Road trip – 5500Kms – Bangalore to Rajasthan

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The so-called ‘Travel Bug’ had bitten us sometime back in January ’14 when we bought our first car. We were on a driving spree and were covering almost two weekend destinations per month. Some 4 months down the line when everyone started planning for the Durga Puja vacation, we also decided to take the much-needed break.

My husband, who is a driving enthusiast suggested a road trip to Rajasthan. As expected, I rejected his idea, outright then. More over, the fact that I can’t drive and that my husband would be the solo driver for such a long trip got me all the more unnerved. But still, I  gave the idea some more thought and in another month the ongoing weekend trips had given me enough confidence for the road trip and it was then we started planning for our MEGAtrip, destination-> Rajasthan.

Statistics:

Source and destination: Bangalore to Rajasthan

Total distance: 5500kms

Days: 15(26^th September’14 – 11^th October’14).

Mode of travel: Honda Amaze(diesel 2014 model).

No of people: 2 people for start and end of vacation, joined by 2 other people in Mumbai so max capacity at some points of time 4.

Layout of the plan:

• 26^th September Bangalore to Hubli
• 27^th September Hubli to Mumbai
• 28^th September Mumbai to Udaipur
• 29^th September Stay in Udaipur
• 30^th September stay in Udaipur
• 1^st October Udaipur to Jodhpur
• 2nd October Jodhpur to Jaisalmer city
• 3^rd October Jaisalmer sand dunes desert camp
• 4^thOctober Jaisalmer to Bikaner
• 5thOctober Bikaner to Jaipur
• 6^th October Jaipur
• 7^th October Jaipur
• 8^th October Jaipur to Ranthambhore
• 9^th October – Buffer
• 10^th October – Buffer
• 11^th October– to Udaipur ->Mumbai->Bangalore, back home.

Mapped layout:

Once the dates were laid out we followed the basic protocol and consulted this plan with couple of experienced people and it looked feasible!! This boosted our confidence and we entered the trip planning phase.

 Preparations for the trip:(Things to keep.Apart from the personal stuffs there are some generic things that are sort of must haves for long road trips. We looked for these things in other travel logs and came up with a list of things.)

• Car papers(Always keep them handy)
• Nearest car showroom numbers and service centers throughout the route(keep the phone number handy).
• Tow rope
• Water
• Id proofs of all the people of the trip(Everywhere we went the hotel asked for the id proofs of all the people.)
• lot of change(There were lots of toll booths on the way, change comes in handy.)
• Navigation System(any navigation system as a matter of fact will be good enough.)
• Spare car key

The D-day had arrived and the plan, was to start for office by 7:00 am and finish work by 3:00pm and start the vacation latest by 4:00pm, yeah but sure – PLANS ARE ALWAYS PLANS..:)

BANGALORE TO HUBLI:(26th September’14)

With the road trip at the doorstep, we could not get much sleep the night before. Started our day early and tried to finish off all the last-minute nick-knacks but as expected our plan got a bit derailed owing to our endless office work. By, 3:30pm the work  was still not wrapped up and thanks to all the last-minute hassles we could only start by 5:15pm from our home. It was an anxious moment for us leaving home and not knowing what we had signed up for the coming 15 days..but yeah that vacation had started!!

OVERVIEW:

• Distance: 420(Kms)
• Hotel: The Clark’s Inn(Airport Road, Gokul Road, Hubballi, Karnataka 580030)

Some 20 minutes down the lane, the stunning sunset by our side and the somewhat empty roads had lifted my spirits up quite a bit and finally, it had set in that we were going for our much awaited road trip!

Things were going pretty smoothly and we were cruising quite swiftly through the beautiful roads of NH-4 .

The Beautiful Sunset!

But our happiness didn’t last long as some 2 hr down the line where we neared Tumkur the weather changed drastically. We got caught up in heavy rains. The visibility went down multiple folds and it was getting impossible to even identify the dividers of the roads. We were inclining towards just stopping our vehicle and waiting for the rain to stop but it was getting worst with every passing minute and losing time was not a luxury that we could afford!!

Raining heavily!

I remember asking my husband as to how was he able to even see the roads and he smiled and said – “Sometimes you just got to take a leap of faith”. I didn’t know what that meant, but I decided against asking any more questions. The rain had severely damped our spirits and I could not help asking myself whether or not was it a right decision to even plan out the road trip!

At 9:30pm, it was still pouring relentlessly . I knew that we had planned to avoid night driving as much as possible but this turned out to be a double whammy-night driving topped with heavy showers.

By 10:00pm we actually had a little relief when we spotted the ‘Kamat Upachar’ sign board from a distance. When we parked our car outside we had that feeling of getting back to the civilization. The chatter of people talking and the hot food getting served was the perfect fueling that was required for us both mentally and physically!

Kamat

We had our fair share of relaxation. Even though the weather conditions were the same but after the sumptuous dinner break we were in a better mindset to deal with the weather.

