Road trip across Rajasthan!! #LastMinute

Jaipur

Jaipur from the outset was a city in transition, stuck between the illusion of development and the memory of it’s past. Our bags and bodies found a place in Rajasathan state tourism hotel. The pink bus that carried tourists around the iconic places in Jaipur had long left.

The plan B was to find an alternate means of travel. Our only acquaintance was Mr Shakeel ahmed, the autorickshaw driver who dropped us near the hotel. He promised us that he would arrange a great vehicle for us. A few minutes later a smoky tata indica was waiting for us. The car clearly was in a bad shape, I was a bit sceptical and the possibility of getting robbed was suddenly a prospect. The driver was a young man in his twenties and introduced himself as Adil.

Captivating Chittorgarh

Ever wondered why the boundaries of the countries in Africa are straight!! This is because the boundaries were drawn up by the colonial European powers in a crowded room in Berlin. Now after 132 years, a bunch of fools on a beautiful morning in Jaipur were drawing random lines across Rajasthan to depict the journey they were to make.

The plan was to rent out a Zoomcar because public transport was not feasible. Chittorgarh was the next destination and it was roughly 300km. We hit the road and the journey of six hours to chittorgarh was flawless. When our proximity to chittorgarh was nearing to zero, the fort clearly didn’t want to hide itself. It stood like an invincible figure on an higher elevation.

As we were moving towards the entrance of the fort we realised that we were being pursued by two guys in a bike. Raja was by the window and his knowledge of Hindi was unparalleled, back in school raja was guilty of making our hindi teacher faint a couple of times!! He felt that they were threatening to stop our car, but all they offered was service of a guide. We gladly accepted the offer. Aziz was of our age and he took us around the fort explaining in detail it’s history and the recent controversies related to padmavat movie.

On the peripheral boundary of the fort stood a huge gateway. I don’t know if there exists a heaven up there, but down here there was this gateway that opened to the sky. Up there the wind was in solitude, the sky in peace and in front of us stood the Aravalli mountain range. Well he was like a sleeping giant. The wind around us carried his snore. I closed my eyes and felt his snore talk to me. He said thank you for coming, I said thank you being.

Udaipur

Udaipur was a city in festive mood. It felt as if the city was welcoming us. It was navarathri, the Dandia sticks were out and so were the beautiful girls in their traditional attire. I put my head out of the window and just enjoyed beauty in it’s purest form. Every city has its uniqueness and Udaipur that night was a spectacle unfolding.

My eyes were fulfilled, my visual memory needed back up, but my stomach was empty. It was time to have a good dinner to round off a great day. We ended up in quite an expensive restaurant, but it was worth it. We checked in to a nearby hotel and just wanted to hit the bed. But as always things don’t really go the way you want. The receptionist strongly recommended us to visit Fateh sagar lake. With a weird smile he said “Mazza aayega” (you will have fun). I looked at my watch, it was close to 10 o clock and Fateh sagar lake was our next acquaintance.

The place was secluded at first, but moving on there were a few cars parked, and there was a tea shop. There were no lights and weirdly there were no people in the cars. I was perplexed. But I observed a commonality- The seats of the car were reclined. It was on deduction and visual evidence, a nice place were people came to make love under the veil of darkness. There are things that we saw that cannot really be written about. Well, to put it into the context- They perhaps found a better way and a better place to celebrate Dandia!!

Next day when daylight broke out, Udaipur seemed a completely different city. The city palace was our next stop and we broke into it in all eagerness. The wisest thing to do when you are visiting a historic place is to hire a professional guide. The advantages are manifold. One you get a better idea of the place and two you get to know a person who has his own world view, which is often quite different from yours. In our pursuit we found Zaheer Abbas, a well built guy in his mid 30’s.

The palace was a masterpiece, there was a tree in the 1st floor, certain rooms possessed the most splendid souvenirs from other places of Rajasthan and world. Zaheer was a friendly man but very professional. So he took us to the nearby handloom shop and I decided to buy saris for my mother. Though I was on a tight budget, it was an emotional decision. But it was a pretty good deal. My mother would be happy because her son had brought her sari and I would get a cover up for all my unwanted expenses.

We said goodbyes to Zaheer and left the palace. But he put a bug into our heads, and it was Jaisalmer!! After his description of the place we wanted to take the risk and go to Jaisalmer even at cost of missing the return flight. We decided to waste no more time in Udaipur and now all roads lead us to Jaisalmer.

