[neoonwheels]

Day 2 - Onwards and Upwards

As mentioned earlier, I spent my previous night tossing and turning on an over bouncy mattress. Such jelly-like, wobbly objects are a big NO NO because they infuse within me a feeling of wobbliness which is certainly not a good thing to have on a road trip. Having hardly slept, I was undoubtedly the first one to wake up the next day and before long the three of us were ready to officially start our trip.Even though leaving Mira Roadfrom its outskirts felt odd but onwards and upwards we kept moving on NH48.

The bridge leading to Vasai is prone to erratic traffic jams which can cause immense delays. Luckily we cleared that spot in no time and within one and half hour of leaving Mira Road we took our first break at Hotel Ahura which is in Ambivali. This place is run by a Parsi family and offers very tasty bun-maska-chai breakfast in addition to other Parsi delicacies. They also have a shop which sells biscuits, spices, etc. We had bun-maska, grilled bun-maska, bun-maska-jam and a few cups of masala tea here before heading further ahead towards Ahmedabad. We would highly recommend this place for its food and clean washrooms.

The rest of the journey was nonchalant. Although we had estimated 10 hours of road time, yet we managed to reach FabHotelFlora at Ahmedabad by 2.00 pm. In between, the kid and I took turns to sit on the front seat and play navigator to Abhi. God knows if he even noticed this change. Once on the road, he is of the road, for the road, totally in love with the road (and his car). Mere mortals around him seem to make a negligible impact on him and are often forgotten.

FabHotelFlora is situated on Sardar Patel ring road like many similar hotels in that vicinity. There is an elaborate banquet hall on the lower floor and dining room on the upper. Residents have rooms on the top most floors of the hotel. Rooms are decent. Service was good. Overall this is good to spend a night or so provided you do not depend too much on the eating arrangements here. We chose to have lunch in Hotel Cube which is the dining area of this hotel. Pasta and veg-augratin were overtly sweet. Noodles were average. So it was promptly decided that dinner will be somewhere else.

In the evening we covered the first spot on our TO-DO list. It was the World Vintage Car museum on Dastan Estate, Service Rd, Nikol. This is a big complex with a garden, restaurant and the museum within it and can be reached by taking an ola from the main city. It is advisable to visit the museum during the day so as to get to see all the cars in broad daylight. You can take a car ride (800/- per person) in one of the vintage cars. Nearly 100 cars are kept here on display and the whole place is very well managed. Clicking photographs from more than one device is strictly prohibited. At the time of buying a ticket, you have to pay extra for the camera or cell phone if you plan to use it to click photographs. From time to time you get to see photographs or portraits of olden days Maharajas, Nawabs and Maharanis besides the cars obtained from these royal families of India. Looking at these cars, carts, motorcycles and BAGGHIs gives you a sneak peek into the royal lifestyle of the bygone era. We were mesmerised to look at car models as old as the ones from 1906! And before we knew it was time to return to the hotel.

After having dinner in a small cafe near our hotel we called it a day. Day 2 was spent eating Parsi breakfast, digesting extra sweet Italian and Chinese food, looking with awe at vintage cars and munching on aloo parathas. Tomorrow we will enter Rajasthan as we reach Mount Abu. Upwards and onwards we continue to go!!


Some exhibits from the Vintage Car Museum.







Day 2 synopsis:

Total road time: 7 hrs 33 mins
Total distance covered : 500 kms
Starting point : Hotel Shelter, Mira Bhayander Road.
Ending point : Hotel FabFlora, Ahmedabad.

[neoonwheels]

Day 3 - Khamma Ghani Sa Season 2 !

Way back in 2016 when we first visited the beautiful state of Rajasthan it instantly became clear to us why it would be impossible to cover it fully in one go. All the popular cities here are far from each other making it impossible to cover them properly in a road trip of 10-12 days. It was evident that we will have to return here sometime later to visit the remaining cities and naturally, when I sat down to think about our next road trip the first name to pop up in my head was Rajasthan!

After a lot of research we shortlisted only 3 cities viz Mount Abu, Jaisalmer and Ranthambore on our TO-VISIT list. Again we were faced with the same challenge, how do we pack all three of them without spending too much time in the commute? The answer was obvious. We simply can not have it all. And so on Abhi’s insistence, I dropped Ranthambore from my list and finalised Mt.Abu and Jaisalmer.

On the morning of 28th October, the three of us left our hotel at Ahmedabad in cheerful spirits hoping to be in Mt. Abu in 5 hours flat. Conducive traffic conditions on NH-41 made sure that we reached the bottom of the mountain without any delays.As our child is not particularly fond of winding roads, I promptly reminded Abhi to drive slowly without succumbing to speeding. Little did I know that I will beg for some speed in precisely 10 minutes from hitting the ghat. As the winding round started, we witnessed a never ending queue of vehicles of all shapes and sizes, filled to their capacity with people of all age groups. On that narrow road, each vehicle was trying desperately hard to overtake the other without giving a damn to the oncoming traffic (the oncoming vehicle could jump into the valley if it wanted to, who cared!) Crawling at an average speed of 1 km per 10 mins and spending close to two hours we waited patiently for the ghat to end and our hotel to appear in front of us. And when it finally did we heaved a sigh of relief. Putting our miseries behind us we looked lovingly at the building of Hotel Royale Palace. Our hotel provided us with a comfortably big room,good service,very average food, good connectivity to the rest of the city and high tariffs. The reason behind the tariff surge was attributed to the hoards of Gujaratis who flock to the hill station of Mt. Abu and its adjoining cities every year during their holiday season. Just how BIG can this flock of migratory birds be? We were about to discover that soon, very very soon. And it would leave us begging for Thanos to come and snap his fingers.

