Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Day - 6 Udaipur to Bikaner Page No.7

Dear All,

This entire H2H 2K2K Road Trip is being made into a DVD Movie.

In fact all my previous Road Trips have also been made into DVD Movie.

This movie will have all the photos, videos, text with explanations & very nice MP3 Songs for background which will ultimately make watching this movie as a virtual journey along with MN family to NEPAL in your own home with your own family a very memorable experience for sure.

Anyone who is interested to get them please write to mnh2h2k2k@gmail.com with your name, address & contact number & I will respond to you. The DVD Movie is under preperation & will be ready shortly.

What I am sharing with you all in this blog site is only the photos & not the videos taken and these priceless videos will be there in the DVD Movie.

I can assure you it will be real fun & worth watching it on big screen as a Movie over a nice weekend.

Send mail with your requirement to mnh2h2k2k@gmail.com

Page No.7

Day - 6

Udaipur to Bikaner Rajasthan

Date: 27.12.2012 (Thursday)

We are now continuing our night journey from Udaipur after the visit to Maharana Pratap Fort visit. We left after dinner around 9 PM in the night on 26.12.2012.

We will now together do a night drive from Udaipur to Bikaner. Fasten your seatbelts!

This drive was very tough for me, as I had already spent considerable amount of my energy throughout the day with the 4 places of Interest we visited at Udaipur and I also had done a long drive of 888 KMs from Lonavala to Udaipur.

We had our dinner at Hotel Broadway and it just about gave me some time to re-charge the camera batteries and also gave me some time to mentally prepare for another total night drive of some 550 KMs through unknown terrian where the roads were supposed to be very bad according to HVK Sir.

The Route was as follows; on paper the numbers look manegable in some 8 hours.

But in reality with the bad road conditions around Ajmer, Pushkar & Nagaur Sector we lost time.

I also believe I missed the Bye Pass and ended up coming into Nagaur City in the middle of the night and to find the way out to the Highway was so difficult as there was no proper sign board and no living soul around & there was severe FOG & in some places the lorry traffic was heavy & slow moving and we reached Bikaner by 11 AM afternoon on 27.12.2012.

Udaipur to Bikaner
StartUdaipur26.12.2012
Start Time9:00 PM
Start Day  Wednesday
DestinationBikaner27.12.2012
Reach Time11:00 AM Tentative
Reach Day  Thursday
Driving Distance KMs562
Drive Time (Hours)8
HighwayNH - 76 & NH 89
Complete Night Driving
Start from Udaipur by 9 PM evening & Reach Bikaner
UdaipurChitorgarh112
ChitorgarhBhilwara50
BhilwaraAjmer135
AjmerNagaur150
NagaurBikaner 115
562

My wife Jamuna purely blamed me for all that delay caused by the frequent Stop, Click, Start & Go (for taking the 100s of Photos through out this trip) she said I have wasted a lot of time to get that perfect shot.

So guys please understand at what cost these photos are coming to you all and are being shared that I had to taste a lot of brick bats & eat bullets on regular basis to share with you all these valuable photos.

We know our Southern Super Star Padmashree Kamal Hassan has done a Movie called Dashavatar (10 Roles), I believe I too did somewhat similar in this Trip, multiple roles.

It was fun though!

1. Car Driver & Cleaner (I drove the car from Start till End and cleaned the car all throughout except on 2 occassions (at Bardia National Park & Pokhara FIAT Service Center), even while it was chill cold outside) and Part Navigator

2. Trip Planner - Routes, Hotel booking, identifying the Places of Interest for visit, planning etc

3. Father & a comrade & on board doctor and great friend to my 2 small kids & Wife who needed a whole lot of Support & Encouragement to keep them engaged throughout, it is no joke to keep 2 small kids couped up for 17 days for 9000+ kms in the rear of the car where they have braved Bone Chilling Cold, total discomfort for prolonged duration of time, continuos drive without proper rest & sleep etc, it was like putting TOM & Jerry in the back seat most of the time.

A good friend of mine asked me once how does your wife manage to sit through your frequest long distance road trips without any complaints? He said his wife will not even sit more than a day at best leave alone 15+ days like your wife.

Well I have no answer to that except one has to ask my wife to get her own answer.

I know what will she say "I am married to a mad man!!!"

For me most of the Time it was local Panchayat Time to understand who was right & who was wrong in the fight between these 2 little naughty fellows in the back & to give a verdict to resolve the pillow fights in the back without huring any one of them!

I also have treated them with food posioning and vomiting / puking and have throughly cleaned them and adminstered the medicines I had carried, made them feel comfortable.

