Today morning: The fort… wow wow wow.
Panic SMS’s received the second we were in network range at Kumbalghar Fort from Mom. You’ve been out of touch!!! No Mom, we’re safe, no Dakoos here either. After describing Kumbalghar to her on the phone, and seeing that she was happy that dad was safe and in good hands (and I’m sure she also checks with Dad that I’m safe and in good hands), she was nice and jealous and wished to be here. Dad wants to come back. So it’s a winner with him, and it makes the 120 KM detour totally worth it.
This place was incredible - what a magnificent sight it must have been to the people who were ruled by it. Even now, it dwarfs anything I’ve seen in terms of the scale of what was being made.
Kumbalghar is built on the highest peak in the Arravalis. It has battlements that circle around the crests of hills for 36KM’s. Creating a Mewar fort that is so impregnable, huge and safe that it has only fallen once to a combined force of a bunch of different outside invaders, and that too, only for 2 days – in its entire history. It has some 302 temples in its grounds, amazing water bodies, a wildlife sanctuary, and the terrifically high badal mahal which at 1100M above sea level, commands what must be one of the most magnificent views on this whole drive.
After Dad checked out the ramparts (from where he kept being possessed by spirits of the watchtower guards – “Ohhhhhhhhoooo Sooono!!! 20 Paltan Ghorde Wale or 10 Top Hathi ke saath hamare dakshin dwar pe hamla kar rahe hai!! Fauz ko Jagaooooo!” he did this more than once. I think he really wanted to stand guard on the fort – he would have been so good at it too! I hired us a tour guide, Dad decided he was no good, the tour guide decided we weren’t interesting. Dad called it the quickest 100 bucks the guide has ever made. “This is the Kitchen where they cooked food to be sent to all the outposts along the 36 KM ramparts (6 horses wide at the top), that’ll be a 100 rupees thank you very much!”
Having been significantly wowed, and rather happy with the fact that it was time well spent, dad drove the first leg down this single road route extremely conscientiously, patiently waiting for Herd’s of asses and Buffaloes heading to their water holes to be done with their business on the roads .
This amazing single lane b road that was for the most part smooth and beautiful took us all the way into Udaipur. It way it wound through the hill ranges was just phenomenal. For a while we found our route interweaving with this beautiful river that had cut its way through the Aravalis. 80 KM stretch of driving, 2 Hours, blissfully beautiful.
Just outside Udaipur we come across these massive concrete bunkers lined up side by side at 500 yard intervals with two walls and a roof, each one big enough to hold a 727. I thought what the hell are these? Then we see it…. This massive amount of blasting and construction taking place to build what I suppose will be the continuation of the NH8 superhighway from Udaipur to Ajmer. They’re not joking about the size of this golden quad project, and after Udaipur, we’d see what the end result of that madness is.
Then we hit Udaipur. The discussion of “Drive On” vs. “Stop and smell the roses” came to a slightly tough impasse. I was about to be seriously vetoed and ordered back to NH8 when Dad saw the narrow streets, but an obstinate push on by an obstinate son got us to the Ameri restaurant. Which is on this peninsula thrusting into the lake in the old city. Its gorgeous, with a great view of the Udaipur ghat that lines the banks of the Pichola Lake with hills behind it… and it was damn good mutton biriyani to boot. We chilled there till 3, then got a bit panicky about the fact that Ahmedabad was a good 240 km away. So off we went. Picked up NH8 and the reason for panic was gone. It turned into this amazing 4 lane expressway that wound its way through the southern hills of Rajasthan, the land was green, verdant and rolling countryside, and passing us at 80Kmph. It was a great drive and reminded me of the drives I would take across the US when I was in college there. We always stick around 80 km an hour because at 82 the wheels of our trusty steed would start to wobble. We pass everything but the fancy cars that suddenly appear up our tail pipe and then disappear into the distance.
The music for this drive has been a mix of classical, baroque, piano concertos (which after 30 minutes dad finds annoying..) when we’re cheerful we switch to a lot of music out of the American songbook, and all the crooners from the 30’s – 50’s come out of my lovely new music system.
We hit the Gujarat border at 5;15… after which we stopped, I had channa and puris and then Dad took over and we hoofed it towards Ahmedabad. We did the whole section up to the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2 hours. The last 45 minutes the car was handed back to me. During this hectic drive in when patience was its usual wafer thin, I made the mistake of bringing up plans for tomorrow. So the whole “stick to NH8 and get to Mumbai” vs. “Stop and check out the sights” debate is back in full flow. Well, debating aside, we’re very happy with how fast and easily we got to our rest stop, The Cama Hotel. Which apart from being a very bog standard executive traveler’s hotel with all the basic goods and amenities, it also is on the banks of the Sabermati. I like rivers that run through cities, (I think of Paris and London when I say this). But even nicer about the Cama, driving wise, is that EVERYONE in Ahmedabad, from a juice walla at a junction 10 kilometers away to every cop, and most auto drivers knew where it was!
We chilled, I loaded up the photo’s for the day, and went down to the coffee shop for dinner. Food? Ohhh kay… but it seems like the Cama Hotel coffee shop is like a total hangout for locals be it a 14 strong table of Parsi extended family out for their Sunday treat, or the younger hepper ‘Avemabad never sleeps’ crowd. So. Um. Interesting.
And I’ve now had a super hot shower, and am tucked into nice clean sheets in nice bouncy firm bed. Watching the TV and hearing dad read the Sunday paper. We’re all good.
Tomorrow, we wake up and its probably Sabermati Ashram or some amazing Baori (Step Well) I’ve heard about a few KM outside the city, and then on to do our little Parsi thing and visit the oldest Parsi fire temple in India at Udvada which will be the last and final stop before we head into the Big Black Smoke.
G’night.
For pics, click here.
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