Lessons from Mumbai...

I went Mumbai twice, and my both experience was all together very different from each other. When I visited this place first, I was alone, and it was an official tour just for a day. My next trip to Mumbai was after two years i.e. of 3 days with my friend Mr. Bheru to attain a wedding party. In this article I’ll share my first Mumbai experience along with the lessons I learned.

I catch my flight from Jaipur at 0755hrs (this was my first flight experience). I was excited and also a bit nervous. But trust me, there is nothing to fear, flights are made to reduce your travel time and if you are seated beside window, you can view the real creation of God i.e. nature, landscapes including human made structures. I experienced both very nicely.

Mumbai domestic airport is very large; my flight landed the airport at 9am. When I came out of the port, I saw there were several taxies standing on the stand and passengers were hiring them one by one. You can either hire a pre-paid taxi or you can bargain with them. My suggestion is that if you are good bargainer or know the place well, then you should, else you must opt for a pre-paid taxi. Since I was in hurry & also getting late, I just get into one of the taxi without any discussion and ask the driver to take me to Prabhadevi. He changed the gear and my Mumbai ride begins in a typical yellow and black taxi. I was happy.

My first lesson – Never get in any Mumbai taxi without deciding the fair & destination. The driver was new, young and less experienced and more over, I also told him that I was in hurry. At this moment my taxi was already crossed the airport area and we were on the main road encountering huge traffic. At this moment I ask him the fair, he said, “it will be Rs. 350/-“. I reacted, “What??? Rs. 350/-“, I never expected this much but since I was in the middle of the street & in hurry, I was having no options. My taxi got stuck several times in traffic jams particularly on red-lights. I was expecting that I will reach my office maximum in half hour, but it took me one hour to reach my office.

My second lesson – Keep change currency in your wallet if you’re in Mumbai. I reach at 1015hrs. I get off from the taxi and handed Rs. 500/- note to the driver, he said that he don’t have any change. I was at Head office of ICICI Prudential Life Ins. Co Ltd. It was located at Prabhadevi’s main street but unfortunately there were no shops nearby so that I can change my Rs.500/- note. I ask the driver to wait outside. I entered my office & told the reception person that I need change of Rs. 500/- note as I have to pay the fair to taxi driver. She said “Sorry, I don’t have any change” then I try with few more persons I can see at the reception area, but my bad luck was very good on that day, no change. Then I came out of the office and ask the driver if he can arrange the change by himself. He said “I cannot, do whatever you can, but do it fast as I am getting late”. Finally, after trying with few more persons, a gentleman gave me the change I required. I handed over the fair to the driver and set both of us free.

I entered my training room at 1030hrs, and I was late. It was a good experience for me, meeting all the persons who came from all the part of the country. In the lunch break I shared my morning incident with my training manager and he said “it only take 30mins from the airport and the taxi fair should not be more then Rs. 150/-.

My third lesson – never enter into any city without confirmation of your shelter for night, particularly if you are in metro city like Mumbai. My training ended at around 1730hrs. Since I was not the only one from outside to attend the training, I was in this impression that there must be some stay arrangements for the outsiders. But I was wrong, all those trainees who came from outside had already arranged their stay for the night in advance. So, after my training ended, I told my trainer that my flight is at 4am next morning and requested him if he can do something for my night stay. My tension second chapter begins from here.

My trainer took me with him to his office which was just a stone throw distance way from this office. On my way I met Mr. Madan Nayak, (Head of DOPS dept., I was working in this dept.) enjoying Wada-Paao with few other trainees. He also offered me but since I was with my trainer and also in great tension – “How I’ll going to spend my whole night in this giant city” I gracefully said no to him and move ahead.

In his office, he contacted the office administration department for room booking, they said that they will try but cannot confirm whether they can arrange any room for me in this short period of time. I said to myself “in this is huge Mumbai city, where people live in a big villa and even sleep on the footpath & streets, there must a bed for me where I can take rest.” I was very tense, tired, and hungry. After trying several admin persons at different branches, I finally got a room at Eureka Apartments which was located at East Andhari. I felt glad and thanks to god and also to my training manager. But my happiness was vanished when he told me that East Andhari is located at another corner of the city. I was assuming that soon I will get in my room and after dinner I’ll take rest and if time allow, will roam in the city, but as I said earlier, my bad luck was working perfectly with no escape, I was again trapped. Post that, he also assisted me to catch my taxi, this time I confirmed each and every thing before even getting into the taxi.

