Welcoming January 2020 with a bang: Grabbing some time from my busy schedule, finally, on 23rd January, I took on my bike ride along with the other six riders to an important border post of India - Longewala and the famous Tanot Mata Mandir. Completing a distance of approximately 2000 km, the ride trip was of four days where we'll be heading from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer through Longwala border, heading to Tanot Temple to Bikaner and coming back to Delhi.
Ride Breaks
Kotputli
Around 4:45 a.m, I started from my home and met the other six riders at the Manesar Toll. Eventually, cruising at a good speed as the roads were quite good, we stopped at Kotputli to have breakfast. We covered around 180 km within 2 hours where average came up really satisfying.
Well, as it was the end of January, there wasn’t much chill, though we anticipated fog, to our surprise, it was a mix of wind and a bright sunny day. However, the ride experience was very different. The constant flow of air does eventually penetrate through the gaps of the riding gears. Therefore, it is important to be well insulated.
Then, after having breakfast, we headed for Ajmer.
Beawer
Later, our next stop decided was Ajmer however we landed at Beawer for some quick lunch at a roadside dhaba. Lunch was very delicious as we had typical Rajasthani food which was Chane ki dal and Gatte ki sabzi with hot phulke. Adding on, to generate ourselves with a lot of energy, we sipped onto some chhachh and contrasting hot cups of tea.
After filling our empty stomachs, we headed for Jodhpur where we were going to spend our night. Jodhpur has two beautiful places to visit, the majestic Mehrangarh Fort and the grand Umaid Bhawan, where the current King of Jodhpur - Maharaja Gaj Singh resides.
Glimpse up till now
We started the ride around 6 a.m. in the morning and had covered more than 650 kilometres in less than 11 hours of the ride, including all breaks in between which I mentioned earlier. We chose a little longer route through Pali as we wanted to ride on good roads and Google did say that it would take less time even though it was a bit longer. It was Delhi - Jaipur bypass - Kishangarh - Ajmer bypass - Beawer - Pali bypass - Jodhpur.
Barring Delhi - Jaipur section of NH 48, the rest of the road’s quality is too good. I had read that the government is emphasizing on making roads ready enough to land an aircraft if required. Truly, the majority of the roads are of that standard.
What I couldn't miss while riding was the scenic beauty of Rajasthan which is indeed, very different from the rest of the country as it’s barren all around, with few green patches in between. One would very commonly see the Mustard fields with yellow flowers on it, ready for harvest. The journey till now has been great, riding with some amazing lot, making memories, growing, sharing our knowledge with different generations with multiple backgrounds, following with adventurous experiences and tiring yet soothing nights. These parts of memory will forever outshine and remain as a treasury.
About the beautiful evening at Jodhpur
Talking about Jodhpur, the city is also known as the Indigo city, because of the predominant colour of the old city houses and buildings. All of them are blue. And it looks beautiful when seen from the Mehrangarh Fort.
The highlight of our trip was the evening that we spent at a roof-top cafe in the old city called - Indigo Cafe. It was at the base of the fort and the entire grand wall, well illuminated was visible.
We were told that Umaid Bhawan was also seen from the rooftop cafe but eventually the sadness was balanced by the food they served. We had Lal Maas, Gatte ki Sabzi, Dal with hot Chapatis, and some garlic chutney to add on some flavours to the meal moreover, we were offered a dip made of hung curd with a little tanginess. To be precise, dinner was worthy of every bite.
The tiredness of 650 km easily came off after having this mouth-watering and relishing dinner. The ambience was perfect, the company was amazing whereas the food was cherry on the cake.
What better than this can anyone want?
Meanwhile, we discussed tips about riding which was very engaging as I have started riding recently and techniques that I'll be experimenting on the bike ride to Jaisalmer.
Satisfying our taste buds
As the old saying goes, dinner is incomplete without a dessert. So, right after dinner, we set our foot at Shri Mishri Lal Hotel which has been existing since 1927. It was opposite of Ghanta Ghar. Thereby, we ended our evening by satisfying our taste buds with sweet Doodh Penni, Jalebi and a variety of Pedas. With lots of fun, exchanging of jokes and doing mimicry we lastly headed back to our hotel to grab some sleep and give rest to our body.
That's all for today. Do share your experiences and opinions if you have any in the comments.
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Watch out for the next episode of Intercepting Rajasthan, which is on Jaisalmer and its dunes.