Namita SawantKumbhalgarh Village Tour was the highlight of our Day 2. After exploring the majestic fort city, Kumbhalgarh, near Udaipur, Rajasthan, it was time to experience the slow life of this town. A laid-back vibe, there are many things to experience in the quaint village. Our Day 1 visit that started post-lunch ended on a peaceful note around 7 pm after attending a divine aarti at the Neelkanth Mahadev Temple and capturing the golden view of the Kumbhalgarh fort. It is rare to find such places where you feel overwhelmed picturing the history and lives of the great warriors.
I had a similar feeling when visiting the City Palace of Udaipur. It’s a huge palace, royal, grand, and visually breathtaking. There are many activities to do there, but especially you should not miss boating at Lake Pichola and the sound and light show scheduled in the evenings.
The one-hour show may come across as too overstretched past a few minutes into it, but the experience is worth having. Since we visited the palace during the winter months, the chilly weather along with the dramatic show made for a perfect memorable evening.
Kumbhalgarh Village Tour
Kumbhalgarh Village Tour started post breakfast when our tour guide reached Club Mahindra Kumbhalgarh to take us for a village tour. Since the COVID times, these tours have become private. So, it was just the three of us heading for the tour. From the resort to the village was hardly a few minutes’ drive by a jeep.
The experience of spending a day in a local village, experiencing their ways of living, and learning about their history & culture was exciting. Our tour started with a visit to the sugarcane farm, where the villagers were cleaning sugarcane and making fresh jaggery out of the juice extracted via age-old methods. The entire 1km radius had the raw aroma of jaggery. What an experience!
Moving on, the guide took us to his house and around the adjoining farmland. The several animals raised on his farm made my little one jump with joy. As she played with cows and baby goats, she never wanted to leave the village, even after the tour ended.
Lunch & dinner in a village house
Kumbhalgarh Village Tour is incomplete without relishing the local food of this place. Our guide prepared a lunch for us at his home and we relished the best Makki ki roti with fresh cabbage from his farmland and sugarcane juice that he made in front of us, via the age-old technique involving cows.
His farmland had several crops, including corn, wheat, and sugarcane. He also took us to see an ancient well, where water is still drawn through the old mechanism.
Kumbhalgarh Village tour lets you enjoy the old-world charm
As we witnessed the common daily chores of the people as part of our Kumbhalgarh Village Tour and interacted with the locals, we could sense the simple life of these people. I had a memorable day with the tour guide’s family doing rare chores while also exploring a few places around. The local school was painted in myriad colors. We had fun conversing with the kids from different grades and the sole teacher present on the premises.
Rajasthani Dal Baati Churma
Our Kumbhalgarh Village Tour lasted for about three hours but we promised our host to return in the evening to relish the authentic taste of the famous Rajasthani cuisine comprising Dal Baati Churma. For Rs. 300 per plate we relished the most authentic thali before ending our day and trip to Kumbhalgarh.
Trek to Kumbhalgarh Fort
Club Mahindra Kumbhalgarh also arranges for a guided trek to the mountains where the Kumbhalgarh fort’s first gate was built. The gate is no longer used as an entry point as it’s far away from the actual fort, but initially, the fort was to have it as an entry.
From Club Mahindra Kumbhalgarh resort, the same tour guide who took us for the village tour accompanied us to the beautiful trek along the scenic mountains of Aravalli hills. The road leading up the mountains was rocky, steep but nothing difficult that a six-year-old couldn’t climb. The final incline to reach the top of the mountain to catch the sunset was a little difficult. The climb was one-hour at an average speed. There we paused for a few minutes, waiting for the sun to set. What a breathtaking view!
The trek downhill was pretty simple and didn’t take as long as it took to climb up. We comfortably hit the plains before it was dark. Besides us, there was no one on the hills. It was wonderful to have the whole view for ourselves, undisturbed 😛
Relish a Rajasthani meal at a village house – Kumbhalgarh Village Tour
Straight from the trek, we headed to relish our Rajasthani meal at the village house. The host graciously invited us to his house and gave us a comfortable place to rest, after the exhaustion of the trek. He cooked the food in front of us and took pride in not mixing anything that would make the food bad for our health.
His traditional way of cooking baati over a traditional Chula or wooden fired cooking and dal over the gas, since it would take more time to cook everything on the wooden fire, was fascinating to watch.
Overall experience
Through the journey back to the resort, he shared how the villagers are living a self-sufficient life, growing their own vegetables, milking cows, living a simple life sans TV or refrigerator.
It was fascinating to see his take on life. When I asked what they do for entertainment if they don’t prefer watching TV, his reply was quite simple. He said that some of the locals got a TV and witnessed a sharp fall in the output of their work. They would watch TV late in the night and couldn’t wake up at four in the morning to look after the cows or tend to the farm before the sun made it hard to work. Therefore, as a learning experience, most of the families decided to stay away from such a distraction. By 8.30 pm, they are off to sleep. Their to-do list is always on their minds. The women folks go to great lengths to fulfill their duties too. Like, collecting grass from the hills for their cows, cleaning, cooking, looking after the farm animals, etc.
The conversation with him and his family made me realize the pace at which these people live life. The simple rules that they follow and the happiness with which they fulfill their duties. Of course, they want to earn more and that’s why these tours and food services, but they also come across as content in life.
I was moved by their kindness and hospitality. I would suggest everyone go for an authentic Kumbhalgarh village tour and witness the simple life of the locals whilst learning a few lessons from them.
Adios. See you in the next blog! Keep traveling ?
