Every time a Travel (for Holidaying) was discussed at home,
it was either about traveling to Hills or about my dream of a long drive
…………. Driving to Mumbai from Delhi via
Rajasthan route and Driving back to Delhi via MP route (Indore,Jhansi, Gwalior
etc). Thanks to my reluctance of
driving to Hills during winters and my mother’s push-back for my plans to drive
to Mumbai that I decided for Rajasthan.
Rajasthan…. what a beautiful state. I
never thought that I should explore Rajasthan, for me since I saw Jaipur twice &
I thought I have seen Rajasthan. How beautifully this has been proved a fallacy
during my 8 days of Travel to this state.
I think this is one state which has all the flavors which a traveler
yearns for. You find high mountains,
beautiful forts, lavish palaces, serene lakes, adventurous desert, rich food
culture, villages, old city heritage and a lot more.
Now since I was driving such long hours & distance for
the first time we decided to book only Udaipur in Advance and planned for next
destinations as per our energy and motivation during the travel. You can say
that this was my way to reduce pressure of reaching a destination rather enjoy
the journey for it.
So it was planned that we Drive to Udaipur and stay for 2 nights
and then based on my motivation and energy we would visit Jaisalmer for desert
camping , then Jodhpur on the way for a day’s
stop , then Ajmer / Pushkar, Jaipur and finally back to my parental home in Agra.
I read quite a few beautiful travelogues of Rajasthan and
gained lot of knowledge from them. However one has to read long reports and
focus too if you want to make some helpful notes for your travel.
Hence I decided to write an article dedicated to some
important Learnings of my Sojourn in Rajasthan
Friends during these 8 days, 3000 plus kilometers of driving
I visited many places, booked hotels for stay , interacted with locals for
routes , crossed various unknown roads, villages . Hence for the benefit of my
TEAM BHP brethren I would like to share
some important Lessons which I learned during this trip.
1) ROUTE : From the point of view of people who live
in Delhi / GZB / Noida or some other towns down the road and have to take
Delhi - Jaipur Route .
While researching for the route I
found that Jaipur – Delhi is the worst road in terms of traffic and a time
consuming stretch. You cannot miss it if you want to go any farther down to
road beyond Jaipur. Also based on my personal experience, in the winter season
you cannot easily drive in early Morning Hours as well due to FOG. Hence a decision was made to leave a day early
for Agra and then drive to Udaipur (follow Agra-Jaipur-Jodhpur-Udaipur road )
the next day. Agra being my home town with my parents / Grand Parent staying there
so it did not felt like a detour to me. Next day I left for Udaipur at 5 AM from Agra
and I did not face even a single KM of Traffic during complete 630 plus KMs of
road. I reached Udaipur at 4:30 PM after
taking lavish breaks of 2 hours plus atleast 30 mins of waiting time spent on
toll gates on the way. This meant that we could travel with the avg speed of
630/9hrs = 70 KMs/Hr.
Obviously I had an advantage of
Agra being my home town. So apart from some extra spend on diesel it did not
hurt my budget and did not even looked like a detour. However even if you have
to spend a little to stay in Agra it is worth the stay as Agra itself is an
important tourist destination.
In case you are coming from
Punjab or some place in Haryana
: I met a group of bikers while
camping in Khuri and upon discussing about the Delhi – Jaipur route I learned
that people from Haryana & Punjab cities can come via REWARI . This will
save them from the Delhi-Gurgaon-Manesar traffic and connect them to better
side of the Delhi – Jaipur Highway. I have never personally traveled on that
route however based on discussion with them I found that it is a nice stretch
free from traffic. So can be worth a try.
2) Choosing Mountains (Udapur-MountAbu) and
Desert ( Jaisalmer) in same trip
: Rajasthan being known for its
Desert has equally beautiful Mountain Areas.
Cities like Udaipur and Mount-Abu are on hills and are jewels in the
beautiful Crown of Rajasthan. However if you check the Map you will find that after
Jodhpur route to Hills (Udaipur) and
Desert (Jaisalmer) makes a V on the MAP .
So if you travel to Udaipur after Jodhpur then you are going away from
Jaisalmer side and vice versa. So when
you are in Udaipur or Mount-Abu and wants to go to Jaisalmer next then you will
have to travel for 500 plus KMs. After discussing with local taxi drivers I
realized that it is do-able however may not be so easy for a single driver
visiting first time (like me). There
are villages on the shortest route with single lane roads and some long
stretches of under repair roads as well (as of Dec’16).
Hence being a single driver I
decided to drive back to Jodhpur took a day’s break to explore city and
Mehrangarh fort and then leave for Jaisalmer next day. This made my drive easy
and comfortable.
So do check map in advance and be
very sure about the road conditions and distance when you plan such a route.
3) Some
Tips for Udaipur City: Udaipur
city at macro level can be seen in 2 parts; Old City near and around Lake
Pichola and new City near and around Fateh Saagar Lake. The area in and around
old city and most of the hotels in it does not have good parking. You may have
to park on public parking or open roads which is not manned by guards. Hence do
enquire in Detail with your hotel about parking. Also while travelling locally avoid to travel
on your own car. You can easily hire some local autos or taxi for city
sightseeing. This will save you from parking headaches.
