[swsumit]

excellently written and pictured bro,

One of the most refreshing travelogue on this part of the country. It easily helps the reader prepare an overview of this region and the details on hotels really helps. Most glad that you shared this TL with us.

Regards

sumit

Mod Note: Don't use space before punctuation, avoid sms lingo, and check your spellings before you post.

[Samfromindia]

The legacy of "Samba" branded travelogue continues in its latest iteration here with all the good things it stand for including lovely storytelling, attention to small yet significant details and breathtaking pics This is one jumbo write up with all the images and sure to inspire many (including me) to embark on similar adventure for time to come. Keep up all the good work & big congratulations on leaving our bachelor group (or whats left of it) Rated a well deserving *****

[vijayols]

Beautifully penned TL with amazing snaps capturing the true essence of Rajasthan.

Rekindled the memories of our drive from Bangalore.The broad near empty roads of Rajasthan remain a drivers paradise.

Looking forward to more of your TL's.

[techieaditya]

Excellent travelogue Samba Da. I envy you for this super awesome trip. I appreciate that you have included all the necessary details if somebody plans to replicate the entire trip.

[ultimatechamp]

Awesome Samba. Splendid photography as usual and fantastic tour. Am amazed you could visit so many places in a single tour. Your pictures too reminded me of my Rajasthan trip in the year 2000.

Kudos to you

[Rajain]

Samba

Its a wonderful TL.

You have captured the essence, the colors, the vibrancy, the history, the nature, the heritage and the wildlife of Rajasthan.

In Nov-Dec 2015 I had done most of the same circuit. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...rth-india.html. And this was vastly different from being there in 1988-89 abouts.

In fact recently my mother (now touching 80!) and my brother drove from Haryana to Tanot/Longewala/Jaisalmer/Jodhpur/Pokharan and back. Back in late 80's my elder brother was posted in the desert.

While we do see bus loads of tourists in Rajasthan, Sam full of hundreds of tents, I still feel India does not fully position itself as a tourist destination. I am writing this from Madurai today and I can say something so phenomenal as the Meenakshi temple and so little is advertised about it. The same holds true for Rajasthan's history.

Thanks for taking us through your eyes and a wonderful lens. Appreciate it. Rated 5 stars

Cheers
Rajain

[yatin]

Originally Posted by Samba

Thanks a million every one!




Thanks a ton. The average FE i got for the trip was around 13km/liter.
You can have a look at this post on how Etios performed.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post4168310

@Samba, I started reading your posts because you have a car I'm looking into, but your photography is another compelling factor by itself!

Thanks for this travelogue. I relived parts of Rajasthan which I covered 5 years ago (hadn't driven myself there); I remember how tiring touring those forts were to go around, and you drove from Kolkata - so to your stamina!

Didn't you plan for Kumbalgarh fort? Its a bit out of the way off the Jodhpur-Udaipur road, but it is out of the world for sheer size - walls as big as a dam!

[Uprasenjit]

This thread deserves a 5 star. Wonderful detail and photos. Thanked and Rated.

[navsjab]

Lovely Honeymoon drive. Wish you two many more happy miles together.

Good read with a lot of information about each stretch covered. There is no need to talk about the brilliant photographs that you share, already said a lot to you about it.

You were really lucky getting the rear view mirror glass at the service center. Service centers would ideally convince you that a full replacement of the assembly would be needed.

[A.G.The Rambler]

As usual a very detailed and well composed Samba like TL and the pictures are awesome specially the evening shots of the fort. Kathaphori to Agra through ALE is something i am looking forward to for my next drive. Rated 5 *.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by Samba

In 1 hour 45 minutes we crossed Durgapur, Asansol came up in 2 hours 30 minutes, Aurangabad in 6 hours 30 minutes, Varanashi in 9 hours 30 minutes, crossed Allahabad Bypass in flat 12 hours and reached Kanpur in 14 hours 30 minutes. By 6pm we checked in to our hotel. Without any sleep last night and after driving for 14.5 hours i was enough tired to have an early dinner and call it a day.

Samba, Fantastic driving trip! Congrats! And excellent photography, even better than your Jharkhand weekend's.

Your driving to Rajasthan inspires me too. It is informative though may not be in the history of the places, as you mentioned it later.

Your 'Kolkata - Kanpur' driving in 14.5 hours is really amazing. How did you manage through all those diversions which are in place between Aurangabad and Varanasi due to road-widening/six-laning? Dehri did not have any truck crowd?

You did mention that while returning it was just the day that followed Holi.

On 16 March, I was driving from Jamshedpur to Lucknow. I had to share the NH 2 from Barhi to Allahabad bypass, of course.

I had entered NH 2 at Barhi at 11.55 in the morning and drove to reach Dhobi at 12.30 or so. But I lost more than forty minutes there in a jam mostly caused by two long lines of trucks. Still I managed to cross Aurangabad flyover at 2.25 and stopped for lunch after that. Though I left Aurangabad at 3.20, I got massive traffic blocks at Sasaram toll, Mohania and Chandauli. Before Dehri bridge, it was no better though. Trucks were all parked in endlessly long lines occupying the left shoulder of the road. Especially at Sasaram and Mohania. And there was another line of trucks waiting to park. That literally blocked our way. They were all waiting for their turns to unload the sand required for widening work. There was hardly any space on the road. In many places, I had to take the wrong side or depend on the risky left edge. The entire fun was lost. I could reach Varanasi outer only at 7.45 pm :(

Vip.