By 12:00am we entered Hubli and luckily didn’t have to move around a lot to find Clark’s Inn. The toll personnel helped us and in 10 minutes we navigated swiftly to our hotel.

My heart warmed at the sight of the nice, clean, spacious room and the cozy bed..:). Without wasting any more time we straight away headed for the much-needed sleep.

The Clark’s Inn

HUBLI TO MUMBAI:(27th September’14)

Today is a new day!!

Next morning at around 7:30am, with a cup of warm tea in my hand and the bright sun peeping through the windows, I had already forgotten the cold, gloomy, damp night like a nightmare. We finished our breakfast in the hotel and around 8:45am we hit the road again and headed for our next destination -> Mumbai.

OVERVIEW:

• Distance: 615(Kms )
• Hotel:  Hotel Sharanam, Eastern Railway Express, Opposite Ramkrishna Nagar, Near New R.T.O., Eastern Express Highway Service Rd, Louis Wadi, Thane West, Thane, Maharashtra 400602

We were enjoying the nice, sunny ride and were cruising pretty smoothly towards Mumbai. Roads were fantastic till kolhapur with very little traffic though we encountered some bad patches near Satara. got stuck in traffic while crossing Pune with road construction coagulating the traffic.We stopped for a lunch break(around 2pm) and a tea break(5pm) near the Mumbai-Pune expressway.In all it was a pleasant, peaceful but a long journey.

On the Way

The Mumbai Pune Expresway – This was the highlight of the day. This 6 lane road is truly an Indian driver’s dream. This beautifully constructed road is no doubt toll heavy(we paid a whooping 195 as toll for this road!!) but yeah its an experience in itself.

By, 7:30pm we had reached our hotel ‘Hotel Sharnam’. We were relieved not to get stuck in Mumbai traffic and had successfully reach the second checkpoint of our journey. The hotel had nice clean room. It had a vegetarian restaurant which served presently descent food.

Hotel Sharnam

Exquisite Reception Decor(made of silk sarees):

Having reached earlier than expected we planned to have dinner and then retire to bed early so that we could return to the roads as early as possible tomorrow for Udaipur. We were happy thinking that tomorrow we would be touching our destination finally!!!.

Time taken(Including half an hour break):-

MUMBAI TO UDAIPUR:(28th September’14):

“Breakfast in Maharashtra, lunch in Gujarat and dinner in Rajasthan…in today’s agenda..:)”-

This was the catalyst  of our day’s start!

OVERVIEW:

Total Distance:769Kms

Hotel: Hotel Pichola Haveli
64, Ganguarghat, Opp Bagore Ki Haveli
Udaipur – 313001, Rajasthan, INDIA.

Today, we were joined by one of our college friend so, we woke up quite early and by 6:30am after refreshing  some of our old memories and having an early breakfast we were all set to sail the roads again.

It’s so good to see how culture, language, people change when you go from one state to another within the country. We passed across three great states of India today and felt proud to live in a country with such varied geography and culture.

Some clicks on the way:

  

By 8:30pm, after 2 days of being road ridden we had finally reached Udaipur and were greeted by the picturesque Pichola Lake. The shadow of the moon was glistening in the clear waters and the sight was something to behold!

My happiness was again a short-lived one as finding the hotel became a nightmare. There were two issues, first the roads of the area were extremely narrow and second, it was Navratra time and most of the roads were blocked due to the ongoing Garbas. The 45mins that we spent searching for the hotel proved to be a wild goose chase and we found ourselves standing at the same place from where we had started. By, that time 2 hotel staffs had come to our rescue and they directed us to the hotel. When we reached the hotel to our dismay, there was no parking place there. The car was supposed to be parked some 1.5 kms away on the roadside. We were not convinced but after the hotel manager assured us multiple times that there would be no issue we found a comparatively safe place and reluctantly parked our car . The manager further explained that there are severe parking issues in all the Lake area hotels where its a star or a normal one. Somewhat relieved by the fact that we were not the only ones abandoning our car on the roadside we finally proceeded to the hotel room.

The hotel room was pretty spacious and had a hint of the traditional Rajasthani decor. Beside this it also had a small seating area. The room had windows all around and was facing the Pichola Lake. In the night the beautiful Lake Palace appeared majestic surrounded by the moon lit water. The hotel also had a restaurant on the top floor and a roof top sitting . We finished our dinner quickly and discussing our itinerary for tomorrow we finally drifted to sleep.

We had real adventurous past couple of days and  finally, could give a pat on our backs  for reaching our first milestone!!Tomorrow would be the day when the vacation would really start…..:):)

JOURNEY-SUMMARY :

• Toll expenses from Bangalore to Udaipur – 1895INR(Aproximately)
• Distance covered- 1804Kms
• Time taken(Including half an hour break):-
• Bangalore->Hubballi(6.5hrs)
• Hubbali->Mumbai(11hrs)
• Mumbai-> Udaipur(11hrs)

LINK TO THE REST OF JOURNEY:

• Udaipur>
• Jodhpur>
• Jaisalmer>
• Bikaner & Jaipur>
• Ranthambhore>

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