[Chrome6Boy]

This is a travelogue with a mini review of the Scorpio S5.

My wife and I had always wanted to visit Rajasthan in December and after eighteen years of marriage this December just felt right. We wanted to visit the cities of Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

While looking at the different flight options available to us, we realised that the most time saving and economical way was to fly from Chennai to Jaipur and to fly back from Udaipur.

The inter city travel options however were more difficult to figure out. Obviously flying was the most expensive and we simply hate spending all the time in an airport instead of actually experiencing Rajasthan. The train and bus options were not possible because most hotels want us to check in at 1 PM and check out at 2 PM. So we had to either choose to rent tourist taxis with drivers everywhere or to rent a self driving car. We chose the latter because the costs were similar and gave us great flexibility.

The only self driving company which offered pick up in Jaipur and drop off in Udaipur was Zoomcars and we looked at what vehicles were offered. We needed to travel 1800 kilometers in ten days, which meant our family of four needed rather large bags. This meant a hatchback was out of the question. This only left the Scorpio, the XUV 500, the Harrier and the Fortuner. We chose the Scorpio because it was the cheapest and we were on a tight budget.

The night before we were to board our flight, we got a call from Zoomcars, they said they had to cancel the booking because the car in question had gotten into an accident and had gone to be repaired. We told them there was no way they could cancel because our whole trip was planned based on this booking and also in their terms and conditions there was no clause which allowed them to cancel without our permission. We told them the plane tickets and hotels were non-refundable and they had to find a way to give us our car.

When we showed up at the Zoomcars parking garage at our appointed time of 14:00 the next day, the car was unavailable. But luckily after a 30 minute phone call to their call centre and also a very accommodating local personnel we were promised the car at 20:00, they kept their word.





The Scorpio we got was the S5 version which felt like the base version without creature comforts like auto AC, Android Auto etc. However the car was roomy and very comfortable to sit in. It also had more than adequate room in the trunk for our bags.

The driver's side of the car had gotten into an accident, there were very few signs of the accident except for the door ajar sign which would never turn off, other than that the car seemed perfectly okay.

First Impressions of the Car

As explained above, we had never owned a proper SUV in our family, only sedans and hatchbacks. The only one that came close was the Hyundai Venue which in my opinion is just a hatch on stilts. The Scorpio really had a presence on the road, people gave us space on narrow lanes which was an entirely new experience for me.

The things I liked about the car

• Oodles of space for us and for our bags

• Real presence on the road, felt like an SUV

• Engine had great torque and acceleration for such a huge car was fantastic

• Despite our apprehensions (being automatic car owners) the clutch was not hard and the gears were reasonably smooth

• Headlights were great

The things which were bad

• Horrible ICE without even bluetooth, my twenty thousand rupee phone had better speakers.

• Extremely uncomfortable ride, reminded us why we don't buy SUVs. Each pothole drove spikes up our spines

• The car is loud, even while doing 80 kmph

• The biggest gripe was that due to Indian law, taxis are limited to 80 kmph which is just painful on the highway and frankly makes overtaking somewhat dangerous

• Lack of Fasttag which meant waiting in the long queues in lone cash lane at each toll booth

Rajasthan is an awesome place to drive. We covered 1800 KMs in 10 days, and every KM was a lot of fun, thanks to great roads and very little traffic. To put things in perspective I have driven 1,05,000 KMs in our Vento TSI in three and a half years. 95% of these KMs were covered in Tamilnadu with about 50% highway and 50% city. Rajasthan highways were much better maintained and mostly empty in comparison.

We did no route planning before our trip because we always put out faith in Google Maps and it did not let us down for the inter city travel.

[Chrome6Boy]

Now to the actual travelogue.

22/12/19

Jaipur

We began by flying from Chennai to Jaipur on 21/12/19 and you already know the events leading up to how we got our car. The car had 10% fuel remaining, so we went to the nearby bunk and filled up the diesel tank and proceeded to Sterling Atharva Jaipur.



Our recommendation is to not stay at this location as it is 30 KMs from city center and costs an unreasonable Rs. 1000 for a cab ride to the city, which we needed to do twice because our Scorpio was late by 6 hours. Ola and Uber don't service this area and the hotel seems to take full advantage. They also force you to have breakfast at the location and force you to have Christmas Eve dinner there for a whopping Rs. 1000 per head. It was a forgettable experience. However rooms and the property were comfortable, but the daylight robbery left much to be desired.

