[AviC93]

'Khamma Gani!' - I guess no doubt now you know where I travelled this time. Yes, it is the "land of kings", home to the "The Great Indian Desert" , India's largest state by area, Rajasthan. After a long break, majorly due to family reasons, we were on the road again after our trip to Uttarakhand.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...tarakhand.html (Summer Story '23 : Parts of Kumaon, Uttarakhand)

It is my wife's winter break at her work and we planned early to visit parts of Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer).
Here goes the itinerary:
21st Dec- Varanasi
22nd Dec- Agra
23rd Dec- Jaipur
24th Dec to 26th Dec- Jaisalmer
27th Dec- Jodhpur
28th Dec- Jaipur
29th Dec Lucknow
30th Dec- Aurangabad,Bihar
31st Dec- Kolkata

I must admit that I was an early bird to this trip and completed all the hotel bookings by end of August. Yes, I was excited for this road trip and being a Bengali, it was one of my dream to visit Rajasthan, inspired by the internationally acclaimed Bengali movie "Sonar Kella" directed by none other than the great late Mr Satyajit Ray, who holds no introduction to any Indian film enthusiast. You can understand the inner child coming out resonating the vibes of the movie.

Now, it’s time for a 'long' wait since you have made all the plans, booked all your stays. I started gathering as much information as I can about the road conditions, basic norms of driving across the desert state, challenges that you can face and so on. It was my go to man Mr Samba Sengupta (Samba), who heard me patiently whenever I reached out to him and offered his suggestions and help to his capacity. Also, I would like to mention our fellow tbhpian Mr Arghya Pan (arghyaheart), who provided his inputs as he travelled to Rajasthan recently. And finally the day arrived to begin our journey...

Day 1
Kolkata to Varanasi
Finished my office work early and took an early dinner around 8 PM before getting a
Much needed "shut-eye" as we planned to start at the middle of night. But my excitement did not let me to sleep peacefully. We got ready by 3AM and in another 10 minutes we were on the road and bid my city adieu around 4 AM as we crossed the Dankuni toll. The road condition till Shaktigarh was moderate due to ongoing highway expansion work. Post Shaktigarh, we got a buttery stretch and in no time crossed Durgapur and Asansol. We took our first break at a roadside dhaba (Hotel Johar) near Topchanchi and refuelled our car from a nearby gas station. It was a half an hour break and we started again around 9 AM. The road condition started to worsen as we progressed towards Jharkhand- Bihar border and all through Bihar. It seems that progress of the highway expansion work in this region is less as compared to West Bengal. By the time we reached Aurangabad, it was lunch time and we decided to visit Gargee Resorts to have lunch and relax for a while. I always visit this place, either for a stay or have lunch or dinner. As soon as we finished our lunch, we started again around 1:45 PM. It was a non-stop drive from Aurangabad, till we reached Varanasi at 4:30 PM. Since I chose to book our night stay near the highway, it took us another hour to travel the next 20 kms till hotel due to traffic congestion near Varanasi entry.


Our stay for the night at newly opened Hotel Leela palace and banquet.
Even though, we were tired but it is mandatory for us to visit the ganga ghat and watch the evening arati. This time we decided to go to Assi ghat instead of Dasashawmedh ghat as it was the closest
Ganga ghat near our stay. As our stay was a bit far from the main Varanasi ghat area, we decided to look for an auto and reach the ghats to avoid driving through the busy traffic of the city and headache to park the car. We soon got our ride and reached Assi ghat in time for the evening arati, where we offered our prayers and roam around for a while.



Getting a ride back to hotel was very painful for us and we were very tired. Fortunately, we managed to book an auto to reach our hotel. We had our dinner at a restaurant next door and called it a day.

Day 2
Varanasi to Agra
We woke up early at 4AM and in next 20 minutes we were ready to start the day towards Agra. It was pitch dark outside with dense fog. I planned to take the Jaunpur, Sultanpur highway via Varanasi ring road and merge with the Purvanchal expressway. This is an approximately 180km drive and should take around three hours to cover if you start early as the road condition is ideal. But things slowed down as the visibility was less than 20 meters due to extreme fog at the time, which I expected to be normal in December. I choose to be safe than sorry by following the lane markers and driving at slow speed, 20km/h at some places. At some places the heavy duty vehicles helped me to gain some pace as I followed them by keeping a safe distance in between.

Eventually the harsh winter night made way for a scenic sunrise and I was awestruck with the sheer beauty of it.


