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Background

It all started from a discussion with Nandan when he gave an idea for a long road trip from Delhi to Mumbai. It was a bit ambitious for a software guy like me, but the idea clicked and registered so gravely in my mind that I planned a smaller version from Delhi to Vadodara. Why Vadodara? That’s because my brother lives there and we visit his place every year. We usually go by air, i thought driving down would be a good change! :-). After numerous discussions with friends (including Nandan), we couldn’t find any company for the trip. Finally me and wife Shagun decided to take the plunge without any other companions and started for Udaipur (our first milestone) on the morning of 29th September.

Day 1 - 29 September : Delhi to Udaipur,~ 675 kms

In order to save 30 kms from the long drive, instead of starting from our home in Noida, we started early from Shagun’s parents’ house in West Delhi. Weather had started getting cold as it’d rained the previous night. The familiar 250 km stretch on NH-8 from Delhi to Jaipur was covered quite comfortably in 4 hrs and a 10 min tea break. We had done all the planning and had a big stack of print outs courtesy googlemaps.

On NH-8, around 30 km before Jaipur, we took a left towards the NH-8 by-pass leading to Ajmer without entering Jaipur city and avoiding the daily traffic. The by-pass road/fly-over actually turns 270 degrees and takes you to perpendicularly right direction of NH-8. Although, this road cuts just out of NH-8, it offers a completely different view. A straight, long, wide road with tiny mountains scattered here and there. We were impressed!

This wide road continues till Kishan Garh from where we had two options leading to Udaipur i.e. NH-8 and NH-79. The latter option is not recommended for an evening drive. Also, since we had to come via Chittaurgarh (which falls on NH-79) on the way back, we decided to take NH-8.
Let me take a moment to give a review of both the stretches.

NH-8 (Ajmer-Beawar-Devgarh-Haldighati-Udaipur) is 2 lane highway. This is the route that we took. Since its a not a toll road, lots of heavy vehicles cross Rajasthan through it. Next 50 Kms after Kishan Garh were a little difficult as we had become used to the 6 lane highway and suddenly were on a 2 lane road with no divider and trucks in-front, behind and in the opposite direction of us! Till Udaipur the road is 2 lane but after few Kms the heavy vehicles start getting lesser, the road clearer and more scenic. The road turns a lot and could be risky for fast drivers.

NH-79 (Nasirabad-Bhilwara-Chittaurgarh-Udaipur) - 4 Lane highway, longer in distance (around 50 more Kms, which can make difference if you are driving in the evening), toll road so less scenic, straight and bit boring.

Moving on with our story - After 50 Kms from Ajmer (just before Beawar), at around 1:30 pm, we took a break at A1 plaza. We had lunch, took a little nap and finally had tea before leaving. All in all, it was a 1.5 hr break! Uaipur was 230 Kms from this point. After driving for 115 kms (half way from Beawar to Udaipur), I needed some rest as I’d already driven around 550 Kms since morning. My wife took charge and drove the next 50-60 Kms.

We took another tea break at around 5:30 pm from where I got behind the wheels. The last 70 Km stretch was most challenging. It was the same 2 lane road, but now with lots of zig zag turns and suddenly number of trucks increased. It was getting dark so everyone had their lights on, with high beam. But the last surprise was still awaiting us!

Around 20 kms before Udaipur, almost abruptly, we were on a hilly road. Later we felt, we should’ve anticipated it, as Udaipur is surrounded by hills. But to our surprise, none of our friends who have visited or even stayed in Udaipur for years, ever mentioned it, as they had no clue about this since they’d always traveled by train or through the other route (NH-79). By this time fatigue had started building and since we were mentally not prepared for the hills, each Kilometer felt like 10! Although tired, the drive had it’s own fun! Finally we reached Udaipur around 8 pm and checked into the Hotel at 8:30 pm.
Day 2 - 30 September : Stay at Udaipur:
Next day we explored Udaipur and stayed there. I will try to write about the city in a separate post, right now, lets just focus on the “road trip”! I must mention here that the drive within Udaipur is pretty interesting as it is not leveled and is surrounded by hills. On 1st October, after staying for a day in Udaipur, we left for Vadodara.

Day 3 - 01 October : Udaipur to Vadodara, ~350 kms

We started around 6 in morning, again continuing on NH-8. This time a 4 lane toll road which starts right after Udaipur. This was the best road of our trip! It is very well maintained and interesting stretch of road with lots of turns and hills around, specially with pleasant weather in the morning, it seemed beautiful. This road continues for around 120 kms till Rajasthan border (Ratanpur).

Once we entered Gujrat, we sensed a drastic change in the quality of roads. I can say Rajasthan roads were well maintained but Gujrat roads are better than any roads I’ve ever seen!

The road looked fresh, jet black in color and every white mark on the road appeared as if it were painted yesterday. I also observed , that in Gujrat, the roads are very straight. There are well planned by-passes and clean toll roads that help you to reach your destination. We traveled from Ratanpur, Himmat Nagar, Ahmedabad to Vadodara in around 6 hours with max speed of 90-95Km/hr. Roads were too good but I kept my speeding temptation under control!

Finally we reached Vadodara, at my brothers place at 1 pm in IPCL township, which is out of city and one has to cross the city to reach the IPCL campus. Next 2 days were spent chilling out in Vadodara. On 4th October we traveled back to Delhi via Chittaurgarh & Jaipur.

Think i should take a break now as this post seems to be getting longer than expected. Would be covering the return trip from Vadodra to Delhi in my next post.