[anekho]

fantastic thread, smart cat! It's a real treat! That desert road is beautiful - must be good fun driving on it!

Keep posting

[SmartCat]

the animal is a blue bull..

Nice nilgai you got there

Neat. We had to drive at around 20 kmph for 30 seconds - in the reverse gear - to get that picture.

That desert road is beautiful - must be good fun driving on it!

You might have heard this before - Rajasthan has the best highways in India.

[SmartCat]

Pic 1: Not sure what this is for. To pour boiling oil on attackers perhaps?



Pic 2: Inside the fort, we find chotu in a fancy dress.



Pic 3: This we did not expect - live band playing music.



Pic 4: Fort entrance



Pic 5: Weaponry on display inside the Fort



Pic 6: Chakku, Chooriya, Khanjar and Bandook.



Pic 7: 007 style tiny gun.



Pic 8: The original bazooka (man-portable cannon)



Pic 9: Pikes (Spear) used by infantry to tackle the cavalry.



Pic 10: Maharaja's durbar.



Pic 11 to 15: Architecture of buildings in the Fort.

[aargee]

Maharaja's durbar is beautiful & awesomely captured in the camera.

[SmartCat]

Thanks, although we don't do 'photography' as such - We just point and click.

Continuing with the trip, we had a late lunch at Jodhpur and headed towards Jaisalmer.

Pic 1: Strangely, I like the looks of this contraption - we found it outside the fort. Looks like a vulture. Had I been in-charge of marketing this thing, I would have called it the "California Condor".



Pic 2: Our lunch in a restaurant in Jodhpur, on an aquarium table. And no, we are not allowed to pick & eat the fish from the aquarium - we asked.



Pic 3: As expected, Jodhpur - Jaisalmer NH was brilliant.



Pic 4: We see some fairly large sand dunes on the side of the road. We are tempted to explore, but decided against it - as we planned to go to Sam's Sand Dunes near Jaisalmer anyway.



Pic 5: Is there any National highway in India where you can do this? Absolutely no traffic and fairly wide mostly straight roads. Our resident model Naveen (sorry, no Katrina again) poses for our resident photographer Jagga.



Pic 6: Sunset near Jaisalmer.



Pic 7: Our lodge in Jaisalmer looks like a palace from outside..



Pic 8: But inside, it looks like a seedy place where mostly illegal activities are carried out.



We spent 2 nights here. The first night in Jaisalmer - the A/C stopped working - so the guy in the reception got us an aircooler. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I'm about to die of thirst. The other guys had already finished off the water in the bottles. I had to drink water from the wash-basin to quench my thirst!

That was the sweetest tasting water I've ever had in my life

[MX6]

Surprisingly, there's no one in the photos of the palace. Not even in the american condor. Very difficult to get tourist places without people!

[SmartCat]

That's the advantage of going to tourist places in the off-season. No people! Remember, this is the middle of summer - so only idiots like us visit Rajasthan.

[vasanthn21]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Off-roading stupidity pictures come later in the trip, after we get bored of visiting Forts.

Maybe I'll post some of our trekking pictures later too? How is this?


Any guesses about the location? It would be easier for people in Karnataka to figure out the name of this place.

Eagerly waiting for your off roading adventures

Please tell me you are gonna start a separate thread on your trekking escapades!

[aargee]

@Smartcat - absolutely enjoying your posts & narrations man; very funny narration, guys in my office are enjoying it too

[MX6]

Middle of summer. Boy. I remember 52 degrees in Churu once. I've braved -16F. anything above 40C, then naveen begins to look like katrina for me.

[SmartCat]

Please tell me you are gonna start a separate thread on your trekking escapades!

I'll put the trekking pics on this thread - because technically, we travelled on a highway to get to Chickmagalur. And maybe I have to change the title of this thread to "100,800 kms on Indian Highways" - because I'm off to Mangalore tomorrow (although not on a holiday)

guys in my office are enjoying it too

Guys sitting in office wasting time looking at a travel blog during office hours. Hmm. Sounds familiar. No need to mention your profession - we know!

Middle of summer. Boy. I remember 52 degrees in Churu once.

Middle of summer in Rajasthan - you have to open all the car doors, start the car and switch on the AC for 2 mins before you can sit inside, especially if the car is parked in the sun.

Of course, if your car has chrome door handles (like my car), opening the door itself requires you to have a pack of Burnol with you for first aid.

[SmartCat]

Continuing with the trip -

Pic 1: We straight away visited the Jaisalmer Fort. From the outside, the fort looks great.



Pic 2: But inside the fort, its like visiting a slum. The problem is - Jaisalmer Fort is inhabited by 1500 families, and the drainage system inside is like that of 1100 AD. And if you don't look where you are going, you will definitely step on either cow dung or cow urine. Only the big guns on the fort impressed us.



Pic 3: OK maybe it was not all the bad. The Jain temples inside had brilliant architecture.



Pic 4 & 5: Although it was hot outside, inside the temple, it was quite cool because of clever ventilation and materials used.





Pic 6: And at this place, cool wind blows into the entrace - so that people can sit and relax.



Vid 1: Inside the Jaisalmer Fort, we found a guy selling a Rajasthani Folk music instrument. Switch ON your speakers to listen to this haunting music. After listening to the music played, we were so impressed that we bought one - paying an exorbitant amount. That instrument however broke by the time we reached Bangalore.

YouTube - Rajasthani Music

Pic 7: We spot the now famous "Govt. Authorized Bhang Shop" near the Fort. Jagga issues threats against the Paparrazzi and warns them not to photograph him having Bhang Lassi.



Pic 8: After having the Bhang Lassi, the two are totally wasted. We have a tough time getting them into the car. In the backseat, they would look at eachother and laugh uncontrollably. We ditched our plans and headed for our hotel room, and stayed in our room till the two became sober. We asked for a room change with a proper working AC, and he gave us this room with red windows!

[lordofgondor]

Originally Posted by smartcat

In the backseat, they would look at eachother and laugh uncontrollably. We ditched our plans and headed for our hotel room, and stayed in our room till the two became sober. We asked for a room change with a proper working AC, and he gave us this room with red windows!

Attachment 295796

I hope you'd the child locks engaged!

The room reminds me of scenes from Dev D!

[mpksuhas]

Hi Smartcat, On which strech of ur HP trip did you come across that road cut inside rock ? As u mentioned looks like NFS 111

[SmartCat]

The room reminds me of scenes from Dev D!

Yeah, but without 'Chanda'. The psychedelic effect of the lights put those two to sleep immediately.

On which strech of ur HP trip did you come across that road cut inside rock ? As u mentioned looks like NFS 111

I called up my friend who accompanied me on the trip for this one (since I have very poor memory on name of the places).

On NH22, you will find a fairly big town called Rampur, around 130 kms from Shimla. Further down the road, you will find Karcham/Wangtu where Jaypee Group is building a huge hydroelectric plant. You will find this road between Wangtu and Reckong Peo



'Kinner Kailash' is worth visiting in Reckong Peo. If you go down the road further, you will reach the Tibetan/Chinese border.

A few more pics of the NFS III road -