It took me nearly 4 hours to cover the 180 km stretch. Next 165 kms across Purvanchal expressway went like a breeze and we reached Lucknow in another 2 hours without a break. We drove through the ring roads of Lucknow and crosses the city without much traffic before taking the Agra-Lucknow expressway. After entering the Agra-Lucknow expressway, it was time to refuel our car, mind and tummy. It was a much needed refreshing break post which I stepped on the gas again to cover next 231 kms in little over 2 hours to reach our stay at Agra, Hotel Karan Villas. We decided to visit Agra fort and Taj Mahal post lunch by local transport as it was nearby our hotel. I had already booked online tickets in advance for entry in both Agra fort and Taj Mahal to avoid long queues at the ticket counter. Below mentioned is the authorized Archaeological Survey of India website for online ticket booking:
https://asi.payumoney.com/quick/agf

This was our first time at Agra and we were very much excited to see the Taj Mahal. We got ready post lunch after a short nap and started around 2PM. First, we visited the Agra fort and we were not amused with the rush at the gates given that the time we choose to visit Agra is within the peak season for all the tourists across India. Agra fort is a 16th century architectural marvel which falls under the list of Unesco World Heritage Site and is a resemblance of India's rich cultural history. We explored parts of the fort and was amused with the precision and art work by the Mughals.



From one mighty architectural wonder to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, we made our way through the Mughal gardens and reached Taj Mahal west gate entry. From the moment I got a glimpse of Taj Mahal, only one word came out of my mouth "Wah Taj!” As usual the place was overly crowded so we had to wait a while to take pictures in turn from the various hot spots around Taj Mahal to get me, my wife and Taj in a single frame. But we managed to do so with the help of a gentleman, who was also a visiting the place with his family.





After spending more than an hour, we visited a nearby rooftop cafe, Chia Taj View Cafe, which is a 1.5 km walk from Taj Mahal. You get a clear view of the Taj Mahal from the roof top seats and enjoy a leisurely evening by having a cup of tea and simply admiring the beauty and greatness of "Roza-e-Munavvara" (initial name of Taj Mahal).


Post tea, we explored the local markets and enjoy popular delicacies , such as, Petha and finally called it a day after having a sumptuous dinner at the hotel.

[AviC93]

Day 3:
Agra to Jaipur
It is a 240 km drive from Agra to Jaipur, 50-60kms single lane by taking the Fatehpur Sikri road, followed by four lane highway till Jaipur. We started around 5:45 AM from Agra and reached Jaipur around 10 AM with one fuel break at a BP pump where I had an online transaction issue which got resolved automatically. There was heavy traffic at Jaipur entry and whole throughout the city as it was rush hours.
We managed to reach out hotel, The Amer Valley, by making our way slowly through the traffic and planning for the day. We decided to visit Amber Palace, Jaigarh fort, Nahargarh fort and Jal Mahal, as we were staying at the Jal Mahal side of the city and visit rest on our last day stay at Jaipur before returning back. There was a rush at the hotel but the stuffs were quick enough to provide us a clean room.
After having our breakfast, we decided to visit The Amber Palace first. As we were heading towards the fort we were greeted with a heavily congested traffic for which we decided to park the car at the lower level parking of the fort and take a local ride till the entry gate. As we were heading towards the entry gate, the heaven gates opened for a quick burst of rain on that chilly winter morning. We got a local guide who requested for a nominal fee to give us a tour of the sandstone and marble wonder. Built by Man Singh 1 in 16th century, is a four storey architectural marvel consisting of "Diwan-e-aam”, for public audience; "Diwan-e-khas" for private audience; "Sheesh Mahal" ; and "Sukh Niwas". The Amer fort housed the Rajput Maharajas whereas the Jaigarh fort housed the army of the Maharajas overlooking the Maota Lake, which is the main source of water for Amer Palace.






It took us more than 4 hours to explore the various levels of the Amer palace and take a small hill ride to reach and explore the Jaigarh fort.




It takes another 30 minutes uphill drive along the aravalli range to reach Nahargarh fort from Jaigarh fort. The road uphill was equally congested and quite narrow at some places. There is a free parking within 100 meters of the fort but you can take your car inside the fort post 5 PM to enjoy the sunset and a view of Jaipur citylights from the top of the fort. We parked our car outside the fort and bought our tickets to enter the fort. This a 18th century fort built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh , this fort along with Jaigarh for and Amer Palace formed a strong defence ring for the city. Although the light was not as great as we expected as the weather was gloomy all throughout for which we were deprived off a scenic sunset and missed the pink city vibe. We strolled casually through the hallways of the palace and captured some moments. There is a wax museum and replica of the Sheesh Mahal of Amer palace with a small video room to give a quick history of the palaces, but you have to pay additional charges to avail these services. Our legs had already given up by the time it was evening and we decided to head towards our hotel.



