ghumakkar.com

This post is in continuation with my last post Delhi-Vadodara-Delhi Road Trip (Part -1). Starting from Delhi, with a stop-over at Udaipur, we arrived Vadodara on 1st of October. Stayed there for the next 2 days and started the return journey on 4th of October. We took off at 5 in the morning as around 450 Kms had to be covered that day to reach Chittaurgarh.

Vadodara to Ratanpur (Rajasthan Border) : We were already aware of road conditions and decided to have breakfast at A1 Plaza which was located around 25 Kms before Ahmedabad on Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway. Let me tell you that in the past, we had great experiences with A1 Plaza on our trips to Jaipur and Agra. But this one was no good, we couldn’t understand why, but only South Indian snacks were available at the two A1 Plaza’s we visited in Gujrat. If not anything else, one would at least expect some good Dhokla, Khandawi or Theple, but all we could find there were Idli, Vada and Dosa! There was no printed menu and the only one displayed on wall was in Gujrati!. We left quickly without wasting any time and decided to take a break later.

Roads were clear in the morning and I was trying to cover maximum distance because we had only half a day in hand to explore Chittaurgarh. Wifey was getting hungry and angry as I was avoiding some stops for breakfast. But I was clear that the more time we saved during the drive, the more we’d get to spend at Chittaurgarh. Finally, looking for a decent place for breakfast, we reached Rajasthan border (Ratanpur).

(more…)

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.

(more…)