Family trip to Hastinapur

 Family trip to Hastinapur

14-15 Sep'2019

My longest family trip with family in own car till date was Hastinapur trip. It is situated in UP, Meerut district and around 150km away from Gurgaon.

We started quite early around 6:00 AM in our Maruti Suzuki Celerio.

One thing is very sure that driving Celerio AMT is quite relaxing.

The route was through Delhi so after crossing Delhi by very long flyovers we reached to Ghaziabad.

There we took a stoppage at Shri Rishabhanchal Jain Temple.

We did darshan there and started journey again for taking another short break for breakfast.

In the entire route we saw many stalls of delicious guavas.

Benefit of having own car is, you can stop anywhere you want and anything you can eat during the journey.

Around 11 am, we reached to Hastinapur. Name reflecting the importance at the time of Mahabharata but it is also famous for Jain's. 

#Short History- Bhagwan Adhinath (Jain 1st Teerthankar) handed over to his son Bahubali Ji kingdom of Podanpur and Hastinapur. In Podanpur, bahubalji ruled himself while Hastinapur was rules by his son Somayash. Younger brother of Somayash named Shreyanshkumar had the good fortune to serve sugar-cane juice to Bhagwan Sri Adhinath here in Hastinapur, when he broke his fast.

Our trip is basically to visit Jain temples. Plenty of Jain temples are present in Hastinapur. Name of few temples are Jambudweep, Shwetambar Jain Temple, Prachin Digambar Jain Temple, Astapad Jain Temple and Shri Kailash Parvat Jain Temple, Sumeru Parvat and Kamal Temple etc.

Jambudweep is a huge territory where many Jain temples are there. For kids, many rides were available. We enjoyed boating there as well.

Kailash Parvat temple was so much beautiful. Scene from the top of the hill was awesome.

Way/Steps of Asthapad Parvat were also so strange. Sloping path was there to reach on the top. Such a cool breeze was blowing. Overall scenic beauty was mesmerising.

We stayed in Dharmshala where we took food in Bhojanshala. Weather was so pleasant to visit. In the evening time we were just walking around did some shopping. During return to Dharmshala, a Monkey came there from nowhere, snatched the material from my hand and about to run away. My father thrown a stone on the monkey then he dropped the material and run away. I could able to collect that quickly. 

On the second day, we started again for Gurgaon. On the way we took 2 short stoppage just for relaxing. We enjoyed the chhachh and fruits in between.

Japan Diaries- Osaka (USJ) Day

So here I am back with detail of  Osaka Day...

Me and Gaurav were together boarded for Osaka  - capsule (it's kind of dorm quite popular in Japan). We took ticket upto station nearby to the Datonbori (famous for night life in Osaka), where we planned to visit on same night. Later we came to know that our nearby station to capsule was one station prior so we thought that we wil get down here and will do fare adjustment. We de boarded but only for no success. So we again get into next train to reach Datonbori.
So we were there at around 6pm. We had lots of time to roam around and to see the night life. 

                                           

 

It was so great view there, huge screen were available on the buildings it was so busy street with so much crowd. Then we searched out for the most popular location of it and asked to many persons who turned out to be non Japanese an didn't know that.

Finally we could reach there, where a lake passes through the road. We did lots of photography and roamed around there for 2-3 hours. Then we decided to go to capsule where we could reach easily. It was so small but nice place to stay for the night. It was worth experience in Japan to stay in Capsule.

Next day we got ready for our main destination - USJ. 

On the way to USJ we saw the train totally painted into USJ theme. So feel of going to USJ had already come.
Just on arriving universal city station It started rain so we got little worried but by God's grace it didn't lasted more then 5 mins. The weather became so cool and pleasant. We saw the main attraction, the earth globe with USJ marked on to it. 

There was so much crowd but still in some time we could get the ticket and got into it.
We had already plan told by Pranjal (Arigato Gozaimasu) , how to move for rides. So initially we moved to the 1. Hollywood dreams ride. No Waiting was there, so we quickly got into it. 

