[DheerajNK]

Intro

First of all, let me start by thanking all BHPians who have built this ocean of automotive knowledge through their contributions, which is helping millions of people online. After being addicted to Team BHP for the last 9 years, finally I decided to become a member & here I am.

Coming back to this travelogue, this is my first ever attempt in writing something like this & I am not a very good writer. Last time I remember writing for more than a page was for my 8th semester engineering answer paper many years back. So please excuse me if you find my writing boring and details insufficient. I am really open to all your feedback.

When it all started

This is a road trip I have done in the month of December 2016. It has been a ritual for the last 5-6 years to be in Goa for the last week of December & attend one of the music festivals (either Sunburn or Supersonic) for me, my wife & our gang. In December 2015 as well, we did a road trip with 3 cars (1 VW Vento, 2 VW Polo – Yes, we are all VW fans) to Goa (Bangalore – Mangalore – Goa – Mangalore/Bangalore) where we travelled as a group of 13 people. Like every year, we had a blast during this trip but we also started thinking about doing a Rajasthan trip with the same set of people and same cars.

To be or not to be

We came back from Goa and everyone got busy with the work and no further discussions happened on this plan. I did a few more road trips in south India & but the itch to go for a big one to the north was building up. In June/July 2016, again the plans for December were brewing but since I was down with Dengue during this time, I kept myself out of this planning. Days passed and finally towards the mid of December 2016, I thought I can take the last week of December off & started planning for a road trip. Since I had only a couple of weeks to plan the entire trip, thought of doing a Bangalore – Pune – Goa – Mangalore – Pune trip. But I also wanted to see what other options I have if I go towards north India considering I had 11 days in hand and that is when I stumbled upon this thread in Team BHP.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...than-trip.html

Following the heart

Since everyone else in my friends group had already planned for other things, it was almost confirmed that only me and my wife will be going ahead with this trip and the above travelogue also gave me confidence that it will be safe for only 2 of us to drive through these states. Even though there were some suggestions from family & friends against only 2 of us driving so far and for so many days, I had made up my mind that I am going to do this for sure. Went through few other Rajasthan travelogues and finalized on a route based on the time I had in hand. I was not a member on Team BHP, so I didn’t have an option to publish a plan here and ask if it is doable & none of my friends had done such a long road trip, so I went ahead and finalized the following plan. Next few days, this was only thing running in my head when I was awake & when I was asleep.

Day 1 (Dec 17) – Bangalore to Pune & Stay at my sister’s place.
Day 2 (Dec 18) – Pune to Ahmedabad. Some sightseeing at Ahmedabad in the evening.
Day 3 (Dec 19) – Ahmedabad to Jodhpur. Spend the evening hanging out in Jodhpur.
Day 4 (Dec 20) – Full Day in Jodhpur sightseeing
Day 5 (Dec 21) – Jodhpur to Jaipur. Sightseeing in Jaipur
Day 6 (Dec 22) – Full Day in Jaipur. Can we do Agra & back? Let’s keep this in the back pocket for now & let’s go for it, if we have the energy to do thisJ
Day 7 (Dec 23) – Jaipur to Udaipur. Sightseeing in Udaipur
Day 8 (Dec 24) – Full Day in Udaipur
Day 9 (Dec 25) – Udaipur to Pune. Can I do it in one stretch? Let’s see that!
Day 10 (Dec26) – Remaining journey from Udaipur to Pune OR Full day at Pune depending on how much I drive on previous day
Day 11 (Dec 27) – Pune to Bangalore
Day 12 (Dec 28) – Back in office!!!!!

Showed the plan to wife. I was expecting her to get tensed looking at the amount of time we are going to spend on the road, but she jumped with joy. That’s my girl!

Last minute adjustments

Spoke to my cousin brother KP who is my also best buddy since childhood & checked if you would like to join along with his wife Niriksha. Since Niriksha couldn’t manage to get the vacations for this entire period, he called back saying they will not be able to do this. So me & my wife applied for leaves and the excitement started kicking in.

