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This is a long post due, finally making its way to this blog.
Recently we had a long weekend in which we planned for a family outing by road trip . But as its monsoon so were pretty confused in finalizing the place. Nainital was in our hot and favorite list, but due to rain and landslides we dropped it. As we were driving so thought of skipping hilly areas and after reading lot of reviews on the internet we opted for Alwar Rajasthan which is 165 kms from Delhi.
Day1:
Started around 10 am from home towards Alwar following google maps on the road. The journey was good as the road we took is national highway. Within 3 hours we reached our destination.
This was kidos first road trip with us. Earlier we went to Amritsar but at that time she was just 4 months and that too her grandparents accompanied us. But this time she is 1 year and 10 months grown up kid and she has her own tantrums now. We were apprehensive about this trip with her as we were not sure how she will travel or how comfortable she will feel. Proving all our worries wrong she enjoyed the journey. During the start of the journey she sat with me on the front seat , and after half an hour she moved to the back seat where we arranged her comfortable bedding. She slept there, ate there. All time the music has to be on in the car else she will ask to put it on. Finally we reached our Alwar, and straight went o Silisirh Lake which is about 15 km, but the road is not that great as it reaches out through villages to the lake. The famous Lake Palace had full bookings for that day which brought our joy down. Actually we asked a Travel agent to book for us, and he said its off season so no need of advance booking. Crap...Nothing can be done now, so we decided to view the Silisirh Lake and take boating.
1.) Silisirh Lake (courtesy :http://siliserhlake.com/)
Siliserh Lake is situated in north eastern part of Rajasthan. Lake was built by maharaja Vinay Singh in year 1845 ,The Lake and reservoir of Siliserh was created by Maharaja for people of Alwar,because water can be channeled to Alwar city. A beautiful Lake palace was also built by Maharaja for his beloved wife Shila, It was used as Lake palace and hunting lodge.
Siliserh Lake is situated just 13 Kms from Alwar city and also can be used as stop over before you move on Sariska Tiger Reserve / Sariska National Park. Siliserh Lake Palace provides option for stay with a breath taking view of 10.5 Kms lake, Beautiful back drops of Aravali hills adds it beauty.
The weather of Alwar was partly cloudy and humid. No rain at all. At the entrance gate of the Silisirh Lake Palace, visitors need to buy ticket which costs 50 rs per person. Then the boating has its own charges. We chose motorboat which was charged 800 rs per person.
The view of the Lake and the Aravali hills is amazing. Though it was hot and humid but the mountains and water offered a great relief and pleasure to eyes.
After clicking some snaps, we proceeded downwards through the stairs to the boating point. In the motor boat only our family was seated. So it was great and comfortable. The moment we reached near to lake, we could feel the soothing cool breeze. The boating in the lake was a great experience with viewing the awesome Aravalli Hills and the beautiful lake. In between the lake there is an island of the ancient times itself. The boats do not take people on that island. The lake is so deep that in the so hot Rajasthan also, the water never dries up. This lake has crocodiles in it, so people are warned not to swim or put eatables in the water. This could be a reason that the lake is so clean.
The Lake Palace overs a great view from its premises. There is a cafeteria also in the Lake Palace which is open for visitors. I am unaware about the amenities,ambience, staying experience of Lake Palace as we missed our opportunity to book it in advance, all thanks to mr. travel agent :(
After the sight seeing and boating at the Lake we decided to head towards hotel in the city. While we were starting our car towards Alwar city, i put on the GPS and Google maps. Bang....No Network coverage. We started on the road and finally reached at a point where network come alive. GPS started working and Google maps landed us to our hotel "Hotel Hive, Alwar".
Now we were thankful that we didn't get booking at the Lake City Palace ;)
Near to Silisirh Lake is Jaisamand Lake, but as informed by the locals it is all dried up.So we dropped our plan to visit it, as it will again need a drive of around 15 km
Now, posting some pics of Silisirh Lake....Scenic beauty of the Lake..like an oasis in the desert :)
After the lake visit, we checked into our hotel 'Hotel Hive' (http://hivehotels.co.in/alwar/). It is situated in Malviya Nagar, Alwar. Its on the Pratapgarh-Burja-Tiraha Road, which was smartly guided by google maps. Its really a very good hotel, and since it was an off season for Alwar visit, we got pretty good discounts on the room tariffs. The facilities included free wi-fi, buffet, swimming pool along with other standard provided facilities.
