My legendary GJ-RJ trip

Prep

Car service - done.
Brand new Michelin tyres - done.
Wheel alignment at Madhus - done.
Thank my manager and colleagues - done.
Pepper spray purchase - done.
New phone purchase - done.

Hotel booking - NOT done.

The entire point of a soloyolo is that I don't plan things all too much ahead of time. That's what makes it fun for me.

Based on past experience I always have a bunch of emergency repair items on me - think CR2032 for car keys, Air compressor, Jump starter, Tow rope, Puncture repair kit, etc etc.

Day 0, Dec 14

Bangalore -> Tumkur -> Davangere -> Dharwad

I was technically "working" from "home" on this day. I started early and reached Tumkur, worked from a library (which has cool design btw). Finished work for the day, stopped at Davangere and got to savour Davangere Kottureshwara benne dose. Which was good, but I still like the one that my neighborhood Davangere benne dose place makes. Stayed at a random OYO in Dharwada that night.

OYOs are so bad yikes. But also cheap. I wanted to save money on stays - imagine 2.5k x 17 = ~50k spent in just hotel charges!

Also spotted several Big Mishra Pedha stores - massive in size with live pedha being prepared.

Into Maharashtra

Dharwad -> Belagavi -> Pune

Got a glimpse of "Suvarna Vidhana Soudha"^[2] and headed into Maharashtra. One obvious thing was the crappier roads (except the Pune - Mumbai leg). IMO Karnataka has overall better highways. You'll also notice Coffee and Dose points change to Gulacha chaha (Jaggery Tea) and Vadapav / Misal spots. Maharashtrians like their food spicy.

Roaming around Pune

Spent the next day roaming around Pune with a friend (my junior from prev workplace), who hosted me at his place for some authentic breakfast, and showed me around. There was upma, "Nachni" - made from Ragi, and chilli oil. Did I mention they REALLY like spicy food? We then headed to a local poha place - which you guessed it, comes with spicy water (very tasty tho, no complaints) and roamed around a bit.

Pune feels very Marathi. I'd say it's like the Mysore of Maharashtra, the cultural capital if you will. Shivaji Maharaj is well revered and the food and culture is unique. Doesn't feel like a generic Indian city.

"Barbeque Misal" and "Solkadhi" were highlights for me. Coconut milk with Kokum (Punnarpuli) is yum! There's also this really interesting museum atop a hill, you should check it out. There's also a whole "IT area" which is cleaner and greener compared to rest of the city.

Towards Gujarat

Pune -> skip Mumbai -> Amboli

An interesting fact I learned during this trip was that there were very many good hotels in the middle of nowhere along the highway. I often thought I had to make pit stops at larger cities, but that wasn't necessary. There was this really cool hotel somewhere between Mumbai and Gujarat border that offered a nice clean small room, and good food. Because of this, I could skip all of Mumbai (which I had been to a couple years ago). Also the Pune -> Mumbai highway is super good (with very many cameras) and a nice food stop. Also every other place was named "Shiva -" something.

The roads started to get really crappy again, and oh god the amount of trucks will kill you. Once you enter Gujarat, the roads get super good again, but it's allll truck traffic. Yay for economy but so very boring.

You start to see a change in architecture once you enter Gujarat - think temples, hotels, offices. And the food is VERY sweet and VERY oily. I loved it tho! Such a contrast from Maharashtra food.

Fun fact: My dad was transferred to Gujarat (Khambhat) when I was an infant. Gujarati was apparently the first language I learned to speak!
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The land of Cheese

Amboli -> Ahmedabad

On the way is the NE1 - National Expressway 1. I SWEAR I've not found a single speed limit board on this expressway. It was an elevated access-controlled 4 lane with boards only saying be careful, and not "do not go beyond 80 or 120" or whatever. I did indeed hit healthy triple digit speeds here and no challan came my way. India's own Autobahn! 90+ km of Baroda to Ahmedabad happened in no time.

