The Rajasthan Road Trip

DAY 1: DELHI TO JAIPUR – 260 kms
Started off at 9 in the morning after intending to start off at 7 am. Got caught in the mad long weekend crowd all of whom seemed to leave delhi towards Rajasthan. It was after 30-40kms of traffic that the roads really opened up and we hit cruising speeds.
All of us seemed to be suffering from a Rock On hangover and that pretty much was our anthem for the entire trip though we had decent servings of Queen, coldplay, GNR and the entire forgotten hard rock genre. Sarsoon ke khet: I blame DDLJ for wasting 20 mins of our time. The women wanted sarsoon ka khet pictures which we took with great amusement till we were intimidated off by someone who couldn’t have been the farmer of that field.
We hit jaipur after about 4 hours of leisurely driving. We made a spontaneous decision to visit amer fort. The fort wasn’t spectacular in retrospect, compared to the forts in jaisalmer and jodhpur. But it did have its moments. The langurs outside the fort were a pesky lot and seemed to be in cahoots with the kulfi vendor.
At this point we were starving and wanted to eat at the first visible food joint, but ekta’s insistence to adhere to a lonely planet recommendation and eat at Rawats paid rich dividends. The onion kachori and mirchi pakoda were incredible. And the ras malai was just pure poetry. “Better than sex” someone said, not sure who it was.
With our stomachs still in orgasmic overdrive we made our way towards our hotel “Chirmi Palace” (http://www.chirmi.com/). A value for money hotel is Chirmi palace, run by its probably erstwhile aristocratic owners, since it is a heritage hotel.
Choki dani turned to be a big disappointment after a long bumper to bumper drive. There were about a million people in line to get in. So ditching choki dani we made our way to MI road and dined at Hotel Natraj where we tasted our first authentic Rajasthani Dal Batti (frankly I found it to be overrated).

DAY 2: JAIPUR TO JODHPUR – 331 Kms
Planned to start early at 7 am. Managed to leave by 8:30. The initial drive till ajmer was a beaut – 4 lane highway with a median. Post Ajmer, it was a non median 2 lane highway, but the quality of the roads were still great. At this point of time I must state the general state of roads in Rajasthan is great. Smooth roads which re introduce you to the pleasure of driving.
Jodhpur was touched well past lunchtime at 2:30pm. Again we curbed our hunger and searched for our Lonely planet restaurant called Gypsy. The rajasthan thali was good, but the highlight was the makhiani lassi which was quite sinful. I experimented with a Pizza in a momentary lapse of reason.
We then made our way to our hotel Devi Bhavan where were told that we had no reservation, but that just led to us going to our first choice Ratan Vilas. Another heritage hotel, this one had really large majestic rooms with antique furniture.
The Umaid Bhavan Palace - Made all of us really envy those born in to the royal lineage. The museum laid down details of just how luxurious royal life can be.
Ganta Ghar – the jodhpur market. We decided to spend our evening scrounging for souvenirs of the trip. Fairly routine stuff, Supriya went into each and every store which sold something and I kept lingering near the door with the occasional peep in to ask if she was done yet (every 30 secs), or just shrugging my shoulders or trying my balancing skills on a stone.
The Mehrangarh Fort dinner – Easily among the top 2 moments of our entire trip. Be warned to book in advance though. The fort closes for visitors at 5. But from 8 pm to 11pm the terrace of the fort is converted to a dinner place with about 5-6 tables laid out, and you can have a royal dinner amidst the brilliantly lit fort on one side and the psychedelic night city of jodhpur on the other. The food though good was overshadowed by the surreal ambience of our dinner setting and gave us some of the most beautiful snaps of the trip

DAY 3: JODHPUR TO JAISALMER 305 Kms.
The day started off leisurely at 9 with a trip the Mehrangarh fort. Our guide was brilliant and so was the entire experience of seeing the fort. It took us a good 3 hours to complete the fort.
Then it was a quick dash to Ratan vilas where pigged out again and started off to Jaisalmer.
Easily the best drive of the trip. Single lane highway but a smooth road with minimal traffic made this an easy drive. The drive was perectly capped off by a beautiful desert sunset.
Enroute we did some roadside sand dune climbing.
Reached jaisalmer post sunset, parked our car just outside the fort walls and made our way in anna’s auto to Hotel Victoria. We were all eagerly looking forward to our stay in this hotel as the pictures on this hotels website were flattering and the fact that this was a part of the fort itself was romantic in a way. BTW the jaisalmer fort is actually inhabited by about 5000 families. The king of Jaisalmer had sold off portions of the fort to its subjects who later converted them to hotels, shops etc. The larger population of jaisalmer resides outside the fort which also housed a vibrant market.
Post soaking in our hotel rooms and view, we headed down to the market to shop. We ate dinner at Trios which had a great view of the fort while the food was average, but that didn’t stop us from pigging.
We celebrated Republic Day and Supriya’s bday by cutting a cake on the terrace of the hotel.

