[shrinz.vivek]

1 Background

We are a bunch of four friends who have done a fair bit of travelling on our motorcycles. Every year in the month of Dec we go on an annual vacation. We started this ritual in 2014 and as years progressed and all of us got married, we upgraded from travelling on our royal enfields to driving our car. We always had dreamed of doing really long drives but somehow did not have the confidence to execute it.
It all changed when I bought a pre-owned Innova in the Oct 2022. We started thinking “what is the use of owning an Innova if we don’t tour the country in it”.

2 Planning
Since the whole of south India and Gujrath was already covered in our previous vacations, we discussed about all other available destinations ranging from Kashmir to Puri to NE; and finally concluded on visiting Rajasthan. Coincidentally one of my friends had to move to London for work and that left us with three couples and three kids. We unanimously agreed to squeeze ourselves and our luggage into my 8-seater Innova for this trip rather than worrying about taking two cars.
Thus, the planning began. We always plan our trip down to the last detail. We somehow don’t like unplanned trips especially when we have our wives and kids joining us. We had two 2-year-old girls and one 4-year-old boy with us and for the sake of their comfort we decided to split the whole trip into three phases.
Phase 1: Bangalore to Udaipur (3 days)
Phase 2: Udaipur to Jaipur (6 days)
Phase 3: Jaipur to Bangalore (3 days)
The two babies and their respective mothers would fly into Udaipur and out from Jaipur. The rest of us including the boy would travel by car throughout.
After much dilly – dallying we started with a draft plan and continuously refined it for couple of months to finally arrive at this – Rajasthan and Jyotirlinga trip.



If you want a more detailed timeline, then refer this -
Rajasthan Master Plan Rev 1.pdf

3 Preparation
While the ladies started preparing to buy new clothes for themselves and the kids, we men started focusing on how to best pack the luggage for 6 adults and 3 kids for the Rajasthan phase. Since it was my car, I started preparing it for this ultra long journey. I kept the technical service for the last and started with small conveniences for the driver as well as the passengers.

Bought the below accessories from amazon:

1. Sunshades: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B09...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2. 3D mats:
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3. Dashcam:
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

4. Windshield sun sunshade:
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

5. Towel seat cover:
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6. Upgraded my headlights to 90/100W as a weekend DIY. Bought everything offline:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...ml#post5656553 (Auto Lighting thread : Post all queries about automobile lighting here)

7. Built myself an upper glovebox as another weekend DIY. Bought everything offline:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...ml#post5674997 (Installing a 2nd / upper glovebox for the 1st-gen Toyota Innova)
This jugaad proved to be very useful during the trip to keep the co-driver’s phone, wallet, charging cables etc in this shelf while the original glove box was filled with documents, basic tools and first aid kit.

8. At 1,48,000km I gave my car for 1,50,000 service and asked for engine flush and synthetic oil. The accessories costed me around 10k, and service came up to 30k. With this the car was good to roll. All luggage was packed in soft luggage like rucksacks or duffel bags so that it can compress and squeeze into all corners.

4 The Trip
4.1 Day1: Bangalore to Chakan
We started at 4am after loading the luggage and completing our ritualistic salutations to Lord ganesh at Bull temple we were on the Tumkur highway before 5am. It was Jan 26th Republic day and we expected heavy traffic. Based on prior discussions with regular travellers we decided to avoid Belgaum Kolhapur Road due to the upgradation works and instead took hospet-Bijapur- Solapur route to Pune. The entire journey was very calm and efficient. The roads were excellent throughout the only traffic congestion we encountered was near Pune bypass to Chakan. With three breaks for breakfast, lunch and snacks we reached our hotel near Chakan by 10pm.


Picture 1: Day 1 Geo report


4.2 Day 2: Bhimashankar and Triambakeshwar
We started at around 6.30am and took an internal village road till Bhimashankar as we wanted to have a break from regular highways after 900+ kms of driving the previous day.

4.2.1 Bhimashankar:
We reached the car parking by 9.30am. Bhimashankar was heavily crowded as this was a long weekend. We had to either walk around 1.5km from the parking lot to the temple entrance or take a taxi or bus. We chose to walk and then climb down the hill for around 5 mins to reach the darshan queue. We stopped for breakfast at one of the many small hotels along either side of the walk path. Had hot Poha and Poori Bhaji and continued to walk.