My fourth lesson – Whenever you book a hotel/lounge room, don’t forget to note the contact person name and his contact number. This time my taxi driver was very experienced and he was running his taxi from last seven years. He applied several shortcuts to shorter the time and also told me several do’s & don’ts like – do not talk much to strangers in hotel; do not disclose everything about yourself. After one & half hour I reached Eureka Apartments. He left me outside the main gate and charge only Rs. 250/-. It was close to dark in evening & I was fully exhausted & hungry.

But real drama was waiting for me. Since I was tense to find a shelter in order to stay in night I forgot to take any contact number of the lounge person, I was only having the address. Let me explain why I needed a contact number even I was having the address. There were three groups of apartment buildings in front of me with ten building each and my bonus for the day was, they all look alike. I start laughing and said to myself “Why I came to Mumbai yaar..???” In very hesitation manner, I called my training manager requesting for the number of the caretaker of the lounge, he was not having the number; it took him another 15-20 min to arrange the number. In between I also try to ask few people about the address but nobody was sure. Then I got the number and I call him and said there is a room booked for me in your lounge, thank god he said “yes sir, it is” then I told him that I am standing in the campus of Eureka Apartments and I am unable to find in which building the lounge is. He explained me the apartment number and finally I get in my room at 2030hrs. My room was on 2^nd floor, it was a two room set along with kitchen and dining hall. I was very happy that the whole bed belongs to me. The person told me that dinner is ready and ask me to come at 3^rd floor to take it. Meal was not so good and also in less quantity as it was already 10pm. I was not having any options and I also don’t have enough courage to go outside and search any good restaurant. After that I went down stares for a small walk. In the parking area, few children were playing football, screaming and enjoying. After a while I contacted the caretaker and told him that I need a taxi at 3am in morning for airport and luckily he arranged it for me at Rs. 300/-. When I came back at my room I saw three more persons in my room and when I talk to them I came to know that they are also here for training purpose and belongs to different locations and I have to share my bed with one of them. At 2230 hrs I went to sleep, but unable to do so as rest of the persons were watching TV. I set the alarm and somehow I slept.

My fifth and final lesson at Mumbai – if you have made some changes in your flight schedule, do not forget to reconfirm it before boarding to airport. My flight booking was done from Mumbai head office. But, I had made some changes in my return ticket; earlier it was on the same day in evening at 1815hrs and later I shifted it to next day at 0545hrs through call center. I arrived at my flight counter to take my boarding pass and I handed over my ticket to the attendant. At this moment I was very much relaxed and happy that finally I will be going back to my city. But the climax was yet to be written. The counter person said to me “Mr. Nirmal, there is no booking against your name”, after hearing this, whole earth slipped from my feet. It was like taking ten thousand volt electric shock on my body. I took a deep breath, and told the counter person that I have made some changes in my flight schedule through call center please recheck it. Then she said “yes there is a booking but you have to pay extra charge it”. At this time I was not having much money with me, I ask, “how much I have to pay”, she said “Rs. 150/-. Thankfully I was having that much amount with me, and finally I got my boarding pass to Jaipur. I reached Jaipur at 0645hrs. At that moment I was the happiest person in the world and I thanked to god for this.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this strange and funny travel experience. Trust me I’ll never going to forget it as it was also a great learning for me and I hope you too also take care of such small but important things in your life while traveling.




A WORD OF MUMBAI:

Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city, earlier known as Bombay. It is one of the largest cities in India and also capital city of Maharashtra state. Estimated population is around 141 million, making one of the world’s most populate city. Mumbai is also famous for its glamour’s world of Bollywood, and said to be city of dreams. Every year several people with dreams in their eyes came to Mumbai, hoping to get a chance to work in Bollywood films but very few of them get succeeded and they also have to pay a lot of hard work and luck. You will find very liberal atmosphere here, as it’s a mixture of enormous cultures and religions. This happened due to migration of different people from different places from entire India. Ganesh Chaturthi (lord Ganesh Birth Anniversary) Festival which held every year in the month of Aug/Sept is very famous. The best time to visit this place is between Novembers to February.

GETTING TO MUMBAI

Mumbai is a huge city; it is very well connected with all the major cities in India as well as international cities.

By TRAIN:

There are three main railway stations in Mumbai - Chattrapati Shivaji (Victoria Terminus-VT), Dadar and Kurla Terminus. There are regular train facilities from several major cities like Bangalore, New Delhi, Ahemdabad, Jaipur, Goa, Kolkatta, Varanasi, Pune and Chennai.

