As discussed the previous night, Rama called me shortly after 5 am to ask if I was interested for an early morning desert safari. I checked with Pallavi who said she would have loved to join as well but someone needed to look after Ruhi hence she vouched to stay back. Gauri joined us, and Mukul stayed back to look after Trisha. So it was Anant, Rama, Gauri and I who ventured out at 5:30 am. It was pretty early for camel safaris to start their day. A jeep was waiting right outside our camp and offered to take us on a desert safari. We told him that we needed to be back in an hour, and that meant he could be back for another trip much earlier than a regular desert safari round trip which lasts at least an hour and a half.
Being early morning, we managed to reach the sand dunes pretty early. It was an open top jeep like the day before, and since it was pretty cold, we were covered from head to toe. The driver was taking us at breakneck speed through the desert in a bid to get done as quickly as possible. Their income totally depends on the number of trips they make. After a few roller coaster sections through the sand dunes in which we had to use all our strength to stay put in one place, we finally came to the top of a large sand dune and the driver stopped. He told us that the Bollywood movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan (featuring Salman Khan) was shot at the base of that dune. I couldn't relate for I had not watched the movie. Gauri and Rama seemed to agree.
We decided to get out of the jeep and get a feel of the sand for a while before returning back. While Rama, Gauri and Anant were busy in clicking photos, the driver thought he could have some fun at my expense. We were all sitting at the top of a sand dune on a slope. He told me to sleep on the sand, and as soon as I did, he pushed me down the slope. Before I could realise, I was tumbling at high speed, with my face hitting the sand every time I rolled. Sand entered my eyes, nose and mouth. I came to rest at the base of the dune, with a lot of sand in my face. My eyes were hurting, and I asked for a bottle of water. Anant was a bit scared initially. A couple of days ago, I had earned the name Anikant (putting Aniket and Rajnikant together) because of my cheetah driving skills. The episode covering me in sand earned me the last name Anisandy (a play on Anikhindi and sandy). During the remainder of the trip I was often called Anikant Anisandy :)
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| Sam Sand Dunes: Early morning desert safari |
I got a bottle of water and washed my face, clearing as much sand as I could, mainly from my eyes. It was close to 6:30 am and I remember pushing Rama and everyone else to wrap up our desert exploits, as we needed to get back by 7 am. Rama wanted to stay back and enjoy for some more time, but I insisted that we go back. We got back to our camp by 7 am and planned to get ready, have breakfast and leave for Udaipur.
I learnt that Rama was not too happy with us returning so soon and hence Anant took her back to the desert. They enjoyed sunrise and spent some time there while my family and Mukul's family were busy getting ready. I am generally not the one who likes to be a disciplinarian, but there were 2
things folks needed to remember here. While were out for some enjoyment, half the gang was back at the camp, not being able to join because of
the kids. More importantly, we could all have been enjoying the desert
safari had we started a little late (say 6:30 am instead of 5:30 am) but
that would have meant starting late for Udaipur, which would have been
contrary to what we had planned. Since Anant kept insisting on planning
and sticking to plans as much as possible, I just thought I was being
fair in wrapping our early morning desert safari. To me it seemed like Anant was contradicting himself by speaking about making plans and then not honouring his own word. At an individual level I was not bothered that Rama and Anant went again, however, I was irked because half the gang who desperately wanted to spend some more time in the desert were deprived of that opportunity.
Finally the breakfast at the camp site was served late. Anant and Rama took their time to get back. Trisha wanted to have a camel ride so she did. Later Ruhi insisted that she wanted to have a camel ride, and not wanting to disappoint her, I suggested that everyone who wanted to have one last chance at the desert should go. Anant, Rama, Pallavi, Trisha and Ruhi went for a ride in the camel cart. Gauri, Mukul and I stayed back. We reorganised our luggage a bit, moved one of the backpacks to the roof carrier. By 8:40 am, we had departed Camp Oasis at Sam, and were enroute Udaipur.
Mukul took the wheel. We took the same road that we had taken the previous afternoon to reach Sam. We bid adieu to the golden city and hit NH11 aka Jaisalmer - Jodhpur road. The road was pretty good, however patches of the road were bad because it was under repair. As a result, our average speed was impacted. It took us about 3 hours to cross Pokhran, which was about 150 kms from where we started. We had a quick driver change over as we got on to SH 125. Anant took over from Mukul at the wheel, and Pallavi took over from Gauri as the navigator. I was busy in the middle row spending time with the kids Ruhi and Trisha. We played games, took pictures and were giggling away. I had some good time taking a break from driving.
The cheetah has a feature where it emits 3 loud beeps when the speed crosses 150 kms/hr. It is supposed to serve as a warning to the driver as 150 kms/hr is almost twice the maximum permissible speed limit of 80 kms/hr on most Indian highways. We had defined the term "take off" to signify that the road (and traffic) was favourable for crossing 150 kms/hr. Despite traffic being low, we had not been able to "take off" since the morning. Some time later, on a good stretch of the Jaisalmer - Jodhpur road, Anant managed a hat-trick of "take offs". That was a solitary good stretch thought. Thereafter, Anant continued driving for over 100 kms and at one point wanted to give up because the drive was too patchy - it involved a lot of stop-start driving. We were close to Jodhpur, and instead of entering the city, we stopped short since it was past 1:30 pm. We chose to have lunch at Hotel Badri Palace.
After lunch, we had a driver change over. It was 3 pm. I had not driven since the morning, and I took over, intending to cover the remainder of the drive for the day, till Udaipur, which was 265 kms away. It took us a while to bypass Jodhpur city. We then hit NH62 and luckily the road was great. I was immediately able to "take off" and did so about 5 - 10 times in a short period of time. It was pretty good until we hit RJ SH 67. Despite being a state highway, it did not seem like one, and at times the road got narrower than by-lanes in the city. There were cattle strewn along the road at regular intervals and we had to keep an eye out to avoid bumping into one. We then got on to RJ SH 16 and finally on to NH 58. It was interesting to note that the toll plazas on NH 58 had a dedicated lane for ETC / FASTag which was closed for all other traffic with a barricade. When we saw the lane marked ETC / FASTag and went near the barricade, we were signalled to use the other lane, but upon indicating that our car did have a FASTag, they let us go. Probably there weren't many cars using FASTag crossing Rajasthan, but it was good to see that they had a dedicated lane where non-FASTag commuters were strictly not allowed.
It was now well past sunset and driving in twilight was always odd. Whatever limited natural light is present tends to scatter, the eyes are just getting used to headlights coming on. One needs to calibrate oneself to night driving mode as the vision reduces. We zipped through till we were on NH 58 but as soon as we entered Udaipur city, traffic slowed us down. Our hotel was about 12 kms inside the city. After travelling for a total of 571 kms during the day, at 7:12 pm we had reached our destination for the day - Hotel Swaroop Vilas in Udaipur, the city of lakes. The palace themed hotel was situated on the lake Swaroop Sagar, giving the hotel it's name. We checked in and I was pretty tired from driving for 4 hours. I contemplated getting a massage at the hotel's spa. Since I was more hungry than tired, we all took a quick bath and stepped out for dinner at Hotel Moti Mahal Deluxe, which was a couple of kms away. We were back by 10:30 pm and called it a day.
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| Sam Sand Dunes: Early morning view captured during the last camel ride |
Mukul took the wheel. We took the same road that we had taken the previous afternoon to reach Sam. We bid adieu to the golden city and hit NH11 aka Jaisalmer - Jodhpur road. The road was pretty good, however patches of the road were bad because it was under repair. As a result, our average speed was impacted. It took us about 3 hours to cross Pokhran, which was about 150 kms from where we started. We had a quick driver change over as we got on to SH 125. Anant took over from Mukul at the wheel, and Pallavi took over from Gauri as the navigator. I was busy in the middle row spending time with the kids Ruhi and Trisha. We played games, took pictures and were giggling away. I had some good time taking a break from driving.
The cheetah has a feature where it emits 3 loud beeps when the speed crosses 150 kms/hr. It is supposed to serve as a warning to the driver as 150 kms/hr is almost twice the maximum permissible speed limit of 80 kms/hr on most Indian highways. We had defined the term "take off" to signify that the road (and traffic) was favourable for crossing 150 kms/hr. Despite traffic being low, we had not been able to "take off" since the morning. Some time later, on a good stretch of the Jaisalmer - Jodhpur road, Anant managed a hat-trick of "take offs". That was a solitary good stretch thought. Thereafter, Anant continued driving for over 100 kms and at one point wanted to give up because the drive was too patchy - it involved a lot of stop-start driving. We were close to Jodhpur, and instead of entering the city, we stopped short since it was past 1:30 pm. We chose to have lunch at Hotel Badri Palace.
After lunch, we had a driver change over. It was 3 pm. I had not driven since the morning, and I took over, intending to cover the remainder of the drive for the day, till Udaipur, which was 265 kms away. It took us a while to bypass Jodhpur city. We then hit NH62 and luckily the road was great. I was immediately able to "take off" and did so about 5 - 10 times in a short period of time. It was pretty good until we hit RJ SH 67. Despite being a state highway, it did not seem like one, and at times the road got narrower than by-lanes in the city. There were cattle strewn along the road at regular intervals and we had to keep an eye out to avoid bumping into one. We then got on to RJ SH 16 and finally on to NH 58. It was interesting to note that the toll plazas on NH 58 had a dedicated lane for ETC / FASTag which was closed for all other traffic with a barricade. When we saw the lane marked ETC / FASTag and went near the barricade, we were signalled to use the other lane, but upon indicating that our car did have a FASTag, they let us go. Probably there weren't many cars using FASTag crossing Rajasthan, but it was good to see that they had a dedicated lane where non-FASTag commuters were strictly not allowed.
It was now well past sunset and driving in twilight was always odd. Whatever limited natural light is present tends to scatter, the eyes are just getting used to headlights coming on. One needs to calibrate oneself to night driving mode as the vision reduces. We zipped through till we were on NH 58 but as soon as we entered Udaipur city, traffic slowed us down. Our hotel was about 12 kms inside the city. After travelling for a total of 571 kms during the day, at 7:12 pm we had reached our destination for the day - Hotel Swaroop Vilas in Udaipur, the city of lakes. The palace themed hotel was situated on the lake Swaroop Sagar, giving the hotel it's name. We checked in and I was pretty tired from driving for 4 hours. I contemplated getting a massage at the hotel's spa. Since I was more hungry than tired, we all took a quick bath and stepped out for dinner at Hotel Moti Mahal Deluxe, which was a couple of kms away. We were back by 10:30 pm and called it a day.