2.) After taking a quick refresh, we set out to our next visiting point "Mooti Doongri". Dont have too much information about this place on the internet also, but still got some.
"Built in 1882, Moti Doongri was the main residence of the Alwar royals till 1928, when Jai Singh decided to raze the palace and build a more magnificent one in its place. However, the ship carrying materials from Europe sank, and with it ended the grand project".
There was no guide available for this place, so couldn't collect much information. But got a basic idea that it has 3 floors( can be imagined like a spiral) . On every floor there is a maintained garden. There are stairs to reach to other gardens below this top one. On the top garden, there is a Hanuman temple , and also a mazar. Both are in the same premise.The beautiful Aravalli hills offer a great scenery and one can see the grand view of Alwar city from the top.FYI, some of the parts of this fort are damaged.
Posting some of the pics here.
3.)Company Bagh
After Mooti Dongri we headed towards Company Bagh, Alwar.
This garden has a prominent structure which is called Shimla House famous for its large vault shape. It was built by Maharaja Mangal Singh in 1885 A.D. to serve as a summer house.
By the time we reached there, it was already 5:30 pm. So unfortunately this shimla house was closed. Other than this structure, there was nothing special about this company bagh. In some parts, families were on outing with kids playing, and in some other parts the old people were gambling on the path itself. Some where the young couples were roaming around and at some other parts, smoking was going on. Overall it was a bad experience, though regret missing Shimla house.
4.) Musi Maharani Ki Chhatri/Bala Quilla
After Company Bagh we decided to head towards Musi Maharani ki Chatri and Bala Quilla. As this quilla was closed due to timings, we moved towards Chhatri.
This Chhatri is a magnificent piece of architecture. Most part of it is occupied by the government for official Courtrooms.
Information shared here is taken from http://www.alwarcity.com/hot%20spots/Moosi%20Maharani%20Chhatri.php
History:-
Outside the city palace in Alwar there nestles an ornamental impressive Moosi Maharani ki Chhatri (cenotaph) built by Vinay Singh in 1804 A.D. It was built in the memory of Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh and his queen, Rani Moosi, who committed sati (self immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre).
Description:-
This double-storeyed cenotaph stands on a platform of pillared red sandstone. The upper storey is in marble and has some splendid arches and unusually rounded roofs. The interiors have some great carvings, though most of the frescoes on the ceilings are not visible any more. And if you're lucky, you'll get a real visual treat – that of hundreds of peacocks and other colourful birds flapping around the place. Against the backdrop of the Aravallis, the entire complex looks grand.
Near the Chhatri's is a huge water kund (SAGAR). It was created in 1815 by Vinay Singh and is lined with steps on three sides like a baoli (stepwell). The desert kingdom of Rajasthan has many such tanks which served as community centres, and constructing them was considered an act of great generosity and benevolence. On the bank of the kund are several temples.
The rocks behind the chhatri are awesome, all in red along with a beautiful white marble rock studded like a gem in the huge hill.Posting the pic for reference.It really looked amazing.
But this Chhatri and Sagar lake are facing the negligence of govt and people.On all the stairs we found monkey shit. Strange but at many places inside the chhatri people use to pee, by mistake we landed to other side and came across this pityful condition of this marvellous architecture. Similarly the Sagar lake is all so dirty with lots of plastic bottles, and polythenes floating on its surface. Inspite of all this, this place is a must visit in Alwar
Posting the picture of SAGAR lake .
Posting some of our clicked pictures of splendid architecture of Musi Maharani Ki Chhatri.
After this we were so tired that finally landed in the hotel room. Advice to the people planning to visit Alwar is, there is not much to see inside the Alwar City. Maximum visiting points are located outside the city within 30 kms. So make sure you have a driver ready to let you drive in to the places, and also note down the open and close timings. Apart from this visit while the monsoon is in full swing or if its winter, else summer is going to spoil your vacation. We were lucky to have a good weather but humidity took a toll on us. Thus, we concluded our Alwar trip on the day 1 itself and headed towards Jaipur on Day2.
The details of Jaipur trip will be available in next post. Stay tuned ;)
PS: With this post I completed half century on this blog... :)
Recently we had a long weekend in which we planned for a family outing by road trip . But as its monsoon so were pretty confused in finalizing the place. Nainital was in our hot and favorite list, but due to rain and landslides we dropped it. As we were driving so thought of skipping hilly areas and after reading lot of reviews on the internet we opted for Alwar Rajasthan which is 165 kms from Delhi.