Couple of days later, KP calls me back with an innovative idea. We 4 go for the trip but at the end of 8th day when we are in Udaipur, we will send Niriksha back through flight, rest will continue on the road as only last leg journey will be remaining by then & we would have covered all the places anyway. I bow down to his great idea and we 4 are all set for this journey of a lifetime.

Vento
Vento was last serviced 28k Kms and was run around 33k during this planning. I took it the VW service center in Hesaraghatta road and got it checked. No issues found. Got a set of 4 new Yokohoma Earth-1 for the Vento. We are good to go!

I don’t have all accurate numbers as this trip was done more than 6 months back and I had not noted down all the details anywhere. So I will try to provide approximate numbers wherever possible.

Route: Bangalore – Pune – Ahmedabad – Mount Abu – Jodhpur – Jaipur – Agra (??) – Jaipur – Udaipur – Vadodara – Pune – Bangalore
Vehicle: Volkswagen Vento 1.6 TDI Highline 2013
People: 3.75
Total Kms: 5,170
Days: 11
Total fuel cost: Approx. INR 20,000
Total toll paid : Approx. INR 5,000

The plan was to start on December 17th morning 4AM and reach my sister’s place in Pune by evening. I did not make any hotel bookings in advance as I didn’t want to drive under the influence of a commitment that I have meet. All the bookings were done couple of hours before the check-in based on the parking facility in the hotel. I can’t sleep if my car is parked on the road, that too in an unknown city.

From here onwards I will let the pics do the talking & before we get into the day-wise details here are some of the pics from the trip..

[DheerajNK]

Day 1: Bangalore to Pune (831Kms)

I had ordered an SJCAM SJ4000 action camera so that I can record this entire trip which I received on the previous night. After fiddling with this new toy, charging all the cameras, phones & packing, slept at around 1AM but both of us were up by 4AM as we couldn’t sleep due the excitement of the trip. Started at around 5AM from home in Sanjaynagar and picked KP & Niriksha who live just a few streets away and we were on the Bangalore-Pune road at Yashwantpur 15 minutes later.

First day of the trip, no office for next 11 days, amazing places to visit, thousands of kms ahead to drive, beautiful roads & the crazy 1.6TDI under the hood. Heaven on earth? Hell yeah!!

There are not a lot pics from day 1, we reached Pune at around 4 in the evening and after a wonderful dinner cooked by my sister called it a day. Trust me, I will compensate for the lack of pics to towards the end of this travelogue, your patience is much appreciated!

Day 2: Pune to Ahmadabad (660Kms)

The actual plan was to leave early in the morning & reach Ahmadabad by around 3-4PM and do some sightseeing in Ahmadabad. Since my wife has spent many of years for her childhood in Ahmadabad, she wanted to refresh her memories and show me her school, the house they stayed & few other places. We did manage to start at around 6AM in the morning & reached Thane in no time after an amazing early morning drive through the express highway. The traffic started as soon as we took a right from the Ghodbunder road. The traffic was really dense & due to demonetization, all the toll plazas were having queues of anywhere between half to 1 Km. Even though I was able cruise at very good speeds in those beautiful roads, every toll plaza killed at least 15 to 20 mins. People of were trying to use Paytm, cards and other modes of payment where the toll booth operators were struggling with the card machines which were new to them and there was shortage of change everywhere.

Due to all these delays, we ended up reaching Ahmedabad at around 7PM in the evening & we went directly to Kankaria lake and spent some time there. From there we went to my wife’s uncle’s place where we met some of my wife’s other relatives & childhood friends. Uncle owns a place called Vaibhav Restaurant which is small but a very famous veg restaurant in Ahmedabad & he insisted that we have dinner with them at Vaibhav. This place is more than 25 years old and seems to be a favorite hangout place for IIM crowd. He also mentioned about a few CEOs, VPs & big names who were his customers when they studied at IIM. After a sumptuous meal, we proceeded towards our hotel which he had booked before reaching Ahmedabad. Even though uncle & aunty insisted that we should stay at their home, we didn’t want to stay with them, because we didn’t want to disturb them in the early morning next day.

