance to the Sabha Mantap. This one unlike the other plain platform that had just the two pillars is a proper Mantap. However, the mantle piece on the pillars in this Mantap is missing thereby making those two pillars stand out.





One of the intricately carved pillars of the Sabha Mantap. Ever pillar had a different set of characters on them. Upon closer inspection I found that there were identical pillars carved out in a symmetry. Every side had same set of carvings on the pillars! Just that the 6 + 2 pillars on the entrance would have 8 different sets of carvings, but these were repeated on the other 3 sides!


The Southwest side of pillars. The symmetry is astounding.


Sunlight's angle creates a magic of light and shadow. There's unsolicited information that based on the zodiac, sun's rays falls on one set of pillars. Could be true. But what's really striking was the fact that during the Equinoxes, the first rays of the sun falls on the sanctum inside the Guda Mantap.


The Northwest side set of pillars. At the extreme left end of the pic one can spot the first pillar that stands just outside the Guda Mantap.


The view from inside towards the stepped tank showing the north east sets of pillars.


The Sabha Mantap is open on all 4 sides with every entrance having 6 pillars each leading to a near octagonal hall with 8 pillars in them. Here's a view to the North side entrance that leads out to a Shiva temple.


What really stood out was the grand central arch that was the ceiling of the Sabha Mantap. Supported on the 8 central pillars that made up the near octagonal hall, was the lotus carved out of the ceiling block. And the lotus finds its presence where there is Sun.


Anyway folks. Thanks a bunch for people who've left motivational comments and some nice ratings as well.

[VLOCT]

MX,

I just gave it a 5 star rating to make up for the 1 star. I'm sure it was a mistake. Amazing place and pictures. Please continue with such superb diaries.

Regards.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by VLOCT

MX,

I just gave it a 5 star rating to make up for the 1 star.

But that would mean patronizing.


I just want people to appreciate the places and hence am skimming through my collection to put up some good pics here.

The point is not in the rating Vloct. Thanks anyway. Modhera and Patan aren't the regular been there, done that clicked the typical photoshop moment places. Hence putting this as a photolog that would help art lovers reach to such places and quench their thirst.

But if the rating of 1 star is just to me, then the log ends up serving no purpose. Else am not the kind who is bothered about ratings. The log will continue but I will just load lesser pics from the rest and finish it quickly. Very few people are interested in art and architecture here as I see.