DAY 4: JAISALMER TO SAM DUNES – 45 Kms
Next day was a guided tour of the jaisalemer palace, jain temple and the patwa haveli. All majestic. But what was captivating about Jaisalmer was the fort itself, with its various café’s and shops. We also saw some local kids perform popular bollywood numbers with dance steps and everything. There were more foreign than Indian tourists and the place reminded me of Mcleodganj.
The sightseeing was capped off by a leisure beer and lunch at Café Shanti which had a majestic view of the city.
About 4pm we set off to Sam dunes to spend the night in the desert. After checking in to the rather luxurious tents at Prince Desert camp, we set off on our camel ride. Lallu and Michael Jackson were able mounts while their handlers took us deep into the desert after some friendly & monetary persuasion.
The sunset in the desert was again a breathtaking experience. We spent an hour quietly sitting on the dunes watching the sun go rather hurriedly over the horizon while anand clicked some memorable snaps.
The cultural program in the desert was surprisingly good. The troupe has some killer percussionists while the lead singer had a engaging voice. The dancing girl was average at best though she did perform some difficult but unneeded tricks.
The desert night was cold but not unbearable as we shut lights off early after an ordinary dinner.

DAY 5: SAM DUNES TO JAIPUR – 640 Kms (the killer day)
This was the day we were afraid of. The day where man and machine would be pushed to traverse the entire breadth of the state of Rajashtan in one day. For the first time on the trip we actually managed to set off on our planned time which was 7:30 am (helped by us skipping showers and bfast). But Murphy’ s law struck when we had our first flat precisely 15 mins after we left Sam dunes. Though I knew how to change a flat, some bystanders presumed that us city yuppies were incapable of doing so and lent us a helping hand, well they changed the tyre while we supervised. We were then on our way and had to stop over at jaisalmer to repair the punctured tyre.
Breakfast was paneer parathas which we gobbled up and quickly drove off. We hit jodhpur by about lunch time and kept driving and driving and driving till we hit jaipur by about 7 pm. Chirmi palace welcomed us. Anand and ekta headed off to choki dani for unfinished business while me and sup slept off our fatigue.

DAY 6 : Jaipur to Ranthambore (190kms)
The drive to sawai madhopur was smooth till we hit Uniyara, post that the road had more potholes than road. Bumping along we made our way to Tiger Moon resort by about 2 pm.
Sup was down and out with fever, so the rest of us went off to see Ranthambore fort, where we were greeted by gazillion peacocks, deer and pilgrims. The fort though impressive was in a run down state, probably not having access to the funds jodhpur and jaipur had.

DAY 7: The TIGER
Despite our best efforts to do the ranthambore safari in a jeep, we had to make do with a 20 seater canter. Well , we thought that maybe it wont be so bad, maybe we will get to see a tiger. All those hopes were cruelly squashed about 5 secs into our journey when we saw our fellow canter mates. A large gujarati family that had umpteen children and even more theplas and dhoklas. Sakshi and her cousins insisted on spelling out every animal that we encountered. Our heads, which were pretty much resting on our hands staring at the cater floor, perked up when annoying boy #13 said “Giraffe Giraffe”, but it was only a larger than normal sambhar. Poor Mr Mukati had never hated his clan so much as that moment.
Our entire safari was more an excursion into wild human behavior than anything else.
This experience only cemented our resolve to go in a private jeep in the evening since this was our last chance at sighting a tiger. Sup was feeling better and thankfully decided to accompany us. Our jeep mates were an English couple. Daniel was supposed to be immensely lucky and though we put a lot of cosmic pressure on her, she redeemed herself beautifully.
Zone 3 was a beaut and we enjoyed the scenery and almost reconciled to the fact that the scenery had made up for a lack of feline stripes. But the guides all hushed over a point for 20 mins and the cry of a chital confirmed the presence of a tiger close by and golly was it close. We had a 10 minute close encounter with a tiger. Anand almost eroded his finger raw as he clicked away incessantly. The pattewali was really kind in letting us a beautiful view of her.
The mukati’s celebrated their anniversary and the sighting of the tiger with a cake and some drinks.

DAY 7: Ranthambore to Delhi 440 kms.
As was our precedence with a long day of driving ahead of us, we started the day with a puncture which happened thankfully at the resort itself. A quick changeover and we were on our way. Lunch was a thali at a dhaba outside jaipur. We made it to gurgaon by about 6 pm.