A special mention about the city traffic in Ahmadabad. It is total chaos! If you love your life and your car, you better watch out! It will take some time for a person coming from another city to get a hang of the situation here . Everyone is in a hurry, vehicles are coming from all directions and 99% of the vehicles here are covered with scratches & dents. I just wanted to reach the hotel & park the Vento safely before I get a dent on it. But people in Ahmedabad are really chilled out and friendly & most of the places are open till quite late in the night. We went for a walk on the Sabarmati river front on our way to hotel at around 11:30 & it was a pleasant walk after sitting in the car for whole day. Reached the hotel at around midnight & crashed. Day 2 over and tomorrow we will be heading towards royal Rajasthan!

Hotel : Tune by Mango Hotels, Visat-Gandhinagar Highway

This hotel is located at around 10kms from Ahmedabad city and they have covered parking in the basement. Rooms are clean & well maintained. We did not have food here.

On the Pune -Mumbai Expressway

[DheerajNK]

Day 3: Ahmedabad – Mount Abu – Jodhpur (510Kms)

Once again an early start & we started from the hotel at around 5:30AM. We took NH27 which passes through a lot of villages. We stopped in one of the small towns for a tea at around 7AM and then continued our journey. On the way we see a board which says Mount Abu is just 20+ Kms from the highway. We stop & do a brainstorming session. I say no. My brother says yes. Girls are fine with anything. My brother says yes. I say no. He gets irritated and says we need to do some sightseeing and he is tired of just going on & on sitting inside the car. I say yes. We take a left towards Mount Abu. This is our story since childhood

Since it was the end of December, it was really cold when we reached the top of Mount Abu. It was just around 9 in the morning & we were told that most of the temples will open in the afternoon. We went near Nakki Lake, parked the car & took a walk around the lake area. We visited Hotel Lake Palace and had our breakfast on their rooftop restaurant with some hot Pooris and Paranthas while enjoying the beautiful view of Nakki Lake.

Somewhere on NH27 after 2-3 hours journey from Ahmadabad.








A few clicks from Nakki Lake, Mount Abu.






Landscapes changing as we approach Rajasthan.






Started from Mount Abu and continued towards Jodhpur and reached our hotel in the evening around 4. While me and my brother chose to take a nap in the room, the ladies went to explore the market near by. In the evening, we visited Indique lounge near clock tower for dinner which has open rooftop restaurant with an amazing view of the Mehrangarh fort & serves decent food. While going we took a walk to this place from our hotel but since we had to walk through the crowded market area, while coming back, took a big auto which could all 4 of us (and there was space for many more).

The clock tower at night



Not sure if this was required, but I had carried the yellow tape to avoid any unnecessary discussions with traffic police and did this before entering Gujarat



Hotel: The Umed Jodhpur

This is a basic hotel in the main part of the city with decent rooms but doesn’t have a dedicated parking. I had parked my car right in front of the hotel under a tree so that I could see it from my room window. But next morning, it looked like all the birds in Jodhpur had loose motion and they misunderstood my car for a toilet.

[DheerajNK]

Day 4: Jodhpur, Jodhpur – Jaipur (350kms)

After a long time (3 days), we didn’t have to get up at 5 in the morning. Since we had not booked any hotel for that night, we checked out, loaded the bags in the car and started from the hotel around 8 in the morning. Went directly to Mehrangarh fort and we were there just when the gates were opening. Took the tickets and booked a guide from the ticket counter and did a tour of the fort.

Since all of us are interested in hearing stories about the history and imagining the kings & queens in the fort, we opted for guides at almost all of the places in this trip. We were so impressed with the stories, me & my brother both addressed each other as "Raja Maan Singh" through out the trip.

Also, another important thing in Rajasthan is, if you reach the forts/palaces as soon as they open in the morning, you can get some good pictures & peacefully complete the tour. Towards afternoon, the crowd will start building & it will be very difficult to get clear shots & you will not be able enjoy the serenity of these beautiful places.

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur





















Once the tour was complete, we had breakfast in the small cafeteria inside the fort & proceeded towards the Jaswant Thada which is marble structure used as a crematorium by the Royal family of Marwar. There is a small pond next to Jaswant Thada where we sat for some time and from here we went to Ummaid Bhavan Palace.