I spent a decent amount of time in Ahmedabad. The infra was good, city seemed peaceful, I could see a lot of "development". The people seemed chill and non-confrontational, no "bullet machoism", and overall pretty lean. A very "neutral" looking Indian if I could say so.

Also, it's Khaman, not Dhokla.^[3] And there are very many varieties of it! I visited this Khaman shop where the shopkeeper was friendly and gave me a sampler plate (which isn't part of the menu, and often denied). I LOVE it!

Great architecture, great food, I really really enjoyed my time here. Very mild and rich food, lovely! There's this really fancy restaurant called "Agashiye", would very highly recommend.

I love the architecture!

There was this Mosque - Sarkhej Roza, next to which there was a paani puri fellow. This is THE best paani puri of my life. It's a hot and mushy filling, and sweet syrup after. Incredible.

ISKCON + a friend visit. He had a whole temple at his place. Doll-like deity idols always intrigue me.

There's however ONE thing that Amdavadians apparently love more than anything - CHEESE!^[4]

Short stop at Gandhinagar

Ahmedabad -> Gandhinagar

Gandhinagar is super spacious and super well made. Clean roads, good infra. There was a Dandi march related museum (see salt mound shaped building) that was very interesting, showed struggles of Mahatma Gandhiji and Indians against the British powers.

Also BAPS Akshardham is a must visit. Absolutely no photography allowed anywhere, but daaamn is it splendid from the outside.

First glimpse of Rajasthan: Udaipur, the white city

A thing to note: I don't stop at restaurants for food between cities often. I find the flavors not so good, and it's also a massive time kill. I usually fill up my stomach with fruits / small healthy snacks. And tea in northern India is always incredible anywhere you go.

The first thing you notice when you enter Rajasthan is the amount of alcohol shops. Gujarat is a dry state!

Couple of things: Udaipur is a hill station of sorts, weather is nice. It's royal, it's regal, it's artsy, it's commercialised, it's white, it's inaccessible to commoners. You need to pay gooood money to actually really enjoy the best that this place has to offer.

There is intricate art and lighting everywhere. The palace has been turned into a museum, it's a really good visit. Art in every corner! You'll also notice how the majority of buildings in this city are painted white - thus the white city moniker.

Owing to how expensive this city is, the crowd is generally of good quality. Long queues for some photo spots.

You'll have to roam around by an auto as the main area of the city is inaccessible to random cars.

Although the city is very very pretty, I did not really vibe with it. I would perhaps have enjoyed it a lot more if I was willing to splurge 20k a night instead of my 1.5k per night budget.

Bullet Baba temple

Udaipur -> Om Banna Temple

Until now it's been like the rest of India - I hadn't seen the desert yet.

Udaipur to Jodhpur requires descending across a ghat. Saw my first wild camel! And the monkeys look different from the ones I know! There was a very cool moment where a whole bunch of these monkeys had surrounded my car, and wouldn't hop off even when I resumed driving.

There's a very interesting temple on the way to Jodhpur with a super interesting deity - yes, a motorcycle!

The story is that the rider Om Singh Rathore happened to have crashed and died at the location of this temple, following which the police impounded this bike and took it to the police station. However, the next morning the bike magically had re-appeared at the crash site and the police had to drain the fuel and take it back again along with locking it up. And yet again the bike had mysteriously re-appeared at the same location, following a cycle of locking it up and it re-appearing again - the locals had then believed that this bike had supernatural powers. I was told that this information was logged in the police records.

Travelers stop here to seek blessings and pray for a successful journey. I found the whole experience very fascinating! Hinduism has 33 crore^[5] gods and 1 Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc.

Bishnoi Village

Om Banna Temple -> Bishnoi Village near Jodhpur

On the way to Jodhpur I came across an interesting village of the Bishnoi community. Some interesting history to the place - read up on the "Khejarli Massacre" - where very many villagers who were hugging trees to save them from being axed were killed by the Maharaja.

