“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”
― Lao Tzu
― Lao Tzu
It is often said that people who travel belong to one of two types: tourists or travellers. Tourists are the typical "sight-seeing" category of folks, who more often than not go to see what they want to see. Travellers, on the other hand, just see what they see. They do not bother to plan out in great detail, and let the situation drive them rather than driving the situation. I definitely belong to the traveller category.
Having said that, we had enough dynamics in our plan because of the road trip angle. Before going, we still had to plan for our stay (given that we were travelling with our families), and planning for stay meant fixing the destination cities for each night well in advance. What to do in a particular city is something we didn't have hard and fast plans for, we left that to be decided at run time. This is one of those points I remember having a difference of opinion with Anant - he said it was necessary to have high level plans at least, if not detailed ones. I preferred to leave it based on the situation and time. I had no problems with being informed about what to see and what not to. I was however strictly against having a fixed itinerary where people are herded like cattle from one point to another on typical "sight-seeing" tours.
Planning, however, brought us all together and it turned out to be pretty interesting. It is said that if you want to know someone well, you should travel with them. The planning exercise brought about the various shades of thought, in terms of what seemed of interest to folks. Having chosen Rajasthan, we had a laundry list of places to select from: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Pushkar, Ajmer, Alwar, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Mount Abu and Jaisalmer. Broadly speaking, it was about choosing between Marwad and Mewad regions of Rajasthan. It took some convincing to shift the focus of the gang from Mewad to Marwad, and after due deliberations, Jaisalmer was chosen as the focus of the trip.
The earliest we could leave was Saturday, 24th of December 2016, and we had to be back on Sunday, 1st of January 2017. That meant a total of 8 nights and 9 days, of which 2 nights would have to be spent at stop-over locations (during the to and fro journey from Pune to Jaisalmer). That left us with 6 nights and 7 days to spend in Rajasthan. Having chosen Jaisalmer as the focal point, we decided to spend 3 nights and 2 days in Jaisalmer to soak in the beauty of the Thar desert and the Marwad region. We decided to skip Jaipur, Ajmer and Pushkar as it would lead in spending a lot of time travelling on the road. Taking rest and enjoying the cities in Rajasthan that we were to visit, was equally important.
Jaisalmer was around 1200 kms from Pune and we would need 2 days to reach there by road. We deliberated on the stop-over place - options included Vadodara (550 kms), Ahmedabad (660 kms) and Palanpur (800 kms). We had to choose a place such that it would not make any one of the two days an extremely long one in terms of driving. Ahmedabad seemed like the golden mean, so it was chosen as the stop-over location enroute Jaisalmer.
Onwards journey: Pune - Ahmedabad - Jaisalmer (approx 1200 kms):
Of the 6 nights and 7 days that we were to spend in Rajasthan, 3 nights and 2 days were dedicated to Jaisalmer. After having spent a good time in the Marwad region, we decided to move to the Mewad region. After going through the list of places, and discussing with friends who had visited Rajasthan in the past, we chose Udaipur, the city of lakes, as the next city to visit. An excursion to the famous Chittorgarh fort would be one of the attractions, hence we decided to spend 2 nights and 1 day at Udaipur. That left us with 1 night and 1 day, which we unanimously decided to spend at the famous hill station of Mount Abu. Everyone seemed satisfied with this plan, as we would be able to see most of the shades of Rajasthan: the desert, lakes, forts, palaces, temples and a hill station as well. Visiting 3 cities in 6 days would give us enough time to visit the important parts of the city as well as make the travel easy for all of us.
Rajasthan tour: Jaisalmer - Udaipur (via Jodhpur), Chittorgarh, Mount Abu (approx 950 kms):
On the way back, our last stop in Rajasthan was Mount Abu which is around 900 kms from Pune. The options for the stop-over place enroute Pune included Ahmedabad (240 kms from Mount Abu), Vadodara (345 kms from Mount Abu) and Surat (500 kms from Mount Abu). I remember discussing whether we could directly drive down from Mount Abu to Pune, but that option was quickly shot down since it would mean too much of travel on one day. It would have given us one extra night to spend in Rajasthan, but we weren't so sure whether we were prepared to travel for 15 odd hours in a single day. Surat was chosen as the stop-over location on our way back, which the ladies happily accepted as it would give them a chance to go shopping at the city famous for textiles and jewellery (diamonds in particular).
Return journey: Mount Abu - Surat - Pune (approx 900 kms):
It had taken us around three sessions spanning a week or so to finalise the above plan. With the itinerary sorted, the thing that took immediate priority was stay. We all got together to list down probable hotels to stay at each of the destinations: Ahmedabad, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Mount Abu and Surat. After finalising on the list, it took us no more than a day to get the hotel bookings taken care of. We ensured that our stay at Jaisalmer included a package deal of two nights stay at a city hotel and one night stay at a desert camp - one of the prime attractions at Jaisalmer. At Udaipur, most hotels have a palace theme - and we did choose a pretty good one. As for Mount Abu, we picked a decent hotel as well. Mukul managed to secure bookings for our stop-over city stays at Hotel Ginger in both Ahmedabad (onward) as well as Surat (return).
