The really green bits of Rajasthan.

Alwar Bagh is a small, privately-owned resort near Sariska Wildlife Reserve in Rajasthan. I went to this place with two friends hoping against hope to catch a glimpse of a tiger in the Reserve and also to get a day off from the city.

Reaching Alwar Bagh isn’t difficult as long as you have your basic navigation system in your smartphone in place.

The Reserve, merely 20 kms from the resort is very vast and full of beautiful animals we have been given liberty to ogle at. We couldn't catch a glimpse of a tiger or any other member of the cat family but the highlight of the safari was the dancing peacocks.

Shortly before it started raining, all these peacocks, left, right and centre, started performing their majestic mating rituals. It was purely enchanting! For the lack of a good dancing peacock picture, I have tried to compensate by putting up here a picture of a peacock sitting as if it owned not only the tree but also the entire bloomin' park.

Back to the resort then!

The place is decent enough. I'd give it a 3.5 stars considering they are severely under-staffed and a little rough around the edges. The owners are warm, friendly and quite chatty. The food is very good, very home-like. There really isn't much to do inside the resort except beat the heat in a swimming pool located very conveniently near the rooms.

Alwar and surrounding areas are surprisingly green- maybe because they have yet to be exposed to tourist onslaught. Here is a picture of Siliserh Lake- a big, beautiful, clean body of water with not many tourists around. What more can you expect?

Here's another surprise, a big Hollywood style signage on top of a hillock.

All in all, it was a day well-spent in a place surprisingly pretty, quiet and mostly undiscovered.