Since the main corridor construction was ongoing, the queue was diverted to a narrow side track. Two of us stood in queue and two of us ran down till the base of the temple all the while avoiding the agents offering quick darshan for 500 bucks per head. Somehow my intuition was telling me that there must be an alternative to both the main Q and the touts. Finally in a corner of the temple we found the official ticket counter for "Sheegra Darshan". Again, one of us stood in the counter Q and I ran up and bought the others down and entered the Sheegra darshan Q. Tickets for this is 300 rupees per person. It took us around an hour for the darshan. Plus, half an hour each to walk to and from the parking lot. So, we can budget 2 to 3 hrs for Bhimashankar.

Note: There are multiple car parking lots which gets filled from the nearest to the farthest. We were not aware of this. While returning from the temple we took a shuttle bus to the parking (Rs10/head) but could not tell which parking lot we wanted to get down at. So, we got down at the first parking lot (nearest to the temple) and luckily found our car. We then realised ours and the next parking lot was already full, and the third one was being filled (farthest from the temple). So, make sure to remember where you have parked.


Picture 2: The long walk to the temple




Picture 3: Bhimashankar temple view

4.2.2 Triambakeshwar:

We left Bhimashankar by 1 pm and reached Triambakeshwar by 7 pm with short lunch/snacks break at 4 at a roadside hotel.
We had booked a hotel very close to the temple. A bunch of hotels combined had a paid parking site nearby where we parked. After a quick fresh up we went to the temple. As expected, the crowd was too much and the guards at the entrance told us we may have to stand in the queue for more than 3 hrs. A few calls to some close contacts gave us the privilege of VVIP darshan. We were in and out of the temple in one hour including a small pooja right inside the Garbha gudi. Being a south Indian I felt very awkward to touch the main Shivalinga but that is quite common across most north Indian temples.
Triambakeshwar temple impressed me a lot and spiritual vibe could be really felt as we sat in the temple complex and meditated for a while.
We closed the day with a Maharashtrian thali at a nearby and went to sleep.


Picture 4: Triambakeshwar temple complex


Picture 5: Day 2 Geo report

4.3 Day 3: Triambakeshwar to Udaipur
We started by 6am and decided to take the Valsad – Vapi route to reach Surat instead of other alternative routes. To my surprise my car had found a twin overnight and looked happy standing next to it.

We were very impressed by the highways of Gujrath during our previous Gujrath tour and hence we were waiting to cross into GJ as soon as possible. Also, we were craving for a fafda jalebi breakfast after having spicy missal pav / vada pav for the past two days. We quickly drove down the ghat and joined NH48 golden quadrilateral. While the beautiful ghat drive got us excited early in the morning the sheer number of trucks on NH48 shocked us. As we were very hungry, we stopped at the first Gujrati restaurant we found even before we crossed MH border. After having stomach full of Fafda, jalebi and bun maska we prepared ourselves mentally to weave through the trucks all day.

The rest of the journey was extremely adventurous. We did not get a single stretch of highway which was not filled with trucks to the brim (except for NE1 between Vadodara and Ahmedabad). We drove non-stop till Himmat Nagar and stopped at a cute café to rest and wait for the sunset. After sipping on hot chai, we prepared to drive non-stop till our hotel in Udaipur. The roads after crossing GJ border were equally good until Udaipur and much better than what we expected. Slowly truck traffic reduced as we approached Udaipur and finally, we reached our hotel around 10pm.


Picture 6: Best breakfast in the world




Picture 7: Day 3 geo report & My car finding a twin (The Innova on the left is mine)

4.4 Day 4: Udaipur city

4.4.1 Bahubali hills
We reached Bahubali hills by 7am. The sun had just risen, and the sky was filled with fog. Bahubali hills was recently discovered by a group of local boys and has become popular among youngsters. It is a small hill overlooking the Aravalli hills and Badi lake. A small 15min hike will take you to the top. Even on a Monday morning it was filled with young couples clicking pictures for Instagram. We spent around 1 hour there, had Maggi at one of the many small shacks near the hill and left towards sajjangarh fort.


