Roaming in Alwar...

On the way to Alwar city, you will find second most famous national park of Rajasthan state i.e. Sariska Tiger Reserve better known as Sariska Van Abhyaranya. It’s a dry forest covering area of 800 sq. km and close to the forest there is a beautiful lake situated called Silished Lake. There are other beautiful monuments included Alwar Fort, temples etc one can visit within the city. You can call Alwar an adventure city..So, let’s begin our adventure…

I have been to Alwar around three times and at none of the occasion I got chance to visit any of these places, although I planned it several times but unfortunately till date it never happened. But few of my friends do visited these places and shared some good experiences with me. So here I am sharing my roaming experience in Alwar City.

Alwar is a small and peaceful town which is surrounded by Aravali Hills which makes this city dynamic in regard of location & climate. It was my official visit accompanied by my manager Mrs. Disha. We hired a taxi and begin our journey at 8am in morning from Jaipur. Initially you have to stay on Jaipur-Agra highway road and then later you have to change the direction towards Alwar. It was not even an hour since we started our journey our taxi tire busted, thank god we were slow and luckily we were close to a tire repair shop. We stopped there, by the time tire was getting repaired we enjoyed home made sandwich (made by Disha) it was tasty…within few minutes we again begin our journey. There are two routes to visit Alwar, one is a straight highway road (most preferred) and another route is from the middle of the Sariska Jungle (if you want to go direct to Sariska go for this one). We opted highway road, as our destination was Alwar (that to an official visit not travelling). Within two and half hours we reached Alwar.

When we reached the city, I was not aware of this that the city is surrounded by hills; I was in this impression that this is also as normal as most of the small cities in India are. We directly went to our office (ICICI Prudential Life Ins Co Ltd) which was located in a quite place of the city. Our office was on the first floor of the building and we were sitting in the back office cabin. Then at the lunch time Disha ask me to move at front desk to handle customers. At the front desk, there were glass windows installed for natural lights and the moment I sited on my chair & viewed outside the window, my mouth and eyes was kept opened for a while, there was a breath taking view of a big mountain from the window…I said to myself “Ohh my God…what is that”. That was one of the mountain range of Aravali Hills. So now I was excited and thinking of evening to come so that I can roam in the city and have a clear view of surrounded mountains.

I evening my priority changed from mountains to shelter as Disha has left to Jaipur and ask me to stay in this city for two more days as our work was not completed. So in evening I begin hotel hunting. There are several good hotels in Alwar and most famous & preferred one is “Hotel Aravli”, but it was a bit expensive so I opted another one “Alwar Hotel” located near to railway station at just Rs. 350/- per night. Since my stay was not planned earlier and due to financial reason I opted this hotel. Hotel was good enough; my room was of medium size with attached bathroom and a good & clean bed along with a TV…what else I want…

Alwar Bagh

In evening I find a good restaurant at back street of the hotel, who serves a complete meal plate (thali) in just Rs. 50/- with variety of dishes included like – Dal, Rice, Seasonal Vegetables, Salad and a Sweet. It was really economic restaurant with good quality food and surprisingly very clean. Post that, I went to see famous Alwar Bagh (Park). This park is very old, around more then 350 years. There is a small palace is also build within the campus which make is very unique in itself. All the trees, plants and grasses were very well maintained and giving awesome feeling. It was a great experience to my mind and soul…and to my stomachJ..a must see...

Personally speaking what I have observed in my career that working in a small city like Alwar, Jhunjhunu or Churu is much easier and flexible rather working in a big city. The main difference is that even you have huge work load on your desk, no one is there to monitor you...and you can work freely…good na…Truly speaking, while working in these small cities you are more relaxed and in a comfortable zone and one can give much better performances in compare to a pressure atmosphere in big cities offices…

Moosi Rani ki chattri

Next evening after office hours I went to see Bhagirathi temple, it was very beautiful structured and very famous too, post that I went to see “Moosi Rani ki chattri”, it’s a dome kind of structure which was built in memory of Moosi Rani, wife of Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh in year 1813 AD. It’s a magnificent structure.

So, my Alwar journey ends here, I am soon planning to visit Sariska Jungle, and also excited to convert my experience into another blog column…lets hope it will happen soon…

GETTING TO Alwar:

Alwar is located at northern part of Rajasthan state, close to Delhi. It is 160 km from South Delhi & around 150 Km from North Jaipur.

By Train: Railway network of Alwar city is well connected with Delhi, Jaipur Jodhpur, Mumbai and other important tourist cities of India.

By Flight: Jaipur (161km) & Delhi (163km), both Airports are equally close from Alwar and then one have to choose from road or rail to reach Alwar.

By Bus & Taxi: Alwar can be easily reached by road as well. There are well-maintained roads linking it to tourism destinations like Delhi, Sariska, Bharatpur, Deeg and Jaipur. Both Govt. and Private buses and taxies are available frequently.

Sarisk National Park

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Alwar is a bit lacking in terms of good hotels, still there are very few good hotels in Alwar to stay:

Economic & Mid Range - Hotel Alwar, Rajasthan Motel, Ankur Hotel, RTDC Hotel Meenal & Alwar Bagh (Heritage Hotel)

Luxury – Hotel Aravali & Clark Inn

Eat:

There are few good stops to burn your hunger strike in Alwar, they are:

Prem Pavitra Bhojnalaya (one of the most famous and oldest-1957, serves great and testy meals in very affordable price), Inderlok Restaurant, Thali House - New South Indian Café (the one where I went to eat, it is located opposite Gopal Cinama in main city area), Dawat Restaurant and Narula's.

Must See:

Alwar City Palace & Museum, Alwar Fort, Alwar Bagh, Moosi Rani Ki Chattri and Tal-Vraksh (Water Pond).

Places around Alwar:

Sariska National Park (36 Km), Pandupol Hanuman Temple (on the way to Sariska Forest), Sagar (Water Pond, behind City Palace), Silished Lake, Neemrana Fort (75 km) and Nogaza Shiva Temple (8 Km)