Got to try some what-appeared-to-be authentic Rajasthani food - Daal Baati Churma, Bajra Rotlo (iirc name), Ker Sangri - desert beans dish, Gatte ki sabzi, Kadhi, and Kalmi vada. Pretty good!

The recent history however is that of the Salman Khan Blackbuck hunting case. Yes! this is the village and this is the community. In fact, there is a shrine made for Blackbucks that were hunted here.

I stayed at this village resort of sorts, and the owner took me on a safari in his jeep, and I could spot a decent number of Blackbucks myself.

Jodhpur, the Blue city

Bishnoi Village -> Jodhpur

This city feels culturally rich in a raw and authentic way. Loved this city the most; it's less "commercialised" if I could call it that.

The palace is large and majestic! It was a good feeling to get a Karnataka registered car here!

I then proceeded to roam around the city - through the old lanes. One of the best experiences IMO. Would strongly recommend! There are organised walking tours, but I went solo.. as usual.

You get to see daily life, and enjoy food that locals actually eat.

After a good amount of random walking, a random kid came to me and asked if I was interested in a "secret viewing spot". 50 Rs and I was in. Fella took me through random lanes, up some stairs, and to a random spot not marked on Google Maps! That was the best 50 Rs I've spent!

Oh btw, the blue / indigo paint is because the Brahmins wanted to identify their houses to showcase high status lol.

Towards actual desert, Jaisalmer, the Golden city

Jodhpur -> Jaisalmer.

All this while, though I could feel the geography being different, it never really felt like desert desert. For that, you got to head west, towards Jaisalmer.

I finally started to see sand everywhere. Different vegetation. Different clothing style.

Jaisalmer Palace is fun - it's a "palace" where people actually live. So expect lots of shops, lots of people, lots of everything. It's a beautiful sandstone structure.

It's essentially called the Golden City because of the use of sandstone in making structures, and the desert that surrounds this place.

Sam sand dunes

Jaisalmer -> Sam

I wasn't satisfied still. I wanted desert desert. I wanted to see them sand dunes. Towards "Sam" I go. Unbeknownst to me, Sam actually happened to be a very popular tourist spot. It's a random spot on the highway where you have easy access to sand dunes, and you get to see a lot of "tents" being set up - food, culture, dance, jeep and camel rides.

Went on the first camel ride of my life. Was scaaaaaaaaaaaary.

I rode on top of "Michael" - a rather young fella. The owner / handler was also a young fella. He noticed I was (technically) a young fella too. Disaster. He made the darn thing runnnnnn. There's like zero safety. Camels are very very tall compared to horses, and there was nothing to hold on to. You sit on a dubba^[6] of sorts. I paid a lil extra and he took me on a rather long route as well. Very fun but also very scary 10/10. Just need to hold on to your dear life that's all.

The Sam incident

Sooo I did not really have a tent booked for this place. Walked into a few and asked if there were any rooms / tents available. Most said no - except one guy. He claimed there was in fact a tent, set up on the dunes, with "all amenities", and that I could get it for a sizeable amount.

Said yes without thinking twice. The stay came with a culture show, food, water etc.

At around 11, I hopped on their jeep heading towards this "tent" and lo and behold - there's been a miscommunication. There's no tent. There's no "amenities". There's NOTHING.

Then one of the local helper dudes told me he'd sleep on the floor (???) and let me have his charpoy ^[7]. So my stay ended up being a charpoy and 2 thick blankets.

One of the most INSANE experiences of my life. I had no bag, clothes, nothing. Was at least wearing my hoodie and that's about it. Mind you - it gets insanely cold at night in the desert. The temperatures are extreme.

This place was a good few kms from any kind of civilisation. Woke up at 2 AM-ish to try and photograph a low light-pollution sky - but I could barely move. Mind numbing winds - quite literally. Far too cold to lift a finger even.

Come morning I found a group of locals who were warming themselves with a fire, and waiting for the sunrise - and my jeep to arrive. Don't think I would try it again, but god what a fun experience.

