[libranof1987]

Finally, I pen down this travelogue! Although this happened about quite some time back, it is only now I find myself writing it (wasn't a member of T-BHP then). Here goes! (PS : this ones going to be long!)

We'd decided to shift base from Pune to Gurgaon (dad was already there). So, while all our luggage was being transported through Movers and Packers (never understood why it is not Packers and Movers!), there was the question of transporting the car - Zen. And then, mum had the brilliant idea of driving down (or up) from Pune to Gurgaon. And not just driving up, having a week-long road trip spanning 3 states!

The initial reaction from everyone - family and friends alike was that we were crazy and making life complicated for ourselves. But gladly, mum stuck on the idea and the prospect of a road trip enticed me. And of course, there was the incentive of visiting so many places. So, off we went to the drawing board. Being the meticulous planner that she is, mum got on to various websites, searched for travelogues and did heavy research on the route details so as to maximize the places we visited and have the best possible road conditions. From my experience, I'd just told her to keep the duration at a maximum of 1 week. Too many places in far too less days makes the whole thing mundane and you end up not absorbing the "feel" of each place.

So, after considerable research, the itinerary was out. Beginning 24th June '09, we would travel Pune - Mumbai - Baroda - Ahmedabad - Udaipur - Ajmer - Gurgaon. This spanned across a week with a day for Baroda, 2 for Ahmedabad, 3 for Udaipur and a day at Ajmer and then further on to Gurgaon. Dad couldn't manage leave for that long so he'd join us at Udaipur.

And so, the preparations began. First, I got the car serviced at Sai Service, Phugewadi. I gave them the liberty to carry out a detailed service and repair/replace what was necessary. Once I got the car, I took it straight for Wheel alignment/balancing at a shop attached to Darshan Tyres, FC road. After that was done, I realized 1 wiper blade wasn't very effective so I got the pair changed. And thus, we were ready to rock and roll!

The day dawned and the Zen was loaded. Now, the Zen isn't a car known for luggage space so we had just a week's clothing and important documents with us. The car was filled entirely in the back and half way in the rear seat.

Pune-Baroda

At 5.30am on 24th Jun, we set off from Pune. We connected to the Expressway and the weather was just beautiful. We reached Ghodbunder bypass by 8am and I think this is where we lost some time as traffic had started building up. We should have been here by 6.30-7am to avoid the early morning - tempo, truck traffic. At Ghodbunder, we took a right under the flyover and soon connected to NH8.
The city limits of NH8 were not in such a great condition. Rains had caused mud-slides on to the road so at places only 1 lane was operational (it is mostly a 4-lane road). There is this famous temple that you can see on the way. This temple is situated on a hill at quite a height and is placed very precariously. There are steep almost-vertical steps leading up to there.

Once out of the city limits, the roads were amazing; 4-laned and smooth as butter. We were soon hit by heavy rains. Since the time we'd started from Pune, the wipers were constantly at work. On the NH8, I had them at maximum speed and used the demister. For a while I kept the demister on and once we'd started feeling hot, I turned the temp. knob to cold!
The drive was fun; yet blinding. The heavy rains reduced visibility considerably and it was difficult to hear other vehicles on the road. Once I realized a bus had overtaken only when it crossed my car completely! However, the condition of the road ensure I could maintain ~80 km/hr.
Soon, we we reached the Maharashtra-Gujarat border. Here, there was a long long traffic jam. Trucks had piled up waiting to enter the Jakat Naka. We were stuck for some 10min when we noticed a GJ-reg vehicle crossing over to the opposite lane at an intersection and zooming ahead. We took the hint and followed suit. Although illegal, we must've saved an hour or 2 in that 2km jam.

Weather remained inclement and going by the concentration required, we contemplated halting at Surat instead of going all the way to Baroda. However, I knew I could go on and we decided that we'd make our first pit-stop only at Baroda. We'd had lunch at a really nice place (can't recall the name) around 1300. We finally reached Baroda around 1600.
Throughout the journey until just before Baroda, the wipers and a/c were continously working! I was so glad I'd gotten them replaced! It took us about 9 hours to cover the 550-odd kms.

