Royale Rajasthan | Rats Rule in Karni Devi Temple, Bikaner

What to do when you have the leaves approved for an adventurous drive in the hills and everyone traveling with you backs out, leaving you alone to dash ahead… what to do when you had no time to pack your clothing but somehow you manage to collect all the woolen in front of your eyes and in the end you have a hot place to go… what to do when on the day before your leaves start, you are overloaded with bloody official work and gets delayed on the day you were supposed to leave for the trip…what to do when you are doubting safety for the trip when going alone with your lovely wife… what to do when you have no plans/idea about an alternate destination which you are supposed to explore… Well,  I just hit the Highway to answer all these queries/doubts along with my lovely wife 😀 …

The Undefeated Junagarh Fort at Bikaner…

It was long time that we have not went to Travel, and of course after going through Ladakh tragedy whose family would allow to venture on another adventure trip 😀 … But, some how I managed to get approval for next trip in December from the family. It was planned for Chindi – Karsog Valley – Naldhera – Kasol – Naggar but due to some unavoidable circumstances of bloody official work we got delayed on the day we were supposed to leave. Now, the problem was either dispense the leaves and quit the trip or to head somewhere we can reach before daylight calls the day. The other problem was everyone backed out of the trip at the last moment which made us think many times before leaving as I was left alone with my wife. But, we know in every adversity lies a new opportunity, and this was the opportunity to relive the honeymoon moments but in some different destination as my love said lets go and see some “Colors of Rajasthan” too…

The year had been amazing as far as travel tales are concerned. You rarely gets an opportunity to witness ocean, mountains and desert all in one year as it was an year that started by witnessing sea for the first time and ended by witnessing desert for the first time. However, this is just the beginning of the travel tales, I wish god bless us for more and more opportunities to travel :)…

Day 1 | 16th, December 2010 | Delhi to Bikaner

So coming back to the topic :cool:, the search for sand dunes or I shall call desert begins. We started at 1.30 PM from our home and destination for the day was clear, Bikaner some 440 KMs from Delhi. The route was simple and clear  but of course there were rough patches which needed to be taken care before the light fades out. Special thanks to my friend Nikhil who posted the complete route and other required info like Hotel names on my Facebook wall. The route taken was –> Delhi – Jhajjar – Charkhi Dadri – Loharu – Pilani – Chidawa –  Jhunjhunu – Mandwa – Fatehpur (NH 11) – Bikaner

In winters, we do not have much day light so we had to make quick progress but the first 20 Odd KMs crossing Najafgarh and Bahadurgarh (yes, we took long route to Jhajjar but we didn’t knew any other ;)) was really a pain. The clock ticked 3.00 PM and we had just crossed Jhajjar. We were not liking the drive so far and then seeing the clock we decided to quit lunch too 🙁 but going ahead we brought some 2 Kg of real, fresh guavas from a farmer sitting on the road side. This would be our meal for the lunch 😀 … Soon we started gaining momentum as more and more flat metal roads welcomed us across the green farms on both sides of them. It was a very nice experience to drive between such greenery as the roads had very less traffic which I didn’t imagined :)…

Greenery all the way…

Butter Highways…

Going far and beyond…

We reached Jhunjhunu bought some wafers and cold drinks but soon it was dark as we enquired about the turns to Mandwa. It took us time to find the right road to Mandwa and in particular it was confusing apart from rest of the route to Bikaner. We knew that road to Mandwa, some 18 KMs, is very narrow and you need to get your vehicle down side of road. People already warned us to be cautious while taking down our car from the road. The problem was the road side was a bit deep and if you are not careful you can easily hit your car’s underbelly which will be a disaster in the midst of nowhere 🙂 … It was very tough crossing that part of the journey in the pitch black conditions and difficulty increased as none of the heavy/light vehicles coming from the other side were ready to get aside. Every time I had to take my car down very slowly and very carefully which made our progress really slow.

We had a breather once we reached Mandwa from where road to Fatehpur is almost straight forward with very less turns. Once you enter Fatehpur you need to run through the roads of the town. If you reach the place at night then you have to be careful while reading the markings to Bikaner, written on the walls on the sides. The best way not to take wrong turn is to ask many people almost at every next crossing. Once you manage to reach the Highway i.e. NH – 11 at Fatehpur you are left with zooming drive of 165 KMs to Bikaner. This particular highway had very less traffic and even in dark we managed to cover 165 KMs in just 2 Hours 🙄 which I never imagined. It was 9.15 PM when we reached Bikaner almost 8 Hrs from Delhi.