On our way back we visited the Jal Mahal.

With loads of history and tired legs we devoured the delicious foods at dinner prepared at the hotel and wondering about the architectural prowess of 15th century India, I dozed off.

Day 4
Jaisalmer
We got ready to leave the hotel early at 5 AM but it took us sometime to even load the luggage in our car and start for our destination Jaisalmer. Why? All because of the cramped parking lot of the hotel. Cars were parallel parked on both side and also in between leaving no room for our car to reach the road. However, the hotel stuffs were patient enough and much thanks to the family whose car was in front of my car. They shared their key to the hotel stuff and re ordering of the cars were done to leave just the space for my car to move. Although we lost half an hour but there was merely any traffic that early morning, which also allowed me to take a hassle free picture of my car with the Hawa Mahal.


We made our way through the beautiful gates inside the city crossing the diversions to reach the Jaipur-Ajmer expressway. Construction work is still going on near the connector between Jaipur and expressway, which I assume will be finished in few months. I started to drive cautiously keeping safe distance from the oil tankers as it was early morning and also a very recent accident involving a gas tanker on the same highway where 15 people churned to death was ringing in my mind. Soon we left behind Ajmer and was greeted with another gloomy sunrise.

After another 100kms of single lane driving, we decided to stop for breakfast at a newly built roadside dhaba, Hotel Turban Restaurant, where we enjoyed delicious parathas. The owner of this hotel was very warm, and helped me with directions for my last phase of journey towards Jaisalmer. After breakfast, we again hit the road and covered a little over 200 kms in next 3 hours with one fuel stop via pokhran. As we reached our stay, the first glimpse of Jaisalmer fort, "Sonar Kella", brought back some childhood memories of watching the satyajit ray film with my father and how we used to enjoy the movie every time we watched together.
We booked "Boutique Helsinki" hotel for next 2 days and the third day was designated at their desert camp in the middle of the desert. The hotel manager (son of the owner) was very polite and cordial in greeting us. The rooms are nice, clean, and spacious and well decorated which will give one a vibe of a Rajasthani house hold with a roof top view of "Sonar Kella".



After taking a power nap, we decided to visit the gadisar lake and celebrate Christmas Eve at a famous food joint Casa De Kaku. Gadisar lake was not very far from our hotel, within 1 km, so we decided to take a stroll. While entering the lake area there is a local market where we drooled to have Pani Puri but unfortunately it is not at all like our Bengali phuchkas. With that debate going on in mind we watched a beautiful sunset at the Gadisar Lake.




Since we had time to visit the cafe, we decided to visit the local market to do some shopping. We strolled through the alleys of Jaisalmer visiting local handmade household items exercising our bargaining power and soon our hands were not enough to carry everything we bought. We had to take a local auto rickshaw back to our hotel to drop the items we brought and reached the cafe.
Casa de Kaku or Cafe the Kaku is a popular food joint along with a hotel in Jaisalmer. As it was Christmas Eve, there was a bit of rush at that place and mostly the open rooftop sitting area was reserved for the guests staying at that place. We got a nice place to sit although we wanted to sit in open air. The ambience, live rajasthani folk music, view of the jaisalmer fort and specially the food made our evening a special one.



It was time to return to our hotel as it was late and there was less transport availability. We searched a bit before deciding to walk down the alleys following Google map. Nevertheless it was exciting to walk down the narrow alleys beside the fort, do more shopping and take a glimpse of the living city inside the fort at night.

[AviC93]

Day 5
Merry Christmas! (Belated ). Again a gloomy day but the breakfast was filling. Post breakfast we headed towards Tanot check post which a 124km drive from Bera Road, Jaisalmer. Around 9 30 we refuelled the car at the nearby gas station as the sun finally made its way up the sky. To our surprise, as we crossed 20kms, dense fog crept in the highway all throughout till we reached Tanot. Our plan was to get a pass for Border Post 609 and head towards Longewala. We had to wait in the queue for a long time to get our forms stamped as the army office was not allowing visitors till the fog cleared. We waited for our turn in the queue before getting our forms stamped and approved to visit border check post. Before leaving, we visited the Tanot victory pillar and offered prayer at the Tanot Mata temple.

Border post 609, is 20 km drive from Tanot along the barren dessert. There is a watch tower for the tourists near the India-Pakistan border from where you can see the demarcation and no man's land between the two countries.