4. Husband & a loverboy he he..very important to tell the lady  how much you love her and this is the best opportunity.

Trust me if my Car was a Ship in high seas & if these 3 were the Ship's inmates or Crew then on 2 to 3 places there would definately have been a Mutiny onboard & the Capt (that's me) would definately  have been pushed off the ship & made to walk the plank & thrown to the Sharks!

I was just remembering Captain Jack in Pirates of the Carabians..

At Ferozpur, Haridwar & Bardia National it was Bone Chilling Chillness in the early morning & I had to give a bath to these 2 little ones. Not all would have cooperated the way these 2 little ones supported me.

Not a day we missed having a bath what ever the temperature. The hot water became cold the minute you took it out of the bucket..

We drove through dead of the night with pitch darkness in an unknown road to enter Bardia National Park in Nepal which was be so scary that there were no light, no road, no sign board and any healthy man would have a heart attack with all that pitch darkness & knowing that we are driving through a Jungle!

We were driving through an arch and pakka Jungle road where we had seen fresh Elephant / Rhino Dung. I only had one way to go - just forward further into the dark into the unknown!

My son Uthamkumar told me "Appa I was not so scared till you were on the main highway road but right now I am so scared! My wife had literally closed her eyes and cursing me!"

Eyes closed till what seemed like an endless journey into the unknown we came to an opening where we saw a statue of a Tiger lit up by our high beams and not any living soul around with the Park's name & we found an arrow mark pointing to Racy Shade Resort inside Bardia National Park Nepal.

My wife told me she will never ever come to any more Road trips in future with me after this!

5. Porter / Hamal - carrying all the luggage & sleeping kids into the hotel at dead of the mid night & not showing my tiredness.

6. Photographer I have taken 1000s of photos for all of us to share..

7. Motivator & encourager for 4 of us.

Just Always remember No one can Encourage you more than Yourself!

Have a Never Say Die Attitude.

I only had 1 word for myself - PUSH, PUSH, PUSH, PUSH keep Pushing ON....eating each & every kilometer like a hungry man and never thinking of the past on how many KMs distance we have covered and not at all thining of the future of how many more KMs distance yet to cover..

I only had one Aim to be back in Chennai latest by 6th January 2013 thats all.

I had no worry about the Car after all I was driving the awesome FIAT Linea & for this Car this was its 2nd International Touring in Nepal after Bhutan!

Fantastic Car..not a single puncture throughout the journey (the Yokohama Tyres performed extremely well), no breakdown, no starting problem, no fatigue, no body pain or fatigue, no issues of any kind..awesome overall mileage for all that abuse it has taken and speeds I did..what more do we need.

People who are planning to buy a SEDAN / Hatchback please wake up & see the difference from other Sedans if you have never tried a FIAT.

Evaluate FIAT which has come out with a whole lot of new features.

FIAT is the Ultimate Road Runner!!!

The FIAT's Multijet Engine 1.3 MJD technology is just awesome and it has without any 2 doubts become the National Engine of India.

You will get it in Grande Punto as a Hatchback & in the Linea as Sedan.

Try it out to see & you will know what makes them different & World Class.

Italians know how to make Beautiful, Sexy & Reliable Cars.

You buy a FIAT with your Heart & you will be forever in Love!

8. Coordinating with MYFIATWORLD.IN Teammates & Essilor India Pvt Ltd Team, SATNAV GPS Team by giving updates.

9. Blogging about the Travelogue on the Go by uploading all pictures in Facebook & Google Blogger Site for all friends to see when time permitted.

10.  I would like to be the motivator & catalyst to future generation & my own friends to do similar trips in small ways / bigways and wish to convey that Nothing is Impossible.

I am 100% sure if we could do it so you can do it too. 

It is not about the size / magnitude in terms of number of days & kilometer distance to cover.

All you need is Self Belief, Trust in yourself, Belief in the GOD you pray & within you, your own battery limits of your personal capabilities however big or small the journey is.

If you dream something please work on it with your whole heart & soul & with dedication and if you work on it you will achieve it, you should have a Love & Passion for it.

Apart from all this long distance Driving Passion, I also love to do an intricate Zari Thread Art Work too.

I will share some more of the Artwork details at the end of my travelogue.

Just sharing with you all some Sample of my Art Work that I also do when I get time







Now for the H2H Travel photos let them do the talking.




27.12.2012 - Time was 12.20 AM Midnight, we are 142 KMs away from Ajmer.

I took a break at a Safe place for 2 & 1/2 hours to charge myself. A Power knap.






Time was 04.20 AM Midnight we are nearing Beawer & still 63 KMs away from Ajmer.







At 05.30 AM early morning we had reached Ajmer.

We still had to travel further from Ajmer through Pushkar, Merta, Nagaur to reach Bikaner.