Day1:
Started around 10 am from home towards Alwar following google maps on the road. The journey was good as the road we took is national highway. Within 3 hours we reached our destination.
This was kidos first road trip with us. Earlier we went to Amritsar but at that time she was just 4 months and that too her grandparents accompanied us. But this time she is 1 year and 10 months grown up kid and she has her own tantrums now. We were apprehensive about this trip with her as we were not sure how she will travel or how comfortable she will feel. Proving all our worries wrong she enjoyed the journey. During the start of the journey she sat with me on the front seat , and after half an hour she moved to the back seat where we arranged her comfortable bedding. She slept there, ate there. All time the music has to be on in the car else she will ask to put it on. Finally we reached our Alwar, and straight went o Silisirh Lake which is about 15 km, but the road is not that great as it reaches out through villages to the lake. The famous Lake Palace had full bookings for that day which brought our joy down. Actually we asked a Travel agent to book for us, and he said its off season so no need of advance booking. Crap...Nothing can be done now, so we decided to view the Silisirh Lake and take boating.
1.) Silisirh Lake (courtesy :http://siliserhlake.com/)
Siliserh Lake is situated in north eastern part of Rajasthan. Lake was built by maharaja Vinay Singh in year 1845 ,The Lake and reservoir of Siliserh was created by Maharaja for people of Alwar,because water can be channeled to Alwar city. A beautiful Lake palace was also built by Maharaja for his beloved wife Shila, It was used as Lake palace and hunting lodge.
Siliserh Lake is situated just 13 Kms from Alwar city and also can be used as stop over before you move on Sariska Tiger Reserve / Sariska National Park. Siliserh Lake Palace provides option for stay with a breath taking view of 10.5 Kms lake, Beautiful back drops of Aravali hills adds it beauty.
The weather of Alwar was partly cloudy and humid. No rain at all. At the entrance gate of the Silisirh Lake Palace, visitors need to buy ticket which costs 50 rs per person. Then the boating has its own charges. We chose motorboat which was charged 800 rs per person.
The view of the Lake and the Aravali hills is amazing. Though it was hot and humid but the mountains and water offered a great relief and pleasure to eyes.
After clicking some snaps, we proceeded downwards through the stairs to the boating point. In the motor boat only our family was seated. So it was great and comfortable. The moment we reached near to lake, we could feel the soothing cool breeze. The boating in the lake was a great experience with viewing the awesome Aravalli Hills and the beautiful lake. In between the lake there is an island of the ancient times itself. The boats do not take people on that island. The lake is so deep that in the so hot Rajasthan also, the water never dries up. This lake has crocodiles in it, so people are warned not to swim or put eatables in the water. This could be a reason that the lake is so clean.
The Lake Palace overs a great view from its premises. There is a cafeteria also in the Lake Palace which is open for visitors. I am unaware about the amenities,ambience, staying experience of Lake Palace as we missed our opportunity to book it in advance, all thanks to mr. travel agent :(
After the sight seeing and boating at the Lake we decided to head towards hotel in the city. While we were starting our car towards Alwar city, i put on the GPS and Google maps. Bang....No Network coverage. We started on the road and finally reached at a point where network come alive. GPS started working and Google maps landed us to our hotel "Hotel Hive, Alwar".
Now we were thankful that we didn't get booking at the Lake City Palace ;)
Near to Silisirh Lake is Jaisamand Lake, but as informed by the locals it is all dried up.So we dropped our plan to visit it, as it will again need a drive of around 15 km
Now, posting some pics of Silisirh Lake....Scenic beauty of the Lake..like an oasis in the desert :)
 |
| View of the Lake |
 |
| Motor Boat in the Lake |
 |
| The island in the center of the lake |
 |
| Serenity of Aravali Hills |
After the lake visit, we checked into our hotel 'Hotel Hive' (http://hivehotels.co.in/alwar/). It is situated in Malviya Nagar, Alwar. Its on the Pratapgarh-Burja-Tiraha Road, which was smartly guided by google maps. Its really a very good hotel, and since it was an off season for Alwar visit, we got pretty good discounts on the room tariffs. The facilities included free wi-fi, buffet, swimming pool along with other standard provided facilities.