By FLIGHT:

Mumbai has superb connectivity with most of the major cities in India as well as International cities like New York, London, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. There are several options for domestic flights which connects all the major cities in the country. Airport is around 28 kms from downtown.

By BUS & TAXI:

Mumbai provide links to all parts of the country by road. Both private & Govt. bus services are comfortable including private taxies. Asiad Bus Terminal located at Ambedkar Road in Dadar (East) is hub bus station to catch bus for several cities in India, another major bus station is ST, of Maharashtra Govt. i.e. MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation) located at Dadar, and tourist can catch their respective buses to visit various cities in Maharashtra state.

For local travelling, one can hire Black & Yellow top Taxies, which is easily available in whole Mumbai city. Apart from this Mumbai has its own local trains and also local bus service i.e. Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (known as BEST).

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Big cites has its own challenges so as Mumbai, it is a bit difficult to find stables stay in this city as there are ample of options but tariff rates are very confusing. Even a small hotel charges are quite high due to lack of space. So, suggestion to all tourists is to please have an advance booking and be open for price negotiation.

Few decent Tourist guest houses are located at Colaba, Dadar, Santa Cruz, Bombay Central, Andheri West, but please do check the room status before check-in in these hotels as Mumbai is full of fraud peoples. If there is no money barrier then one can easily stay at Hotel Taj at Colaba or Leela Kempinski, ITC Grand Maratha, JW Marriott and many more. Please take help of tours sites for entire list of hotels available in Mumbai.

MUST SEE:

There are ample of places in Mumbai to visit for tourist like - Marine Drive, Prithive Theater and Gateway of India etc.

Historical building like - Fort St. George at South Mumbai, Chhatarpati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus) building, Municipal Corporation & Police Headquarters building are few excellent examples of colonial architecture and Famous Taj Mahal Hotel & Gateway of India.

Museum - Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sanghralaya (Museum), National Gallery of Modern Art, Jehangir Art Gallery and Nehru Science Center.

Beach – Girgaon Chowpati in South Mumbai, Juhu Beach in western and Aksa Beach at Malad.

Nature walks – Borivali National Park (Sanjay Gandhi National Park), Kanheri Caves, City Zoo i.e. Veermata Jijabai Udyan at Byculla, Hanganing Garden at Malabar Hill, Kamla Nehru Park Trust Garden, Golabal Vipassana Pagoda at Gora.

Religious Places – Mahalakshmi temple, Banganga Temple, Siddhi Vinayak Temple, Afghan Church, Mahim Church and Haji Ali.

Bazaar – Chor Bazaar at Near Grant Rd Station (east side of station), Fashion Street from Church gate till Flora Fountain, Colaba Causeway near Gateway of India, Zaveri Bazaar (Jewelry Shops), Mangaldas Cloth Market, Bhuleshwar Fruit & Vegetables market and Dadar (W) flower market.

EAT:

Mumbai is very famous for its street food and local fast foods. So, here are some good places to eat..eat and eat…

Few good Restaurants – Apurvas at Homiman circle famous for its Sea food, Peshawari at Andheri (Maratha Sheraton) famous for Indian cuisine, India Jones (Hilton Tower), Mainland China (Saki-Naka), China White (Bandra) are famous for Chinese foods, Chili’s at Central Avenue Road (Powai), Oh! Calcutta at Tardeo, Preetam’s Dhaba at Dadar (E), Poush at Andheri, Casa Soul Fry opp. Bombay University, Chetana at Kala Ghoda.

Famous street food like Pav Bhaji, Vada Pav, Bhelpuri, Panipuri etc. can be tasted at – Vitthal’s Restaurant opp. Sterling Cinema and Vithal Bhelwalla at VT Station and also at Juhu Chowapati.

Sifar se Safar tak...Pushkar (Part-2)

The Holy City : Pushkar

It was 10pm, and all the shops were closed, there were very few people we can see on the street and very soon they also disappeared. It was very scary feeling for both of us in this strange place, as we were very far from our hotel and also very hungry. Shivering due to cold, shaking legs, still managing to walk and desperately seeking for food. Luckily we find a small sweet shop opened, we ate Khova Mal-Puha there, a very famous sweet dish of Pushkar, along with hot milk. After that the shopkeeper dropped us to hotel on his bike. I still remember this experience as it is.