Once in Baroda, roads had more cattle than vehicles! We found our way to the hotel (pre-booked) and settled down. What a drive it had been! We freshened up, had snacks and while mum took rest, I went for a walk. With a majority speaking Marathi, Baroda hardly felt like I was out of Maharashtra! Interacting with locals had never been easy.
The next day, we set out for sight-seeing. Keeping the earlier day's drive and the drive in the evening to follow in mind, mum suggested we hire a rick. The rick driver first took us to the Baroda Museum and Gallery; it had some amazing paintings by English as well as Indian painters. We next went to the Laxmi Vilas Palace. A guide explained various architechtural/historical aspects of the Palace. It is an extremely aesthetically designed palace - one helluva beauty. Interesting fact : a wedding here would cost about 30 lakhs inclusive of lighting and seating arrangements!

We wanted to visit Aurobindo Society and Museum but couldn't as they allow entry only at 11am and we'd reached by 12. We then visited the EME Temple; a Temple in the Cantonment area built completely from alloys used in a fighter plane. It is a nice, serene place without the usual chaos in temples. We were staying right in front of the Maharaja Sayajirao University so had a look at it from the hotel room itself. We visited the Kirti Mandir just after lunch.

Baroda - Ahmedabad

With that done, at about 1600, we set off from Baroda for Ahmedabad. I guess the Baroda-Ahmedabad "Superway" had just recently been opened for traffic. The tar roads were butter smooth and the monsoon made the surrounding even more beautiful with lush green scenery all around and regular streams flowing below the bridges. We covered the distance of 120 km in about 2 hours (stopping in the middle for a photoshoot). Toll is 100 bucks for the entire stretch.

Once in Ahmedabad, we weren't sure where we had to enter the city. A'bad apparently has the old and the new part and we were pretty clueless about how to go about it.

Interesting note : While mum was researching, she came across a common instruction - while in A'bad, make sure your vehicle has a yellow sticker on the right headlight. We had every intention of getting it pasted but Mr Murphy had other plans.

We entered into the old A'bad and while we were trying to figure out the roads, I stopped at a junction to ask for directions. A cop came over and just asked for 100 bucks pointing out that the car didn't have the yellow sticker. I just said once that we'd just come to A'bad etc etc. but he wouldn't hear a word of it. Without wasting any time, I handed the money after which he gave us nice instructions about the route to take! At the first possible shop, we got the yellow strip pasted. After a lot of U-turns and wandering, we finally reached our hotel. We checked in, freshened up, had dinner and slept. That was end of day 2.

The next day dawned bright and we set off for A'bad darshan. We first went to Sabarmati Ashram; spent some time going thru' the walk-about museum and talking to the helpers in the Ashram. Once out of there, we went to Science City. Having been to Nehru Planetorium, Mumbai, this wasn't much of a surprise. After that, we spent some relaxed time at Vastrapur Lake. Then had a drive-by Gujarat University and IIM-A.
There was this nice underground Art Museum sorta thing somewhere around Gujarat Museum - don't remember the name. Had some nice artefacts.

By evening, we came back to the hotel. I met a college friend and roamed around the city while mum took rest. We called it a day soon. Day 3 ended.

Ahmedabad - Udaipur

Morning of day 4 was slightly relaxed as we packed up and set off for Udaipur. We started around 7.30am and got onto NH8 again. The weather was pleasant throughout.

While Pune - A'bad had mostly plains around, as we approached Rajasthan, it started getting hilly. A lot of the route follows through mountains and in the monsoons, it gives a nice feeling with fresh air all around. There is an archway at the Gujarat - Rajasthan border - a good way to signify the border and almost everyone gets down here to take pictures.

Once into Rajasthan, the truck traffic builds up and there are also tons of dhabas around. In about 4 hours and 250kms later, we'd reached Udaipur. Dad had reached the same morning from Gurgaon and made hotel arrangements. We checked in, freshened up and narrated the trip so far. With a light late breakfast, we geared up for a tour of Udaipur.

More to follow soon....

[dot]

Lovely write-up. Liked your laid back travel plans. You chose great weather conditions to drive! Looking forward to hear the rest.

How would you compare Pune-Mumbai expressway to Baroda- Ahmedabad expressway.

Whats the deal with the yellow sticker anyways.

[libranof1987]

Thank you! It was the weather that made us go ahead with the trip; active monsoons just played along

The Baroda-Ah'bad Superway is a 4-lane tar highway with restriction on 2/3-wheelers.