Picture 8: View from Bahubali hills

4.4.2 Sajjangarh fort (Monsoon palace)
We reached Sajjangarh for by 10am. You can take your car up to the top of the fort after buying a ticket costing 300 bucks for the car and 155 bucks per head. The drive up to the fort has many extremely tight hairpin bends which are quite steep. I had lots of fun listening to the squeaking tires as I maintained enough speed to not shift down to first gear.
There is a small museum kind of place at the top which was once used to study monsoon clouds and hence it is also called monsoon palace. The view from the top is extremely satisfying. As expected in Rajasthan, every nook and corner were insta worthy and we spent some peaceful time observing people clicking pictures and dancing to reels.
The flight carrying our wives and daughters was expected to land by 11.30am and hence we left towards the airport directly from the monsoon palace. After picking up the ladies we went straight to city palace


Picture 9: Sajjangarh fort entrance


Picture 10: View from Sajjangarh fort

4.4.3 Lake pichola

We parked our car in the official city palace car parking near Jagdish temple and proceeded towards the palace entrance. Here we realised that this parking is around 1.5km away from the entrance. We were too hungry to make the walk and hence we entered some random roof top restaurant we found near the temple. It was surprisingly good and tasty. The area surrounding Jagdish temple has lots of good rooftop hotels and we came back to another hotel here even for dinner.

After lunch we chalked out the plan for the day after consulting some locals who suggested us to go to lake pichola first and then come to city palace from the other entrance because lake pichola boating costs more after evening.

We took an auto to lake pichola to avoid driving through narrow lanes. At the lake we took a shared boat which took us around the lake from where we saw the city place, Jag mandir and taj lake palace from afar. The views were very beautiful, and it was time well spent. The kids enjoyed it too. We chose not to enter jag mandir as well as Taj Lake place as we had no time and also because it required another expensive ticket.
After boating, we took another auto to city place.


Picture 11: View from Lake Pichola


Picture 12: Auto ride to avoid traffic.

4.4.4 City palace

At the city palace one can choose to tour Jag mandir and Lake palace also buy buying the respective ticket at the entrance. We skipped this and bought tickets for the city palace museum costing 400/head. If you want to see only the palace without the museum, it will cost 50/head.
It was again a long walk up to the palace entrance. Once we reached there, we took an English-speaking guide and started the tour. The guide explained in detail about the history of the palace, its many rooms and its uses, the way it was constructed etc...

The main highlight of this place is that the palace is built enveloping a small hill. The hill is still in the middle of the palace but is completely covered by the palace. The trees on top of the hill are converted into a rooftop garden on the 4th floor. The whole tour took around 3hrs and involved lots of walking and climbing. Highly strenuous if you have small kids. The tour ended with a small performance by the palace band around 5.30pm.
We took another auto to Karni Mata mandir.


Picture 13: Climb up to city palace.

4.4.5 Karni Mata Mandir
This is a temple on top of a small hill overlooking Lake Pichola. A small ropeway took us to the top of the hill. It was a small 3min ride in a closed cabin. Neat and fancy. On the top is a small temple which some people told is filled with rats. However, we didn’t find any rats there. This place is ideal to watch the sunset from and click some golden hour pictures. The lake and the palace look awesome from here after dark. Around 7pm we went down using the same ropeway. The ropeway operation is very well organised and also has a restaurant at the station where you can eat while you wait for your turn.
Again, we took an auto back to the Jagdish temple car parking and had dinner at another fancy rooftop hotel called “Millets of Mewar”. It had unbelievably tasty dishes made from millets. With this we ended the day and slept in RTDC Kajri.


Picture 14: Ropeway to Karni Mata Mandir


Picture 15: View from Karni Mata Mandir


Picture 16: Day 4 geo report

To be continued ...

[shrinz.vivek]

4.5 Day 5: Udaipur to Jaisalmer

We started early and skipped buffet breakfast at our hotel and left towards Jaisalmer. We took the Barmer route as we wanted to maximise driving in desert environments. Roads were fairly good until barmer. We stopped for breakfast a small shop which served us fresh hot kachoris, dhoklas and jelabis.

The real fun started after barmer, where the roads were empty, smooth, and as straight as an arrow. With the desert view on both sides, we really floored it. But Innova being Innova did not get as excited as me and remained calm and composed and roared along sedately. We passed through Jaisalmer and drove non-stop till Sam where our stay was booked.
As we arrived, 4 camels welcomed us and were waiting to take us to the dunes for adventure activities. Without wasting time to even unload our luggage we hopped on to the camels and strutted along. As the camel started walking all excitement vapourised. It was extremely uncomfortable, and I just could not wait to get down. I started missing my Innova’s comfort.

