Rajasthan birding - Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Bharatpur)

Rajasthan trip report here...

With spare days now on hand and Raja not available in Jaipur, we dashed off to Keoladeo Ghana National Park or more commonly called the Bharatpur bird sanctuary to spend our remaining days of the trip that turned out to be an excellent decision with us being there at the right time. Bharatpur, is as small area but is an excellent avifauna sanctuary that hosts thousands of birds, especially during the winter season and people flock here for many reasons – photography, bird watching, cycling around the whole park or just walking and spending quality time listening to the birds and nothing else.

Rajasthan Birding - Jorbeed, Chhapar

Rajasthan trip report here...

Early next day, we were off to one of the most anticipated places on our list – a dumping yard! Yes. Jorbeed is a carcass dumping yard where carcass is treated and dumped and where you get to see a huge diversity of birdlife. This small patch of land is probably where you will see the highes congregation of vultures of many kinds, all in one place. Diclonofenac literally had wiped out the vulutre population from India, but awareness and banning of the drug has seen the population of vulutres recover slowly, but the threat remains large as few species of vultures are still classified as critically endangered.

Rajasthan birding - RTR & DNP

Rajasthan – this name brings to anyone’s mind thoughts about desert, camels, oasis, sand dunes and people in colorful attire; while there’s much more to Rajasthan than just these. Sample these – huge forts, palaces, a hill station, wildlife parks, bird sanctuaries and mouth-watering taste of food. Desert National Park (DNP), Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR), Sariska Tiger Reserve, Keoladeo Ghana National Park or the Bharatpur bird sanctuary, Tal Chappar (TC) wildlife sanctuary are some of the prominent wildlife habitats that host the critically endangered but magnificent Great Indian Bustard (GIB) to a good population of Tigers, Blackbucks, Caracals, Bustards, Cranes and a whole lot of more that can only be seen by exploring the vast state.

Ever since my friend Raja Bandi moved to Rajasthan, there was an open invite for me to visit and me along with Kannan and Harish sir ensured the invite was used judiciously by touring Rajasthan and exploring the wildlife for a good two weeks. Also, should I say, I shopped till I dropped ensuring my baggage over ran its limitation on our return journey 😊. We did this circuit ex-Jaipur by hiring a local cab, a Qualis with a jugaad AC set-up to beat the heat of the desert land.

Jaipur - Ranthambore - Jaipur - Jaisalmer - Desert National Park (Khuri/Sudasari) - Kuldhara - Phalodi(Khichan) - Bikaner - Tal Chaapar - Sujangarh - Jaipur - Bharatpur - Jaipur for a good two weeks enduring the hot days and the chilly nights, particularly harsh were the three nights we stayed at the Desert National Park.

Deserty Rajasthan - Skyscanner

(Desert and dunes - that's Rajasthan. Photo from web)

Well, I would be the last person to submit this post..., I had no inclination and just about an hour before close thought of doing this. Yep, and that's how my travel plans also unfold almost everything at the last minute :)

(Umaid Bhawan Palace. Photo - from web)

Where I want to go - Rajasthan has been off my radar for quite long now and winters are the best months to visit the place. I would love to indulge myself in the palaces and forts and also enjoy the wildlife over there.

So, using Skyscanner, I have planned a week trip spending leisure time at Jodhpur and Mount Abu, I plan to do a leisure, luxurious, laid back trip that would help me best to enjoy the Rajasthani tradition, folklore, palaces and importantly food. My tentative schedule would be from Nov 21 over a period of 6-7 days.

My schedule would be simple and easy:-
At Jodhpur
> Reach Jodhpur flying directly from Bengaluru
> Explore Mehrangarh fort and Mehrangarh fort museum / Local cuisine / Jaswant Thada
> Explore Umaid Bhawan Palace / Osian (Khajuraho of Rajasthan) / Local markets
> Balsamand lake / Kalyana lake / Machiya safari park
> Relax / Shopping / Bazaars

(Mount Abu. Picture from web)

At Mount Abu
> Mount Abu Wildlife Sanctuary
> In pursuit of the Green Munia (only found here)
> Crocodile Park
> Achalgarh fort
> Temples / Sunset Point
> Shopping

(Green Munia - A strikingly beautiful bird found only here. Photo from net)

Browsing through the Skyscanner website, I found the airfare picker tool quite easy with lot of options and below would be my choices flying from Bengaluru to Jodhpur.

Booking cab was also quite simple with the option popping up on the left display asking 'Do you want to book a cab'. You click and it searches for the best deals on the same set of dates you booked your flight tickets. Easy.

Again, booking hotels was made easy with lot of options thrown in for the user. You can select based on the ratings, price, distance and popularity and you can book from the best website offering the best prices. Interesting and good analytics I should say.



Budget:
With a budget of 1Lac, I would seriously consider this as a royal vacation and intend to save some to indulge in some wonderful shopping getting souvenirs, Rajasthani handicrafts and clothes.

Air fare = 10,740/- round trip
Cab for whole duration = 13,640/- Hotels = 39,691/- + 20,619/- = 60,310/-
Food & Misc = 10,000/- (obvious that I can't show here)
Total = Rs.94690/- and I still save about Rs.5310/-

Well, dreaming isn't bad and if Skyscanner can fulfill those, I would love to dream all day long.


This post is a part of Skyscanner travel wizard activity at BlogAdda.com