[SouraC]

Just lost words.

I must admit, I started loving Photologue after going through you TLs. Less strain but pleasure to the eyes.

After going through your TL, I remembered my 1999 trip of Rajasthan. I am also happy to see that you have enjoyed Mount Abu which I have forced you to include in your itinerary.

I feel like following your itinerary​ soon as memory of my last trip is quite faded and that was not​ a self driven one.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by Sayata

This travelogue specially will be of great help for me as I am also planning for a similar trip to RJ end of this year. Very neatly placed travelogue with some very useful information and above all awesome pictures.

Originally Posted by GhostRider28

Brilliant travelogue Samba! It ticks all the right boxes and fun to read as well - rated it a well deserved 5 stars!

Originally Posted by ARAY

Yet another blockbuster blog by Samba. Loved every bit of it.

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

Samba Da, this travelogue is absolutely fantastic!

Originally Posted by swsumit

excellently written n pictured bro ,
one of the most refreshing TL on this part of the country .

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

The legacy of "Samba" branded travelogue continues in its latest iteration here with all the good things it stand for including lovely storytelling, attention to small yet significant details and breathtaking pics Rated a well deserving *****

Originally Posted by techieaditya

Excellent travelogue Samba Da. I envy you for this super awesome trip. I appreciate that you have included all the necessary details if somebody plans to replicate the entire trip.

Originally Posted by vijayols

Beautifully penned TL with amazing snaps capturing the true essence of Rajasthan.

Originally Posted by ultimatechamp

Awesome Samba. Splendid photography as usual and fantastic tour. Am amazed you could visit so many places in a single tour.

Originally Posted by Uprasenjit

This thread deserves a 5 star. Wonderful detail and photos. Thanked and Rated.

Originally Posted by A.G.The Rambler

As usual a very detailed and well composed Samba like TL and the pictures are awesome specially the evening shots of the fort. Kathaphori to Agra through ALE is something i am looking forward to for my next drive. Rated 5 *.

Originally Posted by SouraC

Just lost words. I must admit, I started loving Photologue after going through you TLs. Less strain but pleasure to the eyes.

Thanks a million everyone. Your appreciation means a lot to me.

Originally Posted by Rajain

In Nov-Dec 2015 I had done most of the same circuit. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...rth-india.html. And this was vastly different from being there in 1988-89 abouts.

Thanks a ton for the appreciation and for sharing the link of your travelogue too. I just completed reading it. Its a wonderful travelogue, rated 5* and i was quite happy to see both of us having a similar mindset in taking pics inside the forts. Few pics from Udaipur city palace and Mehrangarh Fort have very similar framing from both of us!

Originally Posted by yatin

@Samba, I started reading your posts because you have a car I'm looking into, but your photography is another compelling factor by itself!

Didn't you plan for Kumbalgarh fort? Its a bit out of the way off the Jodhpur-Udaipur road, but it is out of the world for sheer size - walls as big as a dam!

Thanks a ton. You can definitely look at an Etios, its really one hassle free, fill it shut it forget it kinda car. I am one happy owner from the past 5.5 Years.

Regarding Kumbhalgarh Fort i had to give it a miss. In 16 days its impossible to cover the whole of Rajasthan. At the beginning i planned to skip Mt Abu and do Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh from Jaisalmer & visit Udaipur but again later i decided to visit a hill station as i thought we will be visiting so many forts, so for a change visiting a hill station wont be a bad idea. Places like Kumbalgarh,Ranakpur, Chittorgarh, Ajmeer, Bikaner are in my to do list, may be with the great Raan Of Kutch in Gujrat!

Originally Posted by navsjab

You were really lucky getting the rear view mirror glass at the service center. Service centers would ideally convince you that a full replacement of the assembly would be needed.

Thanks brother.
Regarding the mirror glass i have seen, Toyota do sell small items like these, which save a lot. For example you can only buy the rubber for the wiper blade instead of buying a whole wiper blade. I do appreciate these small parts availability from Toyota. Between Ford also sales the ORVM glass separately.

Originally Posted by Vipin Kumar

Your 'Kolkata - Kanpur' driving in 14.5 hours is really amazing. How did you manage through all those diversions which are in place between Aurangabad and Varanasi due to road-widening/six-laning? Dehri did not have any truck crowd?

Thanks a lot.

You are bang on with the truck traffic. I faced atleast three 5-10 km long traffic jams between Aurangabad to Varanashi. Specially Sasaram & Mohania was a mess. Wrong side driving and driving off the road with some soft roading saved the day for me. This 150 km stretch took me 3 hours. At one place i was driving on the extreme left on the under construction concrete road and suddenly that road ended and it was not merged with the road below it. It was a 90 degree fall for about 2 feet. All the small cars turned back. The suv/muv guys started to gather boulders and make a way through it. I joined hand with them and at last mine was the only low gc car which went down through it. It was scary but at the end all were safe and some time was saved.

[gearhead_mait]

I am absolutely spellbound by the pictures, Samba. The details of the places you have jotted down here are by no means lesser than any guide book.
Only thing I sorely missed is the shot of a Tiger from your lens, that would have been the "cherry on the cake". Beautiful, awesome and a real 5 star rated travelogue.

Stay blessed and keep traveling together!

Thanks!

[PapaBravo]

Brilliant Travelogue as always Samba. Magical photos that want you to go on such a trip as soon as possible. Will keep this bookmarked for when we plan a trip to RJ.

Keep traveling & Keep writing

Rated 5 stars

Regards,

Pawan