The camels dropped us at the dunes which was very bustling with activities. The otherwise calm lonely desert looked like a school playground. There were 4 main activities – ATV ride, Jeep ride, Jeep Parasailing, Paramotoring. None of the operators inspired confidence in us, yet we went ahead with ATV ride and Jeep parasailing. ATV ride was very reckless and scary, and my daughter cried non-stop while on it. Unfortunately for me the kid/boy/man who was driving paid no heed to my cries to slow down. It looked like he wanted to show off his skills at any cost. I got a bad headache within minutes and the chaos all around did not help. We quickly finished jeep parasailing and skipped the other two activities. We got on the camel again and proceed to see the sunset. This time I took my camel for a walk instead of the other way around. I felt good walking with a camel in the desert at sunset.

After some standard folk dance and music back at the resort we went to sleep in our tents. The tents were very good, big, and clean. It had huge clean bathrooms. We felt privileged to stay in such luxury in the middle of the desert.


Picture 17: Drive to Jaisalmer


Picture 18: Typical Rajasthani cultural evening


Picture 19: Day 5 geo report


4.6 Day 6: Jaisalmer to Jodhpur

As we were having breakfast in the resort dining hall, my friend’s son rushed to inform me that his younger sister had an accident. My friend’s 2yr old daughter had a fall and was bleeding near her right eyebrow. We had an extensive first aid kit with us and were able to clean and dress up the wound ourselves. However, since the wound was on the head we wanted to visit a hospital just for a double check.
We immediately checked out and stopped at the nearest police station first. (Our biking days has taught us to trust no one apart from the local police in case of an emergency). The cops woke up and guided us to the nearest government hospital and assured us that he will be on standby if we need anything more help. A sleepy doctor attended to us and confirmed that it is just a minor bruise, and we need not worry.
After losing more than an hour due to the accident we sped non-stop to longewala war memorial

4.6.1 Longewala war memorial

This is a memorial and a museum dedicated to the 1971 Indo-Pak war. It is maintained and operated by the Indian armed forces and not surprisingly is in excellent condition. It has a memorial, a museum, a documentary screening room in a real bunker, a café, a souvenir shop, and clean toilets mounted on trailers. The feeling of watching a war documentary in a real military bunker cannot be expressed in words. Filled with patriotism we had breakfast in the café and left for Tanot Mata mandir.


Picture 20: The last cafe of India


Picture 21: Longewala war memorial

4.6.2 Tanot Mata mandir and Indo – Pak border

Being very close to the border this temple is managed by BSF personnel. We visited the temple first and then went to a BSF tent near the temple to collect our permit to visit the Indo-Pak border. We had to fill up a form listing our names, Aadhar card numbers, car number and other details. The BSF keeps a copy of this and lets us proceed towards the border. All roads in this area are in excellent condition and the views are mesmerizing. Kudos to BRO for their efforts. We drove as fast as we could not because we were in a hurry but because the roads were so tempting.
Unfortunately, my disciplined Innova got scared and turned on the Check Engine light after I drove at more than 140kmph for few minutes. I got worried and stop for a while, did a visual check in the engine bay, and could not find any obvious concerns. After couple of minutes, we started the engine, and the light was gone. I never pushed hard ever again in the trip and the light never came on.
At the border there is a boom barrier up to which we can go. At the gate, an army person gave a small talk about the border and its features. We could see the Pakistan watch tower and flag from here. India has a fence as per international laws and has 24x7 patrolling on camels and ATVs. There are flood lights throughout the border. Shockingly Pakistan neither has a fence nor lighting. From here we raced non-stop to Jaisalmer via Ramgarh.


Picture 22: Indo Pak border

4.6.3 Jaisalmer fort
While the rest of the gang visited Jaisalmer fort, I took rest in the car as my daughter was asleep and I had no energy to carry her around the fort.


Picture 23: View from Jaisalmer fort


Picture 24: Waiting for sunset.

It was 6.30pm by now and was almost dark. As we had to reach Jodhpur for the night, we drove non-stop for the next 6 hours without even stopping for dinner. Close to Jodhpur we encountered road upgradation works which killed our speed. Close to midnight we reached our hotel in Jodhpur, sleepy eyed and tired. To our surprise there was a wedding party going on in the resort and the catering staff were kind enough to offer us some exotic Rajasthani sweet. We checked in and crashed.


Picture 25: Day 6 geo report

4.7 Day 7: Jodhpur to Pushkar
After a heavy breakfast of Poha, Poori Bhaji, Kheer and fruits we checked out and headed straight to Jodhpur fort.