4) While
Booking a Hotel & its Reviews / Ratings on Internet : Based on my experience while making 5
different booking on Rajasthan trip I learned to not depend on the reviews which
are written by foreigners. Upon booking
2 places based on very good reviews on Trip Advisor (which I later realized were all written by
Foreigners) I understood that until they are cheated directly in terms of money
or assets most of them would consider missing facilities as an ADVENTURE and part of Indian culture. Let me give you an example……
Example: The hotel I booked in Udaipur and in
Jaisalmer (I chose not to name it)
were in old city and a Heritage property with some really nice reviews
on Trip Advisor. However upon staying there for 2 days as an Indian citizen
this is what I think about it ………
a)
It being in old city means no parking, car
had to park in open public area and Hotel Management did not have any guard in
it. (We face it every day in India so
surely not an Adventure for us)
b) Common sight of cow dungs and dirty roads,
open drains (Naali) around the area. (We can see it every day in our localities so surely not an Adventure for us)
c) Most
of the local people I talked to were with mouthful of paan masala spitting it
on almost all the walls and also attending to nature’s calls on any accessible
walls around them. Swachh Bharat on the
Toss
d) The
Hotel was beautifully built as it was 300 years old Haveli however No Lift in
it. Hence it was strict NO NO for kids, PWD and elderlies.
e) Long
walk outside old city to the taxi or auto stands again not an easy task for
Kids, PWDs and Elderlies. ( Most of our
childhood is spent in such areas , so not an adventure for me)
f) In
Jaisalmer while interacting with one of the English Couple I learnt that all
the filth , smell , and dirty lanes is something they consider as part of their
India Adventure.
Now most of us as an Indian citizen
would have grown in the old city in such locations so for us it is surely not
an ADVENTURE (like most foreigners would consider it) rather a
MIS-ADVENTURE. Hence for a holiday I
would like to choose some place with better facilities.
So if you are booking a mid-budget
or budget property which may not be a big brand do research nicely and check
Indian traveler reviews before you book it.
5) While
Booking Desert Camps in Rajasthan:
If you are visiting Rajasthan then minimum a day of DESERT SAFAARI is
must. Now most of these camps are
expensive than what I imagined (in range of decent mid budget hotel) and are
managed by local village people. They are using old methods of doing business
and dealing in Cash and not much in written receipts. So while booking a Camp
Do …………
(a) Check in advance if they take payment by Card.
If possible take assurance in written or atleast via SMS / WHATSAPP . I am saying this because I say many people
arguing during check out with the Camp Management next day as they assumed that
they would accept payment via cash.
(b) Get
the package details written on paper or on SMS / WHATSAPP from them. For
example not all the Camps would have Lunch included, Desert Safari may only be
one camel ride and does not mean Jeep ride or sunrise view by default. Hence in
order to save yourself from any surprises and travel with right expectation get
deal in black & white.
6) Highways,
Road condition & Tolls: Most of
the roads in Rajasthan are good and you can easily travel at high speeds (say
100 plus) for long stretches. There are lot of Tolls at almost equal distances.
For my drive of around 2000 KMs within the Rajasthan state I paid approximately
80 paise per KM.
There are some long stretches while traveling to Jaisalmer from Jodhpur where you will not find any Dhaaba /
Restaurants or even Petrol Pumps. So ensure that you keep enough water, things
to eat and fill tank of your car in the main cities.
7) Mobile
and Internet Connection in Rajasthan:
Airtel is the KING of Rajasthan Mobile and Internet network. I was using
IDEA connection and it worked just as far as Jaipur. After Jaipur it was ON
& OFF. On road to Jaisalmer and in and & around that area It did not
worked for a minute. Thankfully my wife
had an AIRTEL Connection which saved our life during these 8 days. Its 3G speed was awesome throughout the state
we were using it for every minute for Google MAPS when on road. It works in remotest
of areas like Khuri to my surprise it was even working on the Sand Dunes. So get an AIRTEL connection when you are traveling to Rajasthan.
Some Small but Important Points:
1) Research
the Route well before you leave from your destination. Google Maps is mostly
100 percent correct except for inner cities. There you can use the local auto /
taxi driver’s knowledge.
2) Use
Bypass while crossing cities on the way, inner city traffic may put you behind
by an hour in your plan.
3) Do
not drive at night as none of the roads have HIGHWAY lights. There is heavy
traffic of multi-axle trucks driving in HIGH BEAMS blinding you on the way.
4) As
a single driver driving on long stretches I learned that one should eat light
with lot of fiber. So don’t gorge on junk and soda as they make your body
lethargic and you feel tired and sleepy.
5) Keep
Soft Copies of you important documents (license, RC, Pollution Certificate,
Insurance , ID Proof etc.) handy and
within easy access.
Trip Statistics :
Drive Ford Ecosport 1.5 TDCi (Titanium)
Age of Car (at start of Trip) 2 years / 23743 KMs
Cities Traversed Delhi-Agra-Udaipur-Jodhpur-Jaisalmer-Khuri
village-Ajmer-Pushkar-Agra-Delhi
Total Distance Covered 2735 KMs
Fuel Consumed 139 Litres
Mileage (Highways + Cities) 19.7 KMs / Litre (Approx)
Cost Per KM Rupees 3 / KM
Tolls Paid During Trip Rs 2300
Drive Ford Ecosport 1.5 TDCi (Titanium)
Age of Car (at start of Trip) 2 years / 23743 KMs
Cities Traversed Delhi-Agra-Udaipur-Jodhpur-Jaisalmer-Khuri
village-Ajmer-Pushkar-Agra-Delhi
Total Distance Covered 2735 KMs
Fuel Consumed 139 Litres
Mileage (Highways + Cities) 19.7 KMs / Litre (Approx)
Cost Per KM Rupees 3 / KM
Tolls Paid During Trip Rs 2300