On 22/12/19 Sunday, we decided to visit Hawa Mahal which was in the city center, however we didn't realise people were going to protest the new Citizenship Act Amendment. When we set out from the hotel, we realised that none of our phones had an internet connection. The government had decided to do this to probably limit the size of the protests. But this meant we were driving blind, no Google maps! This was the first time in several years we had faced this and felt severely handicapped. Luckily our Google Maps app had cached some data. We drove from our hotel to the center of Jaipur hoping to get to Hawa Mahal by stopping and asking people on the road (it felt so 1990s!). The kids looked at us like we're savages.

Once we got near the center, we realised it was not the best place to be when we saw several people gathering for protests. We had read about violent protests in Delhi and West Bengal and decided not to risk it. The police presence in the city center was enormous and each police personnel we approached for directions we extremely friendly, we were happy to note that the protests in Jaipur that were carried out that day were all peaceful.

We instead decided to visit the three main forts in Jaipur. They were all close to each other, only a few kilometers from the city. The architecture was fantastic and the stories behind them were very interesting. Each fort was unique in its own way.

Amber Palace




Jaigarh Fort




Nahargarh Fort

This fort also offered us a spectacular view of the city of Jaipur.





Jal Mahal

The thing about Rajasthan is that almost all forts and cities had large man made lakes because of how dry the climate is. Several of them have structures built in the middle of them which often served as the winter palaces of the rulers.

We noticed these lakes are so much cleaner than the water bodies near Chennai. The Adyar river which flows through Chennai for example is just shameful in comparison.




After this we returned back to the hotel around 7 PM. We were welcomed back with internet connectivity finally as the government decided it was time. I really pity the Kashmiris for their plight without internet for so long as it has become so essential to us in our day to day life. I offer no political view, only felt bad for them.

[Chrome6Boy]

23/12/19

We decided to visit the famous Ranthambore Sanctuary. It was a four hour drive of about 200 KMs from our hotel. We left around 08:00 after our compulsory breakfast and proceeded at a leisurely pace. Google maps took us through single lane roads dotted with villages. The experience was very good, with the colourful clothes and the beautiful fields. The tolls along the way were quite reasonable unlike Tamilnadu, they never exceeded Rs. 40.

We arrived in time for lunch after which we left on our canter safari into the reserve. The canter was a rickety 25 seater without a roof and certainly without a spring plate or shock absorbers. Because some of the guests booked on our canter were late, the driver had to speed at maniacal speeds to catch our time slot.Our rear ends were numb before long, to say the least.

However once we entered the safari, we were greeted with a beautiful jungle with lots of lakes, as it wasn't summer the water wasn't scarce. Unfortunately we couldn't get to see any of the 63 tigers which live in this sanctuary, we did get to see Deer, Antelope, Monkeys and a wide variety of birds. My Poco phone camera did not do justice.





We finally made it back to the hotel at around 9 PM.

24/12/19

It was the day before Christmas, and we wanted to see the famous Hawa Mahal and the City palace as this was our last day in Jaipur. With working internet for Google Maps, we left at 9:00 and were lucky to find parking right near our destination. It was street parking and it was free!

Hawa mahal was very beautiful, absolutely a sight to see.



With Jantar Mantar in the background.



After Hawa Mahal, we ate lunch at the restaurant inside the city palace which was only a walking distance away.

The city palace was a little underwhelming as the royalty still live in the palace, and they obviously do not want a whole lot of people visiting all the time. However since they need the money for upkeep they charge Rs. 3000 per person for admission into the palace. We skipped the palace. But they do keep a small museum outside for a smaller admission fee. It wasn't anything special, but a relaxing end to our Jaipur trip.



We returned to our hotel early evening and had our forced Christmas Eve dinner there and that was that.

[Chrome6Boy]

25/12/19

We had breakfast at the hotel in Jaipur and left for Jaisalmer. It is a 540 KM trip which took us about 9 hours. The route Google took us in was fantastic. No two lane highways, but empty well maintained roads though beautiful villages, fields, and desert country.

We stopped for lunch at a nondescript restaurant on the highway and the food was great. We reached Jaisalmer outskirts around 17:30 and we were greeted with the biggest army base we had ever seen. It stretched for miles and miles, the end was not in sight! We were 40 KMs from the Pakistani border, and this was a real show of strength.