Jaswant Thada

[DheerajNK]

There was some confusion because we used Google maps to find the route to Ummaid Bhavan Palace. Google map was showing us a route which actually takes you to the hotel entry. Here you will not be allowed inside the gate unless you have a booking/reservation in the hotel. For the museum, there is a different entry & once you are there, there is a dedicated parking.

From this end you can access only a part of the palace where there is a museum which showcases a number of royal belongings.

Palace from outside



The picture of the current Maharaja when he was crowned. I was just fascinated by the spark in those eyes!



Resting after a lot of walking. It was too much of driving, Team BHP, Tripadvisor, Zomato, Google Maps & photography in the last 3 days for me. I am the one with red shoes.



These were the main places we wanted to visit in Jodhpur & we were done by afternoon. From here, we went to a restaurant called "On the rocks" and finished our lunch. Since we were not in a mood do any further site seeing after the heavy lunch, I decided a get the Vento washed as it was painful to see it covered with bird poop. After the wash, we started towards Jaipur. The plan was to reach Jaipur by late evening (around 8-9PM) and avoid another early morning start the next day. I had to drive for around 330Kms and Google maps showed less than 6 hours. Since it was only 4 in the evening, I was confident that we can reach by 9-9:30PM. But when we started from Jodhpur for the first few hours we had to go through 2 lane roads without divider and it took us through some villages and bad patches due to which we lost a lot of time. We joined a proper highway after some time & we stopped to take a break and book a hotel for the night. It was already 9PM and after multiple calls to the hotels (we found online) to confirm parking availability, we finalized on "66 Residency Boutique Hotel" in Jaipur (because they confirmed that they have dedicated parking within their premises) but we lost some more time here. Reached outskirts of Jaipur by around 11PM & had dinner in one of the restaurants next to the highway.

We were still on the highway and 10-15Kms from the city, we were stopped by the police. They asked me for the details on where we are coming from, where are we going etc & asked for the car papers. After finding everything is in place, the constable started asking why are driving at night and some more irrelevant questions. Then while returning the car papers, he found that my hi-beam light indicator was glowing on the display and started asking why am I driving in high beam within city limits.

I usually don't drive at high beam even on highways (if there are vehicles in front of me) to avoid disturbing the vehicles ahead of me through their OVRMs & on that particular occasion I had switched to high beam just to have a clear view of barricades that the police had placed on the road. When I mentioned that this is a highway, they started arguing that I am already within the city limits and I have to pay the fine. When I did not agree for that, the constable mentioned that they are fine with that but they will keep my DL (which was still with them) and I can go to the court next morning, get things sorted out and collect it. This must be their usual mode of operation for vehicles coming from other states as they know we can't afford to go through this procedure due to lack of time. Anyway, settled this matter somehow and moved on to be stopped at 2 more checkpoints where my detailed were noted on their register and we were allowed move forward. Later on we found out that the hotel we had booked was just few blocks away from CM's residence and hence the police collect details of all the vehicles which pass through that area in the night.

Finally reached hotel at 12:30AM, parked the car within their compound and hit the bed in no time.

Hotel: 66 Residency-A Boutique Hotel, Civil Lines, Jaipur

This is a nice hotel which is very well maintained & the type of rooms we had booked were very spacious. This hotel is very close to the city center and is in the middle of a posh residential layout. We stayed here for 2 nights & ordered food as well on the second night. Food is actually expensive and taste is just okay.

[DheerajNK]

Day 5: Jaipur

Started from the hotel in the morning and went directly to the Amer Fort. No, actually that’s not correct. On our way from Jaipur city to the Amer fort, we found a lot of people claiming themselves to be guides standing on the roadside offering their services. In spite of knowing everything about the fort, route, parking, dos & donts through team BHP, I fell for their trap and got convinced with their lie which is “ the fort will not open until afternoon”. One of the guides asked for only 50 rupees to show us a couple of places around, so that we can utilize our time “until the fort is open for visitors”. Very soon, we realized that his only intention was to take us to a nearby market & take commission from those shopkeepers. We however bought some stuff from that market (why? We had ladies travelling with us) and headed straight to the fort.

