27th Nov - 1st Dec 2013
As per the plan the journey was set to begin on 27th evening. I was confused about the bus stand though, where should I board the bus!, was major concern. All the Rajasthan roadways Volvo buses starts from Bikaner house near India gate but office to home and then home to there biking looked too much of a task. So from Bikaner house to Kashmiri gate to Sarai kale khan finally it was Iffco chowk from where I boarded the bus.
At 2230 hrs boarded a sleeper bus from Iffco chowk Gurgaon after 15 kms of ride from home. Buswala charged Rs. 80/- for bike.
In between bus stopped for dinner at some awesome place but was too cold outside so had a cup of tea and came back. Morning 0430 hrs, I was standing outside Sindhi camp bus stand having a cup of tea and in dilemma of what now. And then opened the google maps, sketched the route and started riding.
Reached the first destination as early as 1030 hrs, so continued towards the next destination, Pushkar. Straight from Phulera to Rupangarh through Marva ka Kila skipping Sambhar lake & Naraina. A lot of off-road riding, digging deep inside rural part of Rajasthan, met a lot of great people asking so many questions like whats my cast, gotra, where am I headed, are you on india tour, do you work in TV, how Akshay Kumar looks, have you ever seen him etc etc. Lost the route after Kucheel and at the same time rear tire got punctured, didn’t change the tube as was too busy searching the correct route. Once reached the bypass road changed the tube in dark and made it to Pushkar around 1930 hrs. Thanks to the light I was carrying.
At Pushkar, found a cheap (rs 250/- per day) hotel and rested. Next day didn’t touch the bike at all. Instead explored the local, Savatri temple trek, Brahma temple, lake, mela ground, read ‘into the wild’ book, saw a (only) fully geared cyclist and evening was near the lake witnessing sunset and lake puja. It’s a good place with a lot of foreigners roaming around, searching for ‘something’, I found locals much aquatinted with them.
I was planning to go back to Jaipur via Ajmer and explore Jaipur, but then next morning saw message of salary credited and smelled something royal. It was nothing but Fort Khajerla inviting me to welcome newly credited salary. Left hotel at 0700 hrs. Missed the turn twice; first, the turn towards Nand, second, just after Govindgarh. Second miss was a kill, I had to drag myself on sand for about 9-10 kms. Asked so many locals about the route and finally reached Khajerla at 1700 hrs via Jaitaran route skipping the planned route.
Fort Khajerla is 90 km before Jodhpur. 500 yrs old this massive fort is now a ‘some’ star hotel, the manager told me that it has been given on lease for 19 yrs (since 2006) by some hot shot guy (forgot the name). The sunset view from the top is a pure bliss, food is good so the stay. If you really want some cool calm place, this is for you. And yeah! current Rajah Dileep Singh still lives there.
It was a dry day due to state elections so no energy boosters served, was open for foreigners’ though.
Sunday; last day of ride today. Skipped the breakfast, started riding at 0900 hrs as per the planned route, made it to Jodhpur around 1400 hrs. It’s pretty much a highway ride, nothing fancy.
At Jodhpur, the fort looked inviting from far but didn’t get much time to explore the city, as the last bus (Volvo) leaves at 1600 hrs from Rai ka Bagh bus stand. One semi deluxe also there leaving at 1530 hrs. I needed to pick one and semi deluxe was lucky to get my cross check on board {fare was 530 and another half ticket, (rs 245/-) for the bike}.
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