Jaipur to Bijak ki Pahadi

Viratnagar sits about 90 km from Jaipur, which makes it an easy morning out. Arvind and I picked it for a small day ride: the old Buddhist monastery on the hill at Bijak ki Pahadi, and the Hanuman temple up there with it. We took the road out through Chandwaji and Shahpura to Viratnagar.

A 4 AM start in the cold

We left at around 4 in the morning. March mornings still carry a chill, so we both pulled on base layers under the riding gear. Off the bike it didn’t feel that cold — but at speed the wind gets through, and our fingers had started to freeze by the time we got there. The views along the road made up for it.

Tea at the foot of the hill

The monastery and the temple both sit up on the hill, so we parked at the bottom beside Shri Balaji Food Center. We sat there and thawed out over two cups of tea each, and the café owner agreed to keep our helmets and gear while we walked up.

The monastery ruins

The climb is short — about half a kilometre on foot. At the top are the ruins of the old Buddhist monastery, now one of India’s protected archaeological sites. Only a little of it still stands, but enough to show how the builders laid it out and the architecture it had. We spent a while there, and took our time with the cameras.

The Hanuman cave temple

Past the ruins, we reached the temple — Beejak Hanuman Mandir, set inside a cave. It is a calm place. Arvind and I sat there for somewhere between half an hour and an hour before heading back down.

Home by eleven

We collected our helmets from Shri Balaji Food Center and rode back the same way that morning, rolling into Jaipur around 10:30–11. A small trip, but riding in that cold was a big part of the fun.