Yes, this is Pushkar…in morning, you will discover a unique atmosphere of divine and spiritualism which add peace to your soul, in noon you may get trapped in the middle of a temple passage where you can’t even move your legs to walk due to huge crowed, in evening you don’t want to leave the streets of market in which you will find ample of beautiful stuffs to buy for yourself and for your dear ones, and in night you just want hang in your room because there is nothing to do outside.

So, after exploring Ajmer, next day we decided to visit Pushkar. It’s just a half an hour journey from Ajmer. You can hire you own personal taxi, there is a very good economical bus service also available from main bus stand Ajmer and if you have your own vehicle then what to say…you are lucky as you will hardly get any seat in the bus to be seated and the taxi charge is very high.

Bharma Temple

Pushkar is half surrounded by hills and it is a very small, quiet and beautiful town with its own dignity of spirituality, just like Varanasi, Haridwar, Kedarnath and other holy cities. Pushkar is famous for Bharmha Temple, the only temple on the earth dedicated to Guru Bharmaji. It’s also famous for a unique “Pashu Mella” (Dairy Farming Animal Fair), which held once every year in the month of November, where people came to buy and sell their animals like - Camel, Cow, Buffalo, Horse, Goat and other such animals. And there is a very beautiful lake situated in the middle of Pushkar town, surrounded with several Temples and Ghats. Local people say that there are one thousand temples situated in the city. It’s hard to believe in this small town, but it’s a fact.

We reached in morning and checked in our Hotel. Our hotel was located outside the city. After taking our breakfast we headed towards Bharma Temple. The temple building is very old, around more than 100 years old. The campus of the temple is quite big but the main temple is small. From outside, it is blue in color and the dome is of red color. It was very great experience to our souls after visiting Bharmaji temple. Post this we went to see Pushkar Lake. Believe me; I have never seen such a beautiful lake in my life. The lake situated in Ajmer is also beautiful but every lake has its own unique features, so as Pushkar Lake. This lake is small and you can see every corner for the lake from any place you stand. There are several temples attached to the lake side and also there is a temple in the middle of the lake. We both decided to visit lake side in late evening and also in early morning to experience it more spiritually & quietly because at that time, there were several people doing holy rituals, worshiping and taking holy bath, so we thought it was not the right time to see it.

Pushkar market is full of fancy, antique, and many unique items you will never find anywhere else in India. There is something for everyone in this market, whether it is a Silk Kurta, a Show Piece item, a traditional look hand bag or outfit for ladies, a woolen pullover, Spiritual books, and especially items for Pooja, you will find everything in this market. Post exploring the market and some shopping we headed for our hotel. On the way we find a person holding a musical instrument called “Ravan Hatta”, it a one string instrument which was sounding like a symphony to our ears. He was also singing a folk song…Kesariya..balama, padharo mare desh re..(Welcome to my land) Wow, it just beautiful. Listing a folk song electronically (stereo or mp3) is altogether different experience listing live…It was just amazing. We stopped there to listen to him. I closed my eyes and I find myself in the middle of a desert. It was a great feeling and all our tiredness went away after listing to him.

Morning view of Pushkar Lake

Next morning, we both wakeup very early. We wanted to first visit the Bharma Temple and then the Lake. Our hotel boy suggested us to take a shortcut road from backside of the hotel. Since our hotel was outside the city there were no transportation options for us that early morning, only walking. But, it was nice to take a small walk with your good friend in between the green fields of a small village. Sun was not yet raised, it was behind the mountains. It took us 20 min. to reach the temple, the campus was almost empty and once again our soul felt very peaceful.

Later we went to see the lake side. The sun was now raised completely. Due to the sunlight reflection on lake, the water was shining like golden color. We both seated on the bank of the lake for an hour. We didn’t talk much with each other. Due to that silence atmosphere we clearly able to hear our heat beats, the sound of water waves, temple bells, birds hum. It was awesome feeling which I cannot express in words. Humble breeze touching our faces, beautiful aroma was spread in the ambiance on lake side. Every little thing was very beautiful and very spiritual. It was one of the best moments of our life.

The Golden Color of Lake in evening

Now I understood why every year several tourists visit this place and want to visit again and again. It’s very different from any other holy places in India. It’s not big city and not even much crowded. Pushkar is also a very good destination for photographers, so if you are fond of photography, do bring your camera with yourself, else you will surly miss it very badly as I did.