We came across a Kal Bhairav Temple (Lord Shiva as Lord of Time) at 5.36 AM early morning & we offered a prayer & prayed to the Lord to give us safe passage further from Ajmer towards Pushkar & onto Bikaner.







We are 9 KMs away from Pushkar, 77 KMs away from Merta, 156 KMs away from Nagaur & 272 KMs away from Bikaner. The Time was 5.50 AM.




We reached Pushkar @ 6 AM and proceeded towards Merta & Bikaner. I had stopped at a nice tea stall where there was a huge camp fire with big log was burning & few Sadhus were sitting & having hot Chai (Tea) and I too joined them warming both my hands in the fire & drinking Hot Chai.

Inspite of my wearing Wollen Gloves, Jeans Jacket, Wollen Head Cap it was litrellay very chill & cold.

Wow what a Chai! Really refreshing.










From NH 8 we will be touching NH 89 now to proceed towards Nagaur & Bikaner. Here the roads were good. We still have 194 KMs to cover to Bikaner.




Remember the Song from Uraih Heep..Sun Rise & a New Day is Breaking Through..in the morning of a another day without you..and as the scene goes by...no one's there to see me cry..except Sunrise..the Sunrise & you...wow what a classic music & song..hope classic rock listeners would have heard this from Uriah Heep for sure.

Time 7.30 AM.








The Linea is returning back awesome Mileage of 17.9 kmpl


Bikaner is still 157 KMs away. Almost 8 AM.






Spot the Bird!









Reached Nagaur & Crossed it at 8.45 AM.


Railway Crossing @ 8.55 AM.





I made a major mistake. I completely missed Deshnok and crossed it & went to Bikaner.





We reached Bikaner at 11 AM as planned wow..and found a decent & good budget hotel Bharat Nivas.

Odometer Reading @ Bikaner on 27.12.2012 @ 11 AM was 45089 KMs.

Odometer Reading @ Udaipur on 26.12.2012 @ 9.45 PM was 44545 KMs.

We had done 3888 KM of our trip from Chennai till now & are getting an overall average of 16.2 kmpl, I am also using the heater & AC throughout.

We had covered from Udaipur to Bikaner 544 KMs & got a good average mileage of 17.1 kmpl.

We had a very good hot water bath & got dressed up. Had lunch..paranthas & curd & mix veg..and then enquired around & came to know that we had missed the Karni Mata Temple at Deshnoke behind.

I had to go back to the same road some 40 KMs. I lost time because of this.








We are now going to enter the Most Famous only RAT Temple in Rajasthan at a place called Deshnoke. You will find them in 100s all over.

Karni Mata RAT Temple:

Karni Mata was born on 2nd October 1387 & lived till 23rd March 1538.

She was a female Hindu sage born in the Charan caste and is worshiped as the incarnation of the goddess Durga by her followers.

She is an official deity of the royal family of Jodhpur and Bikaner.

She lived an ascetic life and was widely revered during her own lifetime.

At the request of the Maharaja of Bikaner, she laid the foundation stone of two important forts in the region.

The most famous of her temples is the temple of Deshnoke, which was created following her mysterious disappearance from her home.

The temple is famous for its 100s of Rats, which are treated as sacred and given protection in the temple.

She was the seventh daughter of Mehoji Charan and his wife
Deval Devi, and was named Ridhubai at birth.

At the age of six, she miraculously cured her aunt of an ailment.
This aunt gave her the name "Karni" or "miraculous woman"
by which name she became known in future.

Mata (mother) is an honor commonly bestowed on pious elderly women.



















































































We returned back to Bikaner City and we are now going to enter the Junagarh Fort.

Junagarh Fort:

The Junagarh fort was originally called Chintamani and was renamed Junagarh or "Old Fort" in the early 20th century when the ruling family moved to Lalgarh Palace outside the fort limits.

It is one of the few major forts in Rajasthan which is not built on a hilltop.

The modern city of Bikaner has developed around the fort.

The fort complex was built under the supervision of Karan Chand, the Prime Minister of Raja Rai Singh, the sixth ruler of Bikaner, who ruled from 1571 to 1611 AD.

Construction of the walls and associated moat commenced in 1589 and was completed in 1594.

It was built outside the original fort of the city, about 1.5 km from the city centre.

Some remnants of the old fort are preserved near the Lakshmi Narayan temple.

Historical records reveal that despite the repeated attacks by enemies to capture the fort, it was not taken, except for a lone one-day occupation by Kamran Mirza.

Kamran was the second son of the Mughal Emperor Babur who attacked Bikaner in 1534, which was then ruled by Rao Jait Singh.

In the battle, the Mughals were defeated by Rathors.

Kamran then returned to Lahore.































