A day at Kumbhalgarh: The Great Wall of India

Magnificent, Marvelous, Splendid and Glorious, all these adjectives come to life when you visit this place. Like a lot of other travelers, we also came to know about this from the locals in Udaipur. To be honest, the expectations were low, but it turned out to be one of the coolest places I have been to.

Aren’t the unplanned outings always more memorable? This was one of those. We (me and my sister) had a spare day from our Udaipur trip, not having much to do; so we hired a cab to Kumbhalgarh. Here is how it looks:

Interesting facts:

1. It is the 2nd longest wall in the world, after, of course, the Great Wall of China.
2. Apart from the fort, there are hundreds (yes 100s) of temples inside the campus. You may want to consider staying at one of the resorts nearby if you plan on visiting all of those. Spending some time in an isolated village around an ancient fort would be an experience in itself.
3. The entry ticket is just INR10. That’s the cheapest you can get.

How to reach: The best way is to take the road from one of the nearby towns, depending where you are. We hired a private cab from Udaipur at INR2,500 (to and fro), left early morning at about 6:00AM, had breakfast on the way and reached (in less than 2.5 hours) this massive fort to be explored slowly and steadily. For cab bookings, if you don’t have any direct contact, I would suggest asking where you are staying. They would surely be able to help.

Where to eat: There is a place called ‘Harmony Garden’ on the way back to Udaipur. As told by the cab driver, it is usually visited by foreigners, but I would highly recommend it for Indians as well. It is a treat for your taste buds if you are really hungry. There is an Indian (with a Rajasthani touch of course) buffet spread out which means you can eat as much as you want at just INR300 per person. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? I seem to have a couple of pictures from there:

  

Rajasthan never fails to surprise, this one just made the journey much more memorable.

Is there anything you would want to add? Feel free to comment and let me know.