In the Land of Wall-Paintings
Travel date: Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 May 2007
Distance: 250km from Gurgaon
Route: Gurgaon - Jaipur Highway (N8) till Dharuheda - Right towards Rewari
Rewari to Narnaul - Singhana - Chidawa - Jhunjhunu - Mandawa
Leave Gurgaon 3:30pm.Gurgaon to Dharuheda via NH8. Take right after crossing Dharuheda towards Rewari. Cross through Rewari. Little town with weird architecture. Take right from Ambedkar chowk for Narnaul. Rewari - Narnaul about 60km. Good road.
Narnaul - a small sleepy hospital town. Well-connected.Just some km before Narnaul, a road goes to Behror (30km) in case you want to open to the highway.Otherwise the roads hereafter lead to deeper and deeper interiors.
Cross Narnaul and head to Singhana (35km).Home of all Singhanias. See Singhania school, Singhania college etc.
Singhana is on the border of Haryana and Rajasthan.The moment you enter Rajasthan, bad and patchy roads start.Singhana to Chirawa (pronounced Chidawaa - 25km) is bad, patchy, like an old mattress.
Chirawa is a small town. We miss the main road and get inside the town by chance.Get our first glimpse of frescos painted on walls of old Hawelis.The sight is worth the detour inside the town. We find our way out to the main road by asking around.Friendly people. Show the direction with a wave of hand.
Head to Jhunjhunu (some 30km) - the largest town in the region.Local toll booth - Rajasthan State Govt. 20 rupees. God knowns for what. Roads are quite bad anyway.It's about dark by now (7:30pm). We like the town. Some budget hotels. Restaurants. Just like Dhausa in the earlier trip to Abhaneri, Bhandarej etc.Decide to come back from Mandawa if we don't like Mandawa (or find it very expensive).
Waddle our way through the tricky roads and circles in Jhunjhunu. A very large temple while still in the Jhunjhunu area - mostly Durga. Take right from the Lions circle. Seems like the Lions club is very active in this part.
Jhunjhunu to Mandawa (28km) is done in dark.Bad road - only one car can pass.There is a 'food chain' of vehicles. The one in the lower ranks of the ladder needs to get down on the gravel if confronted with a higher order vehicle.
Entry to Mandawa (pronounced mn-da-waa) is very pretty. Huge banyan trees. All fortified with round sitting places.School, College etc. Reach the chowk. 9:30pm. Total 250km from home.Take right for hotels. Small galleys to reach hotels. Hotel Shekhawati. Haweli. Lot of repair work going on. Cheap. Offered Rs. 400/- for a room.Hotel Heritage. A much better managed Haweli. Good rooms, airy, clean toilet.All for 600 bucks. We stay. All thanks to off season. The season rates are 1800 etc.
(There is also the Castle Mandawa, but is way beyond our league. A dinner for one person costs 660 bucks. Only recommended for those in the money).
Dinner is served in a terrace overlooking a road and some large empty plots across.Food takes about an hour, is simple but delicious. Veg soup, three veggies, daal, rice, rotis and gulab jamun.Had we reached earlier, they would have fed us with meat too. We are fed almost like Seth and Sethani, with a lot of courtesy and hospitality. Get one gulab jamun extra too.
Great Haweli, with large specious verhandahs, painted walls, some old frescos restored, some new. All sorts of subjects. Puranas, gods, ramayan, mahabharat, ordinary village scenes like women carrying water pots, man with a bear dancing and people watching. Most common is Radha-Krishna.
Sleep comes easy on the large, neatly made bed. Although it is quite hot, and in spite of the large windows being kept open for a while, the room is stuffy. It is not a hassle nevertheless for the tired and now-well-fed traveller.
Next day morning - wake up at 6:30am.It is already sunny. Summer is certainly not the time to visit this place.
We have black tea - the usual. While we are getting ready, I see an amazing site just across the road. The empty plot now has some activity - a peacock is dancing in full splendor and is calling to attrack hens. His feathers are constantly fluttering. First two, then two more hens arrive. One gets near the cock and 'inspects' him.The verdict does not seem in favor, so all four hens continue their journey to the next plot and start looking for worms.The peacock is literally crest-fallen.
We leave the national geographic episode, the very courteous care-takers of the haweli and the red-blue-green frescos, and start back. Need to reach home before noon.
Cross Jhunjhunu. Think of breakfast, but end up buying some munchies to save time. Reach Chirawa. Shows Chirawa by-pass. Strange to see boards for Delhi. Reach another toll-booth and realize that this road goes to Loharu - then Rohtak - then Delhi. We decide to retrace to the known devil. So waste some 16km, 15 rupees of unnecessary toll and return to Chirawa. Cross Chirawa, stop at a railway crossing. I buy some pedas from the supposedly famous shop just next to the crossing.
Reach Narnaul. Buy some drinking water. No eating place on the way. There is a Narula's Village Resort, but looks sad from outside. So we pass.The return journey is uneventful and slow, like every time. We reach Rewari, cross the strange town quickly and reach the limits of Gurgaon by noon.
Overall, a highly recommended short weekend get-away from Gurgaon / Delhi. The frescos in the Shekhawati region are worth the ride through the sandy patches, which is on the whole quite pleasant. Need more time though, to check out further towns from Mandawa, like Navalgarh, Mukundgarh etc.
-Cheers
Shreekant
Distance: 250km from Gurgaon
Route: Gurgaon - Jaipur Highway (N8) till Dharuheda - Right towards Rewari
Rewari to Narnaul - Singhana - Chidawa - Jhunjhunu - Mandawa
Leave Gurgaon 3:30pm.Gurgaon to Dharuheda via NH8. Take right after crossing Dharuheda towards Rewari. Cross through Rewari. Little town with weird architecture. Take right from Ambedkar chowk for Narnaul. Rewari - Narnaul about 60km. Good road.
