Chokhi Dhani 12/3/2011

Places visited: Chokhi Dhani
Date: 12/3/2011
Purpose: picnic
Persons: Harshal, Juilee.

It was saturday and we wanted to go somewhere. So we decided for ChokhiDhani. It is on Nagar Road (SH27) before Wagheshwar temple. We reached there at around 6:00 PM. The entrance is designed very good. We entered and bought the tickets and coupons. (You also get ride coupons inside).

Juilee was looking fabulous. We were welcomes with JalJeera water. It was refreshing. Then we straight away went to the snacks counter. They served us Papdi-Chat, masala chana, Dhokla and Kadhi-Kachori. Kadhi-Kachori was excellent. I never tasted anything like this before. Then we went to see the rajasthani dance.

After this we went to Unt-savari - camel-ride. The camel walks like anything - you come really close to falling off. Good ups-and-downs. We again came back at snacks counter to have a tea. We went to unstairs having tea, to watch the dance show from upstairs. There was tattoo man seating below those stairs.
We also got tattooed - I got lips and Juilee got strawberry.

Then we went to the Kumbhar. There were some gulti people already learning to do pots from the clay. The potter had excellent skills. He was teaching everybody with patience how to create small pots. One gulti lady was unnecessaryly troubling him by poking her fingers here and there in the clay. He got angry on her but did not talk anything. Then juilee sat and made a pot. Later me too made one pot. I also requested the potter to let me try on my self and he allowed me. It is very difficult task. It is hard to make the round and symmetric pot at the first time. I tried but failed.
Then we went on the walk way and went through a cave. I was fearing to enter there as since I visited that haunted house in US, I fear about closed and dark spaces. But when I went inside the cave by holding Juilee's hand, I got calmed down. It was some saint's cave. And his and Bhagwan Shaknar's statue is inside the cave.

We came outside the cave and landed on a ground, where there was horse riding. We did not have enough coupons for that, so we avoided it. (They give 8 courpons at the entrance and later we can purchase more coupns near every ride if we want.)

We went to a hut, where a yound women in rajasthani dress was seating on the floor and preparing Bhakri... She gave us hot and fresh Bhakri and Lasun chatni with jaggery. It was very tasty. We gave her 10 rupees with a satisfaction of stomach.

Then Juilee saw Merry-Go-Round and started jumping like a baby and forced me to take ride on it. She knows that I fear these rides, but still she was very notorious. I was forcefully pushed into one of the cages and she also sat beside me. But the ride man told us that since we were the only two people, we had to seat on diameter. I sat in one cage and the ride man rotated the merry-go-round and Juilee sat on opposite cage. It started slowly and I enjoyed only 1st round, then he started fast and Juilee asked him to move it faster. Then I started screaming. Mala thodi chakkar pan ali... mala round-sickness and height-sickness ahe bahutek ... HaHaHa. Finaly I asked him to stop and then got down and gave him 10 Rs. and then went to Kathputali Khel... but as no one was there he was not starting the play.. so we went to Head Massage. He did excellent massage with tel and broke my locked bones of neck and back and hands. Juilee also took the head massage. The head got cool cool.
Then we went to a store and bought some ear-rings for Juilee.
After doing all these things, stomach started shouting, so we went to the dinning hall. It was great food with Dal-Bati-Churma, palak paneer, rotla, khichadi, kadhi, jalebi, papad, etc.. all authentic rajasthani food items.,.. and surprisingly it was not too spicy.
After the food, we sat for a while and started returning back. Before exit, we collected our pots, which are then well dried out, from the potter. Those were looking great.
At the end, we again banged the gong at the entrance.
Then cam out at parking, thanked each other for this wonderful event and started back towards home.
It was very good evening. We returned home at 10:00 PM
Tickets:
Rs. 400 X 2 = Rs. 800