4.7.1 Mehrangarh fort:

I had mentally prepared myself for another gruelling session of walking and climbing while carrying my daughter and Mehrangarh fort decided to test my limit. We had to park the car almost 1 km away from the fort and climb up the steep ramp to the fort entrance. But they allowed our car till the top we if agreed to drop off the passengers and tell the driver to go down back and park. Thankfully my friend agreed to be that driver. He was exhausted even before we entered.
Once we were in, it was the same routine. Buy tickets – get a guide – start walking. We came across folk singer who would ask us where we were from and would sing few lines in our native language. This infused some much-needed zeal in us and motivated us to continue walk. The highlight of this fort was the extremely well-maintained royal artefacts like armours, swords, guns and wedding livery. We did some souvenir shopping inside the fort and exited. It took some time for my friend to run back down and get the car which gave the rest of us some rest.
Our next target for the day was 5:30pm ganga Aarti at Pushkar and we started driving without any more sightseeing in Jodhpur. Before we exited Jodhpur, we took some take away lassi, rabdi, mirchi bonda, kachoris and namkeens from the very popular Shri Mishrilal Hotel.
Another 5hrs of non-stop driving took us to Pushkar.


Picture 26: Yet another tiring climb up to the fort


Picture 27: View from Jodhpur fort


Picture 28: Shri Mishrilal Hotel


4.7.2 Pushkar Lake:

Being a weekday Pushkar was not so crowded. We parked in the official car parking near the Brahma temple and walked fast till Brahma Ghat. We thought we would miss the Aarthi but luckily the Aarthi was shifted to 6pm to align with sunset. We took our places in the brahma ghat steps and waited. At exactly 6pm the Aarthi started and my god!!! It was magical.

We had goosebumps all through the Aarthi and immersed ourselves completely in the bhajans. The setting sun against the vast lake added to the spiritual vibe and we felt transported to a different world. We took the Aarthi prasada and then proceeded to visit to world’s only brahma temple. It was not at all crowded and we in and out in 15 mins.

Pushkar being an ex-hippie hotspot has many good cafes all along the ghat. We had short listed a popular café serving really good falafel-based snacks. In our excitement to reach the café we took the shortest route suggested by google maps and got stuck deep in a narrow alley. This led to some friction with the locals, and we hurriedly found an exit to the main road. One kind shop owner cautioned us never to follow google maps in Pushkar again and suggested us the best route to reach our café. However, we did not want any more adventure and hence went straight to our hotel (RTDC) and parked our car there. We then walked to our café along the ghat steps which was probably a very good decision as we could truly experience the hippie vibe of Pushkar.
We spotted many tiny cafes and hostels along the route serving all sorts of tourists. The vibe of Pushkar really impressed us. We felt it was a wonderful mix of spirituality and hippie culture unlike Goa or Varkala which is very wild compared to Pushkar. After a heavy serving of Indo-Middle Eastern cuisine we walked back and crashed.


Picture 29: Walk to Brahma temple.


Picture 30: Climb up to Brahma temple.


Picture 31: Day 7 geo report

4.8 Day 8: Jaipur

Like all RTDC hotels, our hotel at Pushkar too had breakfast included in the room package. After almost a week of eating out non-stop, we wanted something simple. So, we ordered Poori Bhaji, had a couple of them and left for Jaipur.
An hour away from Jaipur, I started feeling cold and feverish. By the time we reached the hotel I was down with high fever. I volunteered to stay back at the hotel for the day and take rest. So, my friends dropped me at the hotel (another RTDC) and continued to Amber fort. Traffic congestion was very high in Jaipur and my friends could cover only Amber fort, Hawa mahal and come shopping that day.
I took a Dolo and slept the whole day and waited for my friends to return by late evening. I started feeling better by 9pm and went to the in-house restaurant, had little bit of curd rice and slept, hoping to recover and continue the journey towards Ujjain.


Picture 32: Amber palace


Picture 33: Day 8 geo report

To be continued ...

[shrinz.vivek]

4.9 Day 9: Ujjain

This was the day when all of us started to feel the fatigue and strain of our travels. We started missing Bangalore food a lot. We started feeling pukish just by thinking of Vada Pavs and Kachoris.
We were dying to eat Dosa or Chow Chow bath for breakfast. But all we got was more and more Poha. We drove non-stop till Ujjain via Deoli, Kota and Jhalrapatan and reached Ujjain by 2.30pm and started temple hopping.