After spending some time at the border post, we travelled another 50 km to reach Longewala. This is the place where the famous battle between India and Pakistan was fought for 3 days in 1971. The sheer bravery of 120 Indian soldiers under the command of Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri halted the Pakistani army of over 2000 soldiers armed with heavy duty tanks for nearly 2 days before the Indian air force made its way to bring a famous victory for Indians. This story was later on brought to life through a famous Bollywood movie called Border. We visited the war memorial and took our time to read through the history and roles played by our war heroes. There is a small museum along with some left behind Pakistani tanks in this place.




While heading back to our hotel, we covered 110 kms via Ramgarh where we had our lunch in a roadside dhaba. Christmas evening was spent at the roof top of the hotel, enjoying the fort view and some delicious food.

[AviC93]

Day 6
This was our last day at Jaisalmer and we planned to spend in the deserts after visiting few local tourist spots. We had ample time as the desert camp was not far from the main city. The weather was prefect to explore the city by walking. First we headed across to Nathmal Ki Haveli and Patwaon ki Haveli. Both of these sandstone architectural marvels were built during 19th century and possess intricate architectural designs and patterns that resembles Rajasthani tradition. There is a mini market in front of Nathmal Ki Haveli where one can buy locally handmade souvenirs.







Our shopping spree continued attracted by the local block print mostly hand made. We made our way inside the Jaisalmer fort, the only living fort in India. Jaisalmer fort also known as the golden fort was built in 12th century by the then ruler Rawal Jaiswal over Trikuta Hill spreading across a vast area. Due to its strategic location on trade routes between India and central Asia it was a vital centre for commerce and defence. No wonder you will be awestruck entering this enormous fort not only by its sheer beauty and also seeing the fact that life still thrives inside spanning across 9 centuries and many more to come. The local market inside the fort consists of locally made clothes, goods and antique shops. The Jain temple at the centre of the fort is a work of art. Here we spent a little over an hour exploring various parts of the fort and enjoying our shopping spree.




Around 20 minutes past 1 PM, we checked out of the hotel and proceeded towards the desert camp, Helsinki camp, which is within 40kms of the main city owned by the same hotel. On our way we visited the Kuldhara. This is an abandoned village near Jaisalmer maintained by Archaeological Survey of India and is a popular tourist attraction due to several speculative theories about this place, one suggesting to be a haunted place. You are allowed to take your vehicle inside the monument by providing a nominal fee. We enjoyed roaming across the abandoned mud house relics but there was no eerie feeling to be honest. I bet the feeling would have been otherwise if we explored the place at night.



After visiting Kuldhara, we took the Jaisalmer-Sam highway for another 30 kms before taking the sand roads to reach our stay in the middle of the desert. We were warmly welcomed with Rajasthani folk traditions and the hotel stuffs helped us with our luggage to the tent assigned for us. The tent room was spacious enough with modern amenities.





The hotel manager requested us to get ready by 4PM to enjoy the sunset in the middle of the desert. After a brisk power nap, we got ready for the adventure. A 4×4 Thar was waiting for us at the entrance to take us from the desert camp to the activity area in the Sam sand dunes. It was 5 km drive from the camp across the sand and no wonder it won't be possible without a four wheel drive. It was quite chilly in the middle and the temperature fell drastically as evening was approaching. We spent the next 2 hours by indulging in couple of activities, dune bashing and camel ride.




By 6 PM we were back to our camp and more tourists started to check in for the night. The camp arranged a cultural evening consisting of Rajasthani folk songs and dance, all the guests were assigned khatiyas around the campfire lit to keep us warm. The next few hours of the evening was well spent enjoying the popular folk songs and dance along with tasty starters. Dinner buffet was served sharp at 9 PM.

[AviC93]

Day 7
Jodhpur

After a comfortable sleep through the night, we were ready to leave for Jodhpur after breakfast. We started from the desert camp at 8 AM and refuelled at a nearby gas station. It was a 270 km drive from Jaisalmer to our stay at Bijolai Palace, Jodhpur. The distance was covered in next 3 and half hours. Both of us were very much excited from the time we booked our stay in this palace turned hotel in Jodhpur but our fate had a different story. As we reached at the entrance we were a bit sceptical as the place seemed secluded and a big lock was hanging across the main gate. We looked here and there but there was no sign of any living being inside before the remaining security guard arrived who explained that the place was shut down very recently on the orders of the court after a feud over improper services provided during a high profile wedding ceremony. I needed to come to terms with reality quickly rather wasting time calling and blaming indehotels for the goof up. The first thing that came to my mind that we won't have much options as it was peak season and soon started looking for the best option for the stay. After roaming around to check the nearby hotels, we were lucky enough to find a decent hotel, Chandra Imperial, near the Airport Road. We already lost few hours dealing through this unfortunate incident, so we decided to take a break and visit only Meherangarh fort in the evening. The leisure time was spent by lending a mouthful to the indehotels manager, who only showed courtesy by sending an email to make me aware of the situation only 2 days prior to my visit rather calling me to inform the situation. Obviously, I did not check my Gmail as I am on vacation. However, they assured me that I would get the full refund post approval from higher management of indehotels, which I did receive after a month after following up a several times.