Being far away from tourists at an incredibly touristy place was quite fun.

Longewala: history

Sam -> Longewala

If you aren't aware, Longewala is the place where a very important engagement happened between India and Pakistan during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. 120 Indian soldiers apparently held this border post against 2000-3000 Pak soldiers + tanks (read more: Battle of Longewala).

There's a good amount of captured artifacts from the battle. It's always cool to get glimpses of the army. A LOT of strategy is often involved, and it's not just brute strength.

Tanot Mata Mandir

Longewala -> Tanot

Close to it is the Tanot Mata temple, and the border post. This temple apparently is very very popular - and I wasn't aware of it. So many devotees in the middle of the desert! The story is that during Indo-Pak wars, hundreds of bombs were dropped right inside the temple compound and yet none had exploded. I was told that the BSF^[8] manages the temple, and that it's quite revered by the soldiers there.

The route from Sam to here was maintained by BRO.^[9] Super high quality and very very very straight. Speed limits were.. perhaps tested here.

I did not enter the temple as the queue to enter was too long, and I had to drive a good distance through the Thar. For some reason, there were tons of Maggi stalls right outside, and they'd cook it kinda dry and add onions and chilli. Good for hungry me.

Likewise, I had to also skip visiting the Border. I sat in the queue for a decent while, verified my Aadhar and such, but again, the queue was too much and it'd probably take me 2 hours to finish the whole thing. And I really did not want to get stranded in the Thar.

Why? see next -

NH68, through the Thar

This was perhaps THE highlight of the journey for me. A surreal / visceral experience for sure.

Photos don't do justice to it. This was desert desert. The desert I had been looking for through the whole journey. If you've observed air kind of dancing on top of a fire source, imagine that, but for the ENTIRE place.

Very scary. Invoked a kind of primal fear in me. There was no one else as this wasn't the default Google Maps route. I went through this on purpose lol.

The Rat Temple

Tanot -> Deshnok

The desert slowly started getting less harsh. More greenery, more humans and animals.

Decided to stop at Karni Mata Mandir, the rat temple.
OH GOD.
RATS EVERYWHERE.
Rats are revered here. Considered as the devi's reincarnation. They roam around everywhere, and prasad nibbled by them is shared with devotees.

I had seen many photos and videos of it, but I was still not prepared for the experience.
VERY fascinating to say the least.

They're kinda cute, I guess?

Bikaner

Deshnok -> Bikaner

Decided to make a pit stop at Bikaner as it was late. This is a rare place that I disliked. Was very very dirty and polluted, and I also got pissy because of a speeding fine (there were 0 challans on my Seltos since ownership, until Bikaner).

The food I looked at was dirty, the palace looked uninteresting as well. I just have a very bad outlook on this place, I'm sorry if you're from here.

Not many photos taken here / and also decided to head out early from here.

Puncture on NH52

Bikaner -> Jaipur.

Not sure how this happened, but I somehow drove over a divider. Tyre decided to burst wide open. Game over for those Michelins. Had to spend an hour changing a tyre because I'm a noob and also these things are HEAVY.

However, I'm thankful to:

1. YouTube tutorials, very specific to your device.
2. My air filler, usable spare within a few minutes.
3. The location of the incident. Close to a capital city is a GOOD place for a situation like this, if it HAS to happen.
4. My solo trip that doesn't involve irritable kids or adults, and how flexible I can be with my plans.

I started noticing these car rear panel stickers everywhere. As always, I'm fascinated how different Hinduism is up north compared to what I'm used to.

Jaipur, the Pink city

Jaipur at last!
I got myself a bunk bed at a "Moustache". The social experience is kinda fun and what makes it worth it (apart from the very economical price). My roomies were fun but were playing music on their speakers quite loud. Their playlist was at least good; one of the songs being played is one of my current all time favorites tho.

