Day 1, Gurgaon to Pushkar
The night before the trip, I travelled to Neha and Narayan’s home in Gurgaon so that we could begin the journey early in the morning.
After a couple of hours of sleep, we woke up at 3 am, got ready in a jiffy and by 4 am, we were all set to begin our road trip to Pushkar.
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It was cold outside (around 4 degree Celsius), but relatively cozy in Narayan’s Brunello (Skoda Superb.)
After Manesar, temperature further dipped to 2.5 degree Celsius.
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And a few kilometers later, we started encountering fog dense enough to slow us down to a crawl. Thankfully though, we only encountered it 3-4 times during our entire journey and that too for a few hundred meters.
Even though we were travelling to Pushkar on a long weekend, traffic was sparse for the most part, except truck traffic and that too fizzled out after Daruhera.
The Delhi – Jaipur Highway was full of potholes, yet the drive was effortless for the most part. In fact, it was so smooth that we somehow missed The Hotel Highway King. Our usual breakfast stop.
Then we missed the Highway King on the outskirts of Jaipur as well (after taking the Jaipur bypass). So we had to stop at Highway King at Bagru for breakfast.
Just as we stepped out of the car, a car that was pulling out of the parking lot, stopped in front of me. It was a fellow BCMTian,
@simba4 and he had recognized me. We chatted for a while and then parted ways and while I headed inside, he made his way towards Jodhpur.
Highway King at Bagru had been a disappointment when I had stopped here earlier this year. This time around though, food was slightly better, though service was slow.
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The lighting though was perfect for portraits.
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After having our fill, we continued our journey towards Pushkar. And apart from the tolls, we didn’t stop anywhere else.
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Around 10:15 am, we managed to reach Pushkar, after covering the Gurgaon – Pushkar distance in mere 6 hours and 15 minutes and that too, while we weren’t driving all that fast.
I had booked the RTDC Heritage Hotel Sarovar in Pushkar since it had decent rooms for the price, safe parking and is located at the very beginning of the Pushkar Lake and the market road.
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Even though we had arrived early, we were allowed to check in, as the rooms were available. I got the corner non-ac room (226) with two balconies, while Neha and KP had to contend with a single balcony of 225.
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View from balcony 1.
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View from balcony 2.
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Even though the rooms weren’t all that great and needed maintenance, they were comfortable enough. Barring the fact that the room cooler window couldn’t be closed (cooler was permanently attached to it) and it let in ample amount of cold air.
After sleeping for a couple of hours, we decide to explore Pushkar and have lunch at a café.
As luck would have it, we saw Narayan Café and decided to have our lunch there. Narayan even met Mr. Narayan, the owner of Narayan Café and after having a bit too much of Narayan-Narayan, we had our lunch.
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The food, for the most part, was good, especially the banana pancake and grilled mixed veg cheese sandwich. Even the banana lassi and pineapple shake were good. The only downside was there were a lot of flies and to keep them at bay, we had to endure the ceiling fan.
Even though we just had lunch and had walked for barely a few hundred meters, we stopped again for falafel roll at Ganga Café, my regular place for falafel rolls since 2006.
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As usual, the falafel roll was delicious and after eating it, we kept walking along the outer periphery of the lake, shopping and having dekho of all the shops along the road to Brahma Temple. And while Neha and Narayan bought a few things, I decided to keep my shopping confined to the last day.
However, I did indulge in a glass of Kashmiri lemonade, which is essentially normal lemon soda with a spoonful of pudina chutney. I can’t say it was delicious, but it was different and refreshing.
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By now, the sun had set and the cold moon was out in its full glory.
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Of course, the wanted boy err… the man was out prowling the streets of Pushkar as well.
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So we decided to head to the Lake View Café, even though we weren’t feeling hungry.
I go there each and every year, not just for the food, rather for the serenity of Pushkar at night. Even during the fair time, it is peaceful, today; it was even calmer and chilled out.
Of course, the food at Lake View is made with love, so it is good as well.
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Hence the waiter seemed dismayed that we didn’t order anything for well over an hour, except a glass of green fruit juice and just enjoyed the calm and beauty of Pushkar and clicked a few photographs.
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It was only around 9 pm (the closing time) that we finally ordered food and while Neha order matar paneer with rotis, I ordered a veggie pizza. After taking order for the pizza, the waiter asked me if I wanted to make it spicy, I said yes. I had no clue he was talking about the paneer and poor Neha, who can’t handle spicy food anyways, had to pay for that confusion
. The pizza though was delicious
.
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After having our fill, we headed back to our hotel and chilled out in Neha and Narayan’s room. Tomorrow we were supposed to travel to Ajmer and although I was planning to photograph the sunrise, it wasn’t till midnight that I went back to my room and even then, could only manage to sleep after 2 am.
To be continued…
