Alarm was set for 5 o’clock, but we could get ourselves to the car only by 6 o’clock. We asked for tea and the hotel guys gave us directions for that.
A lazy camel cart andt the red backdrop of the rising sun set everyone in the mood.
Soon we found some tea and were on NH8 heading towards Udaipur.
The road is very scenic, for the most part it was arrow straight. The landscape was still very green.
The Highway is very welll marked and hence navigation is a breeze.
A little further, we spotted a large open - air statue of lord shiva. Must be some weatherproof paint!
We stopped for some breakfast at a hotel which from outside looked just like a fort.
The alu parathas were pretty bland. But views were charming.
The heavy rain we had encountered the earlier day had been a boon in disguise. My car is washed like nobodies business and is gleaming like new.
Soon after breakfast, we cross the Gujrat - rajasthan Border. Look at the majestic gate!
The scenary slowly turns brownish with decreasing vegetation.
And with decreasing vegetation, decreases technological progress. We enter an area where the wheel was just invented and bike was to be invented next fall.
As per plan, we crossed Udaipur and headed towards Chittaurgarh
The scenary puts us in great mood and we frolic at a small dhaba. The excuse ofcourse was - just chai!
After crossing Chittaur, it was time to look for lunch. We enquired some and got to know that there were some decent places to eat near Bhilwara.
The hotel Bhilwara Mid-Day was the only decent place we could find (mainly because of some aggressive advertising done by them). Enthused by the last night success of Sev Tomato the ladies went overboard, and ordered almost everything they had under same category. So the service was slow. Food wasn’t bad, especially one Panchratna Daal was fabulous.
After a good 1 and half hours break, we were back on the road. Next Stop Jaipur.
Reached jaipur without much problem and had some coffee on the Jaipur bypass road. While having the coffee, we realized that we have misplaced our spare camera battery somewhere in the 500 litres luggage dump. Frantic searching was conducted for sometime without result. So we decided to check out Chandigarh for a new battery the next morning. But then the next day was a Sunday and presumably the Sony stores or Malls would be closed. Confused, we left the coffee shop.
Soon afterwards we were on the Jaipur Delhi Expressway. The Vadodara Ahmedabad Expressway created a huge impression in our minds and we were expecting something similar here, especially after the excellent stretch of GVK highway from Ajmer to Jaipur. This expressway was a bitter disappointment. Extremely crowded, villages on the road, pedestrians, ill mannered DL board small cars and what not. However the colors of the setting sun, somewhere near Jaipur kept us in spirit.
Tired through a long day we pushed across Bahror and reached near where we would turn for Rewari to bypass Delhi.
It was around 9:30 PM, the NH 71 was a broken two way road without any visible signage. We trudged along with blind faith on google maps.
Soon came a fork which was not plotted on Google Maps. We asked for directions from a couple of cops who were completely inebriated. They said something but we could not make anything out of it and tried our luck. Went straight into the Rewari town and completely lost our way. Although everything was alright as such, I was getting slightly concerned with three ladies on board in the hinterlands of rural Haryana. I was getting paranoid especially because everyone I asked for directions were pitifully drunk and I felt they were trying to peek into the back seat of the car. It took us good two hours to get out of Rewari and take the road to Jhajjhar.
We have not had dinner, but I did not dare to stop at the dhabas. I could not find any dhaba which was not accompanied by atlesst two "Theka Deshi/ Angrezi Sharab ka Dukan". Starved, we pushed on.
From then onwards, routing was simple, but the roads were pathetic. We crossed Rohtak and Gohana uneventfully and reached Panipath around 2:30 am. By now I was completely paranoid and was suspecting every innocent bystander. However, I had to keep the feeling aside and start waking up hotel guys. Got a place with some looking around.
Man! was I happy to note that one of the guys at the hotel was from Sion, Mumbai. Paid him 1500/- and we were settled down. Decided to take a good nap as the next day run from Panipath to Narkanda was not much compared to what we had done that day.
Meanwhile my wife discovered the lost battery in my trouser pocket. We had looked everywhere other than there!
With my body rested on the bed and eyes closed, I mentally reviewed our nightmarish run from Rewari to Panipath. I soon figured out that, inebriated or not, each individual I asked directions from gave me correct information. It was my paranoia and inability to understand the Hariyanvi dialect made this run so painful for me. Had I trusted on them, I would have been in Panipath 2 hours earlier and wouldn’t have had to skip dinner as well.
Valuable lessons learned.