Mumbi - Rajasthan - 6400km over two months

[Theloststory]

We recently spent over two months road tripping in Rajasthan, mostly for work.
Since we had to take plenty of stopovers, research etc, we decided to drive down and keep the car with us. The trip, which was supposed to last a couple of weeks, stretched over two months, and we weren't even prepared for the winters.

We left in September and took the NH8 to Udaipur, our first stop. We left at 6 am and were in Udaipur by around 6pm. The highway is well built but extremely boring, with factories on either side and tonnes of trucks.

The moment you hit Rajasthan border though, the journey becomes scenic again. Road conditions are fairly good, but we don't remember eating great food in this stretch. It was just OK.

We spent a day in Udaipur, finished our meetings and moved towards Jaipur. This part of the journey is beautiful. The exit from Udaipur towards Jaipur has a gorgeous new tunnel which cuts through the Aravallis, which I think are amongst the most beautiful hills I have seen.

We stopped at a lovely dhaba for breakfast. While the man prepared the yummy parathas, we went for a stroll next to a river and spent some good bird watching.

(some pictures are shot on a Fuji X Pro 1, some on an iPhone and some on Kodachrome on a Canon A1. )

 

[Theloststory]

The entire journey from Udaipur to Jaipur is gorgeous. We stopped many a time at local water bodies watching the beginning of inflow of migratory birds. I do hope we are able to preserve these wildlife heritage sites.

We were staying in Jaipur with friends, so we parked the car there made plans to visit Jodhpur for the Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF).
Why not drive to Jodhpur? Because we wanted to stay deep inside the blue city, where taking a car inside is impossible.

Anyway, the train to Jodhpur is pretty decent, except for the fact that there was NO FOOD! We had taken the 6 am train, and hoped to find some food in the train pantry. No one came. We asked around. No one knew why. It seems the regular travellers ae aware of this and had carried their own food. We got hold of some biscuits but they weren't enough. The stations where the train halted too were devoid of any food vendors. I guess this was in preparation of the App based food economy. We were disappointed. Part of the joy of a train journey was eating steaming hot local food along the way : the samosas, the aloo poories, the knick knacks...

Anyway, we arrived in Jodhpur super hungry. We had chosen to stay at the Shahi Haveli in Jodhpur, and it was a gorgeous property. Affordable, clean rooms, right behind the Mehrangarh Fort. The owner is a kind and nice gentleman and stays in the heritage Haveli with his family. It was my wife's birthday during one of the days here, and he kindly arranged for a delicious cake for us.

Attached are pictures of Shahi Haveli room and the view of Mehrangarh Fort from the haveli terrace, where we had all our meals.

 

[Theloststory]

The Jodhpur RIFF is an excellent music festival which typically happens towards the end of September. It celebrates the folk music of Rajasthan with world folk. Do take time out and visit. The festival takes place inside the Mehrangarh Fort. Tickets are very expensive but you can save money by buying well in advance. Delicious food is served inside but its expensive as well. Each dish is Rs 500, (not counting the roti and water), but it should be enough for two.

The performances are 24 hours and the best ones are early morning ones.

(During the fest, I ran into a man with funny stories, every time I stood the queue for my Laal Maans. I called this man 'Mutton Man'. He would be dressed differently for every event, in ensemble dresses complete with hats/pagris, matching shoes, accessories etc. And would talk endlessly. At one point I even avoided the 'means' dish queue to avoid Mutton Man. But he would always find me. It was kind of a good natured fun, and we had lots of laughs over it. We met him again, later, at the Jodhpur Station, and my fear was he shouldn't find a seat next to us. Luckily he didntn't).

 

[Theloststory]

Jodhpur, like all rajasthani cities, is awesome for food. We spent the days and evenings eating around, hanging in the markets, or listening to performances. The chai, mirch ke pakode and other snacks ensured we had enough reserves to avoid Mutton Man if need be.

We also took some time out to visit the sand dunes of Khimsar. The Hotel at Khimsar is beautiful, a gorgeous remodelled old Fort/Haveli. As usual, in Rajasthan.

 

[Theloststory]

From Jodhpur, we went back to Jaipur. We had plenty of work in Jaipur, meeting people, researching etc. Plus many trips to Sawai Madhopur. No trip to Jaipur is complete without the Pyaar Ki Kachori and jalebi breakfast with Lassi, Chaach and milk cakes from LMB. Plus the mandatory shopping trips to various shops selling gorgeous block printed stuff. We were collecting more calories and luggage for the trip back home. As usual, in Rajasthan.

The walled city of Jaipur is in a slight mess right now because of the ongoing metro rail construction work. But we are sure it will be completed quickly. We were very impressed with the detail in Jaipur to general cleanliness and saving the culture and art. Roadside walls are painted in rajasthani style, plenty of trees seem to have bene newly planted and overall, its a nice, clean city.

 

[Theloststory]

We had some work at Alwar. So on our way, we stopped by at Viratnagar. This was once the capital of the ancient Mahajanapada Kingdom. It is supposed to have an ancient Buddhist Monastery, an old hunting lodge of Akbar, an Epitaph from Ashoka The Great, amongst other historical treasures. We didn't have time to see all. We tried to look for the Epitaph of Ashoka, but found nothing inside the ASI enclosure. Did we miss it? Was it removed? We don't know.

We came across what looked like it could have been Akbar's lodge, but is now a Jain Dharamshala and Temple/Monastery of sort. Not sure. but the architecture does look Mughal. And its ancient.

This rock is supposed to have Ashoka's Epitaph somewhere. We couldn't find it.

We found this old temple on the hill next to Ashoka's 'Epitaph'.

 

[Theloststory]

From here we stopped by at Sili Serh. It's a beautiful lake with a beautiful property belonging to the Rajasthan State Tourism Development Corporation. On closer inspection, we found many dead fish floating in the lake. Is the lake contaminated? Do the fish here have a disease? Are effluents being dumped into the water? We won't know.

We wanted to stay at the Sili Serh RTDC property (Picture below). But the rooms were terrible. Small, tiny windows, weirdly built with giant pillars inside them, and smelling strongly of fresh paint, we couldn't stay here. So we moved on and stayed in Alwar.

 

[Theloststory]

We stayed in Alwar at the Nirvana Hotel, a decent, well priced place. We just had meetings to attend so after finishing those we went for a quick safari at the Sariska National Park. It;s gorgeous.

 

[Theloststory]

From Sariska, we came back to Jaipur. Had more work here. Then a couple of trips to Sawai Madhopur. Ranthambore National Park is a beautiful forest but is very commercialised. The dust little town is full of hotels, fast driving safari jeeps clog the streets, too many tourists crowd the poor tigers...

 

[Theloststory]

A couple of trips between Jaipur, Gurgaon, Delhi and Sawai Madhopur made up a lot of the kms on this trip. We learnt that the Jaipur- Gurgaon (NH8) highway is terrible. Its full off trucks and horrible jams, especially near Manesar. We once drove from Jaipur to Chanakya Puri in Delhi and took 8 hours! While in Jaipur we also read of many instances of robberies on this highway. If someone can suggest an alternative route, which is good roads, free from traffic and scenic beauty, we would love to try to out.

Throughout the drive, often there were these beautiful tall Sarkhanda Grass in bloom: