‘Travel is the journey into yourself!’ And indeed it is so true as each trip has been an awakening for me in different ways to discover and re-discover oneself!
BHPian Vipin Prasad recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Post Covid, every year, I have been doing a road trip across one Indian state along with my friends who went to kinder garden with me! Yes, It is true!
We have covered Orissa, Andhra Pradesh/Telengana, Maharastra and parts of Tamil Nadu over the years.
This year, we decided to explore Rajasthan. Though we usually plan these trips around September, this year it got pushed to December due to professional commitments of my friends. Another adjustment I had to make was the decision of the majority to not drive from our starting point in Mysore. Rather, it was decided that we fly to Jaipur and do the driving around Rajasthan and then fly back. Reasons being, the extended days required for the To and Fro drive and (time) being at a premium for most of them. I was contemplating to drive solo from Mysore to Jaipur and back (Had got my beast decked up completely) but it did not materialize and in the end, I conceded to the group’s plan.
Route Plan 
Places Covered
Jaipur – Jaisalmer- Tanot- India-Pak Border- Longewala War Museum – Desert Camp around Jaisalmer- Jodhpur- Udaipur – Jaipur
Road trips ,they say is always been about the journey and not the destination in itself. However, this time, it was special as it combined the journey with awesome destinations.
The entire stretch of ~2000 kms had good roads barring a small stretch of around 100 kms on the Jodhpur-Udaipur stretch. It changed my impressions of infrastructure in North western states. The National Highway network has done a good job in the giving us good roads. The road from Jaislamer to Tanot and further to the border is the best single carriageway I have travelled in India so far… The terrain is fantastic and the roads are paved well. One can easily do the Jaisalmer- Tanot distance of ~120 kms in an hour’s time . Hats off to the BRO for the splendid work on this stretch! The same holds good for the Tanot- Longewala stretch.
Videos of some stretches
Jaisalmer https://youtu.be/7RtNM9UcYQ8
Jaisalmer -Tanot https://youtu.be/tbTZhWzGUOk
Longewala – Sam Dunes https://youtu.be/EzQ1-MODwG8
Lake Picchola with the famous Lake Palace Hotel in the background https://youtu.be/2L0SbQkupvc
Talking about the destinations, there is so much to soak in at all the points. The Magnificent Forts and glimpses of the erstwhile royals’ way of living leaves one spell bound . Enough has been chronicled about each destination, so I will skip the descriptions and share more about the journey!
All along, we really did not find a deserted stretch and there was always an eatery at some point offering Kachoris or parathas. … The best part is Hardcore Vegetarians need not worry at all as majority of the eateries along the highway offer pure vegetarian fare. When it comes to Toilets/Washrooms, they are available at these points, but their upkeep and hygiene calls for a lot of improvement, especially for women travelers
Cars:
A 2024 Safari Automatic – One of the participants of the trip from Delhi
A 2024 Mahindra XUV 300- Self- drive rental from My Choice
Stays
The entire planning of the stay and places to visit was taken by one person who had been to all these places earlier. Moreover, he likes to do the planning and bookings himself. Hence none of us intervened and went ahead with his choice of bookings. Needless to say, it is a thankless job and we all just relaxed as he took the lead!
The logic for booking Air BnBs at most places was the opportunity to get together in the LIVING ROOM for our evening parties and banter in privacy without any time schedules and botheration from the typical Hotel style properties. Overall nothing to complain, but if you are the one who is spoilt with good 3 or 4 star hotel stays, it may not be appropriate to choose Air BnBs as they do lack in offering convenience on many fronts .
A summary of the places that we stayed with salient points below
I will let a few pics do the talking.
@Lakeshore Restaurant
Misses:
We visited the Jhalana Leopard Sanctuary in Jaipur with a lot of hope and had made advance bookings. We could not spot anything other than a Neelgai in 2.5 hours. A complete waste of time and effort.
Review- My Choice Self Drive Rentals
By far the best in terms of booking experience and pricing and the process of handover and takeover. They were prompt in that process.
Cost for 6 days and 1825 kms – Rs 17547 without fuel. A refundable deposit of Rs 3000/- was extra.
Issue with the car allotted to us.
We got a XUV 300 that had done only about 1000 kms and were very happy to have received a brand new car. However within a 100 kms of our drive from Jaipur to Jaislamer, there was a sound coming from the rear right side and kept increasing. Initially it seemed like the sound of a loose wheel cap but it started increasing while braking. We called the My Choice Point of Contact who asked us to get it checked at a road side garage. On the way, at Kishangarh we found a small garage where the mechanic checked the wheels and rotated and could not find out the reason. He advised us to proceed towards the Mahindra authorized service centre in Ajmer which was around 35 kms away.
Reached Param Automobiles and explained the situation. The customer relations manager was super responsive and cooperative and immediately assigned a service advisor. They also allowed me to enter the shop floor while they started inspecting the car. On first inspection, they found that the clips around the brake pads were missing and the service technician was confident that fixing it would solve the problem. However, that and 3 subsequent inspections and removing and fixing the tyres did not solve the problem. The diagnosis was that the vehicle has been tampered with . They showed spot welding on the chassis frame and the rear brakelight section. They mentioned it would take them a whole day and the vehicle would have to be dropped at the service centre. On enquiring if the vehicle was safe to drive for another 2000 kms, they replied in the affirmative and we decided to take the risk and proceed. We lost almost 3 hours in the process and our plans of reaching Jaisalmer before sunset was put to rest!
Enroute we reached out to My Choice folks to explain the situation and asking for a replacement car at Jodhpur. While they promised to call back,the call never came and we decided to continue. We made sure to share pics of the inspection and the issue with the team so that they would not create an issue later. As far as the sound went, it remained as is throughout our journey and remained unsolved until we handed over the car. We had asked for a day’s fee to be reduced and they obliged.
Pics of the Car and the Inspection
And I end with this line that I read somewhere – ‘Travel is the journey into yourself!’ And indeed it is so true as each trip has been an awakening for me in different ways to discover and re-discover oneself!
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