So it was the first time in the life- Roller coaster !!!
So it started, when it went down for the first time.. literally fat gayi thi. This was for one time later on it was so fun with no fear.
Next we quickly moved for 2. Harry Potter ride. For which we had to be in the queue for around 2 hours. We entered into it but due some confusion made by staff we were got out without ride. But immediately asked other staff to get into within no time. Harry Potter ride was really worth waiting even for 2 hours. We actually felt being going along with Harry Potter. It was sugoi (excellent). 

Next we stand in the queue for nearby roller coaster , a small one but there also so long queue and was not so famous so quickly we moved to next 3. Flying dinosore ride. By looking it was literally threatening. Gaurav almost denied to go for it, I too was so scared but dared to move forward. This ride always face facing towards which made is so fearing.

A message popping on the TV... Please ensure that nothing is left behind .. and your heart is still beating.

 

Literally this msg was so horrible, but still moved ahead and did it. 

This time also one moment when it went down straight 90 degree it was  so thrilling. Later there was not so much fear but enjoyment. Situation of Gaurav was not so good. He closed eyes at maximum duration of ride.
So the next one was 4. Jurassic park ride. It made scenery of the movie which also made some enthusiasm in the end by making it slight roller coaster.

Next was 5. Spider-man ride, this theme ride was not at all fearing. But interesting was it when superman saved us many time from some devil.

Next one was 6. Space fantasy , where we kept bags in locker in 100 yen. 

We choose to go in singles line where waiting was quite less then other one. I liked this ride so much that I forced to do that again. And we did it again. It was perfect combo of Roller coaster and theme ride. This one was ichiban (best) ride for me. Interesting thing was when we withdrew our bag from locker, it returned 100yen back.

Later too he had lots of time. In the meanwhile we looked for road show  of USJ due to its 15th anniversary year, also we looked at some stage performances.
Next we went for 4D movie of shrek. This was also 1st time when I saw 4D movie.
We spent some time in shops over there. We took pictures all the time. There was one section for children and women too. We looked around that too.

       

It was around 6 o clock and we decided to go back.

So this is how our day spent at Osaka with so much entertainment and thrill. 

This was ichiban ii nichi (best day) spent in the Japan.

In my opinion its must go place if you visit the Japan.

Japan Diaries-2

Japan Diaries-2

Overwhelming Kyoto-(Nara) Trip 26-27 Nov 2016

Minasan, Ohayo Gozaimasu (Good morning everybody :P) sukoshi Japanese!!

The trip started (hajimemashita) at around 5:25am on 26^th Nov.

Trip preparation started an evening before when started cooking food for the 3 days.. ya you heard it right 3 days.. I made chhole for 2 and poories for 3 days which generally does not get bad in mentioned number of days. Its in line with the fact that I am pure veg and don't even eat all vegitables too. And I didn't want to waste time in searching the veg food which is quite difficult to find in Japan. Hence I preferred like so.

We departed the hostel on our cycles. We were supposed to get the JR train of 6:01am from Hamamatsu. Pl note- here we means total 13 no. of people. We all gathered at eki (railway station) on time except Diksha san who made the plan to come by Shinkansen (expensive but fast train).

A fact dragged me in shocked state when I came to know that I forgot my mobile at room.. ya just forgot that... Shit shit shit was the actually feeling which I felt. Demo (but) it was not feasible to go back to room to get the mobile as Eki is around 3km from our Minami Iba Ryo (dormitory/hostel). I badly needed that just for the clicking the pictures. P.S. My mobile do clicks nice pictures with so much clarity.

For the 1^st two days there was not much problem as we all would be together and pics would not be the problem. But on the 3^rd day, yeah this trip was actually of 3 days for Gaurav and Me who planned to go to Osaka for Universal Studio.

But I got slightly (chotto) relaxed when I asked Arup for his mobile for 3^rd day and he affirmed.

So we 12 ppl boarded for our way to Kyoto... It was not so much cold so we were enjoying the weather.

