Pune to Indore a wonderful journey

Hello All!

This blog is about the delicious trip of Indore. Will tell you why I did mention delicious. It is most populous and the largest city in Madhya Pradesh State. Indore is called an education hub of Madhya Pradesh state and it also has IIT(Indian institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management). It is located on the southern part of Malwa Plateau and major city of central province. Indore is the trading hub between north India and southern India from 16centuray than it was called between Delhi and Deccan. Indore is been selected one of the Smart City to be developed and also got the award of cleanest city of India 4 consecutive times. The city was rules by Maharaja YeshwantRao Holkar before it became an integral part of Republic of India. What I like most about Indore is the hospitality of people and the market. Indore has a market for particular items like one market for cloth, electronic, Utensils etc. Indore is very popular as the commercial capital of state.

Day 1

Day 1 covers the travelling from Pune to Indore which is 600 odd Kms. We started around 7 AM in the morning and was amazed to see the road condition. While driving the car it rained and in that heavy rain NH3 highway was shining brand new as if it was just built yesterday. We reached Indore near about 8 PM. We were 2 to drive car so we did not faced any issue and it was a good drive.

Day 2

It starts with breakfast and then we went to Tincha Waterfall. It is 50 KMs away from Indore and very nice, beautiful and famous Waterfall. You will always see lot of rush there. When we went there we were surprise to see no rush may be due to it’s a weekday but college students and school trips are usual. We did parked our car which was free of cost and walk 50 meters or so for the entrance. You need to do a bit of talking to reach the point where you see the waterfall. There you can only hear voice of birds and falling water which the best part about the place. You can find local stall selling corn and other street food items. You need to be very careful when you have food in your hand as monkeys will always have an eye on food.

After spending an hour or so we decided to go Patal Pani Waterfall. It is 32 KMs away from Tincha Fall. Patal Pani is a very famous waterfall and fully crowed in monsoon season. This fall is located in Mhow tehsil in Indore district. Waterfalls approximately 300 feet high and it looks like it is falling as deep as Patal (underworld in Indian myth). It has a train track of meter gauge which runs along the hills and it gives an amazing view of waterfall.

We spent some quality time at Patal Pani waterfall and then started towards Omkareshwar but we meet with a nightmare as somewhere we took the wrong road. Initially the road was very good but as we move along suddenly we saw a bad road and then there was no road. We were caught in middle as we couldn’t go back cause we were in the ghat and cannot turn back our car. So we were in the jungle and only way to go ahead. By getting down the car and clearing road by throwing stones by hand somehow we reached a village. Public came out of their houses and surprised to see car and wondering how we came there. Fortunately in the village there was a school teacher who helped us by showing the way to reach to the main road which is Indore-Khandwa road. As we join the road it was a great relief and a good lesson learnt.

We finally reached Omkareshwar which is a holy place having the hindu temple of God Shiva. It is one of the 12 Jyotirlinga. I did not knew earlier until was told by the locals there that it is on an island called Shivpuri in Narmada river. It is having two main temples of god Shiva are Omkareshwar (God of Om Sound) located in the island and Amareshwar (God of Devas) located on the south bank of Narmada River. Also took a boat ride in the holy Narmada River, he took us to the Dam and it was a very amazing boat ride. There are many restaurant where you can enjoy delicious Daal-Bafle which is a very famous dish of Malwa. It was evening and we started back for Indore.

Day 3

Mandu is the place we decided and started little late as the last day was tiring and full of adventure. It is 100 KMs away from Indore and took some 2 hours to reach Mandu. It is located in the Dhar district in the Malwa region in Western Madhya Pradesh. In 11^th century Mandu was ruled by Taranga Kingdom later on in next century it was captured by Delhi's Sultan Alauddin Khilji.

After reaching Mandu first is Taveli Mahal which is right at the entrance to Royal Complex and Ground Floor is for the stable and the first floor is for soldiers.

Jahaz Mahal is very famous attraction in Mandu and it was well maintained. The garden there is superb and lush green and clean. With 2  Chambers at either end of the palace makes it appear like a ship palace floating in water.

Rani Roopmati Mahal is the place of queen Roopmati from where is used to take darshan of holy Narmada river and also she has a clear sight of Baz Bahadur from Roopmati Pavilion. There are many food stalls on the road to the entrance of Mahal.

Baz Bahadur Palace is situated at the slope of the hill next to Rani Ropmati Mahal is the good example of well-built and organized structured monument. 

Rewa Kund is a reservoir is built in governance of Baz Bahadur and for supplying water to Baz Bahadur and Roopmati palace.

Hindola Mahal is called a Swinging palace as its slopping side wall and huge arch gives a swinging look.

There are other more things like Jami Masjid, Hoshang Shah’s tomb and Asharifi Palace. It was really a historic day and one can defiantly think about how they has built such a great monument and surly will applause the architect of that era. It was a whole day trip and we returned Indore in evening.

Day 4

Indore market is very organized in terms that you will get one market for one item. Its day for local marketing and day for my pocket to get empty. We went into “Cloth market” where we have lots to buy apart from dress materials like bed sheets, blankets, dhohar etc. After cloth market we had seen “Bartan Bazar” where you can see variety of vessels and utensils and then went to see the Kanch Mandir which entirely covered by glass panels including floor, columns, wall and the ceilings and it’s a Jain mandir.

We also went to Lal Bagh Palace which is built in 1886 and has total area of 28 acres. The main Gate of the palace is replica of the gate of Buckingham Palace situated in London. Now this palace is having variety of paintings and wall craft painted in European style. It also holding coin collection of Muslim period. It also has a very beautiful and huge rose garden which is one of the best in country. 

We also went to Annapurna Temple which is one of the famous place in Indore. Returned into the heart of the city and went to see Rajwada which was built by Holkars of Maratha Empire. It has high importance and the identity of Indore. When  you go inside you will see Krishan Mandir which is said to be prayer place of Ahilyabai Holkar and the Krishan statue is 600 Yrs old. It also has garden a big assembly hall. When you are there you will feel the greatness of Rajmata Ahilyabai holkar as her governance is still an example to be given.

When you are at Rajwada and its evening you cannot resist yourself by going to Sarafa Bazar where there are jewelers shop but it’s famous for becoming food stall after shops close. You can eat verity of food items like Garadu, MalPuwa, Gulab-jamun, Rabdi and many others. After enjoying mouth-watering dishes we signed off for the day.

Day 5

It started with going to Ujjain which is 60 KMs away from Indore. Ujjain is very ancient city situated at the bank of Kshipra River in Malwa Plateau. Ujjain was the political center of central India around 600 BC. It has old history from the Avanti kingdom as it’s a capital back then and the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta. Now it’s one of the 12^th Jyotirlings and the very famous Pilgrimage with Kumbh mela held every 12 year.

After reaching to Ujjain we first went to Mahakaleshwar Temple which is one of the 12 Jyotirlings of Lord Shiva and most important holy place. Next is Kalbhairava temple which has it importance as associated with tantra. Harsiddhi temple is the temple of goddess Harsiddhi. Ram Ghat where it is believed that at this spot Lord Ram took the bath. There are many other temple in the city as well but due to time constraint we could not go to all. We returned back to Indore in evening and went to chappan dukan (56 Shops) which is a very famous street place to eat variety of delicious, cheap snacks and sweets.

Day 6

The Day was more of travelling back to home. Its nearly 600 KMs travelling back which took nearly 11 odd hours to get back.

It was a right move to plan and complete Indore trip as it offers experience of astonishing waterfall, holy temples, historical forts and places, different culture, market and wonderful delicious food.