Weekend at Neemrana

As you know the kids are still away with their grandparents. They are coming back on 26 th June. So we are just two of us here in Gugaon. Ya.. don't start imagining much.
Anyway Manna had this Saturday off so he had planned a surprise trip for us. He took me to a fort called Neemrana (Please check out the 360 tour to get an idea of the fort). It is 2 hours from Gurgaon(in state of Rajasthan). So We left home on Saturday after lunch. This was our first road trip where Manna drove on his own. I was really nervous about that because in India there is no such thing as driving courtesy while you are on the road. People are extremely selfish and they break every possible law when they are behind the wheel. But to his credit he drove extremely well and we reached the fort at 4:00 pm.
The fort was fabulous. Right from the massive entrance door to the decor, everything was well preserved. Each room was decorated with a different theme. The room we stayed in was 'Radha Mahal'. It was a small room but very cute with a balcony showing a view of the town below. It took us almost 2 hours to see the entire fort. The place was very well planned with all the facilities like pool, library, beautiful swing sets, gym, spa, dance, good food, and guided or audio tours of the fort. The fort caters to lot of tourists from outside India so the hospitality was top notch (of course the prices were top notch as well but let's not talk about it). There was high tea provided late afternoon. The evening was wonderful starting with Rajasthani dance, drinks and ending with fabulous dinner featuring Indian and western food. After the dinner we took a nice walk around the fort admiring it's beauty at night decorated with lights.
The next morning we set out to see 'Bawdi'. On the way we had a nice breakfast (Yum Kachori, Samosa and Jalebi)at a local 'Halwaii' (sweets maker) Bawdi is a well that is 9 stories underground. There were no signs or tours telling us the history of this marvelous structure. One local said that the queen used to have a secret underground path from the Neemrana fort to bawdi where she used to come for a bath, Wow! I was happy to see that the government of Rajasthan has undertaken a project to preserve this historic structure. We returned to the fort taking a route thru' the village. In the afternoon it rained pretty heavy, the fort looked beautiful with water gushing thru the steps. We had nice lunch and enjoyed almond pie, mangoes, khaja, and coffee for dessert. We returned home early evening.
It was very nice to be just two of us after a long time. It was one the memorable weekend outings I have had in a looooong time.
But now on a calm Sunday evening I miss my kids and want to be with them badly!