We arrived Kyoto at around 10:00. People started taking some breakfast from combini (small convenient stores).

Combini- In Japan you can find these in every city like 7/11, lawson etc. These remains open for 24 hours and almost all much needed things can be purchased from here.

I already had milk and breakfast prior to leaving the hostel. So I dint find any need to eat any thing that time.

We opted for the bus pass to visit full day in Kyoto.

One day pass a kind of method by which we can take numerous rides in the bus in whole day. Its available almost everywhere in Japan. Costs around 600-1000 Yen..

Our trip planner was Pranjal. Doumo Arigato gozaimashita (thank you very much).

Plan- Day-1- Fushimi Inari, Kinkakuji temple followed by Kiyomizu dera.

So 1^st one was Fushimi Inari which is mainly famous for lots n lots of tori gate. Tori gate is the entrance gate at every temple in Japan and its shape more or less similar.

We had lots of expectation of autumn colors (koyo) in our mind. But this first location quite disappointed us all as very few tree leaves had turned into red. But Tori gate looked awesome so we clicked takusan takusan shashin (lots of pictures). We walked on Inari yama (mount Inari). We spent around 2-3 hours there. We started feeling hungry so stayed a little more there to have our lunch from own cooked lunch boxes.

Our next destination was Kinkakuji Temple. Its kind of Golden Temple. Weather was so good so we were enjoying along with it. (ii tenki deshita) It was nice place. Our earlier disappointment was disappeared when we saw autumn color everywhere at this location. We really felt it great to see such a beautiful scenery. So mochiron (obviously) took a lots of pictures there.

Note- This is best reason to visit the Kyoto due to Autumn season when every leaves turn into red, just like flower.

Our next destination was Kiyomizu dera. We got back to Kyoto eki to move to next one. We could see a small but good fountain there. That was good enough.

For kiyomizu dera, We heard that some light show would be there but frankly speaking it can be summarized like.. naam bada darshan chhota.

In the name of light show, just lighting was available on the tress to make those shine and radiant.

There rain also started (ame ga futte imashita). Many of us thought that is it artificial/ is it snow... But actually it was rain. Its already turned into so dark.. (mou kuraku narimashita).

After that we all gathered a restaurant Chakra where Indian food was available. Actually it was Bangladesh restro. So had dinner there. (I already had food with me so had that only :P).

Now we moved to nearby eki by bus to reach at our apartments which were booked online.

2 apartments was there so we divided into 2 grps.

So here comes the name of all 13 people who were there in our trip. 1^St grp- Arup, Gaurav, Ankur Garg, Me, Arpita, Mona and Diksha (Zembu, total-7ppl).

2^nd grp- Pranjal, Amit, Ankur Jha, Jagdeesh, Sameer, Rudra (6 ppl).

After arriving to eki we boarded to different trains to reach our staying place. Arup had internet so we with the help of GPS we could easily reach the site.

Now the real suspense begins... House was locked digitally. We didn't find any person there who can tell how to enter inside. Now call was made to the AnkurJha, who booked the apartment to ask what to do. We tried to call the owner of the apartment but it was not being picked up. It was 11:00PM and ame ga futte imashita (it was raining too). We just has one alphabetic code in mail but at lock only numeric keys were available.

We looked for ny person nearby but it was helpless. We met with a person in just nearby restaurant but I think he was frightened and just said wakaranai (Dont know) and closed the gate.

We tried calling again and again but it was all useless. I searched out other method of communication and mailed & msged too. 2^Nd grp was also continuously trying to be in touch with owner. After may be around half an hour, they could get in touch to get a pdf mentioning the code and method how to get into the apartment.

1^st code entered then small box opened whr we found a lock (with numeric lock) so after 2^nd code we opened lock to find the key inside the lock.. I know it wud be quite difficult to understand but ya it was this much complicated at least for the persons like us who were facing this for the first time..

So finally we could get into it. It was so much spacious with all facilities inside. Just after getting in we did nothing but sleep.