2.) After taking a quick refresh, we set out to our next visiting point "Mooti Doongri". Dont have too much information about this place on the internet also, but still got some.
"Built in 1882, Moti Doongri was the main residence of the Alwar royals till 1928, when Jai Singh decided to raze the palace and build a more magnificent one in its place. However, the ship carrying materials from Europe sank, and with it ended the grand project".
There was no guide available for this place, so couldn't collect much information. But got a basic idea that it has 3 floors( can be imagined like a spiral) . On every floor there is a maintained garden. There are stairs to reach to other gardens below this top one. On the top garden, there is a Hanuman temple , and also a mazar. Both are in the same premise.The beautiful Aravalli hills offer a great scenery and one can see the grand view of Alwar city from the top.FYI, some of the parts of this fort are damaged.
Posting some of the pics here.
 |
| Some structures made on the surface with coloured grit |
 |
| View from Mooti Doongri |
 |
| In the center stood this huge pole |
 |
| way towards Moti Doongri |
 |
| Damaged wall of Mooti Dongri |
3.)Company Bagh
After Mooti Dongri we headed towards Company Bagh, Alwar.
This garden has a prominent structure which is called Shimla House famous for its large vault shape. It was built by Maharaja Mangal Singh in 1885 A.D. to serve as a summer house.
By the time we reached there, it was already 5:30 pm. So unfortunately this shimla house was closed. Other than this structure, there was nothing special about this company bagh. In some parts, families were on outing with kids playing, and in some other parts the old people were gambling on the path itself. Some where the young couples were roaming around and at some other parts, smoking was going on. Overall it was a bad experience, though regret missing Shimla house.
 |
| Company Bagh |
 |
| Shimla House |
After Company Bagh we decided to head towards Musi Maharani ki Chatri and Bala Quilla. As this quilla was closed due to timings, we moved towards Chhatri.
This Chhatri is a magnificent piece of architecture. Most part of it is occupied by the government for official Courtrooms.
Information shared here is taken from http://www.alwarcity.com/hot%20spots/Moosi%20Maharani%20Chhatri.php
History:-
Outside the city palace in Alwar there nestles an ornamental impressive Moosi Maharani ki Chhatri (cenotaph) built by Vinay Singh in 1804 A.D. It was built in the memory of Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh and his queen, Rani Moosi, who committed sati (self immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre).
Description:-
This double-storeyed cenotaph stands on a platform of pillared red sandstone. The upper storey is in marble and has some splendid arches and unusually rounded roofs. The interiors have some great carvings, though most of the frescoes on the ceilings are not visible any more. And if you're lucky, you'll get a real visual treat – that of hundreds of peacocks and other colourful birds flapping around the place. Against the backdrop of the Aravallis, the entire complex looks grand.
Near the Chhatri's is a huge water kund (SAGAR). It was created in 1815 by Vinay Singh and is lined with steps on three sides like a baoli (stepwell). The desert kingdom of Rajasthan has many such tanks which served as community centres, and constructing them was considered an act of great generosity and benevolence. On the bank of the kund are several temples.
The rocks behind the chhatri are awesome, all in red along with a beautiful white marble rock studded like a gem in the huge hill.Posting the pic for reference.It really looked amazing.
But this Chhatri and Sagar lake are facing the negligence of govt and people.On all the stairs we found monkey shit. Strange but at many places inside the chhatri people use to pee, by mistake we landed to other side and came across this pityful condition of this marvellous architecture. Similarly the Sagar lake is all so dirty with lots of plastic bottles, and polythenes floating on its surface. Inspite of all this, this place is a must visit in Alwar
Posting the picture of SAGAR lake .
Posting some of our clicked pictures of splendid architecture of Musi Maharani Ki Chhatri.
After this we were so tired that finally landed in the hotel room. Advice to the people planning to visit Alwar is, there is not much to see inside the Alwar City. Maximum visiting points are located outside the city within 30 kms. So make sure you have a driver ready to let you drive in to the places, and also note down the open and close timings. Apart from this visit while the monsoon is in full swing or if its winter, else summer is going to spoil your vacation. We were lucky to have a good weather but humidity took a toll on us. Thus, we concluded our Alwar trip on the day 1 itself and headed towards Jaipur on Day2.
The details of Jaipur trip will be available in next post. Stay tuned ;)
PS: With this post I completed half century on this blog... :)
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