Me and my husband started on an impromptu trip to Maheshwar on a sweltering September morning from now. It took us around 90 minutes via NH3 to reach our destination. As soon as we reached we took refuge from the scorching sun of 12 noon in the Narmada Resort run by M.P. tourism which was clean, well maintained and had beautiful garden overlooking the river Narmada. After a quick recharge of coffee and picking up a Maheshwari saree from the shop located in the resort itself, we headed to the Maheshwar fort as we found that most saree shops and temples are nearby. The actual trip inside the fort did not take long as it harbored only a small space of around four rooms to depict the place from where queen Ahilyabai lived and handled administration. However, our curiosity got better of ourselves and after a little poking around we found a small room full of weavers making the fabled Maheshwari sarees. We a took a tour of the unit and headed for their shop downstairs the fort towards the ghats. The shop held a unique but limited collection of sarees a little higher on price as they make higher contribution to the weavers. We also paid visit to a hidden gem of a home stay run by the Maharaja himself huddled in the inner corners if the fort. It was cut off from the world, was self-sustaining and had something very tranquil about itself. We finally managed to visit one of the temples and spent some time looking at the Narmada river. On our way back we finally concluded our tour with another cup of coffee at Laboos cafe, cozily perched near the fort itself. We came to Maheshwar mostly to shop for sarees but ended up seeing so much more.