We took the route which will go till the entrance of the fort through few narrow streets. We also, hired a guide on our way. Since we wasted some time in the market, the traffic had already built up on the road to fort which is very narrow and steep at some places. There are a lot of old havelis on both sides of the road and you will find a lot of pigs rolling on the mud and the surroundings are not very well maintained. Finally found a parking slot & started our tour of the fort.

Amer fort

















After the tour is over, we went to the Panna Meena ka kund which is on the road to the fort. Few pictures from this place.





Next stop was Jal Mahal. We just took a stroll on the bank of the lake, watched some street magic by a kid & walked back to the car. Found a restaurant called “Jal Mahal Restaurant” through Tripadvisor & finished our lunch. Since we mentioned that we found this restaurant through Tripadvisor, we were treated extremely well & we got complimentary tea in exchange of my review on this restaurant in Tripadvisor. The food was really good & the service was amazing, so I was happy to write a positive review about them on Tripadvisor.





We headed towards Jaipur city palace but there was only a little time left before they closed the ticket counters & the queue was quite long. So thought of skipping this and ran towards Jantar Mantar. Unfortunately in the hurry, we forgot to take a guide so we ended up staring at the structures inside without being able to understand much. Tried to act like detectives and listen to the guides who were accompanying other tourists, when that didn’t work we decided just to click pictures and do rest of the research on Google.

Jantar Mantar



Took an electric vehicle from here to the Hawa Mahal & we were there on time for sunset. We did manage to get a guide here and had very good tour of the Hawa Mahal.

Hawa Mahal















With this we ended the tour of Jaipur and headed back to the hotel. Since we didn’t need one more day in Jaipur, I decided to drive to Tajmahal the next day. This is the bonus I got, for being disciplined and following the schedule as planned by ignoring a lot of other worldly pleasures. My brother and the girls were extremely supportive, without a proper company you can't be on track in such a long & hectic schedule.

We stayed in the same hotel. Ordered food to the room, finished dinner and slept of after setting the alarm for 4AM next morning. Plan was to start early from Jaipur, drive to Agra, visit Tajmahal & Agra Fort and drive back to Jaipur for night stay.

[DheerajNK]

Day 6 : Jaipur – Agra – Jaipur (504 Kms)

Checked out from the hotel & started at around 4:30AM in the morning. Just before we joined the highway, we were stopped again by police, documents verified & given a green signal. Nice roads, amazing drive and at around 9AM we are in Tajmahal parking.

After a short drive on the electric buggy we reach the ticket counter and welcomed by zero queue. We brought a guide with us from the parking lot who starts sharing a lot of interesting information. He was a self proclaimed expert photographer who knows maximum number of photography spots in and around Tajmahal which no other guide can offer.






















Just a glimpse of our guide's skills.





Visited the small street which is just outside the Tajmahal front gate, bought some Phetas & other stuff and came back walking till the ticket counter. Finished our breakfast in the hotel opposite to the ticket counter and headed towards the parking lot.

From here, went to the Agra fort, parked the car, hired a guide and walked into the Agra fort.



















We had covered the Agra fort by 3PM and we started from the parking at around 3:30. One stop for lunch on the way and we were back in Jaipur by 8:30PM and checked into the hotel which we booked while we were on the way back. I was feeling really happy as I drove back because I knew Tajmahal is beautiful but when I actually stood there right in front of this beautiful monument, I was just mesmerized. This was one of main highlights for me in this trip. May be this is also because this was the top most part of India we visited during this trip. I was feeling proud that I have reached there by road.

Hotel : Treebo Apple Inn, DCM Ajmer Road, Jaipur

Rooms are neat & clean. This hotel is right next to the highway but they have space in front of the hotel for parking. Ordered some Chinese food for dinner which we was not good.

[DheerajNK]

Day 7: Jaipur - Udaipur, Udaipur (430Kms)

We started from Jaipur at around 5 in the morning and reached Udaipur at around 11. Directly went to the City Palace Jaipur, parked the car right in front of the palace and had breakfast in "Sreenath Masala Dosa" which is one of the lanes outside the palace gate. I was thrilled that I can park the car so close the palace and click some amazing pictures of the vento with palace as the background.