The Junagarh Fort was the landmark for us to reach our hotel named “Madho Villas”. Since, we had no bookings unluckily there was a huge group which had occupied all the rooms that day only. But, I would say that it is a must stay place as I checked the room only for the information and economic too. The servant at Madho Villas suggested another hotel little ahead named Star Hotel. Since, it was getting late I checked the room and immediately booked it for Rs 1000. We quickly ordered dinner as we were hungry and went for good night sleep. The food was average in taste. Since, the hotel was on the main road I was not able to sleep at all due to loud noise of traffic that kept hitting the ears that whole night. There were trucks and auto rickshaws running up-down whole night and it was not a good place to sleep at all but I was happy that my wife managed to sleep.

The Hotel Room at Bikaner…

Day 2 | 17th, December 2010 | Bikaner to Deshnok

Next morning we woke up and ordered some breakfast. The breakfast was below average in taste but we managed to consume it 🙂 and after settling the bill we dashed out towards Dekhnok. At Bikaner, the main highlight was to catch the famous temple where rats rules. The temple named  Karni Devi, is 34 KMs from Bikaner town at place called Deshonk. I checked the petrol and thought of refilling the tank. After withdrawing some money from the local ATM, luckily, we found the Petrol Pump on straight road that leads to Karni Devi temple. As I enquired about the route, the person serving the petrol gave us some money to donate at the goddess temple which was extremely worshipped among the locales. It was actually a surprise as I never encountered such thing that someone giving money to some stranger and ask him to donate that at the temple. It confirms the high levels of faith for the goddess among the locales.

The Undefeated Junagarh Fort at Bikaner… Another view…

It was pretty straight forward run to Deshnok and we managed to reach within 40 minutes in which most of the time was wasted at a railway crossing. We brought some prasaad and entered the temple for which we had some skeptical feeling upfront. As we entered there were rats all around the temple. It was too confusing where to step and where not to. Even the railings that lead to front door where one offer prayers were filled with rats and you have to be watchful not to catch a rat. They were everywhere in the temple and the most amazing thing is they never crosses the boundary of the temple at all. Pigeons were also present in quite some number which accompanied the rats. We offered a little prayers and came out of the temple in the veranda where we saw some girls crazily shouting out of scare and some dramatization of people posing with rats, where feast is prepared for them. The only thing that was certain was rats were ruling that place and in fact it is the only place I have ever known where rats are made center of attraction among people.Now, I will let pictures do the talking…

The Ruling Rats… Karni Devi Temple at Deshnok, Bikaner…

The Ruling Rats… Sleeping in the corner :D…

The Ruling Rats… Alone I am  :D…

The Ruling Rats… Playing Inside Out  :D…

Isn’t she afraid of rats? :lol:…

Feast for Rats…See the tails in the middle lest of the pictures…

Feast for Rats…The place where feast is cooked :D…

Pigeon Trying to Pose for a Picture…

Pigeon Again…Blurring Colors…

Blessings from the god… Part 1… Thats my lovely wife :)…

Blessings from the god… Part 2…Oops that me :D…

Karni Devi Temple at Deshnok, Bikaner…The Inside View…

Karni Devi Temple at Deshnok, Bikaner…The Entrance View…

Karni Devi Temple at Deshnok, Bikaner…The Complete View…

It was quite a unique experience at Deshnok, Karni Devi temple with so many rats around. Please make sure not to step on the rats as if anyone gets killed by you then you need to donate a rat made of gold to the temple :shock:… So, be careful while you visit this unique place near Bikaner 🙂 …In the temple outer complex, we ate some Onion Kachoris which were delightful in taste and uniquely cut into pieces like pizza by a scissor. We saw the use of scissor for the first time in cutting an eatable items 😀 … Nevertheless, the kachoris were awesome but for tea in Rajasthan, I felt one needs to specifically mention to vendor to prepare it with less amount of sugar. Since, we had to leave for Jaiselmer we wasted no time and hit the roads again to reach Jaiselmer by evening :)…