"Khamma ghani Rajasthan" - A road trip to Rajasthan

Tripoto
25th Dec 2019
Photo of "Khamma ghani Rajasthan" - A road trip to Rajasthan by Sarthak Bendel
Day 1

It was the time of new year  celebration and we thought of celebrating it with a trip, " A trip to Rajasthan".
Before you read the entire blog just a gist of it -  it was an all boys trip and nothing was booked in advance except a camp in Jaisalmer in the Thar Desert, apart from it nothing was pre booked. Everything was booked on spot and randomly selected, just saying random plans are the best ones believe me!!
We all reached to Jaipur in the morning and my friend picked us up from the airport from where we started our road trip. It was freezing cold in Jaipur as we came from Pune so was a bit difficult to suddenly get use to the dropping temperature.
We started our journey towards Jodhpur on the very first day as we planned to roam Jaipur in the last.
Jodhpur is 6 hours drive from Jaipur so we started at 8am in the morning and reached Jodhpur around 1pm ( as no traffic was there in the morning ).
On our way, we reached Pali a district in Rajasthan where we visited the Om Banna Temple. I would go on writing on it so search on google the Bullet temple in Rajasthan. After visiting the shrine we continued our journey for Jodhpur.
At Jodhpur we had our lunch the traditional daal baati churma at a local restaurant because everywhere in Rajasthan you can easily get a good quality and tasty daal baati choorma.
Afetr having our lunch we started exploring the Blue city. It is called the blue city as it has all the houses painted blue as a symbolism to depict the houses of brahmans in the ancient times. But recently almost all the houses are painted with the same color. We started with Mehrangarh fort.
It is a beautiful palace that shows the bravery, the royality , the charm and culture of the Rajpoot.
The palace has a museum where you can see the commodities used by the kings in the ancient times and also get to know the stories behind them. It will take you around 1 -2 hours to explore the entire place. The fort has a nominal entry fee of Rs 150/- for indian citizens, the palace closes by 5.00 pm in the evening, so if you are planning to go there reach here by 5.
From Mehrangarh we went to Mandore Garden, it is also a beautiful garden with a lot of monkeys guarding  the beautiful architecture of Lord Shiva temple , were we sat down for a while to have a cup of tea listening to the folk music of Rajasthan.
We googled the places to visit in Jodhpur an it showed 42 places in total 😅.
Keeping the time constraint in mind and searching for a uniqueness of a place we visited the Kalyan Lake to see the sunset, the Umaid Bhawan Palace (it  is one of the costliest hotels of India) ending it with the Ghanta ghar which was engrossed with lights all around it enhancing it's architectural beauty.
We took a hostel for a night stay and relaxed for the day near the Jalori Gate Circle (Centre of the city) .

Roof top restaurant - near Ghantaghar

Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel

The Blue City

Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel

Fort Meherangarh

Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel

Fort Mehrangarh

Photo of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India by Sarthak Bendel
Day 2

It was 6am in the morning and we started for Jaisalmer as we had our bookings for the stay in tents in the desert. It is about 4 hour journey but it took us around 10 hours to reach our tent from Jodhpur, here it is how😉
We started for Jaisalmer in between had a tasty Rajasthani break fast of Bajra roti with kadhi ( a curry made of butter milk and gram flour). An advice always ask the rate before having anything because for this breakfast tha dhaba wala charged us Rs 500 for three plates and 4 cups of tea. On our way we reached Pokhran a small n beautiful city it is the place where India conducted it's Nuclear Test.
We visited the Pokhran Fort which was converted into a Hotel and half of it was left for the people as it also had a museum . It was all empty as we were the first one to come to the fort, we clicked a lot of pictures and explored the entire fort even the area where out entry was restricted 😝
After exploring this palace we went to the very famous shrine of Rajasthan the Ram Dev Temple. It is situated in Ramdevra around 10km from Pokhran.
You might have heard the name of many Rajasthani shops, hotels etc in different parts of India named after Ram Dev . He was believed to be the incarnation of lord Vishnu, and was the King of Ramdevra, he worked for the upliftment of the lower cast. ( Use Google)
It's a beautiful place to be and experience the indian cultural diversity, how belief and trust on different things makes it a culturally rich and heritage country. The market around the temple has varied shops of a lot of things that you can get in very cheap  rates.
From here we again started back to our destination we again started after 5 hours, yet we felt we were on time but the twist is here we reached to the Jaisalmer war memorial 5km away from main city. It is a museum created as a tribute to soldiers of our country. It has some tanks, trucks and ammunition captured from Pakistan.
It took around an hour for us to see the war memorial which had a nominal Rs 15 fee.

