Saturday, August 8, 2009

Day 150 - Aug 5 - Delhi to Ajmer

Aug05 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

463 KMs Trip meter 20114 KMs

Supposed to me on the move by 5 am to avoid the days raising heat. But as usual things get late. Its a mini ride from Hitanshu's place to India gate. Got a nice ride on the NH to the heart of Delhi. Early morning free roads make you appreciate the infrastructure. The high way had entry and exits numbered!! Din know this things were there in India! Even in this age of Internet, many things one would come to know only by getting to the place. With simple instructions to find my way make it to the Dandi march statues i guess. Get a call from Prem as he is already reached. Find my way to the awesome structure India gate to meet Prem. Then it was like a photo session managed to pose in front of India gate. Also rode to Presidents house and near Parliament house. The imposing structures were mind blowing. Is this was the first time i visited them. Bid farewell to Prem and started towards Hitanshu's house. Now it was like 9 am and the roads are getting to their full capacity. Still the traffic keeps moving and i get back. Well what do you know Hitanshu even cooked me almost round parathas!

Freshened up and some chit chat and the laziness to stay away from heat and i started by 11.30 am. Not sure of the place i would stay for the day as Jodhpur would not be possible starting so late. So prolly Jaipur or Ajmer. An hour into the ride i start feeling sleepy. Real sleepy. Looks like the last few days of disturbed sleep due to the heat gets to me. I was feeling so sleepy that i was afraid i would fall down! cant really stop in the middle of highway too. Just on the look out for a comfy restaurant to catch some power nap. Saw board of some restaurant some 40 kms ahead and thought would settle in there for some time. Struggle quite a bit to keep myself awake and finally counting kms, shouting and trying to sings something to keep my eyes open make it to the AC restaurant. Some fluids and and power nap did really help and spent like an hour there.

Got back on to the road feeling refreshed and pretty uneventful ride till Jaipur by 4pm. Ajmer still more than a 100 kms away. Just wanted to a quick spin into the city. Took off the highway and rode into the town. The jaipur fort was first up. Getting in would take couple of hours i guess. SO just rode out till i could get a few good pix from outside. Rode further till the jaipur Gate and see that the real city is few more kms aways. Since i am not stopping at jaipur thought i bettor get back to the highway. Well every city in rajasthan has rich heritage and lot of places to see but i had thought of exploring only Jodhpur. Get back to what i thought was the highway, seems like i have missed the by pass. Get into the city and traffic and takes like 45 mins to get back to the highway. Any way i caught lil glimpse of the Jaipur city. Some full throttle ride and thought would make it to Ajmer in good time. Even stopped at CCD. Kinda felt at home as CCD outside the town is my favorite coffee spot on weekends. But soon the road to Ajmer branches off before krishna nagar and its two laned road filled with truck traffic. Things get slow and roll into the town only by like 8 pm. Hitanshu had mailed me couple of hotel names. One of me the Heritage hotel had parking. Kinda expensive for the small room. It was a pleasant stay there in a old haveli converted to hotel now managed by the residents themselves. The weather got pleasant in the evening with cool breeze. Kinda worried of rajasthan thinking of Delhi heat. But here the peak summer is gone and with few rains here and there it nice. Even had dinner in open air. Tried some net update and crashed for the day. Plan was to get up early and make it to Jodhpur soon.

Today completed 150 days and 20000 kms into the trip.

Highways around Delhi has Entry and Exits!!


Awesome roads....


Toll Plaza to enter Delhi...


Way to India gate...


Beautiful in morning low traffic...


Near the march statues...


Me and the bike there...


Finally bike at the India gate...


The majestic India gate...





The flags of the three branches of Indian Military...


Road to the President's house...


India gate from the other side...


Prem working on taking my poser pix...


Fantastic view from up here...


Prem and his ford there...


Never been here before...


Raising the flag...


Pigeons near the Parliament house...


The Parliament house...


My bike there...


One last look at the imposing gate before i ride out of there...


The fast paced roads towards Gudgaon...


Huge buildings...


Just before leaving Hitanshu's place...


The four laned roads not enough for this traffic...


Heading that way...


Staring at a closed hotel wishing it were open with cool comforts...


Full throttle is not enough...


You find camel on expressways in Rajasthan..


Pretty restaurants and shopping centers on the highway...


Getting there...


There were one of these every two kms!!


Beautiful roads approaching Jaipur...


The Jaipur fort...


Strange cow...


Life around the fort...


The Jaipur fort palace i guess...





The Jaipur gate..


City far ahead...





Bike from kinda inside the fort...


Fort walls on the nearby mountains...








Fantastic monument...


Pretty garden inside... Very well maintained...





Elephant spotted...


He is instructing the ele to lift its trunk..


Was late by 2 kms to notice that the bike has done 30k KMs...


Now this is exactly 20k KMs into this trip...


Road towars Ajmer...


One huge lizard!!


Kannada channel on TV!!


Guess this place...


Feel at home with these ;)


Where else but CCD. The CCD chain expanding into neighboring states from Karnataka...


Sanjay from Mangalore, who is quite happy to be posted and living on the Jaipur Ajmer highway since an year! He says its free of pollution so he's happy...


Ride towards Ajmer...


Looks like city of marbles, lot marble depos entering Ajmer..



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