Plan- Day-2:  Togetsukyo bridge- Arashiyama Bamboo- Sightseeing boat. Then Nara- Nara park, deer park (todaiji Temple)

As per the plan we aimed for Arashiyama, which is famous for Bamboo tree, as

we planned to foregather at Arashiyama eki at around 8 but due to raining all day as predicted, we started little late. We (1^st grp) took the train from katsura to Arashiyama, just after boarding Diksha san noticed that she left her kasa (umbrella) at the bench of eki. As she liked her umbrella So we decided to go back by next train. We arrived there back and saw one person was carrying the umbrella so Diksha san talked with him and took umbrella from him, thank god we were just in time. Little late and she would have lost her umbrella forever.

We had clicked photos outside the arashoiyama eki. Lots n lots of koyo (autumn color) was available. Started taking pics below one tress whose leaves fell on the transparent umbrella which created such a stunning look of it. Everybody tempted to click pics with that naturally made designed umbrella.

Just walking for few time we arrived at Togetsukyo Bridge where we witnessed the so magnificent beauty of nature. It was too fascinating to express in the words. If this was so mesmerizing then obviously we spent quite a lot time to enjoy and clicking pics.

Later on we moved to Arashiyama-Bamboo groove. The place is famous for bamboo tress. It was raining continuously as per full day rain prediction. It was not so much heavy and we all had carrying the umbrella so daijoubu deshita (no problem). Still due to consistency of rain, it drenched us all along with our bags. Bambooo tree location was aesthetically so pleasing.

We already left the planning of getting the sightseeing boat due to continue rain. The crossing through Bamboos was around 2 km.

Just after this crossing we arrived to the location where we saw the boating location of Ōi River.

So thought twisted back and we decided to take the boat. Boat was covered from top and sides too just not to allow rain to come inside. It was such an awesome scenery over these. Hills looked so good with autumn colors.

Interesting thing happened when a other boat came near to ours for selling the goods !! Ya river shopping sounds omoshiroi ne (interesting). Some people took some specialized famous drink n enjoyed the boating. Overall totemo omoshirokatta desu.

After it we went to nearby eki to get the train to Nara- our next destination. We arrived there at around 5pm. There we could see lots of deer roaming freely. (just like dogs in our country). We quickly moved for Todaiji temple but hard luck it was already closed. So we could not witnessed a very large statue of Buddha.

But we clicked the pics with deer. And decided to go back to the Nara eki.

From there I and Gaurav got separated from group for our 3^rd day plan to Osaka- USJ (I expect to post the detail in my next post)

Overall it was an overwhelming trip (Title of the trip :P)

 

Japan Diaries-1

Japan Diaries

Konnichiwa !!!

Its quite a long when I am back on blogging !! Life has so much changed in these year, simply a lot..

20^th Nov'2016 at Hamamatsu

It can be declared a day of Cycling, infect another day of cycling. We, (Arup, Gaurav and me) had planned to go for long ride on bicycle !!

Riding cycle was never so interesting as of here. I salute the Japanese Govt/ Ppl for maintaining such a favorable conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. You would be surprising to know that priority in terms of riders …. Cars

Its really surprising for the Indian people.

Weather was good... (I mean ii tenki deshita, ya I have learnt Japanese language before arrival so know some)

We have planned to go to Shitoro Aeon Mall, but plan is just modified just before beginning of the this short trip (not so short considering cycle)

Arup has internet in his cell, thank god as navigation helps a lot here.

So it all started after lunch i.e. around 12:00 O clock. One landmark came in between was SanaruKo (Sanaru lake). 

Where Gaurav and Arup wanna to stay to stayed n clicked some pics as always we do !!! Halting for around 10 mins, we moved for next destination which came out to be Shonai lake. Again a beautiful view with serene environment but windy.

After that Hamamatsu Flower park came in our way. Going inside was slightly costly affair and time also didnt allow us to get into.