4.9.1 Mangal Nath Mandir:

Situated on the Tropic of cancer, this temple is believed to be the birthplace of planet Mars. This temple was not crowded, and we were able to finish darshan within 30 minutes.

4.9.2 Kaal Bhairav Mandir:
Another Shiva temple which is close to Mangal Nath Mandir is Kaala Bhairava mandir. Here devotees offer liquor to the deity as an offering. I had heard of this practice before, but it was very interesting to see this in real life. There are govt approved liquor stores outside the temple from where people buy alcohol bottles to offer to Lord Kaal Bhairav. And of course, only some quantity is offered to the deity and the rest is given back to the devotee as prasada. This temple was extremely crowded, and we had to wait in queue for around 1 hour. We did not offer anything to the lord except our prayers.


Picture 34: Kaala Bhairava Mandir


4.9.3 Sandeepani Ashram:

This is a must visit place if you are in Ujjain. This is believed to be the school of Lord Krishna, Balarama and Sudhama. The place has a very calm and pleasant vibe to it and is very well maintained. We wished we could have studied in such a school during our childhood. Apart from small temples, the ashram has museum like galleries depicting the 14 vidyas and 64 art forms. It once taught everything from the Vedas and Upanishads to the skill of styling one’s hair. We were mesmerised to learn how knowledgeable people were in ancient times. The 64 art forms displayed here will put the entire western world’s elegance and etiquettes to shame if practiced properly. No wonder Shri Krishna turned out to be the Lord of the world after studying in this school.


Picture 35: Sandeepani Ashram


Picture 36: Gallery of disciplines


4.9.4 Mahakaleshwar temple:

The hotel which we had booked Ujjain was very close to the Mahakaleshwar temple and hence did not have adequate parking. So, we parked the car in the paid parking near the Bharat Mata mandir and walked till the hotel through the narrow alleys surrounding the temple. The hotel was good and comfortable but there was no water in the washroom. We went down to enquire and realised that many other hotels were facing the same issue. We could hear scream and shouts from adjacent hotels.

We freshened up using drinking water bottles and headed straight to the banks of the Kshipra River to witness the Ganga Aarti. Unfortunately, we missed the aarti by few mins. Ironically lack of water in the hotel made us miss the aarti to the water goddess. We spent some few pristine mins near the river and started walking towards the main Mahakal temple. On the way we witnessed the lamp lighting ceremony going on in Harsiddhi Mata mandir. It was a real spectacle to watch one single man light up so many lamps manually all while balancing on the huge structure. We prayed from outside as the entrance was too crowded and we had to visit Mahakal temple as well.

The Mahakaleshwar temple had a shigra darshan facility for which we paid 250 rupees per person and stood in the queue. The overall management was very good and slowly we entered the temple complex. The spiritual vibrations can be felt very evidently as we approach the Garbha gudi. The main Shiva Linga was unlike any other which we had seen. Slightly scary to look at, still we did not even blink while we were in front of it, least we miss the lord’s darshan.

Outside the main temple there are many small temples dedicated to various other gods inside the temple complex. We quickly hopped from one temple to another and finished quickly. All of us were dressed like traditional South Indian devotees which, I think, gave us a marginal advantage in terms of treatment by the guards.

While on our way out, we spotted a building named “Protocol Office” (or something similar). We just went in to check it out and this is where we found the most surprising activity of Ujjain. As most of you know, there is a special aarti done to lord shiva in Makahaleshwar called “Bhasma Aarti”. Off late it has become so popular that tickets are sold out within minutes of it being opened online. Even we had tried to book it in advance but had failed. So, here in this building near to the temple, they let you experience this aarti in Virtual Reality. We initially, thought this was some gimmick to cash in on the online popularity of this aarti. But, Oh My God, we were blown away.

There was the option of choosing two shows of 150 or 500. Both had individual VR headsets and headphones for each person but differed in quality and duration. We took the 500 rupees show which promised best quality and 15 mins of VR show. We were made to sit in an airconditioned room and given a bottle of water before one of the staff fixed the equipment on our head. The chair was of swivel type and was part of the VR equipment. And the show began! The Point of View of the aarti was right in front of the main Shiva Linga. It felt like we were part of the core team of priests who were performing the aarti. The picture and sound quality were beyond excellent. 15mins passed without us even realising it. We were extremely pleased with the overall planning and execution of this attraction. I suggest everyone to take this activity without miss when you are in Ujjain.
Thus, our day in Ujjain ended and we went to sleep.

