Moments

The journey from Udaipur to Abu road was a memorable one. The highway was in a total mess as widening of the roads into 4 lanes was under construction. The old highway was broken at many points with diversions made on to muddy tracks which were bumpy due to recent rains. To add to our woes, the driver was in a happy mood. Probably he was a rally driver who enjoyed such muddy tracks to feel his pulse racing. He was maneuvering the bus through the rough roads keeping us swinging left and right and bouncing up and down. It was a total roller coaster ride. The landscape outside was what fascinated us the most. We had been travelling in Rajasthan and never expected to see anything green around. All you expect in Rajasthan is barren lands and deserts. On the contrary, we were seeing lush green fields and bushes and forests as we passed from plains to the hills. We went through a few hair pin bends and it was like moving through the Western Ghats in Kerala, of which I have had enough experien...

Our day 2 started off from Jodhpur at 6 o'clock bus to Udaipur. The bus was a Silver Line (decently luxurious) bus of Rajasthan State Road Transport. It had push-back seats and provided us a not-so-bad position for sleeping. Sleep was necessary after the night out at the wedding, and expecting that we had finalised on catching this particular bus (The other buses in the morning are ordinary). The route to Udaipur was through a National Highway. The roads were good and the driver was a patient guy. He was in no mood to reach his destination quickly and so the journey took us 7 hrs where it should have taken only 5-5.30 hrs. Getting down at the Udaipur bus stand we were flanked by local guides, telling us about a few options for hotels. We took a guy in confidence to show us some cheap hotels to stay. The first look of the city had a depressing effect on both of us and the state of the art rooms of cheap hotels showed to us added to it. After rejecting a couple of pathetic rooms (rea...

A trip was on the cards from the time I got the wedding invitation in February. A wedding of my schoolmate. Attending weddings is a good excuse for a trip. You get leave from your boss easily. You please the friend/relative as you are with them on their marriage. And of course you are happy being there and enjoying the baraat and the music and the feast and the chicks. A treat for your senses, eyes, ears and tongue. So when I got this invitation, I phoned other friends to cajole them for a trip. Going alone to a marriage and that too when u r a friend of the bride, is very boring. A bunch of old brats is a better choice. After a few rounds of calls, I managed to get a gang of 5 (Amritanshu, Abhishek, Anshuman and Anoop) to join me at the venue of the marriage, Jodhpur. Jodhpur is a nice little city in the south of Rajasthan. It is famous for forts and palaces as are all other tourist places in Rajasthan. After a bit of googling on various tourism promotion sites and numerous travelogue...