We reached the Golden city after this, the entire city is carved into an architectural marvel with the stones that glows as gold when sunlight falls on it.
But our camps were 30km away from the city. So we rushed to our camps to enjoy the sunset in the thar dessert . We reached our camps and refreshed our selves to face the cold of dessert with the help of an old monk who gave us the strength fight the 2℃ temperature of the Thar . (during this time of the year they are very very very expensive).
We went for a desert safari in the desert, it was a jaw dropping experience to see tha sand, sand dunes, the camels running on sand , the rajasthani instruments playing along. We took the camel ride along with the cart into the wild side of the desert.
The rates were pretty much high and they were in no mood of negotiation.
After spending some time in the desert we waited for the sunset at the sunset point and after seeing the beautiful sun drowning in the sand we came back to our tents.
In the tent the cultural Rajasthani performances that was awaiting for us to feel the actual traditional folk songs, instruments and dance of the place which was followed by the dinner and borne fire.
We ended our day there and went into the tent with humming the folklore of the Rajasthan.

Camel Cart ride

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Fort Pokhran

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

National Thar Desert

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Fort Pokhran

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Fort Pokhran

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Jaisalmer Army Mueseum

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Rajasthani folk music instrument

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Day 3

It was 7am in the morning and we had our breakfast and started for the Jaisalmer Fort. It is the only fort that has a living population of 5000 staying in the fort.
But on our way back to Jaisalmer Fort we came across the abandoned village of KULDHARA which is around 20km aways from the indian national thar desert.
The entry ticket is per vehicle it's 30rs per vehicle it will take around 30-40 mins to see the place around.
After KULDHARA we started back towards the fort.
From there it's 30mins drive to the fort. As it was tourist season the parking charge was absurd and the fort was too crowdy. We parked our vehicle near ro the entrance and went into the fort.
The fort has a lot of shops and stores, from here you can buy a lot of things to gift and also for yourself.
We went in the fort has a Museum , some temples and sunrise and sunset points. From the fort you can actually experience the goldness of the city .
The entire fort has a beautiful architecture and a lot of restaurants giving you the view of the city where you can have some rest and enjoy your glass of wine or a cup of tea according to your taste an relax, these  restaurants are very economical also. There is also a very small aunty's cafe names 8 july, the cafe serves Dessert in the desert which are so yummy and delicious that you can't miss them. The cafe is in the centre of the fort see the photo attached and you could locate it easily.
We had our lunch and explored the fort and started our journey towards our new destination SIROHI where we decided to spend our night before leaving for Mount Abu

Kuldhara - Abandoned village

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Kuldhara

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Kuldhara

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Jain Temple - Fort Jaisalmer

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Golden City Jaisalmer

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Fort Jaisalmer

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Into the Fort City

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel

Very famous Desserts - Aunty shop

Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaisalmer by Sarthak Bendel
Day 4

We reached SIROHI in the night as the distance is around 360km but the roads are awesome so it took us 5.5 hours approximately to reach so we reached at 1am, here we took a room and relaxed for the night because we had to start for Mount Abu early morning.
We got up and started for the only hill station in Rajasthan. From Sirohi it is around 85 km to Mount Abu but it will take around 2 - 2 5 hours due to mountainous roads. In the hill station there are a lot of places to see but we decided to see things that are worth expending our time. There are some places to see there which will give you the worth of coming to the place they are Dilwara temple( it opens as 12pm for us but Jains could get in any time), Guru Shikhara, Gaumukh and for Spirituality Brahma Kumari Temple. All these things you will explore in a day if you go on your vehicle without a guide and all. After that there are 10 more things which you can google and explore. It was 31st December and we did not want our new year to go in vain traveling on road or sitting in the lapse of peace and spirituality at our age cz our age doesn't permits us. So we decided to have a grand party dancez booze and have fun, at a random party in Udaipur.
So we started for Udaipur from Mount Abu. It's about 3hour journey from here to there, we started at around 3pm after having our lunch at the Abu City restaurant. Again the roads are amazing you won't be paying a lot of toll though an yet well maintained we reached the Udaipur City around 7.30 pm as we were roaming without any bookings so we searched for an economical hotel in the outskirts of the city and fortunately we got one( 1500 per night for 4 people) what else you need on a new year night 😝.
We partied and celebrated our new year in Udaipur and rested to start with Udaipur in the morning.

The only hill station of Rajasthan

Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel

Party night at Udaipur

Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel

Mount Abu market

Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Mount Abu by Sarthak Bendel
Day 5

Udaipur is a wonderful city with vibrant colors, monuments on the junctions, and traffic because of cities development in progress.
We left the hotel and went directly to the Pichhola Lake to see the view of the palace and have a boat ride. The ride is cheap, 40rs per person in the lake which will take you around Raj Mandir( A restaurant in the middle of the lake) show you the city palace, Udai Villas palace and the other restaurants turned forts. After that 45mins of economical boat ride for time being this word went out from our dictionary.
Udaipur is a place where you can experience the luxury of the indian culture. We went to the city palace of Udaipur. It is where the King resides in one part of the city and the other part is a Museum and a Hotel for the tourist, sorry a very expensive hostel 😝.
DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER !!
The tickets to the palace are very costly entry ticket is of 350 per head to the museum, parking is 200 per vehicle , 750 rs per head for looking into the cara collection, and and and if you are there and want to have a luxurious lunch in the Raj Mandir restaurant it will cost you around 2500 rs per head for a Thali Lunch in there.