After that Arup found out a nearby temple Shintoji Shrine, we truly disappointed by looking at it as nobody ya nobody was around. But still can say that man changa to everything seems to be good, thatswhat I felt.

Next place came in our way was Hamamatsu Zoo (places came in way because we never planned to go there :P). Opposite view was so nice so stayed (tomarimashita) n clicked some pics.

After that we reached to a marvelous landscape.. front of HamanaKo (Hamana lake). Dont know but I felt so great on arriving there which is too difficult to express in words. Such a magnetic and mesmerizing view.
So finally we arrived to our final destination Kanzanji Onsen (Natural hot water from gound). We sat there keeping the legs inside hot water (netsu mizu .. little bit of Japanese :P) It was such a relieving experience. We stayed there around half an hour.

There we met with 2 Japanese aunties with whom we talked for a while and made them clicked our pics. They were actually so surprised to know that we have came here by cycle.

There, one interesting actually 2 interesting things happened.

1) Aunty had her daughter too. We heard scolding aunty to her daughter that see these ppl have learnt Nihongo (japanese) for one month and they are expert (joju) and you even stayed in US and New Zealand but still not so joju in English.. haha

2) Aunty told some thing something in Japanese which we cud not understant properly but our Expert Mr Arup made it like... that Aunty has her family in Hokkaido (northern point of Japan) and Pihar in some southern point and she lives in middle of that, at Nagoya.-- (God knows hw Arup made it this way :P)

So it was around 3.5 hours cycling in reaching to the destination. The path was so enthralling.. lots of high and low slopes on which our cycle speed varied from zero to may be 30-40kmph. (taihen omoshirokatta desu ne).

We decided to return back but nearby again we looked to the Kanzanji Temple, nice one.
After that we headed for our earlier planned destination shitoro mall. It was all around dark.

Riding in so dark was altogether a different experience. We were three so did get afraid at all.

We arrived Shitoro and went to pick up store (where I got gud deal of suitcase n jacket) and Aeon mall (huge mall it was).

We returned back to our home at around 9:00 o clock. So this 9 hours Journey was really really amazing (sugoii ne) and interesting.

I hope, I would be able to write blogs at least while being in Japan.

Thanks buddies. :)

 Some more pics :)

Grand father has created history.

Hello all,

Hows u doing .. Hope for fineness.

I want to express my feeling abt the program of Beawar on Bausa's Maskhaman (Tapashya, I mean Upwas for 1 month continuously. ).

It was the very very great event. I assume it was very much worthier then any marriage.

It was celebrated with pomp and show. Initially Shobha Yatra was there from home Jain Temple via market and finally to Ranka bhawan (Sabha Bhawan of Beawar).

Later on there was program at marasa's place. U must be knowing that around 30 members were spoken on that day for Bausa's Tapashya.

Me, Monu, nanu,papa, bade papa, Dipu bhaiya, Mummy, chachiji, Bai, chintu, both jijasas all spoken very well.

Those moments were really unexplainable yaar. Literally speaking almost every member of family were having the tears of proud and happiness in their eyes

I was deeply impressed by wordings of Dipu bhaiya... so I would like to tell you those wordings.

He told abt the moment at the Jain temple. Where he was taking the pics of Bausa n Bai, then some body told that he shud not show his back to idol of temple. He thought for a while but again he thought the he was not actually doing the wrong. He was not showing back to the God but he was actually in front of him.

It lasted upto 1:00 PM. The timing was upto 11 only but it was so kind of moments that none was even left the hall in between.

After this Khana of all people was there in Rankaji's Bagichi.

The very next day was Parna of Maskhaman. So every family member washed the legs of Bausa n Bai with milk and took the blessings.

Overall I would say that I am actually unable to express the feeling about the moment. That was really really fabulous. I am very much proud on being the member of Naulakha's family, where so many Bhokaals are there in every field.

Vacation time Bt It was not actually vacation for me. And 20th June was unforgettable ...

Vacation time after graduation, it was the time in which lot of surprises came across. One thing was very very special that can’t be shared here but still there was lot of other experiences to share.