Headed right to the Amber palace. It was Beautiful!
The tasteful lighting made it even more special. I also happened to be at the place where a procession was taking place for some guests - horses, camels, ELEPHANTS, everything! Was very fun (and also made me realise how poor I am compared to these super super rich lol).

Next day's first trip was to Jantar Mantar. It's a whole bunch of astronomical devices on a large scale. Quite cool but I did not really understand it much (no time for guides!). This day was a whole lot of roaming around tourist spots. There's a LOT to do in Jaipur. Fun!

Pink City is called so because the whole old city was apparently painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales, pink being the colour of hospitality.

Next day I signed up for a mini sunrise hike and a mini tour of the city through Moustache. Was a fun lil group of a bunch of foreigners.

Sprinted towards Amber palace again right after - at opening time - to get photos of those beautiful doors. Being early always helps :)

A random fellow joined me at the museum. We roamed around for a bit and then decided to head to the Monkey temple, where I tried driving down a super narrow road, only to get stranded because I couldn't reverse and the clutch kind of started frying (darn DCT!^[10]). Car said clutch overheat and wouldn't start. Parked the car to the side and visited the temple by foot. Luckily, the overheating was resolved by the time we were back. Turns out he was an IITian with a high AIR. Smart fella.

And that was it for Rajasthan!
Return journey starts from here!

Somewhere in MP

Jaipur -> Indore

I didn't have all too many days of leave left, so this was kind of a race against time. Wasn't stopping anywhere unless absolutely necessary.

I don't really stop at restaurants during 10hr drives. Grab whatever fruit I get and just gooooo.

The first thing I noticed is how kind of toned down MP's people were. Language was softer, roads were cleaner as well. I did a pitstop at Ujjain for some food. Noticed it was kind of similar to Gujarati food!

Indore: Sarafa night market

Shocker. The cleanest city of India, Indore IS, in fact, ridiculously clean.
I was expecting it to be cleanER than other (large) cities, but this was crazy. A super duper crowded street spot did not have a single piece of plastic on the ground. Every stall had a nice proper dustbin and the locals were religiously making use of it.

Indore was only a pitstop on my return journey. Just stayed here for the night.
But I was super duper impressed by the street food scene there. There were sweets, fried things, steamed things, fresh things. There was variety in taste and texture.
(In contrast, I'm not a fan of Delhi street food scene, where everything is "rich" in flavor).

Locked in

Following morning, I looked around for the much-hyped Indori poha. Was good, very good even, but I liked the one I had in Pune. Personal taste I guess. See: Let it go.
Also Indore wasn't up even at 7:30 AM.

Jalebi is apparently had for breakfast here as well. VERY confusing to me.
Also, I noticed a lot of Jainism / Basadis in MP. Not that common eh.

Did I mention how terrible interior roads of MH were? This section only added to it. 800km in 10hrs is kinda bad!

Bijapura

Indore -> Bijapura

Back to Karnataka!
Karnataka roads were smooooth.

Bijapur / Vijayapura was the last district I hadn't been to in Karnataka. Was on the way regardless. Stopped for a visit to the Gol Gumbaz. It's super huge IRL, and that size is not so apparent in photos.

A fun lil situation I remember - asked the hotel staff if there was hot water available in the morning and he said 24 / 7 available sir. I'm like cool ok, that's good for a 600 Rupee room. See image:

Basavana Bagewadi

Basavana Bagewadi is a small town in Bijapura where Basavanna was born. If you're not aware, he founded the Lingayat / Veerashaiva community - which happens to be one of the largest castes / communities in Karnataka.

Visited my colleague's place here, whose MIL happened to feed me a TON of these Idlis lol.

Had a simple pitstop at Hosapete for food, but out of nowhere, Maba!
He and Bhat Uncle were apparently (iirc) on a Hampi trip. Uncle joined my car for a while, so the remainder of the journey back home was much less boring.

Home

Back in one piece!

Read more: Why Seltos?

As I've christened this, this was indeed legendary. So many memories, so many stories.