As soon as we finished the Junagarh Fort visit by 5.55 PM evening we started our journey from Bikaner towards Amritser another long Night's Journey of around 645 KMs.

Stay tuned & wear your seat belts!

DAY - 6: 27.12.2012 - Thursday
Bikaner to Amritser
StartBikaner27.12.2012
Start Time6.00 PM evening
Start Day  Thursday
DestinationAmritser28.12.2012
Reach Time2.00 PM
Reach Day  Thursday
Driving Distance KMs645
Drive Time (Hours)9
HighwayNH 15 / NH 54
Places to Visit @ Bikaner
Karni Mata Temple
Junagarh Fort
BikanerSri Ganga Nagar250
Sri Ganga NagarAbhor50
AbhorBhatinda35
BhatindaFerozepur180
FerozepurAmritser130
645









You have just finished reading Day - 6 on 27.12.2012 visit to Bikaner from Udaipur. Page No.6.

I hope you all enjoyed reading the travelogue of Bikaner.

I will be very happy to read your feedback & comments.

To read the Previous Travelogue of Udaipur Day - 5 26.12.2012 Page No.5 please click on this link below;

http://mn-h2h-2k2k.blogspot.in/2013/01/day-5-udaipur-26122012-page-no5.html

To read the Next Travelogue of Bikaner to Amritser via Ferozpur Day.7 28.12.2012 Page No.7 please click on this link below;

http://mn-h2h-2k2k.blogspot.in/2013/01/day-7-bikaner-to-amritser-28122012-page.html

18 comments:

  1. Dear MN, Just Finished reading it with heart beating "Tak, tak kak'. Thanks for a thrilling experience. The familiarity with these places, before were, from the announcement on Railway plat form "Trivandrum se Bikaner ......trivandrum-Bikaner express dhodi dher ...... " Now got a virtual driving experience. Hope I will get a real time experience some time in future.

    Have you taken the route via Jodhpur? I could see Jodhpur distance displayed in many photos before reaching Bikaner.

    Once experienced the cold in Pilani(RJ) and even not in peak and with a room heater it was too difficult to adjust. Your drive in peak of December is something that I never dare to dream.





    ReplyDelete
  2. Sunilji, thanks for the feedback. If you see the Rajasthan Road Map that I have uploaded in this blog, you will see that Jodhpur comes further to the West more towards Jaisalmer. In fact we had done the Jodhpur, Jaisalmer till the last village to the Indo-Pak Border called SAM in our 2nd Road Trip called Mission Impossible in our FIAT Palio 1.6 GTX. We had stayed in the camel safari camp tent at night and believe me it was chill to the inner bone. Remember in desert it is extreme Hot as well as Cold. I still will suggest all my friends to do the Rajasthan Trip. It is an amazing State which is a travellers delight, trust me. I am sure you will enjoy a drive in your FIAT Grande Punto into Rajasthan.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Sunil, I have added few more pictures in this blog under Karni Mata RAT Temple please check them out too & enjoy & I have added my other hobby (art work) apart from driving.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear MN, Thanks for reply. The rats at the temple are really amazing, especially the one in which the man is feeding them milk and they simply gathered around so orderly like as if they have attended a NCC camp. I came to know about this temple in MFW thread where Raviji provided some information while you were in trip. The Zari art work is really inspiring. I think early Gokak days might have inspired you towards it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. dear MN

    reminds me of my Rajasthan travel days.... I have a doubt, you could have directly gone to beawar without going chittorgarh. the roads were nice and you could have saved about 1.5 hours.

    nice trip you had and I never would have done this much continuous driving. I have told my wife about your trip and she was surprised. may be we also plan a long trip like yours some time later

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Dhanraj, from Udaipur I went to Ajmer via Beawar and then on to Pushkar, Merta, Nagaur & Bikaner.

      The roads are terrible in this circuit too. Too much of heavy lorry traffic that carry all that marble blocks of stones in huge propertions, some of the stones from the quarry are placed in the open 40 feet lorry in such as way it will scare the hell out of you while you are overtaking them. These drivers also drive pretty fast too.

      I had earlier planned the Udaiput to Pindwara, Sirohi,Pali, Jodhpur, Bhakrod to Nagaur, but HVK Sir told me not to take that circuit when he came to know that I was going to do night drives throughout up North India. He wasnt so happy to hear about my night drives but he just cautioned me to be careful. Thank GOD we have made it back home safe. I am sure Visa will be thrilled if you take her to Rajasthan plan an extended Honeymoon Man!

      Delete
  6. HVK Sir's other concern was the earlier route I had planned would have been too lonely & hence he had suggested me to go via Ajmer, Pushkar, Merta & Nagaur.FYKI.

    ReplyDelete
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