The city itself is tiny, only about 4 SQKMs. Dominated by small hotels and a huge fort, which was shining like the golden sun thanks to the Yellow marble. We checked into our hotel and had dinner after which we turned in for the night.



26/12/19

The next morning we had a small breakfast and left to see the fort. The hotel was kind enough to arrange for an auto which would take us to the fort, lake and shopping.

The fort was huge, and is apparently one of the largest structures in the world which have a living population. There is a lot of history and the insides and outsides of the fort are beautiful. They also house a market, restaurants, shopping complexes and a phenomenal view point.




Gadisar lake is a huge, clean, well maintained lake near the fort. It has some beautiful structures in and around it. We took a boat ride and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with its serenity.




After lunch it was time for the desert safari to the Thar desert. We drove to Sam, a village twenty KMs from Jaisalmer towards Pakistan. The road was almost arrow straight through the desert. The landscape was beautiful, we started encountering "English Wine Shops" , and resorts as we neared our destination. We went to a resort, where our guide asked us to park our Scorpio and get into a open back Mahindra Thar.

Once the four of us were in the back of the Thar, the driver started driving at full speed though the sand dunes of the desert. It was exhilarating to say the least. Being Winter, it was cold in the shade and comfortable in the sun. Fifteen minutes later we stopped where some camels were waiting to take us for a ride. Camel rides are not comfortable for men unless they find the right seating position, be warned. After a wait of about an hour we saw one of the prettiest sunsets ever, the whole experience was fantastic.





We then returned to the resort, had dinner and watched a Rajasthani folk show and returned to our hotel at around 22:00.

[Chrome6Boy]

27/12/19

We left at 08:00 for Jodhpur. It was a 280 Km trip which took us about four and a half hours. Once again the trip consisted of one lane highways and picturesque landscapes ably navigated by Google Maps without a hiccup.

Here we stayed at the Umed Club, which was very nice with large well maintained rooms and a restaurant with very affordable prices.

In the evening, we drove to the clock tower near the old city centre and took an Auto to view the blue city. The auto dropped us off in the middle of tiny street surrounded by old houses mostly painted blue. A very kind gentleman who saw us and invited us to his terrace to see the view.



28/12/19

We wanted to see the Mehrangarh fort, and drove up and parked at their parking lot. This fort's parking, and overall organization was very good, and way better than Jaipur. However there seemed to be a clear preference for the rich as certain taxis were allowed a lot closer to the fort than us. We didn't really care though.

It happened to be the Maharaja's birthday and while we were getting breakfast in the cafe in the fort, he showed up with a lot of fanfare! People treated him with a lot of respect, and we understood from our guide that he is still much loved and does a lot for the people of Jodhpur. Here he is on his way up to the fort.



The fort is huge, and has a lot to see. Our guide was fantastic and even with my limited knowledge of Hindi, took pains to explain everything. The paintings and sculptures were truly wondrous. There are a couple of very beautiful temples in the complex if you are so inclined.

[Chrome6Boy]

29/12/19

Our trip was almost over, we left for Udaipur at around 10:00 after a leisurely breakfast. The trip was 260 KMs and took us about 5 hours. This was the first time we encountered less than favourable roads during the whole road trip, that too for very small stretches where the potholes were rather large. However the Scorpio ate them for breakfast while violently churning our stomachs. The last stretch was through two lane highways, one of the very few times we encountered them during this trip.

We checked into Mahindra Prakash hotel which right opposite the Udaipur City Palace. Staff were very friendly, and location is great. The rooms themselves are quite nice. This might have been the best hotel we stayed in during our trip.

A view from our room.



Since it was evening by the time we reached, we checked in and walked up to the lake. We found Udaipur to the most crowded of all cities in Rajasthan, and the Auto rates to be the most prohibitive. The roads near out hotel were not for cars as they were too narrow, and mostly one way. So we either walked or took autos. Walking on these streets is an adventure sport. It is amazing how acrobatic the bike guys are and how we did not witness and accident. I had my heart in my mouth every time bikes and autos almost ran us over.

The Lake Pichola is very pretty at night thanks to the hotels adjoining them sporting lights. There are a lot of small restaurants lake side which reminded us to Europe. We even ate Israeli food, which was surprising but tasty.



After dinner we turned in for the night.

