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Friday 5 October 2012

Tourist Friendly - Udaipur & Jaipur

Extremely Tourist Friendly - that is the first, middle and lasting impression of visiting Udaipur & Jaipur. There are quite a good list of positive things, which are not found in most places in India, which makes us come to this viewpoint.

First and foremost is the politeness of all the people towards tourists. Every taxi / cab driver is fit to drive a limousine - they dress neatly, present themselves well, have very good courtesy. They are jumping out quickly at every stop to open doors for us & handling as much luggage as possible.

In every shop, we felt that there must have been some ISO / CMM training all across Rajasthan! We are welcome by a senior person who first describes every part of the shop, right at the entrance and asks which section we would like to visit first & suggests one if we even hesitate for a moment. Then, at each section, they seem to present a variety of items which "seem" to fit into your budget (they somehow seemed to have a good judgement of our mind). They do not hesitate to show you how many ever items that you wish. Then they show items at lower end of budget & do not let you go until you have seen the full bandwidth (items based on Maharaja/ Maharani designs). They are clear that "you do not have to buy, but please look at these items and you can see the quality and workmanship".

Every shop has a clear return policy - guarantee for 5, 7 or 10 years. This is written in the bill and/or stamped on the bill using a rubber-stamp. They promise that you can mail it to them & will get a replacement free of cost, for any defect for that guarantee period. Is this possible anywhere else in India - hardly a few place, I presume.

And coming back to the first point - every salesman is polite even in "encouraging" you to look at more things, more sections, etc. At all times "you don't have to buy it sir/madam" is used, liberally.

Then comes cleanliness of the two cities. Compared to many of the big cities, the roads are pretty clean. Even though there is open-sewage system with crude slab covers, one cannot see much filth or small anything bad on the roads. Hardly much trash lying around - our impression is that the people in general seem to have a better civic sense about the public spaces.

Rates for guides at important monuments, museums and tourist attractions are clearly posted & there is no haggling required. They are also polite and take you around the main spots. They also tell you that there are boards and plaques explaining some of the things (in some places) and we can choose to take the tour on our own without a guide.

At Jaipur railway station, the taxi drivers were canvassing us to go with them free of charge & they would take us to a few different hotels for us to choose from. Is that true - yes, but the only request they have is that we take a 1 day tour with them of Jaipur and they will drop us at the hotel in the morning for free. The politeness and courtesy is outstanding in spite of their education levels (may be I should not use "in spite of") - one driver admitted he was 9th Standard failure, another 10th standard drop out and a 3rd person was illiterate even (had started working with family from young age). They said that they earned 4000 rupees per month flat, or 3000 rupees per month + daily allowance for over-night out of town trips. Yet, they seemed a happy lot with no complaints about their situation / bosses / workload, etc.

Auto charges are nominal, though negotiated only. We did not have much of a problem in getting a pretty low rate (especially compared to Chennai) for the 2-3 auto trips we took. At the same time I did see a bit of "gang-up" on local travellers who wanted to go longer distance - demanding more than 10 rupees per kilometer that the local was willing to pay (they wanted about 16 per kilometer). My guess is that we got to go about 7 to 8 kilometers for just Rs. 80 on our trips.

Overall, it was a memorable vacation to Udaipur & Jaipur. We managed to visit Mt. Abu and Pushkar too, by taxi trips from respective cities and had a very relaxed and super vacation.

Wishing each of you readers a nice opportunity to visit these places & hope you will find it equally exhilarating as we found it.

Jai Hind.

Friday 3 February 2012

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

The Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, which is located about 75 kilometres south of Chennai (Madras), is a nice place to spend half-a-day with nature. The best time of year to visit this birds paradise is November-February. Many migratory birds arrive during the winter from northern lands.
Painted Stork, flying from right to left before it landed in its nest. Abundance of painted storks are seen in this sanctuary.

The bird sanctuary is about 12 kilometres off the national highway 45 that connects Chennai to Tiruchirappalli (Trichy). The road to Vedanthangal branches off before the town of Madurantakam, when driving down from Chennai to Villupuram on NH 45.

Eurasian spoonbills

The lake where the variety of birds build their homes during winter is protected by a bund. A watchtower and some viewing areas cover the nearly 1 kilometre long path along one side of the lake. This place is a bird watcher's paradise. An amateur could also learn a lot about two dozen different birds, through the information posted along the lake.

The entry tickets are only rupees 5, while tickets for camera and video camera cost rupees 25 and 150 respectively. The whole path and viewing areas are well maintained. The crew maintain a coin-controlled binocular which allows visitors to take a close-up view of the lake, bushes & birds at close quarters.
Black-headed Ibis about to land in nest

Spot-billed pelican (Grey pelican)
Some of the amazing things to experience in this place is total integration with nature, where only the bird sounds are heard in abundance. There is no noise pollution from vehicles or other man-made machines, which makes the place so peaceful to relax at.


A relaxed walk along the perimeter of the lake, with stops to observe the nests & some games, flights and fishing by the birds, etc., would take at least a couple of hours. With the advent of modern technology, one can record pictures and video of this place to later enjoy the scene again at leisure at home.

Great Asian Egret, Grey Pelican and Painted Stork


The best times to see most birds are early morning and the evenings. That is when the birds return to the nests. If one were to visit during day-time, there are still 1000s of birds (yes, thousands) in that half square kilometre area, which itself looks abundant. There is another sanctuaries close by, which are better visited only during early mornings / evenings. It is called 'Karikili' and is about 4-5 kilometres from Vedanthangal.

Enjoy a winter visit to this place and one longs for more time to be spent with nature.

PS: And we hope that you do not spare the rod and spoil the monkey (Dunston Checks In), if you know what I mean, by what is shown below.

Tetra-pack drink being consumed by a young monkey along the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary path