Well begun is half done.
- Aristotle
It was indeed a good beginning. The longest day behind us, no fatigue, passengers comfortable, drivers enjoying. And we were more than half done in terms of reaching the farthest point of our trip - Jaisalmer. To save time, we had completed the check out formalities at Hotel Ginger in Ahmedabad on Saturday night itself. The plan was to get up early, have a quick breakfast and hit the road as early as possible. We contemplated another night drive but quickly shot down the thought - it was essential to get rest.
We all got ready by 7:30 am. Anant, Mukul and I were now getting used to the routine of tying the luggage on the roof carrier. Mukul and I would climb on the roof of the car. Our responsibilities were to arrange the luggage on the roof carrier and secure the same with the rope. Anant would help us by looping the loose end of the rope around his hand in a bundle to save us from handling the entire rope length of 20 metres. We used to pass the rope from the handles of the duffle bags and pass the rope horizontally as well as vertically over the bags and tie the rope to all 4 base brackets of the roof carrier so that the luggage wouldn't move. On top of all this, we would lay the tarpaulin covers to protect against dust and heat and finally secure the luggage with the cargo net with hooks fastened to the roof carrier.
All of us had a good breakfast and we were on the road by 8:30 am. We had to cover 532 kms to reach our hotel in Jaisalmer city. Before exiting Ahmedabad city, we had a refuelling stop at a Hindustan Petroleum (HP) fuel station. As soon as the cheetah had a tank full of diesel, we hit SH41. In about an hour and half, we were about to approach Mehsana. We had Google maps as well as Mahindra's navigation (which uses MapmyIndia under the hood) suggesting two different routes. The cop on the road suggested to take the Mehsana bypass. This road was 6 kms longer as compared to SH41, but we decided to trust the cop. Being local, he would know the situation better. The bypass was a two lane road but had very light traffic, so we were moving pretty fast. We rejoined SH41 about 4 kms ahead of Mehsana. In another hour, we had reached Palanpur and merged onto NH27. Half an hour later, we had crossed Deesa and decided to halt for freshening up. Anant's location tracker data indicated that we had stopped at 11:15 am at the HP petrol pump at Kansari, around 36 kms from Palanpur.
We were a little hungry by now, and we had carried Indian Masala Puris, popularly known as "Tikhat Mithachi Puri" ( तिखट मिठाची पुरी ) - TMP for short. In addition to this, we also were carrying Pumpkin Sweet Puris, popularly known as "ghaarga" ( घारगा ). We helped ourselves to enough servings of both, along with some nice cake that Mukul had brought along. Ruhi and Trisha were enjoying by themselves, Rama seemed to be sleeping most of the time. I was behind the wheel for almost 3 hours now and we had covered 180 odd kms out of our day's total of 532 kms. It was a good time for a driver changeover as well. Anant took the wheel while Pallavi took over as navigator.
Soon afterwards, we had crossed the Gujarat - Rajasthan border and had entered the state of Rajasthan. A formal announcement to that effect was made and everyone cheered the fact that we had entered Rajasthan. After crossing towns like Sanchore and moving ahead, the landscape changed distinctly. There was hardly any barren land to be seen, it was covered with sand. Mukul and I took a peek outside of the sun roof to get a feel of the changed landscape. Despite being peak afternoon time (around 2:15 pm), the outside temperature was still a bearable 34°C.
Anant continued driving on SH168A and then SH68 till we got close to Barmer in Rajasthan. The changed landscape was pretty inviting and I wanted to take over the wheel again, which I did. There were camels being spotted regularly now that we were in the desert region. We were 150 kms short of our destination and it was well past our regular lunch time. There were no hotels or "dhabas" on this stretch of the road and I mooted the idea of skipping a formal lunch break. Folks were okay with the idea, and we had another round of TMPs and cake. Credit goes to the gang for being so adaptive to the situation.
It was a monotonous yet enjoyable drive across the arid desert landscape. The road had been pretty good all along and we could manage good speeds because of the same. Continuing onwards, we soon entered Jaisalmer district and another announcement followed. It just helped in lifting the spirits of the travellers. We were around 15 odd kms from our destination for the day. In the distance, I spotted some sort of a large bird on a wooden pole just beside the road. Upon slowing down, we were surprised to see that it was India's national bird, the peacock. There were a few more peacocks and peahens around. We stopped for a moment to take a few photos before moving on.
Soon, we entered the golden city of Jaisalmer and the first sight that caught our attention was that of the Jaisalmer fort. It looked majestic and the navigator showed that our hotel was less than a kilometre away. By 5:08 pm, we had reached Hotel Moonlight in Jaisalmer, where we were going to spend the next 2 days and 3 nights. 2 days and 1200 kms later, we had reached the focal point of our trip - the golden city of Jaisalmer in the Marwad region of Rajasthan. Once again, Mukul, Anant and I took about 10 minutes to untie the luggage and after parking the car, we had checked in to the hotel.
I must say that the hotel had done a good job of marketing themselves. The hotel was average but looked stunning in the pictures on their website. We would have loved to get rooms on the first floor than the ones that were allotted to us on the ground floor just around the reception area. Since it was the holiday season we were told that there were no other free rooms so we had to make do with what we had at hand. Since we intended to spend most of our time in roaming around, it wasn't going to be much of an issue. After getting fresh, we moved to the terrace of the hotel from where we got a good view of the Jaisalmer fort wall and the sunset as well.
Anant had carried a bottle of Kahlúa, which is a coffee-flavored sugar-based liqueur from Mexico. The drink contains rum, corn syrup and vanilla bean. We checked with the hotel staff and they did not have the necessary permit for serving alcohol, so our room became a make shift bar with yours truly bar-tending. We enjoyed a few drinks. I had missed going to the gym in 2 days, and did some crunches and planks to strengthen my abs. Ruhi and Trisha found that to be interesting and gave me company. It was a good way to spend the evening together - drinks, chit-chatting, exercise and fun. After about an hour, we were hungry and it was time for dinner.
All of us chose to have Dal-Baati-Churma for dinner. This three-in-one dish is a typical Rajasthani treat. The Rajasthanis specialise in serving sweet and savoury dishes in combinations that steal the heart and delight the taste buds. A platter of semi-sweet Churma, spicy Dal and deep-fried Baati, is one such traditional combination. Fresh baatis drowned in piping hot dal is a perfect accompaniment for churma. Ghee (a class of clarified butter) is sumptuously poured over the Baati which is crushed and the Dal is had by pouring it over the crushed Baati.
It was a fulfilling and very heavy dinner for most the gang. I never have a heavy dinner hence Ruhi and I retired to bed, while the gang chit-chatted for a while. The gang wanted to discuss the plan for the next day for which they tried to wake me up, but I had slept like a log already. Folks just decided to discuss the plans after breakfast the next morning, and that marked end of Day 2.
We all got ready by 7:30 am. Anant, Mukul and I were now getting used to the routine of tying the luggage on the roof carrier. Mukul and I would climb on the roof of the car. Our responsibilities were to arrange the luggage on the roof carrier and secure the same with the rope. Anant would help us by looping the loose end of the rope around his hand in a bundle to save us from handling the entire rope length of 20 metres. We used to pass the rope from the handles of the duffle bags and pass the rope horizontally as well as vertically over the bags and tie the rope to all 4 base brackets of the roof carrier so that the luggage wouldn't move. On top of all this, we would lay the tarpaulin covers to protect against dust and heat and finally secure the luggage with the cargo net with hooks fastened to the roof carrier.
All of us had a good breakfast and we were on the road by 8:30 am. We had to cover 532 kms to reach our hotel in Jaisalmer city. Before exiting Ahmedabad city, we had a refuelling stop at a Hindustan Petroleum (HP) fuel station. As soon as the cheetah had a tank full of diesel, we hit SH41. In about an hour and half, we were about to approach Mehsana. We had Google maps as well as Mahindra's navigation (which uses MapmyIndia under the hood) suggesting two different routes. The cop on the road suggested to take the Mehsana bypass. This road was 6 kms longer as compared to SH41, but we decided to trust the cop. Being local, he would know the situation better. The bypass was a two lane road but had very light traffic, so we were moving pretty fast. We rejoined SH41 about 4 kms ahead of Mehsana. In another hour, we had reached Palanpur and merged onto NH27. Half an hour later, we had crossed Deesa and decided to halt for freshening up. Anant's location tracker data indicated that we had stopped at 11:15 am at the HP petrol pump at Kansari, around 36 kms from Palanpur.
 |
| Photos taken at the HP Petrol Pump, Kansari |
We were a little hungry by now, and we had carried Indian Masala Puris, popularly known as "Tikhat Mithachi Puri" ( तिखट मिठाची पुरी ) - TMP for short. In addition to this, we also were carrying Pumpkin Sweet Puris, popularly known as "ghaarga" ( घारगा ). We helped ourselves to enough servings of both, along with some nice cake that Mukul had brought along. Ruhi and Trisha were enjoying by themselves, Rama seemed to be sleeping most of the time. I was behind the wheel for almost 3 hours now and we had covered 180 odd kms out of our day's total of 532 kms. It was a good time for a driver changeover as well. Anant took the wheel while Pallavi took over as navigator.
Soon afterwards, we had crossed the Gujarat - Rajasthan border and had entered the state of Rajasthan. A formal announcement to that effect was made and everyone cheered the fact that we had entered Rajasthan. After crossing towns like Sanchore and moving ahead, the landscape changed distinctly. There was hardly any barren land to be seen, it was covered with sand. Mukul and I took a peek outside of the sun roof to get a feel of the changed landscape. Despite being peak afternoon time (around 2:15 pm), the outside temperature was still a bearable 34°C.
 |
| Landscape changed as we entered Rajasthan |
Anant continued driving on SH168A and then SH68 till we got close to Barmer in Rajasthan. The changed landscape was pretty inviting and I wanted to take over the wheel again, which I did. There were camels being spotted regularly now that we were in the desert region. We were 150 kms short of our destination and it was well past our regular lunch time. There were no hotels or "dhabas" on this stretch of the road and I mooted the idea of skipping a formal lunch break. Folks were okay with the idea, and we had another round of TMPs and cake. Credit goes to the gang for being so adaptive to the situation.
 |
| Interesting to spot some peacocks and peahens close to Jaisalmer |
Soon, we entered the golden city of Jaisalmer and the first sight that caught our attention was that of the Jaisalmer fort. It looked majestic and the navigator showed that our hotel was less than a kilometre away. By 5:08 pm, we had reached Hotel Moonlight in Jaisalmer, where we were going to spend the next 2 days and 3 nights. 2 days and 1200 kms later, we had reached the focal point of our trip - the golden city of Jaisalmer in the Marwad region of Rajasthan. Once again, Mukul, Anant and I took about 10 minutes to untie the luggage and after parking the car, we had checked in to the hotel.
I must say that the hotel had done a good job of marketing themselves. The hotel was average but looked stunning in the pictures on their website. We would have loved to get rooms on the first floor than the ones that were allotted to us on the ground floor just around the reception area. Since it was the holiday season we were told that there were no other free rooms so we had to make do with what we had at hand. Since we intended to spend most of our time in roaming around, it wasn't going to be much of an issue. After getting fresh, we moved to the terrace of the hotel from where we got a good view of the Jaisalmer fort wall and the sunset as well.
 |
| Views of sunset and Jaisalmer Fort as captured from Hotel Moonlight |
Anant had carried a bottle of Kahlúa, which is a coffee-flavored sugar-based liqueur from Mexico. The drink contains rum, corn syrup and vanilla bean. We checked with the hotel staff and they did not have the necessary permit for serving alcohol, so our room became a make shift bar with yours truly bar-tending. We enjoyed a few drinks. I had missed going to the gym in 2 days, and did some crunches and planks to strengthen my abs. Ruhi and Trisha found that to be interesting and gave me company. It was a good way to spend the evening together - drinks, chit-chatting, exercise and fun. After about an hour, we were hungry and it was time for dinner.
 |
| Dal-Baati-Churma and ghee |
It was a fulfilling and very heavy dinner for most the gang. I never have a heavy dinner hence Ruhi and I retired to bed, while the gang chit-chatted for a while. The gang wanted to discuss the plan for the next day for which they tried to wake me up, but I had slept like a log already. Folks just decided to discuss the plans after breakfast the next morning, and that marked end of Day 2.
A tour that combines the desert and the beach in Gujarat sounds refreshingly offbeat! I'm eager to know if there are any hidden gems or lesser-known spots included in the itinerary. Exploring off the beaten path always adds an element of surprise and authenticity to the travel experience.
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