Since we'd travelled in the monsoons, the whole scenery had lit up. Dunno how it would be in the summer. And it's tar so once the road condition starts deteriorating, it will end up bad.

Good part is, there are no intersections; no occasions where the highway crosses thru' towns or villages that would make you sit up and look all around.

About the yellow sticker : remember the century in Pune where it was mandatory for a vehicle's headlight to have a black dot right in the centre. This is something similar; another RTO scam maybe!

Rest of the TL coming right up.

[libranof1987]

Udaipur

Both mum and dad decided to hire a rick for sight-seeing, so I didn't have much say. The hotel arranged for a rick and the driver turned out to be quite a character. While he gave his interpretation of history at all places, while he wasn't talking to us, he seemed to be having abstract conversations - with hand gestures once in a while!

He mentioned how good our timing was since monsoon had just hit Udaipur. A week earlier, Lake Pichola was dry!

Our tour started with a trip to the Lake Palace. Apparently since a few years, people are not allowed to visit it (this Palace is in the middle of the lake). So, we had a look at it from far. Just at this point, there is a ropeway to the "Shri Manshapurna Karni Mata Temple". Thru' it you can travel to the Temple which is located high up on a hill. The ropeway is a nice ride to the top, just before the temple. The Temple as such isn't a big deal but then hey! this is India so a temple is a temple. We took a short walk to the Temple, waited for our turn on the ropeway (quite well-managed) and got back.

We next went to Udaipur Palace - one huge, regal structure. About 2/3rd of the Palace is now under Govt. control and open for public. The current royalty stays in the remaining 1/3rd. The Palace is just amazing - beautiful architecture and design. We hired a guide here; he showed us around with some history thrown in. The Palace took a couple of hours to go around! The Maharajas' sure lived in immense royalty - quite evident in the aesthetics and adornments in the rooms. In front of the Palace is a nice garden which had turned into a picnic spot.

On the lane leading up to the Palace, there is the Jagdish Temple. With a quick visit to this Temple, we asked the rickwallah to take us to a good restaurant for lunch. And he obliged! So with the stomach filled up, we went next to Gulab Garden. There was a decent variety of roses maintained in the garden. After some flower display, we went to SAHELION - KI - BARI Garden. A garden dedicated to the Maids of Honour to the Queen, the garden is a healthy mix of flowers, fountains and pools. We had a good stroll there, took pictures and head out. Our driver, lost in his abstract world muttered something about "Sukhadia Circle" while travelling and moved on.
As the last sightseeing point, we went to "Pratap Smarak (Memorial)"; dedicated to Maharana Pratap. It has a statue of him on his favorite horse "Chetak". The memorial is on a small hill overlooking Fateh Sagar Lake.

Once we returned to the auto, the driver said we'd seen enough of Udaipur and took us to the market to indulge mum in some shopping. He took us to a Rajasthan Govt. approved shop which had tons of items (saris, bedsheets and what not) made of silk and other materials. Here, the sales guy showed mum a sari which when dipped in starch (or starched) had a nice fragrance. Mum eventually bought one and soon we were out of that shop.

We returned to our hotel which itself was tastefully built. Spent a relaxed evening and called it a day.

Day 5 had ended in Rajasthan.

Now as day 6 dawned, I had had quite a bit of history. From my earlier experience of roaming around Manipal, I knew too many things too soon make the whole thing a drag so I had been mentally making notes of the plan to Gurgaon. All this while my folks were busy taking directions from the hotel manager for landmarks around Udaipur. Not that I wasn't keen on checking out the other places, I had started not remembering names and all palaces seemed alike to me!

The day's itinerary included Haldighati, Ekling Mandir and Nathdwara. So, off we set - this time in our car. We first went to Haldighati. This is where a very famous battle between Rana Pratap Singh of Mewar and Raja Man Singh of Amber was fought. The place takes its name from the turmeric-coloured soil, said to be so from all the blood shed. At Haldighati, there is a museum-memorial built and they air a short video on the history of the place. A few kms away, there is a memorial where Chetak, Pratap Singh's horse breathed his last. We took a short drive here and then set off for our next destination : Nathdwara. The history of Nathdwara is as follows : "According to the legend, the image of Lord Shrinath ji was enshrined in Vrindavan (land of Lord Krishna), but to protect the idol from the destructive rage of Aurangzeb. In 1672, Rana Raj Singh was the only gallant, who made an effort to rescue the idol from the domain of Aurangzeb. It is said that when the image was being shifted to an impervious place then at a particular place, the wheel of vehicle sank deep down in mud. The image refused to move further, so the escorting priest apprehended that this was Lord's chosen spot. Thus, a temple was built on the same spot."