It was time to put behind the mishap and look forward to enjoy Jodhpur. We took a local ride in an auto rickshaw and reached the Meherangarh fort soon around 4PM. After purchasing the entry passes, we roamed across the huge fort enjoying the rich art work on display at the fort built in 15th century by Rao Jodha. The present custodian of the fort choose not to live there rather use the fort as a museum and built shops, and shifted to Umaid Bhawan Palace.









The evening was spent by me doing work from vacation as I had limited winter time off being associated with an IT MNC.

Day 8
Jaipur

"What happens in Jodhpur, stays in Jodhpur!" was our mantra on the next day. We started around 7am in the morning but it was not at all felt like morning as the condition was foggy. It took us 5 hours to cover the 340 kms distance between Jodhpur and Jaipur out of which it took an hour to reach the hotel after entering Jaipur due to heavy traffic. This time we choose to stay on the other side of the city as I already mentioned earlier. Broadway Inn, near Transport Nagar fly over welcomed us cordially and soon the room was made ready for us. We had our lunch at the hotel and got ready to explore this part of the city. We started off by visiting the Hawa Mahal which is a popular tourist spot in the pink city.

Next, we took a tour of the city palace, former administrative headquarters of Jaipur state built by Maharaja Sawai Jai singh the second. The Jaipur royal family still lives in the city palace, in a building called Madho Niwas where public entry is restricted.




Later the evening was spent by indulging ourselves again on a shopping spree at Johri Bazar and enjoy Laal Maas, a popular dish of the local cuisine, from Kebabs and curries located near the Hawa Mahal.


Day 9
Lucknow
The last phase of our vacation came up pretty soon than expected and we bid adieu to Rajasthan with bag full of memories and a mandatory biryani stop at Lucknow. 570 km drive from Jaipur was pretty much seamless via Agra, while crossing Agra we took the under construction outer ring road 10-20km before the city which merged with the Agra-Lucknow expressway. We started around 7 AM from Jaipur and reached Luncknow around lunch time 2:15PM. A nice slumber post lunch recharged us for the Biryani ritual. Our mode of transport for the evening was uber auto which took us to Old Nazirabad Road. "Prakash Ki Mashoor Kulfi" satisfied our heart, "Tunday Kebabi" satisfied our soul.




With heartfelt and soulful satisfaction we went back to hotel.

Day 10 & Day 11
Kolkata via Aurangabad,Bihar
Monday blues are the worst feeling of the week. Keeping in mind that I had to work from late evening, we decided to halt at Gargee Surya Vihar Resort at Aurangabad. We started around 9 30 AM from Lucknow and took the Purvanchal expressway. Some more kilometres after Azamgarh, we left the expressway to head towards Ghazipur. From Ghazipur we crossed another 76 km to reach Durganti from where we took the GT Road. Finally around 5PM we reached Aurangabad. Since it was penultimate day of the year, there was less pressure at work which allowed me sometime for rest as well. I would like to highlight that the food quality and services deteriorated than the last few times we visited this place.
Next morning we started journey back to home at 6AM. There was less traffic all throughout as it was the last day of the year. We took a break at Durgapur junction mall, got something to eat before resuming the last part of our journey back home. Last 180 kilometres from Durgapur took me three and half hours to complete.

With 4957 kms of complete happiness on the odo, the trip got completed and our vacation too.


But...
Desert story is to be continued...

[Aditya]

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

[Samba]

An engaging narration with some nice pics made this travelogue a good read.

Good to see you putting the Grand Vitara to good use. This car is highly underrated due to its power figures. But in the practical world, this car is an excellent highway cruiser that offers amazing comfort, very good mileage & bulletproof reliability. Unlike the sub-4-meter csuvs this car offers acres of space to dump your holiday luggage and keep the wife happy!

Wish you many more such trips with your Grand Vitara.

Sharing a few pics from my Rajasthan trip!

An old Toyota with its 1.5L NA petrol sneaks into k15C's travelogue!



Dunes without tire marks look so clean!



Why should horsepower always steal the show in the land of camel-power?

[speedster786]

What a cracker of a travelogue! That stretch has been sitting pretty on my bucket list for ages—I just need to pull the trigger now!