Here I present this package of incidences about my Bhopal and Indore trip.

I went Bhopal with my bro for his joining in BHEL. I was there for four days. I visited well known place i.e. Lake View. It was the pleasant weather that enhanced the beauty of the place. The day when we landed to Bhopal, it rained, so weather became cool and calm which caused relaxing from burning heat. As my bro was totally engaged with joining formalities and also my friends Baba, Setia and Priyanka who are from Bhopal got the joining before my arrival. So I didn’t find the company to roam around. And in Bhopal the places which worth visit are quite far away, hence, going by the Magic (Special conveyance system which I saw there in MP only) was very difficult.

Afterwards I went to Indore with the purpose of visit. There I was received by Vipin n his gf Poonam. He used to live a PG. I experienced lot of weird things there.

I attended the well known 'Nahta classes' coaching of CA. It was really great to see that the ratio of boys to girls was around 1:1. I couldn't think that how the people used to study there in the crowd of 4-500 people.

On the same day we went to the movie Ravan in PVR, name of moll I forgot L. And in evening went to Sayaji, where I played Balling for 1st time. It was alright not so exciting one.

The next day 20^th June was really fabulous and I never imagined that it would turn out as unforgettable for me. Actually lot of happening happened in the single day. We four people planned to go "TAFRI" very beautiful place (Kind of Garden) of Indore. In the morning weather wasn't good so it was quite uncertain that we would go or not. But we went. In the afternoon it became okay.

Talking about Tafri, we started with an water spray kind of thing. In that there were discs on which if u keeps your legs, water would be sprayed upon u. We all were started to spray water on each other and hence we all became wet that time.

Afterwards we enjoyed the natural merry-go-rounds there. Like climbing on the tree “Machan” n many more.

Then we thought of going into the swimming pool there. We went into the pool with our full dress vo bhi 1^st time J. Still we found it quite funny. Later on we moved towards DJ, where we danced for around 1:30 hour. Meanwhile weather became so pleasant. Very nice breeze was blowing.

Moreover, there was a large pool for boating. So we all thought that we would not leave anything today. So we moved towards that. Paddle boating was really interesting. In that we were splashing water on each other. So again we became wet totally.

At around 5 O' clock we decided to move from there. Actually that very day was the B'day of one of four, Lekha, very beautiful. So after buying cake n ol we all went to a hotel for the party.

We celebrated her B'day . In the mean time rain was started. The intensity of rain was very very high. But we have to go because I was supposed to take the bus to go to the Ajmer, n Lekha was supposed to get in the hostel by 9 O' clock. But we were literally shievering when we came out in rain. I and Vipin was driving bike and scooty respectively n Poonam and Lekha were sitting at back. Rain was really very very fast. We were not able to open our eyes but still we were trying our best. We drove around 3-4 kms to reach nearby area of residential place of them. But in between we stopped to have the ice cream. In shivering cold, having ice-cream means totally different experience. That u too must have been experienced some where some time. If u had then share it yaar.. N u know Lekha also told us that She never thought of so much fun on her b’day. So sab khush.

Later on Me and Vipin came to his pg home. I changed the dress and packed up the things quickly and left to catch the bus. I was fortunate enough that after getting so late, found one bus going to Ajmer. So i got into it after saying bye to Vipin n his Gf.

I talked to my very* good friend and told about my experience during bus journey. Journey was very quite cool and comfortable.

In morning around 9 o' clock arrived to Ajmer. There also I planned to meet and visit with my coaching friends. We went to some fort there on bike. (I m not able to recall the name shayad Prthviraj sa kuch tha) Then we had dinner in Mango masala and returnd to bhua's home and next day to Beawar.

Thanks a lot to all the members and specially to Vipin. In two days Vipin he has taken me to every famous place in the Indore. So This 22^nd of June will remain unforgettable for me. We also captured some of the moments, which are with Poonam right now.

Best Night Out ever !!!!