When we reached, the temple was closed because "it was time for God's afternoon nap". As is the custom now, there was a general queue and another where a family had to pay 100 bucks for a quick darshan. I had recently been to Dharmastala in Karnataka where I had to stand in a similar queue so I told my parents that it wasn't worth waiting. But they persisted, we argued but it was 2:1 so I had to relent. So, we paid for a quick darshan and waited for 4pm when God was to wake up. I hope I don't offend anyone but I am amused at how silly we let ourselves be and how our religious faiths/beliefs make us really stupid. There were 2 junior priests who were swaying a rope which in turn went on to flap a cloth-fan in the room the idols were kept. The quick darshan was not going to be that quick since almost everyone was paying. Finally, the doors were being opened and then, hell broke loose.

Women, men ran towards the idols as if they had just the 1 sec to view it and the world would end. You see videos of stampedes at temples, right? Well, I saw one happening. Dad and I formed a cover for mum and guided her out. While I got the 1/1000 sec to have a look at the idol, I asked him, "How about giving these idiots some sense". Nevertheless, we got out safely. I just looked at my parents and I think going by their reaction, I had made my point! I'm sure none of us are going for such insane darshans again.

Anywho, we saw the other parts of the temple and signed off. On the way back, we stopped by Eklingji Temple : a much better managed but mostly under-restoration Temple. With that done, we headed back to Udaipur. Day 6 had come to an end.

Udaipur - Ajmer

On day 7, we set sights on the last place on our agenda - Ajmer. But yet again, folks had something else in mind. We first went to Shilpgram - a nice place where a Fair is held once a while. This had tiny shops selling Rajasthani cultural items; it had a nice village setup. A good place to visit. From then on, we were on to Chittorgarh.

As we approached Chittorgarh, people started following our car offering to be guides. One guy followed us on his bike from the foothills all the way to the entrance of Chittorgarh. Knowing we wouldn't have much idea of the place, we hired him. There was absolutely no place in the car now, with dad and his luggage. So while we were in the car, we guided us on his bike.

We then started soaking in the history of Chittorgarh - home to one of Rajasthan's valiant kings. If some stories evoked a sense of pride in our history, some stories evoked disgust and hatred at how the Mughals ruined it. Chittorgarh dates back to the Maurya empire at 7 AD and although many Hindu dynasties have held it at some point of time, it had been a Rajput stronghold. The city prospered thru' the will and might of the Rajput kings. However, a mughal emperor - Allaudin Khilji heard of the beauty of Queen Padmini and set to "conquer" her. Soon, a battle followed where the Rajputs lost to the mightier mughal army and all the ladies committed "Jauhar - self-immolation by jumping into fire" to avoid dishonour thru' the hands of the mughals.

Khilji then went on to destroy or rather disfigure every Hindu temple/establishment. You will find tons of temples where the archways are sliced, idols whose hands are cut off, temples which are destroyed. The mughals wrecked the city.

More info : Chittorgarh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It makes one's blood boil to see the amount of destruction caused.

Anyway, moving on. Once thru' with the city of Chittorgarh, we set off for Ajmer. It was mid-afternoon and after a pleasant drive over 200kms, we reached Ajmer at around 6pm. We had relatives there so put up at their place.

Freshened up and they said it would be a good time to visit Pushkar. So, around 7pm, we set off for Pushkar. The lake had almost dried up and it was mostly filth that remained. People say Pushkar is mostly about the not-so-holy things so luckily it being night, we saw none of it. We visited a Hanuman temple there and came back. It had been a long long day and day 7 had just ended.

On day 8, we were early and went to Ajmer Dargah. We'd parked our car far away and travelled to the Dargah in a rick. Visited the place and got back home. Had a nice homely lunch after a week and then set sails for Final Destination : Gurgaon.

By about 1pm, we got back onto NH8 for the last home run - 370kms.