ABOUT PUSHKAR:

Pushkar is a holy town situated in Ajmer district in Rajasthan state. It is famous for its Bharama Temple, Lake, Ghats and Bazaar. The word 'Pushkar' means lotus flower, which is said to be the seat of Brahma. On kartik purnima (full moon), people use to visit this place to take holy bath in the Lake and also there is a very famous Cattle fair is organized at same time i.e. in the month of November every year.

GETTING TO PUSHKAR

BY TRAIN:  Regular trains are available from Jaipur & Delhi till Ajmer. There is no direct train to Pushkar.

BY BUS & TAXI: Frequent Buses are available from Ajmer main bus stand which take only 30 min. and very economy. Taxi is also a good option.

BY FLIGHT: There is no airport situated in Pushkar nor in Ajmer. Nearest Airport is located in Jaipur.

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Just like temples, you will find plenty of Hotels & Resorts in Pushkar like – Govt. owned two RTDC hotels, Pushkar plalce, Hotel Sunset, Green Park Resort, Aroma Hotel and many more.

MUST SEE:

Bharmha Temple, Rangji, Chamunda, Pap Mochini, Panchkund Shiva temples and Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Ghats and many more.

Savitri temple - It is located on top of a hill near the lake and is dedicated to the goddess savitri, wife of Hindu god Brahma. It is must see, just one hour climb but the view of the Lake & Pushkar is mesmerizing.

EAT: There are ample of good restaurants & dhabha’s in Pushkar with variety of good food available to burn your hunger like – Sunset point, Pushkar restaurant (near Bharmha temple), out of the blue etc.. Please don’t forget to taste the Mal-Puha…its really yummy. 

Sifar se Safar tak...Ajmer (Part-1)

I was standing in the middle of a very narrow street, part of a very crowded market, little exhausted and equally anxious and my body begging me for a quick energy bite, so I just bought one of the sweetest “Dates” available in this part of India, welcome to Ajmer land of Divine “Darga” and Puskar best of the both world.

Ajmer is not far from Jaipur, it’s just 2 & half hours journey and there are plenty of places where one can roam like Annasagar Lake, Dargha, Saibaba temple and of course the local markets and many more such places. I left Jaipur at 9am from bus to Ajmer. I was going to meet one of my close friend Ajay, who invited me to spend a weekend at Ajmer. It was cold winter morning of January 2009.

I reach Ajmer at 11:45hrs. Bus journey was quiet & relaxed, thanks to the good roads. At first time when I enter the city I find it very quiet & peaceful including the streets, means less traffic & people. My bus stopped at the main govt. bus stand which is located at Kachari road and luckily I got my taxi easily. Both options are available to hire a taxi, i.e. shared and personalized to reach your destination. Within five minutes I reached my friend’s office. We decided to have some food first and then we will go to see Dargha, one of the most visited holy places in the country, where people use to come from all around the world and of all the religion. We hired an auto taxi; it took only ten minutes drive from Kachari Road. Since the taxi is not allowed near the Dargah campus, he left us around half km before the it. The streets near Dargha are very narrow and badly crowded, and also there was lots of baggers who actually take your life unless you won’t give them some money, so my suggestion to all visitors is to keep few good number of coins if you want to give them else just keep on walking and try to ignore them as much as you can. Also do take care of your valuable items like wallet, purse etc. The campus of “Garab Nawaz Dargha” is very big in itself. There are several shops inside the Dargha campus selling Chadar, Caps, Fresh flowers and other items required at the time of performing prayers in the mosque. 

"The moment you enter the Dargha campus, you will experience enormous peace of mind. You will find everybody in religious state and surrendering themselves in the name of God. You cannot stop your body to react, like your eyes will get wide & wet, your whole body will get electrified with full of energy and your soul will ask to stay here as long as possible as there is nothing better than worshiping God. Whatever and wherever you are in this world, you will get the real peace of soul when you surrender yourself to God."

The shopkeeper from where we buy the Chadar & Flowers assigned us a man to show us the path and also give us directions how to pray and perform all the rituals. Before entering the Dargha he ask us to wash our face, hands & legs properly as it is mandatory to do so; for this there are several taps are installed in the campus itself.

Garib Nawazsarif Dargha

There are four gates to enter the Dargha building and three gates to enter inside the actual Dargha. Among first four gates one is always closed (opens once a year at the time of “Urrs”), and another two gates are used for both entering and exit, and the last which is very small one, is used for entering purpose only. We entered from smaller one & we find three people setting near the main gate, they were recording names and other details of every person visiting the Dargha, and for this you have to give them some money as a donation, so do keep some currency with you when you enter the Dargha. We both entered inside the main Dargha from a very small gate as rests of the two gates were very crowded. Dargha was very crowded from inside and it was very hard to walk. Few persons were standing near the ‘Kabra’ of holy man Nawaz Sarif, they were performing the rituals for every visitor’s and asking to donate some money for Dargha. Somehow we manage to complete the rituals and came out of it. It was nice feeling for both of us after coming out of it.