Some guardian angel must have put the idea of renting a two wheeler in our heads. For it was only because of this rented vehicle that we could reach Nakki lake in the shortest amount of time when we set out for some sight seeing in the evening. To do so, we had to cross scores of cars and buses stuck in a state of limbo in the narrow lanes of Mt. Abu. But the magnanimity of the number of flocking visitors hit us only after we came to the market area surrounding this lake. The whole area was swarming with people who made it impossible for us either to go any closer to the lake or to enjoy the serene sunset from nearby points. Realising that it would be pointless to attempt any sight-seeing we beat a hasty retreat towards the market. As we could, we finished shopping for some Rajasthani quilts and leheriya dresses and munched on some local tasty version of vada pav (eaten hastily in a crammed up space outside the shop) while deciding where to have dinner? Luckily we didn't have to look any farther because exactly above the vada-pav joint there was an outlet of Sankalp Restaurant. We hurriedly reached here and managed to get a table in no time. This is a clean place which serves delicious south indian food and excellent filter kapi at reasonable prices. You will come across their outlets at multiple places in Gujarat.

On our way back to the hotel, we managed to catch some glimpses of the town. But there was not even an inch of space which was not overflowing with visitors and buses. With great uncertainty about the next day’s plan we returned to our hotel and called it a day feeling heavily disappointed. Will things get better or worse? Only coming days will tell, till then we had kept our fingers crossed and hopes high for a memorable Rajasthan 2.0.



Day 4 - Our itinerary goes haywire

Last evening had scarred us. I am from Mumbai and have travelled by Virar trains very regularly. Yet, the crowd which we witnessed at Nakki Lake the previous evening was so overwhelming for us that it had put a damper on our plans. For breakfast we chose a small restaurant very close to our hotel partly because we were hungry and wanted a quick grub and partly because we did not wish to face the mob so early in the day. This place called Hotel Goodluck served us hot piping parathas and lovely tea. While munching on these, we tried to have an optimistic view of the crowd moving in the general direction of Gurushikhar which was our first stop for today. However, by the time we paid our bill, we had unanimously decided to skip Gurushikhar for good. Paying our respect to the holy place and its shrine from right where we stood, we re-routed. But this will not be the only time we will do so. We will have to make run time changes to our plans in the coming days, throwing our itinerary haywire and making me very very angry.

With Gurushikhar safely removed from our list, we turned towards Trevor’s tank which made a wildcard entry on our itinerary. We genuinely wanted to avoid any spot with even the least possibility of crowd and that’s how Trevor Tank got picked. This place takes some effort to reach even on a bike owing to some steep patches on the way. Also, the approaching road is narrow, bumpy and lonely making it look slightly eerie. However, once you reach the clearing and see it, all your worries vanish. This may not be a spectacularly beautiful place but it is not a bad option to spend some quiet hours. Certain spots here are apt for clicking lovely photographs and can make your Instagram feed look highly attractive. There is zero provision for food and water except for a small shack (tapri) permitted by forest officials that sells maggi and corn chat and tea. It is advisable that you carry enough water and food if you do not want to eat maggi. Entry after sundown is not allowed but there is no restriction on spending the whole day for a mere 20-30 Rs ticket. A word of caution, there are no public toilets here or anywhere close to this place.

Trevor’s tank was built during the early British era as a waterhole for the animals and birds of the surrounding forest. Because of its natural elevation and additional 2-3 viewing spots, it became popular with the local royal family who would come to watch animals visiting the tank. Also, the tank was used for crocodile breeding and currently houses 2-3 of them. We were lucky to spot one baby croc basking in the attention it received from the visitors. This perhaps was the only QUIET and SECLUDED place we visited during our stay in Mt. Abu. This made it so dear to me that we ended up spending the first half of the day here.

Late in the afternoon,we reached the Government museum in the heart of the city. Our tour of this place was over within 20 mins as it had nothing much to offer and continuous power cuts made this place a little scary to continue exploring it. Finally, we returned to our hotel and lazed around till dinner time. For dinner we returned to Hotel Goodluck and had dal-baati which was very tasty. With this it was a wrap of our schedule of Mt. Abu.

Overall Mt. Abu is a lovely place meant for exploring in some other season. Owing to the unfathomable mass of human population there, we had to chuck off Tibetan market, Gurshikhar, Achalgadh Shiv Temple and Dilwara from our itinerary . We even had to pay double tariff for our room there which otherwise could have been booked for a lower fare. The market place around Nakki Lake would have given me splendid opportunities to do shopping but that too could not happen. So,would we like to visit this place again and tick off these PENDING items? Perhaps yes, but only after I have made sure that I have Thanos’s glove with me


At Trevor's tank







At the hotel - Royale Palace






Day 4 synopsis:

Total road time: Less than hout
Total distance covered : Negligible
Starting Point : Hotel Royal Palace, Mt. Abu
Ending Point : Hotel Royal Palace, Mt. Abu