Narnaul - a small sleepy hospital town. Well-connected.Just some km before Narnaul, a road goes to Behror (30km) in case you want to open to the highway.Otherwise the roads hereafter lead to deeper and deeper interiors.
Cross Narnaul and head to Singhana (35km).Home of all Singhanias. See Singhania school, Singhania college etc.
Singhana is on the border of Haryana and Rajasthan.The moment you enter Rajasthan, bad and patchy roads start.Singhana to Chirawa (pronounced Chidawaa - 25km) is bad, patchy, like an old mattress.
Chirawa is a small town. We miss the main road and get inside the town by chance.Get our first glimpse of frescos painted on walls of old Hawelis.The sight is worth the detour inside the town. We find our way out to the main road by asking around.Friendly people. Show the direction with a wave of hand.
Head to Jhunjhunu (some 30km) - the largest town in the region.Local toll booth - Rajasthan State Govt. 20 rupees. God knowns for what. Roads are quite bad anyway.It's about dark by now (7:30pm). We like the town. Some budget hotels. Restaurants. Just like Dhausa in the earlier trip to Abhaneri, Bhandarej etc.Decide to come back from Mandawa if we don't like Mandawa (or find it very expensive).
Waddle our way through the tricky roads and circles in Jhunjhunu. A very large temple while still in the Jhunjhunu area - mostly Durga. Take right from the Lions circle. Seems like the Lions club is very active in this part.
Jhunjhunu to Mandawa (28km) is done in dark.Bad road - only one car can pass.There is a 'food chain' of vehicles. The one in the lower ranks of the ladder needs to get down on the gravel if confronted with a higher order vehicle.
Entry to Mandawa (pronounced mn-da-waa) is very pretty. Huge banyan trees. All fortified with round sitting places.School, College etc. Reach the chowk. 9:30pm. Total 250km from home.Take right for hotels. Small galleys to reach hotels. Hotel Shekhawati. Haweli. Lot of repair work going on. Cheap. Offered Rs. 400/- for a room.Hotel Heritage. A much better managed Haweli. Good rooms, airy, clean toilet.All for 600 bucks. We stay. All thanks to off season. The season rates are 1800 etc.
(There is also the Castle Mandawa, but is way beyond our league. A dinner for one person costs 660 bucks. Only recommended for those in the money).
Dinner is served in a terrace overlooking a road and some large empty plots across.Food takes about an hour, is simple but delicious. Veg soup, three veggies, daal, rice, rotis and gulab jamun.Had we reached earlier, they would have fed us with meat too. We are fed almost like Seth and Sethani, with a lot of courtesy and hospitality. Get one gulab jamun extra too.
Great Haweli, with large specious verhandahs, painted walls, some old frescos restored, some new. All sorts of subjects. Puranas, gods, ramayan, mahabharat, ordinary village scenes like women carrying water pots, man with a bear dancing and people watching. Most common is Radha-Krishna.
Sleep comes easy on the large, neatly made bed. Although it is quite hot, and in spite of the large windows being kept open for a while, the room is stuffy. It is not a hassle nevertheless for the tired and now-well-fed traveller.
Next day morning - wake up at 6:30am.It is already sunny. Summer is certainly not the time to visit this place.
We have black tea - the usual. While we are getting ready, I see an amazing site just across the road. The empty plot now has some activity - a peacock is dancing in full splendor and is calling to attrack hens. His feathers are constantly fluttering. First two, then two more hens arrive. One gets near the cock and 'inspects' him.The verdict does not seem in favor, so all four hens continue their journey to the next plot and start looking for worms.The peacock is literally crest-fallen.
We leave the national geographic episode, the very courteous care-takers of the haweli and the red-blue-green frescos, and start back. Need to reach home before noon.
Cross Jhunjhunu. Think of breakfast, but end up buying some munchies to save time. Reach Chirawa. Shows Chirawa by-pass. Strange to see boards for Delhi. Reach another toll-booth and realize that this road goes to Loharu - then Rohtak - then Delhi. We decide to retrace to the known devil. So waste some 16km, 15 rupees of unnecessary toll and return to Chirawa. Cross Chirawa, stop at a railway crossing. I buy some pedas from the supposedly famous shop just next to the crossing.
Reach Narnaul. Buy some drinking water. No eating place on the way. There is a Narula's Village Resort, but looks sad from outside. So we pass.The return journey is uneventful and slow, like every time. We reach Rewari, cross the strange town quickly and reach the limits of Gurgaon by noon.
Overall, a highly recommended short weekend get-away from Gurgaon / Delhi. The frescos in the Shekhawati region are worth the ride through the sandy patches, which is on the whole quite pleasant. Need more time though, to check out further towns from Mandawa, like Navalgarh, Mukundgarh etc.
-Cheers
Shreekant
Comments
Narnaul being old historic town and it's history dates back to 3500BC (Vedic Period). There is much more than to escape the town from highway. Narnaul was financial capital of India during 16th century. We have beautiful extinct volcanic sites, Aravali mountain range, grand old monuments of Moughal era.This town is place of origination of Ayurveda, Chvanprash. Best above all this town is just 100 Km. from Gurgaon and almost no pollution and beautiful weather. Good place for weekend getaway for Delhi NCR people.
We at Village Resort trying to promote tourism in the area.Maybe every year 1 million European tourists and Indian pilgrims pass through our town without knowing about it? Unlike Rajasthan Government, Haryana Government is not actively promoting it's historical towns. We are trying to put town on international tourism map and have some German and French tourists visiting us.
Wish you find time to explore this area again and help us promoting tourism. Please get in touch if you want to explore more about area, history and Monuments.
Our website link : http://www.villageresortindia.com/