Took a guide & entered the palace. Even though the parking, entry and camera fee was slightly high compared to the places we had visited till then, we were happy to see the way the palace was maintained once we were inside. I liked Udaipur. Not only because of the way the palaces were maintained, but also because in general the entire city is clean & the people are nice.

City Palace Udaipur








































After finishing the tour of palace, we walked out of the gate started shopping for gifts for our family, bedsheets etc. etc. Car was still parked inside. One interesting thing happened here. While roaming on the streets, I felt my hands are empty and I have forgotten something somewhere. If you notice the pictures of the vento in front of the palace, you will see a black stick on top of the wall next to the car. This is nothing but my action camera which had the videos of our entire journey. I had kept it here while clicking pictures of the surroundings with my other camera. While we are almost a km away from the car, I realized I have forgotten the action camera on the wall. Within seconds, the Milkha Singh in me (a very very unfit version) woke up & I started running towards the car. My brother was running behind me.

Panting, sweating, gasping for air when I reached the car, there was a group of youngsters who were looking at the stick and trying to figure out what that was. I made it on time! This is not a very expensive camera but had I lost it, I would lost all the videos of the trip. I had put in a lot of effort to make sure I capture all important parts on the trip on video in that camera. All is well!

We came back to the market (why? we had our ladies with us) & finished all the shopping. Stopped at the sweet shop on the same street which served very good Jalebis, samosas & kachoris. Thought of carrying some sweets home but dropped the idea because we still had 4 days left to reach home.

Next stop was Monsoon Palace. This is actually on the top of a hill with some amazing views but this place is not very well maintained. Most of the corners are dirtied by spitting of Paan and rest by the descendants of Majnu who love to see their and their partners names on two sides of a heart. We spent rest of the evening here & after witnessing a beautiful sunset left from there when we realized we haven't booked a hotel for the night yet.

Monsoon Palace


















We called many places and most of the hotels (with parking) were booked because it was getting close to the weekend. At one point, we were really worried but somehow managed to book a hotel called "Saheli Palace". This is a very old hotel which has definitely seen much better days. But there is ample space for parking inside their compound. Since we didn't have any options settled for this hotel. The common areas very shabby but luckily we got 2 rooms which were recently renovated and were in decent shape.

A quick search on Zomato showed a restaurant called "Traditional Khana" which has got good reviews at a walking distance and we went there for the dinner. We (me & my brother) are pure non-vegetarians and this is a veg restaurant. We went there thinking we will try all the traditional Rajasthani dishes & the food was good. But I can't call a dinner awesome, if there is no chicken involved. I am sorry

Reached the hotel by walking & called it a day. This was one of the very productive days because we had traveled on the same day & also visited some very nice places.

Hotel : The Saheli Palace, Udaipur

Details mentioned above.The people are nice, the parking is safe but I wouldn't recommend this hotel to family travelers.

[DheerajNK]

Day 8 : Udaipur, Udaipur - Vadodara (400Kms)

Checked out from the hotel & went straight to Lake Pichola. This is a beautiful place especially during the December weather. Took a boat ride which traverses through the different small palaces within the lake and also provides an amazing view of the City Palace Udaipur.

Palace from Lake Pichola





After the boat ride, we headed for the Mansapurna Karni Mata Ropeway where the cabins on the ropeway carry you to the top of a hill from where you can get an amazing view of complete Udaipur and the lakes in the area.

Some of the pictures clicked here.





After the one-way trip, you can climb a few steps to reach the different view points. We spent some time at the viewpoint & came down to the restaurant, had some very nice paranthas and took the ride back to the other side.

As per the plan, Niriksha was supposed to catch a flight in the afternoon back to Bangalore. We dropped her to the Udaipur Airport & from there we headed for Vadodara, so that the journey next day will be shorter & we can reach Pune early.

Reached Vadodara at around 8:30PM & checked into our hotel which we booked on our way. After some freshening up, visited the exhibition we had seen on our way where my wife wanted to buy some stuff. Came back, had dinner at the hotel restaurant & sight seeing part of our trip was almost over.