Sidenote: Throughout the day, my friend was constantly trying to pull some strings and get the bhasm arati passes for the next day. His efforts bore fruit at 10.30pm while I was sound asleep. They left the hotel room at around 2.30am and participated in the bhasm arati. I missed it as I was too sleepy and don’t even remember that I refused to wake up when they tried to. My friends told that attending the bhasm aarti was a lifetime experience. Do book your tickets well in advance.


Picture 37: Harsiddhi Mata Mandir



Picture 38: Sheegra Darshana tickets & Bharat Mata mandir at the end of the Mahakal Corridor


Picture 39: The Virtual Reality show of Bhasma Aarti


Picture 40: Day 9 geo report

4.10 Day 10: Ujjain to Ellora

We left late from Ujjain the next day and stopped for breakfast at Indore. We wanted to cover Omkareshwar and Maheshwar during the day and reach Ellora by day end.

4.10.1 Omkareshwar

The drive to Omkareshwar was pretty good and we reached the city entrance by 12pm. We could literally sense the crowd all around. Cops were deployed to guide oncoming cars to far off parking lots as all parking spaces and by lanes near the temple were jam packed by then. We paid 2000 bucks to some local guy who promised to take our car to a parking lot closest to the temple and also arrange a private boat to the temple island.

Omkareshwar temple is on a huge island across the Narmada River, and one needs to take a boat across it or use one of the many walk bridges. We could see from the riverbank that the darshan queue had extended on the bridges too. We assumed that taking the queue after crossing via boat would make our darshan faster. We were wrong. We boarded the boat, saw the dam and Shankaracharya statue and then hopped down to the island hill. We climbed up to the general darshan queue and to our horror we saw that the top of the hill was filled with lakhs of devotees. It was utter chaos, dirty and filthy everywhere. We tried our best to secure some sort of VIP darshan but failed. We could not stand there any longer and ran down to the riverbank after praying to the temple from afar. We took the same boat back to the mainland. We just wanted to run away from the crowd. The last 9 days of fatigue was adding to our frustration.

We paid a quick visit to Mamaleshwar temple and drove off. It was around 3 pm by then and we were terribly late and had close to 8 hrs of non-stop driving left. So, we decided to skip Maheshwar and started our journey towards Aurangabad. The drive from Omkareshwar to Dhamnod via Maheshwar was a single road with villages on both sides. We badly wanted to reach the highway ASAP. The road from Dhamnod until Dhule was the usual NH and we cover distance quickly.

We stopped for dinner at some roadside hotel before Dhule bypass and had the worst jeera rice and dal tadka of our lives. After Dhule, the roads were terrible until Aurangabad. We somehow managed to reach our hotel around midnight. At the hotel parking, we noticed 4 big buses parked but not a single car. More on this later.


Picture 41: Narmada dam


Picture 42: The Queue complex leading to Omkareshwar temple.


Picture 43: Day 10 geo report

4.11 Day 11: Ellora to Bijapur

We were woken up by the sounds of many ladies fighting or screaming. We thought it was some guests in the neighbouring rooms. Anyways we wanted to leave early and visit Grishneswar to avoid the crowds later. So, we had bath and came down the parking lot and lo behold… We were greeted to sight of almost 200 ladies chit chatting in the parking lot while eating vada pav. Apparently, the whole hotel was booked by some mahila sangha who had come in 4 big buses. We felt really embarrassed to be stared at by 200 pairs of eyes while we were again in our panche shalya attire. We immediately hopped on to our car and sped off.

4.11.1 Grishneshwar:

We reached the temple by 7am and it was very calm and peaceful. The crowd was well managed, and we finished darshan within 40 mins. Compared to the other jyotirlingas, this temple felt quite small. The interesting part of this temple was the colour of the bricks used to build it. It felt like the rocks had small vanilla chips embedded in them. Unfortunately, i didn’t click pictures of it. We spent some time praying and went back to the hotel to check out.

4.11.2 Ellora caves:

We checked out from the hotel and sneaked our way between the vada pav ladies and headed straight to Ellora caves. It was almost 10am by then. We took a govt authorised guide and headed into the complex.

