"Don't you guys think that this, what we are going to accomplish soon, is going to be something super marvelous! I mean once in a lifetime achievement kind of!!” Said the excited girl accompanied by two boys on across-state bike trip. Resting for a while on a road side, on the palanpur highway, guys exclaimed and nodded in affirmation, feeling short of nicer words to explain "that" feeling.
An October thought that turned out to reality again. Ajmer has acquired a special place in my heart from my childhood, and since my first visit, it has been on the top of the most divine places for me. On a one fine day, rather say night, a thought of Ajmer road trip flashed to me and in no time, Gaurav - my husband was my partner in crime-to happen! And sooner as we met in our Sahshik group, we shared the idea and Ramiz was the only one to dare to say "Yes, Lets go!"
Proper planning was must for selection of date, route, time, stays and rest as well. After inquiring with some of my traveler colleagues and the help of GOOGLE MAP, we finalized the route which led us to visit few more places in the other state.
Day 1: FREEZY FIRST RIDE:
11th of Feb 2017, Ignited the bikes t 7.30 am
570 KM- 10 hr drive (JAMNAGAR->RAJKOT->HFM->AHMEDABAD->UDAIPUR)
We started the journey in the morning towards the City of lakes UDAIPUR, where we had our first night halt. I never thought that the roads of Rajasthan could be this promising for the riders. Though, Ramiz had the idea of Udaipur, me and Gaurav were totally strangers for the smell and surrounding.
Crossing the border at Shamlaji, witnessing the beauty of sunset behind the hills, we entered the roads of Rajasthan. Lines of trucks that gave us company to our destination-Udaipur.
Most amazing was the view of yellowish full moon, playing hide and seek in aravallis. Me and Ramiz almost skipped a heart beat when the moon-light mirrored through a small pond. Unfortunately, the moment could not be captured in the camera, but surely we did in our eyes forever!
A bit late, from our plan, reached Udaipur, inhaling the wet and cold air of the city, we found our hotel gulab baug and figured out the place we had reached.
As we did not want to miss the fantastic performance of Bangalore based music band “Swarathma”, we reached the venue of UDAIPUR WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL. It was Day-2 of the event and foreigners and the locals were very excited. Ramiz did his duty, sharing the fabulous songs like Beta sweater pehno- live on face book. Getting used to the free culture of Udaipur, we thoroughly enjoyed the music fest, had some fun, late night outing, and the day ended with the nice sleep.
DAY 2: LATE & LAZY
12th Feb, 2017 On the highway at 10.30am
270 KM -5 Hr Drive (udaipur- Eklingji-Nathdwara- Deograh-Bali-Ajmer)
The urge of stomach allowed us to go for some light breakfast before leaving for Nathdwara, our second destination for the trip and first for the day. Meanwhile we hurriedly had a glance of one lake side, which was a good though. Proving that the commercialization kills the charm, everything had a price in the name of maintenance! Ramiz did not forget to take the view of galiyan of Udaipur in his osmo and some sweets from his favorite mithaiwala.
Heading towards Nathdwara, we had a chance to visit Eklingji- the 108 temple palace with some erotic carvings and thousands of year history, 6 km from the main highway on the left.
Shreenathji mandir is in outskirts and so we directly reached there, crossing the parking line of cars of almost 1.5 kilometers. Smell of ghee was everywhere in the chowk. Somehow we managed to reach with our bikes at the main gate area of the temple and parked it in a small bazaar street. Unlucky we were, that darshan was almost to close and the crowed seemed to be big.
So, changing our plan for the darshan, we had some food, some chit chat and after darshan at 4.30, we left for Ajmer. Drive of 4 and a half hour felt a bit long due to heavy traffic and we reached Ajmer at 8.40 pm. On the way near pali where we rested for a minute, felt fortunate for the almost full and red moon heading upwards as if on our way. Effect of previous day's eclipse, may be !
Directly finding our hotel “Khidmat palace” through GPS, we left for dinner. Passing through the bazaar we stayed just 50 meters away from dargah gate. It was so colorful ! the street view was indeed captured in the camera. The owner of hotel was a good helpful guy and was impressed buy our trip. Late night Qwwali was my dream. And yes we enjoyed a lot! I would never forget that qawwal who sung classical, the gestures were awesome, and the feelings with which he uttered his praises for Garib Nawaz, was something, one can hardly have.
Day 3: Plan “B” was awesome
13th Feb 2017 kicked the bikes at 11:30 am
467 KM- 6 hr Drive (Ajmer-Beawar-Pali-Abu road-Abu)
Morning surprised me with Ramiz singing Taazdar-e-harem ! And I stupidly surprised my husband by wishing Valentines on wrong day! Felt blessed at the dargah and enjoyed the qawwali followed by some shopping and a heavy breakfast.
Started riding at 11.30 we drove through the beawar and pali towards Ambaji through abu-road. The red turban and the white dhoti kurta was often to be seen on roads. The six lane super cool roads, through the mountains were our dream ride and I used to cheer myself (as well as my fellow riders) by screaming louder every now and then.
A bit hot climate made us feel a little tired, but when a thought clicked my mind, to go Abu instead of ambaji, I felt energetic again. I am good at convincing and it helped me to divert the riders to the road towards Abu, letting go of the booking made at Ambaji.
Cool breeze welcomed us after the snake shaped hilly road of Abu. We all felt so happy and excited for our decision!
After searching for 15 minutes and lots of bargain, we found a nice budget hotel, but surely because of the Handsome bikes and the bike trip concept! As the hotelier denied but his nephew and his friend found the idea so cool that he convinced his uncle to give us the stay!
Room was super big that any Guajarati had the ample space to have Garba! Jokes apart, but we were so energized by the atmosphere and some kind of madness in the air that made us laugh till our cheeks pained. Had the Dominoz dinner and a small round to the lake area was enough for us for the day. But we were up till the midnight having chit chat and fun with the Damru and the other music. Memorable!
Day 4:
14th Feb 2017 Early birds flew to home in evening
506 Km – 8 hr drive (Mount Abu-Palanpur-Radhanpur-Jodiya-Jamnagar)
It was too cold in the morning, but Abu was yet to be explored so we started early from the lake area to have breakfast. Red, Pink and Love were everywhere to be seen and in no time I realized that it was Valentine’s day!
Colorful as well as beautiful surrounding of Abu pleased us and we left for the home town with nice memories.
From Abu road to Palanpur, Passing by Deesa and through Radhanpur, we took the road through Kutch to reach Jamnagar.
We reached at home at 8 pm at Jamnagar, and in no time we turned to story tellers!
Have a Look-
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