Hotel : GenX Vadodara, Alkapuri, Vadodara

Very clean and nice rooms. Good restaurant & courteous staff. Limited parking space available in front of the hotel but we managed to get one slot.

[DheerajNK]

Day 9 : Vadodara - Pune (550kms)

Started early in the morning, dropped by brother in Mumbai as he wanted to spend one day there & we reached my sister's place in Pune by 3:30 in the evening. Visited my aunt & grandmother that night who also live in Pune.

Day 10 : Pune

I was totally exhausted with all the driving & I slept almost till afternoon & the evening was well spent by watching Dangal with sister, brother-in-law and the kids. My brother had spent the day in Mumbai and reached Pune at late night.

Day 11 : Pune - Bangalore (835Kms)

Started at around 6:30 in the morning & reached home in Bangalore at around 6 in the evening. Our great Indian road trip came to an end here & we had to be in office next morning.

Conclusion:

Even though this trip was done many months back, I could still feel that excitement as I was writing about the good memories we had. Yes, this was kind of a dream I always had & I lived it for those 11 days which was possible only because of my amazing folks who traveled with me. They were extremely patient with me when I was planning for so may early morning starts, when we were not able to get good food in the middle of highways, when we had to skip breakfasts on few days & on so may occasions which really checked our patience & endurance. We managed to stick to the plan completely, covered more places than we had planned & came back without any issues. I have done a lot of long distance drives but this one will remain close to my heart forever. The Vento was just so amazing, I couldn't have done this with any other car. The love I had for the Vento just doubled after this trip & to the extent that on the last day of the trip, after reaching Bangalore, I felt like sleeping in the car. What an amazing machine!

Thanks you all for reading this. My laptop gave up after I started writing this travelogue and last few posts were written using a keyboard in which i,o,k & l keys are not working. I have not been able to edit any of the pictures as I didn't have a lot of time due to work commitments but I hope you guys will like this travelogue.

11 days, 5 states, 5170Kms & priceless memories.
Cheers to my partners in crime, the Vento, the Indian roads & the wonderful people we met on this journey!



The video below covers almost all major events of our journey if you have the time to watch it. This is again my first attempt to create something like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziffz4Dj0JA

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[2himanshu]

Great review and excellent photography, your notes will surely help anyone planning trip in these areas; especially about the hotels and eateries. Please keep up the touring and let the reviews come.

[luvDriving]

Excellent review with good amount of details, especially since I am planning a trip to these places in Jan/Feb 2018.Very good to know that you could manage to book hotel rooms on the fly which allowed you good flexibility.

Instead of a guide, is there a facility for the auto-guides (headphones) at any of these sights ?

[DheerajNK]

Originally Posted by 2himanshu

Great review and excellent photography, your notes will surely help anyone planning trip in these areas; especially about the hotels and eateries. Please keep up the touring and let the reviews come.

Thanks for your kind words. I hope to continue with the touring & reviews.

Originally Posted by luvDriving

Excellent review with good amount of details, especially since I am planning a trip to these places in Jan/Feb 2018.Very good to know that you could manage to book hotel rooms on the fly which allowed you good flexibility.

Instead of a guide, is there a facility for the auto-guides (headphones) at any of these sights ?

Yes, there are auto-guides in most of the places. I felt, tours with guides are much faster than walking with these devices. Also, we preferred the interesting stories (some of them may not even be true) over the pre-recorded boring audio clips.

In one of the palaces, a conversation between a Guide and KP:

Guide: If you notice the big wall, you will find 16 windows where 16 of Maharajah's(he mentioned some Maharajah's name) wives used to sit and watch any celebrations that are taking place in the open area
KP: Was the palace built before kings's wedding or after that?
Guide: Before his wedding
KP: Then how did he know that he is going to have 16 wives?
Guide : *grinning*

[Altocumulus]

Sent a link of this thread to my wife. I am planning to do this trip for a long time, however my wife is skeptical about it being a good idea. This should convince her !!

Great trip and lovely write up.