We spent most of our time in the cave no. 16 which fascinated us beyond imagination. We were extremely tired by the time we finished cave 16 as we had not slept properly the previous night. Our guide understood that and increased his explanation speed in order to release us early.
We then spent some time in The Vishvakarma Cave (cave no 10) which has a 15ft statue of Lord Buddha. We felt like sitting there and meditate and doze off while doing that. We then glanced at the remaining caves quickly and finished our time there. By this time all of us were totally drained. Lack of sleep, continuous driving and lack of good food was taking a toll on us. We began feeling desperate for good food and lots of sleep.

As per our plan we had to see Ellora leisurely and reach Solapur by night fall. But we finished Ellora quicky and decided to head straight to Vijayapura. There were two reasons for this change. We badly wanted Karnataka food and we wanted to reach home early the next day. So, we drove non-stop till Bijapur and reached our hotel by 7pm. And Oh Boy… we were relived so see our beloved Khanavalis everywhere.

We freshened up and ran to the nearest Kahanavali and ordered 5 “rotti ootas”. We felt home after a long time. This lifted our spirits up and we planned to leave early the next day and reach Bangalore before dark. Also, it was my daughter’s birthday the next day and I had even more incentive to reach in time for the evening celebrations.


Picture 44: The magnificent elephants




Picture 45: Ellora caves


Picture 46: Day 11 geo report

4.12 Day 12: Bijapur to Bangalore
Nothing much happened on this day. We initially planned to stop over at Hampi for lunch but ended up driving straight to Bangalore. We stopped for breakfast and lunch as some roadside hotels and had snacks and sweets at T Begur Paakashaala.
We left Bijapur at 6.30am and reached home by 4.30pm much to the surprise of all our family members.


Picture 47: Day 12 geo report

This ends our 6000km Rajasthan + Jyotirlinga trip. This was our biggest ever road trip and will be etched in our memories for ever. Sorry for the long write-up and thank you for reading till the end.

Regards
Srinidhi


5.1 Annex 1: Overall trip route on India map


5.2 Annex 2: Expenses

Grand Total ₹ 2,05,133

5.3 Annex 3: Accommodation

[itspatra]

Very Detailed report from your side. How did you generate the geo report. I would love to try it out for myself. Cheers !

[Lokesh Soni]

Very nice planned trip
Is this Geotracker mobile app?

[Dieseltuned]

That is one very very exhaustive trip especially with small kids in tow. Hats off to you to pull this off. I personally do not have in me to have such hectic holidays, I prefer reaching the destination at the earliest (fastest way possible) and enjoying the destination at the fullest.

[m2maddy]

Very nice report, I am still surprised how you managed to squeeze in all these places in such short span of time. Must have been very tiring.

I know the feeling of missing home food, what we used to do for before trip look for south indian places nearby

Picture 1: Day 1 Geo report

>>> What app is this?

[shrinz.vivek]

Originally Posted by itspatra

Very Detailed report from your side. How did you generate the geo report. I would love to try it out for myself. Cheers !

Originally Posted by Lokesh Soni

Very nice planned trip
Is this Geotracker mobile app?

Originally Posted by m2maddy

>>> What app is this?

Thank you.
Yes this is the GeoTracker App. It is available only for Android and works beautifully. All you have to do is press record in the morning and press stop at night. Battery drain is very minimal.

[shrinz.vivek]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

That is one very very exhaustive trip especially with small kids in tow. Hats off to you to pull this off. I personally do not have in me to have such hectic holidays, I prefer reaching the destination at the earliest (fastest way possible) and enjoying the destination at the fullest.

Taking kids along is surely triring.
The key to pulling it off is good bonding between us adults. All of us took care of each others' kids. Feeding, bathing and putting them to sleep were always together and usually handled by one or two of us instead of their respective parents.
All of us would take turns in carrying them around irrespective of whose baby it was.
All kids resources like toys, diapers, cerelac etc... was optimised in quantity and kept in one single bag so that we didnt have to lug around 3 bags filled with the same items.
So ya, it was fun. Leaving them behind would have made us miss them a lot.
And taking a flight would have made us miss driving a lot.

[manofinfinity]

How did the Innova perform and what was the overall experience and overall driveability?
As we recently acquired Hycross trips like these are what I can dream of.

[shrinz.vivek]

Originally Posted by manofinfinity

How did the Innova perform and what was the overall experience and overall driveability?
As we recently acquired Hycross trips like these are what I can dream of.

The OG innova performed to the best of its capabality. But such cars feel terribly outdated for today's highways in terms of performance, features and safety.
The Hycross is an exponentially better vehicle compared to Innova. You can realise your dream without any worry.