We took the museum ticket and went in to the Museum ( if you like history do take a guide along to know what is the palace all about) and it will take around 3hour to see the entire Museum . It is a very big palace made in parts during their regime.
It is the Fort where Maharana Pratap once lived you will se how beautifully they have made and preserved the things there.
It will show how rich and prosperous our country was until we were invaded and looted and slaved by the foreign invaders as we had shovel( kanni) made up of silver 😂😂
Anyways you will spend most of your time in the fort and then coming out of the fort explore the market on th other side of the Palace.
The experience of the palace was amazing and time consuming too. After we went into the Jag mandir restaurant through the fort for our luxury lunch. it is good for one time experience as you won't go to Udaipur very often.
From ater this we went to Saheliyon Ki Bari, Eklingji Temple, which are in the close vicinity to the city around 15km away.
After that we decided to leave Udaipur and as we had explored all the major places and got the best of Udaipur.
So we decided to start for Pushkar, we left Udaipur at around 8 pm in the evening. It's around 280km away and took us 6 hours for the journey , so we reached Pushkar at around 2 am in the morning. There was a small stall of snacks open where some people were having their smoke and chilling so we sat there had something and left to find a hide for the night.
We were not able to locate any hotels that time so we parked our car and lit the coals we carried for borne fire and sat there until it's 5 or 6 am in the morning, we got a hotel and then relaxed for 3hours to start our new day in Pushkar.

The images are from the city palace Udaipur

Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel

The tickets

Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel

Saheliyon ki baari

Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel

City palace from pichhola lake

Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Udaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Day 6

Pushkar a holy city famous for its maal puas and the only temple in the world of Lord Brahma is here.
But apart from the heard story's there is alot more to be discovered in Pushkar.
We started our day on Pushkar, we went to the Most famous La-Pizzarie restaurant for our brunch.
The Pizza was wooden Owen cooked and tasted delicious, do try them out if you visit here. We also tried some of their special items they were so many I don't remember their names, check with the captain to order some delicious foods.
The temple is in the heart of the city surrounded by the market and a lake called " Brahmah Sarovar". It is believed that a bath in the sarovar will cleanse your soul and will take up all your sins.
We planned to take a dip in that but our sins were very small in front of the temperature of the water in it 😝.
We went around in the market shopped for some agency stuff and just flung around for a while and went to the Lord Brahma Temple .
After the Darshan of the Temple we went to the Savitri Mata mandir situated on the top of the hill from where you can see the entire Pushkar .
There is a rope way that will take you up to the temple with a nominal fee of 50rs per person.
There are a lot of monkeys up there so do take care off your belongings as they will snatch away all your stuff if it's there in your hands.
The other side of the mountain is the sunset point we sat there for a while to see the sunset, but due to cloudy weather we didn't get the proper view.
Suddenly a smell stuck our nose and we saw people enjoying their smoke on the other side, we also saw many foreigners sitting there reading novels, drawing things, meditating, etc.
We were surprised to see all the stuff out there happening around. Then we came back and sat ina a restaurant named Laughing Buddha cafe in the city we ordered a Special Lassi.
* Warning anything Special added to their name contains additive natural flavours to take you high on life *
After that we were high high high up in the air we ate like anything all the stuff that was there.
Pushkar has a lot of food varieties , vegan food , tasty Israeli food, Italian Food and everything.
We somehow managed to reach our hotel eating and laughing like anything  waking up everyone in the area.😝

It was a wonder experience in Pushkar, after that we went back to sleep.

Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel

La pizzeria restaurant

Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel

Laughing Buddha cafe

Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel

Pushkar city at night

Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel

Pushkar market

Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel

Savitri mata mandir

Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Pushkar by Sarthak Bendel
Day 7

Early morning we had our tea and left for Jaipur " The Pink City". The city is painted all pink with beautiful monuments and lovely food all around there.
We reached to my friends place had our breakfast and then started to explore the city. There are a lot of things to explorer in Jaipur but we cold cover only a few of them as we went to the Patrika Gate, the Albert Hall Museum, the Amer Fort, the light show in this fort is awesome you would just love the narration given by Amitabh Bachchan's voice.
The Jal mahal, the Nahargarh fort, the Jal Mahal everything you can not do it in one day so we took two day stay in Jaipur and explored all the serenity of Jaipur. From fort Nahargarh you can see the entire city from the top and it's just amazing.
We finally came to end our long tiring journey covering almost 2500 km of Rajasthan, exploring the culture, tradition, beauty, architecture and storys of our brave Rajpoots clan who fought for their pride and honour.
The trip was a memorable one with friends who were driving me crazy while I was enjoying the roads of Rajasthan.
While coming back to our workplace and going on job again I read some lines that reminded me of the trip and I quote -

"कुछ सफर इतने हसीन होते हैं, की फिर मंज़िल अधूरी ही अच्छी लगती है"

Amer fort

Photo of Jaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaipur by Sarthak Bendel

View from Nagargarh

Photo of Jaipur by Sarthak Bendel
Photo of Jaipur by Sarthak Bendel

Hawa mehal

Photo of Jaipur by Sarthak Bendel