30/12/19

Today we visited the Udaipur city palace. It was a mad rush, like Tirupati during Vaikunta Ekadasi. We bought out tickets and hired our guide, who was really helpless with the number of people who were there. He however did a commendable job and helped us traverse through the palace while explaining the best he could through the roar of tourists around us. The palace was quite beautiful but it felt so rushed, that we felt a little short changed, but perhaps it was our fault for having picked this date.




A terrace on the fourth floor with fully grown trees!



We then had lunch near the lake and did some shopping at a nearby Tibetan market which seemed to exclusively sell winter wear. I'm not kidding, there were more than 20 shops all selling the same stuff.



For the evening we had dinner at the Sun and Moon restaurant which has a great view of the city.



31/12/19

It was our last full day in Rajasthan and we could already see the city getting ready for New Years Eve. We had breakfast at the hotel, and went to visit Fateh Sagar lake and its surroundings. We were greeted with a flower show which was very beautiful, and the variety of birds we saw there were fantastic. After which we went to the Under the Sun aquarium which was not too bad.





Rest of the afternoon involved driving aimlessly around the lake, visiting Duck Park and having lunch at 1559 AD which was very nice indeed. Incidentally Duck Park is a tiny island in the middle of Fateh Sagar lake with a lot of ducks and we happened to see a huge crane making its nest atop a tree. With only a phone camera, I couldn't capture a good photo.

For the evening (New Year's Eve) we did not want to go to one of these loud midnight countdown places which were all serving buffets and unlimited drinks. We instead had a quiet dinner with each other relishing the memories of the last few days and looking forward to going back home to Chennai.

[Chrome6Boy]

1/1/2020

The New Year had arrived. We had breakfast and returned our car to its designated place. The Zoomcars guys were not present, but showed up within ten minutes of having called them and took the car back without even a cursory glance at the car!

We then took a cab back to the airport and flew home.

Some points listed below at the risk of repeating myself

• Rajasthan is just beautiful and a must visit place

• Food is great at even tiny restaurants, very vegetarian friendly

• Rajasthanis love cash, PayTM is rarely accepted, that too reluctantly and credit cards are usually laughed at except at Petrol Bunks. Be prepared.

• Renting a self drive car involves meandering at a top speed of 80 KMPH, and getting overtaken by Altos regularly. This is not recommended for people who enjoy the driving experience, especially with Rajasthan's exemplary roads.

• Make the extra effort to visit Jaisalmer, a city often passed by tourists as this might have been our favourite city.

• Try and avoid going during Christmas vacation, even though the weather is fantastic and kids have holidays, crowds can dampen the fun.

• Rajasthan is a very very dry place, and your face and hair feels the effects. People used to more humidity take appropriate measures.

• Avoid staying at Atharva Jaipur if you can help it.

• Everyone in Rajasthan speaks Hindi and all signs are in Hindi which is great! Some of us take this for granted.

• We drove 1,800 KMs and consumed 156 litres of Diesel.

Thanks for reading!

A parting shot.

[BlackPearl]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing Chrome6Boy!

[Miyata]

Thanks for sharing. Incidentally, I was in Jodhpur for 1.5 or so days. Will see if I can get around to penning that down.

I loved the camel ride though. Fairly comfortable after that initial moment or two. Took almost 45-min camel ride through Osian camel safari. Their jeep safari involved some one driving the jeep and we sit there as mute (or unmute) spectators. Wouldn't have been fun so chucked that.

Tried local cuisines (like kair sangri curry and pickles). Totally loved it.

[hserus]

Lovely travelogue and yes, I can relate to your pain on the 80 kmph restriction. My last self drive was an Avis Innova from Mumbai to Shirdi, and the roads out of Mumbai and then leading up to Kasara Ghat would have been brilliant in a vehicle that wasn't already a boat and then clumsily limited to 80 kmph. The language I was using under my breath wasn't terribly appropriate either for traveling with elderly relatives in the back seat or on a pilgrimage to see Baba.

The CAA protests have been by and large peaceful except in a very few states so violence hasn't been a concern as much as the massive traffic jam from people showing up is. I don't know how many came to Jodhpur for the demonstration you ran across but there were reportedly over a lakh people in Hyderabad.

I will be going to Chittorgarh from Udaipur airport over the coming weekend .. not my choice of time or trip, this is to do with my previous Scorpio that had been stolen last year and then recently recovered by the Rajasthan police so that I have to go to a station near Chittorgarh and give them a statement.