By the end of September 2016, bookings and everything sorted - it was set in stone. A 9-day road trip from Pune to Rajasthan via Gujarat. There was no looking back from here on!
Having said that, we had enough dynamics in our plan because of the road trip angle. Before going, we still had to plan for our stay (given that we were travelling with our families), and planning for stay meant fixing the destination cities for each night well in advance. What to do in a particular city is something we didn't have hard and fast plans for, we left that to be decided at run time. This is one of those points I remember having a difference of opinion with Anant - he said it was necessary to have high level plans at least, if not detailed ones. I preferred to leave it based on the situation and time. I had no problems with being informed about what to see and what not to. I was however strictly against having a fixed itinerary where people are herded like cattle from one point to another on typical "sight-seeing" tours.
Planning, however, brought us all together and it turned out to be pretty interesting. It is said that if you want to know someone well, you should travel with them. The planning exercise brought about the various shades of thought, in terms of what seemed of interest to folks. Having chosen Rajasthan, we had a laundry list of places to select from: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Pushkar, Ajmer, Alwar, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Mount Abu and Jaisalmer. Broadly speaking, it was about choosing between Marwad and Mewad regions of Rajasthan. It took some convincing to shift the focus of the gang from Mewad to Marwad, and after due deliberations, Jaisalmer was chosen as the focus of the trip.
The earliest we could leave was Saturday, 24th of December 2016, and we had to be back on Sunday, 1st of January 2017. That meant a total of 8 nights and 9 days, of which 2 nights would have to be spent at stop-over locations (during the to and fro journey from Pune to Jaisalmer). That left us with 6 nights and 7 days to spend in Rajasthan. Having chosen Jaisalmer as the focal point, we decided to spend 3 nights and 2 days in Jaisalmer to soak in the beauty of the Thar desert and the Marwad region. We decided to skip Jaipur, Ajmer and Pushkar as it would lead in spending a lot of time travelling on the road. Taking rest and enjoying the cities in Rajasthan that we were to visit, was equally important.
Jaisalmer was around 1200 kms from Pune and we would need 2 days to reach there by road. We deliberated on the stop-over place - options included Vadodara (550 kms), Ahmedabad (660 kms) and Palanpur (800 kms). We had to choose a place such that it would not make any one of the two days an extremely long one in terms of driving. Ahmedabad seemed like the golden mean, so it was chosen as the stop-over location enroute Jaisalmer.
Onwards journey: Pune - Ahmedabad - Jaisalmer (approx 1200 kms):
Of the 6 nights and 7 days that we were to spend in Rajasthan, 3 nights and 2 days were dedicated to Jaisalmer. After having spent a good time in the Marwad region, we decided to move to the Mewad region. After going through the list of places, and discussing with friends who had visited Rajasthan in the past, we chose Udaipur, the city of lakes, as the next city to visit. An excursion to the famous Chittorgarh fort would be one of the attractions, hence we decided to spend 2 nights and 1 day at Udaipur. That left us with 1 night and 1 day, which we unanimously decided to spend at the famous hill station of Mount Abu. Everyone seemed satisfied with this plan, as we would be able to see most of the shades of Rajasthan: the desert, lakes, forts, palaces, temples and a hill station as well. Visiting 3 cities in 6 days would give us enough time to visit the important parts of the city as well as make the travel easy for all of us.
Rajasthan tour: Jaisalmer - Udaipur (via Jodhpur), Chittorgarh, Mount Abu (approx 950 kms):
On the way back, our last stop in Rajasthan was Mount Abu which is around 900 kms from Pune. The options for the stop-over place enroute Pune included Ahmedabad (240 kms from Mount Abu), Vadodara (345 kms from Mount Abu) and Surat (500 kms from Mount Abu). I remember discussing whether we could directly drive down from Mount Abu to Pune, but that option was quickly shot down since it would mean too much of travel on one day. It would have given us one extra night to spend in Rajasthan, but we weren't so sure whether we were prepared to travel for 15 odd hours in a single day. Surat was chosen as the stop-over location on our way back, which the ladies happily accepted as it would give them a chance to go shopping at the city famous for textiles and jewellery (diamonds in particular).
Return journey: Mount Abu - Surat - Pune (approx 900 kms):
It had taken us around three sessions spanning a week or so to finalise the above plan. With the itinerary sorted, the thing that took immediate priority was stay. We all got together to list down probable hotels to stay at each of the destinations: Ahmedabad, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Mount Abu and Surat. After finalising on the list, it took us no more than a day to get the hotel bookings taken care of. We ensured that our stay at Jaisalmer included a package deal of two nights stay at a city hotel and one night stay at a desert camp - one of the prime attractions at Jaisalmer. At Udaipur, most hotels have a palace theme - and we did choose a pretty good one. As for Mount Abu, we picked a decent hotel as well. Mukul managed to secure bookings for our stop-over city stays at Hotel Ginger in both Ahmedabad (onward) as well as Surat (return).
By the end of September 2016, bookings and everything sorted - it was set in stone. A 9-day road trip from Pune to Rajasthan via Gujarat. There was no looking back from here on!
Seriously meticulous... Attention to minute details.. Great planning 👍
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