Ajmer - Gurgaon

All the fun highway drives were slowly becoming distant now as NH8 now had tons of trucks and a rough surface. From the well-behaved trucks until Gujarat, the ones now were mostly arrogant when it came to lane discipline. We took the Jaipur bypass and the stretch now was the Delhi-Jaipur highway. We had been on this route a few years ago and it was nice to drive. But now, trucks were driving all over the lanes and the road condition itself wasn't very good. The rains had vanished and the a/c came on.

Thru' a drive that dragged on, we finally reached Gurgaon at 5pm.

And thus, our trip thru' 4 states encompassing thru' splendid highways, rich culture, magnificent palaces, beautiful lakes and Royal grandiosity had just brought to our new door step.

It had been a terrific and memorable drive - 8 amazing days on the road - something I know by heart even 2 years down the line! What a way to shift base!

Statistics :

Pune - Gurgaon toll : ~ 1200 bucks
Pune - Gurgaon distance (all sightseeing included) : 1870 kms

[mdsaab]

Have not read the full travelogue yet, but had to post this.
First of all your Mum is really cool. And she plans this too. Now that is AWESOME!
Second its great that you prepared the car well for the trip. And replacing the wiper blades was definately a good move.
A long road trip like this spread over many destinations has always been a dream. Hope to fulfill this dream soon.

[libranof1987]

^ Hehe!

When she first suggested the idea, I myself was like "huh?!". But then, she'd read up before and had a rough plan so we knew it could be managed comfortably.

Oh, the wipers - had I not changed them, Pune-Baroda would not have been possible.

Hope you make a long trip soon

[libranof1987]

Pune-Mumbai Expressway



Pune-Mumbai Expressway



Pune-Mumbai Expressway



Pune-Mumbai Expressway



Lakshmi Vilas Palace, Baroda



Lakshmi Vilas Palace, Baroda



Lakshmi Vilas Palace, Baroda



Lakshmi Vilas Palace, Baroda



Lakshmi Vilas Palace, Baroda



Lakshmi Vilas Palace, Baroda

[libranof1987]

Visitors' Waiting Lounge, Palace



Visitors' Waiting Lounge, Palace



Palace



Lawn/fountain, Palace



Palace



Palace



Palace



Fountain inside the Palace



Community/Dance hall



Inside the bell-tower

[libranof1987]

Palace entrance





Baroda - Ahmedabad Expressway



Baroda - Ahmedabad Expressway



Baroda - Ahmedabad Expressway



Baroda - Ahmedabad Expressway



Sabarmati River, Ah'bad



Sabarmati Ashram



Gujarat University



Vastrapur Lake

[libranof1987]

Vastrapur Lake



The underground art gallery







Ah'bad - Udaipur



Ah'bad - Udaipur border



Ah'bad - Udaipur border



Ah'bad - Udaipur



Ah'bad - Udaipur



Ah'bad - Udaipur

[libranof1987]

Lake Palace



Lake Pichola



Lake Pichola



Ropeway to the Shri Manshapurna Karni Mata Temple



View of Udaipur City



View of Udaipur City



View of Udaipur City



View of Udaipur City



View of Udaipur City





Udaipur Palace

[Fordmanchau]

Libran,
Amazing travelogue.
Glad you remembered everything two years hence.
And special mention to your mom for initiating and even planning the trip. Hats off!!!
Hope you have some more pics to share ??

[bluevolt]

Just finished reading complete travelogue and I must say this one fantastic TL I read in recent times. Nice pictures too.

@ Libranof any plans for such long trip in ANHC? You will enjoy such trip even more in ANHC.
Keep it up

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Libran,
Amazing travelogue.
Glad you remembered everything two years hence.
And special mention to your mom for initiating and even planning the trip. Hats off!!!
Hope you have some more pics to share ??

Thank you! Yep, many more pictures to come!

Originally Posted by bluevolt

Just finished reading complete travelogue and I must say this one fantastic TL I read in recent times. Nice pictures too.

@ Libranof any plans for such long trip in ANHC? You will enjoy such trip even more in ANHC.
Keep it up

Thanks! We are itching to go for a trip in the ANHC. Had been to Amritsar and Wagah last Sept; thoroughly enjoyed the drive

[dot]

Loved your travelogue. The "insane darshans" and self-appointed guides in Chittorgarh had me in splits. Keep writing.