As far as I've seen the nearest Zoomcar location is Jodhpur airport. Are there any other self drive cars in the Udaipur area? Cab fares (eg Ola Outstation) are trending to around 2k++ for the around 90-100 km ride, and the station in question is 25 km from Chittorgarh so unless I want to spend a fortune on cabs, a self drive would be ideal.

For others on the thread (I think the OP and @miyata above are vegetarians), are you aware of any good non vegetarian hotels in Chittorgarh / on the highway from Udaipur? And what meat dishes would people recommend? (I've heard of Lal Maas and Safed Maas, any others?)

[Chrome6Boy]

Originally Posted by hserus

Lovely travelogue and yes, I can relate to your pain on the 80 kmph restriction. My last self drive was an Avis Innova from Mumbai to Shirdi, and the roads out of Mumbai and then leading up to Kasara Ghat would have been brilliant in a vehicle that wasn't already a boat and then clumsily limited to 80 kmph. The language I was using under my breath wasn't terribly appropriate either for traveling with elderly relatives in the back seat or on a pilgrimage to see Baba.

Thank you for your kind words.

You're right it was really frustrating to keep the car under 80 KMPH. I see a lot of people in the electric cars forum saying they will buy an electric car for their daily use and hire a self drive car for their road trips, I wonder if they keep this speed limit in mind.

The CAA protests have been by and large peaceful except in a very few states so violence hasn't been a concern as much as the massive traffic jam from people showing up is. I don't know how many came to Jodhpur for the demonstration you ran across but there were reportedly over a lakh people in Hyderabad.

There were less than a hunderd people when we saw, the number might have grown, but we didn't want to hang around any longer.

I will be going to Chittorgarh from Udaipur airport over the coming weekend .. not my choice of time or trip, this is to do with my previous Scorpio that had been stolen last year and then recently recovered by the Rajasthan police so that I have to go to a station near Chittorgarh and give them a statement.

Great to hear you the car was recovered, I assume you claimed insurance and that this formality is for the insurance company's benefit.

As far as I've seen the nearest Zoomcar location is Jodhpur airport. Are there any other self drive cars in the Udaipur area? Cab fares (eg Ola Outstation) are trending to around 2k++ for the around 90-100 km ride, and the station in question is 25 km from Chittorgarh so unless I want to spend a fortune on cabs, a self drive would be ideal.

There are plenty of self drive car companies in Udaipur however Zoomcars was the only one which offered a pick up in Jaipur and drop off in Udaipur and so we went with them.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Chrome6Boy

Great to hear you the car was recovered, I assume you claimed insurance and that this formality is for the insurance company's benefit.

There are plenty of self drive car companies in Udaipur however Zoomcars was the only one which offered a pick up in Jaipur and drop off in Udaipur and so we went with them.

The formality is for the cops. They caught that scorpio when they arrested a gang of drug smugglers who were using it to transport brown sugar, so they need a certified copy of the FIR that I filed, and a statement from me, for use in the trial of these smugglers.

Which other self drive vehicles in Udaipur please? Google isn't proving helpful and Revv / Avis don't seem to have any there, only Jaipur / Jodhpur.

[Chrome6Boy]

Originally Posted by hserus

Which other self drive vehicles in Udaipur please? Google isn't proving helpful and Revv / Avis don't seem to have any there, only Jaipur / Jodhpur.

Sorry, I happened to notice some other self car rentals in the parking lot where we dropped off our Scorpio, unfortunately I don't remember their names. It wasn't the famous ones like Myles or Revv, it was something else.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Chrome6Boy

Sorry, I happened to notice some other self car rentals in the parking lot where we dropped off our Scorpio, unfortunately I don't remember their names. It wasn't the famous ones like Myles or Revv, it was something else.

I found just one http://padharo.co/
3k a day for an xuv and then 500 each pickup and drop at Udaipur airport instead of their city office. As Ola outstation charges 2700 one way for Udaipur to Chittorgarh I still come out ahead. 5k refundable deposit to be paid “in cash to the driver who delivers the car” ?!?

[Anduril]

Nice crisp travelogue, thanks for sharing. I had planned an almost similar itinerary in 2018 Christmas. Plan was that we will be flying from Blr to Jaipur and hire zoomcar and our friend will join us from Delhi. But somehow circumstances was not conducive and the trip was postponed.
Your travelogue has rekindled the idea.