Jaisalmer

Two roads diverged into the woods, one was a National highway and the other State highway. We took the shortest path and that made all the difference. Instead of cruising on National highway we were stuck in an unknown place. The Google maps said we were on a state highway, but leave the highway, there were no roads.

Often in life when you reach a point of no return, you will have two options — stay were you are or move forward. We did not really have the liberty of staying. So we decided to move on the treacherous road. We were moving ahead but there was no progress. Hours passed but we could not find a proper town. Barmer was the nearest town. I was done with my driving, so I passed the baton to Ram. He did a great job and we managed to reach Barmer and decided to stay there for the night.

Jaisalmer - The golden city

Jaisalmer looked like a different world to me. Golden-yellowish buildings everywhere. We entered the Jaisalmer fort with great enthusiasm and it did not disappoint us. The most fascinating part of the fort were its narrow streets, it had natural flair to take you along with it. Up there the whole city of Jaisalmer could be mapped with ease. Old, non-functional but tolerant cannons sat there, watching human folly and madness unfold. I think one day the cannons might just want to fire a couple of shots out of frustration.

The sun was overhead and a fort was not a very wise place to be. We left the fort to move towards the desert camp. We fortunately found a decent desert camp within affordable prices. Mr. Mohit was our host. He had planned a camel ride for us at sunset.

We had some time, so we set out for the haunted village which was not very far. A young ten year old boy was our guide. He was a great guide until we asked some questions, because he had by hearted the whole monologue. We gave him 20 rupees for his service. In turn he gave us his priceless smile. There was nothing really haunted in there, it was just a smart tourism tactic.

While we were returning back to our car a lean guy was trying to talk to us or maybe trying to convey something. He was asking us food. All we had was a pack of hide and seek biscuit, we gave him that. That scene showed me the other side of Rajasthan. The struggle for survival.

Roy wanted to drive but we repeatedly refused it for our own safety. But he was persistent. Finally, we agreed with conditions. Roy was in joy!! He started to drive, every gear change felt like a take-off. Three people in the backseat were fighting for two seatbelts. Mohan in the front passenger seat was on the edge. Fortunately there were no cars. Probably the god up there knew that Roy was coming. He was too involved in his driving, so Mohan made a gentle reminder of the diversion we were to make ahead. But Roy didn’t really take it gently. He took a sudden right turn that could have gone wrong!! Design engineers at ford saved our lives.

We were back at the desert camp and now another crazy ride awaited us- the camel ride! The camels were lined up to take us up the desert sand dunes. The ride was great, the camel was gentler and less subtle than Roy. The sunset looked different. The sun was bigger than normal and the aura it had was special.

As the sun went down we went back to our desert camp. Back in the camp Mohit had organized a folk dance and music performance for his guests. We picked a couple of beers and just absorbed the night. The stars up there had planned another event for us after dinner. I had never seen so many stars together in my life. Perhaps alcohol might have added a couple of stars, but the view was breath taking. The stars seduced me to sleep with them, I fell to their trap and fell asleep out in the open.

Jodhpur

When you travel in an eastward or westward direction the sun can cause serious visibility issues. As we were making the eastward journey from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur the reality was inescapable. Ram was probably the best driver among us, but he too was finding it difficult to drive.

On one occasion he mistook a divider to a road and the wheels rammed on to the divider, fortunately major damage was averted. We reached Jodhpur and the only place on our radar was the Mehrangarh fort. A scene from “The dark knight rises” was shot with this fort as background, so excitement was obvious. Forts in Rajasthan were more strategic than symbolic. They were constructed on hill tops or elevated areas. That along with the geography of the region meant that the regional kingdoms managed to retain their dominance through time. We looked around the fort for a well but found none! Christopher Nolan got us there.

Next day we were on our way to Jaipur and we were getting closer to the end of our journey. But we were eager to end it somewhere else! Midway through our journey from Jodhpur to Jaipur, Mohan was on the wheel and was cruising at good pace. A routine overtake from the right got us in trouble.

The trouble was that a tractor was watering plants on the right side of the road. Mohan couldn’t really see it at first but when he saw! Ohh boy he used the brakes like a pro and he just managed to stop the car a few feet away from a lady who was holding a pipe, wondering what we were up to! Again we were lucky enough to come out without a scratch. We were all exhausted when we reached Jaipur. We had travelled roughly 2000km across rajasthan for 6 days and finally we were to say goodbye to Rajasthan.