The color of Dargha is white & the top of the dome is of golden color, which looks very beautiful and because of that golden dome in the middle, it looks more stunning structure. Outside the Dargha few people were singing Kawali which making the atmosphere more harmony and spiritual.

We both observe that there is a huge miss management inside the Dargha, firstly all the gates are very narrow its very hard to get inside and secondly, since no body is managing the crowed, people use to fight to get inside first, they use to push each other’s and nobody is bothers about the aged & females visitors. Several times old persons & females get stuck inside specially children’s and they also get hurt. In one of the visit I also got a scratch on my elbow. But now the scenario has been totally changed, there are dedicated persons to manage the crowed and entering is done in a proper queue this result every person gets equal chance and there is no money takers in between. Since Dargha always remain crowded, my suggestion to all the visitors is to try to avoid visiting this place during festival season like Id or Urrs. Try to visit in early morning or post 1pm.

After Dargha, we headed towards Annasagar Lake. Ajmer is also very famous for its Kadhi-Kachori. So, we went first to one of the very famous shop of Ajmer which is situated at Gool Piyao, a kilo meter way from Dargha. We enjoyed our Kadhi-Kachori there, trust me it’s was superb taste and equally spicy.

Annasagar Lake View

Sweet breeze was blowing on our faces and I can see only water around me, this was enough reason for me to get relaxed. Birds were flying near the lake side to get relief from hot sun, so do we. Although it way winter season but still the sun was still bright enough to make us wet as we were walking all the way. We rested in the park which is attached to the lake side. It was very quiet place to relax; you can see the water waves and hear the sound of birds. It was just like listening a classical instrumental music. I love this small and beautiful city – Ajmer. This city is very versatile with mixed culture of Hindu & Muslim. There is something which attracts me a lot, I don’t know what is it but I want to come this place again and again.

About AJMER:

Ajmer is located in Rajasthan State, its only 131 km from Jaipur and 391km from Delhi. The city is famous for Dargha dedicated to Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti and also more popular as a gateway to Pushkar.

GETTING TO AJMER:

Ajmer is well connected from all major cities like the closest one is Jaipur then Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

By TRAIN: There is a good connection of trains from all three major cities i.e. Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and of course Jaipur. Kindly book your railway tickets a month prior to your visit if you want a confirm tickets.

By BUS & TAXI: Personal taxi will take not more than 2 hours and government bus services are very good, it will take 2.5 to 3 hrs. You can catch these buses from main bus stand at Sindhi camp from Jaipur.

By Flight: There is no airport at Ajmer so the nearest airport is in Jaipur and later you have options like Train, Bus or Taxi.

ACCOMMODATIONS

RTDC KHADIM TOURIST BUNGALOW: Owned by Rajasthan Govt. it’s a nice and economic place to stay and has a bar inside it.

HOTEL MANSINGH PALACE: It’s a 3 star hotel, very nice rooms, services and food; it is located on the main road way to Pushkar.

HOTEL EMBASSY: It is located in the heart of the city; all the tourist locations are close to it. Rooms are good but food is not so up to the mark, rest is fine.

MUST SEE:

DARGHA: Dargah is a major pilgrimage centre for Muslims and also from all other religion peoples. Auto taxi is easily available near the bus stand and railway stations.

ANA SAGAR LAKE: It’s a manmade Lake, one side city and another side is hills. Lake is attached with a Marble Pavilion and a beautiful garden known as Daulat Bag. It’s a nice place to relax and refresh.

SAI-BABA TEMPLE:  It’s a beautiful constructed temple of Sai-baba, its only 5 km from railway station located in Ajay Nagar in Ajmer.

JAIN TEMPLE: This temple is on the way to Ana Sagar which is quite beautiful structure both from inside & outside.

EAT:

There are several places for food lovers in Ajmer. The most famous fast food of Ajmer is Kadi-Kachori, Soan Halwa, Mal-Puha etc. And there are plenty of restaurants like – Tandoor Restaurant (near bus stand), Honeydew (near Railway station), Mahadev ka Dhabha (opp. Daulat Bagh), Café at Kachari road.