Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

Bikaner - Daal Kachoris and 360 Cenotaphs Days: 2, Total Km: 1000 Gurgaon - Till Kotpulti via NH8 - Right towards Udaipurwati on SH - Opening at Sikar - Sri Dungarpur - Bikaner via NH 11 [450km] Stay at Bikaner Bikaner - NH 11 till Ratangarh - right to Churu on NH 65 - SH to Jhunjhunu - Bagad - Chirawa - Rewari - Gurgaon --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November is the best time to travel around northern India. And we want to make up for the lost time this year. So this weekend we plan to do one trip to Rajasthan. Since most nearby parts are already done many times over, we decide to go further North and cover that one apex of the Rajasthan triangle that is not yet covered - Bikaner . We leave early on the Saturday, around 6:30am, since Bikaner is far and we do not know the condition of the roads. We pay the customary visit to the Manesar McDonald's for breakfast. By 8am w...

Day 3 – 3 Nov, 2009, Tuesday Fagu – Theog – Chhaila – Khara Pathar – Jubbal – Hatkodi – Rohru – Back to Fagu [250km] I get up early, around 6am. It is a bright and sunny morning. Since we are the only guests staying at the resort, there is no tea or breakfast. I coax the attendant to get me some toast and butter, and chai. The verandah is sparkling with golden sunlight. And so is the Giri valley. We plan to make Fagu the base and move about. A wise decision in hindsight, since there are no livable places in Jubbal area. Around 8:30am, we leave the resort and move towards Theog (10km). At Theog, one road goes towards Narkanda, and the other goes towards Chhaila, which is what we take. The road is downhill and filled with landslides that are recently cleared. The going is a bit rough, and dusty. Chhaila is in the valley, near the river, about 25km from Theog. Once at Chhaila, you start seeing the river to the left of your side. The road is narrow and winding, but the best part ...

Delhi – Chandigarh – Chail – Kufri – Fagu – Jubbal – Hatkoti – Shimla – Return [1200km] Not very long ago, I got caught in a conversation about time-share holidays and how great they are, and how we can plan our holidays and get the best out of the vacation. The gentleman running the time-share business kept insisting that I try out their lovely packages, and I kept smiling, and nodding, and refusing in the most non-offensive manner. The task was especially difficult, since the time-share company I am referring to is also a client for my consulting assignments. There is no way possible that I can explain and convince these people that for me, time-share is not possible in this life. For that, one needs to plan the vacation. And for me, that is exactly what I get away from when I vacation – planning. Consider today’s scenario. I and my wife decide on a forced vacation for ourselves, since we believe it is a well-deserved one, what with her not traveling and me traveling only for ...

Route: Gurgaon - Jaipur - Tonk - Devali - Hindoli - Bundi - Back Now this is what you should do: find yourself an extended weekend, where the skies are cloudy and north wind blowing across the plains. Then get your vehicle out on the Gurgaon - Jaipur highway and head towards Bundi - that tiny exotic teardrop (lit; Bundi means drop) of Joy, held in the palms of the mountains. Not camels, not folk songs, not the traditional and oh-so-boring Rajasthan; but a completely new and fresh look at the magnificent state of India - the Hadoti region that is Bundi - and a haven for the bag-packing and adventurous tourist. DAY 1: You will go through the usual Jaipur highway, crossing Behror and Kotputli, straight towards Jaipur. Some 20km before Jaipur, you will see the bypass that leads to Ajmer. Do not take it. Just keep going towards the city of palaces. You will reach a junction (about 3 hours from your starting point in Gurgaon), where to your right is the old road to Ajmer, and to your left i...

Spice Court Restaurant, Jaipur (This is a review of the Spice Court restaurant in Jaipur - which has appeared on TripAdvisor.com ) I remember the last time this happened to me was in year 2002, when I first tasted the mutton seekh kebabs at Karims in the old Delhi near Jama Masjid. Today, as I lick the last bits of Kulfi at Spice Court in Jaipur, I think I am in love again. Hua yun ki we were returning from a short trip to Bundi - near Kota. We had a lovely trip - about which I will write shortly - but food-wise the experience remained very ordinary. So we decided to hit Jaipur before 3pm, and try out one of their famous restaurants - maybe Copper Chimney or Niro's or Spice Court - about which we had only read - never been. So we drove and reached Jaipur in time. After some search and wrong turns and then right turns, we finally found Hari Bhawan Palace in Civil Lines - where you have the Spice Court. Spice court has the old British architecture, with large windows and walls painte...

The times have remained crazy ... So here is one more from the attic --- This was published in year 2006 on the 60kph (group I ride with) website: Earlier Published as : "Sun and Sand - Murud Alibagh With 60kph" This is the story of my trip to Murud and Alibag with 8 others in year 2006. The narrative may not have captured everything of the trip. Just like that lot of pictures that the camera's lenses cannot capture, for the mind's eye sees more than it can narrate. Also, the story barely tells you what a terribly good time we had. But it is more or less in totality the impressions of my bike ride. It is about the ride where my bike clocked 10,000km. It is also about the ride which made me change my clutch plate the third time ... It is now more than two weeks that I got my 500cc bike from Noida to Mumbai. I am dying to take her out on a long ride. One ride for half a day to Lonavala is exciting and fun, but not enough. So when Gaurav calls me on a Friday and says th...

The times are crazy. I have had hardly any time to clean the bike, forget about riding it. I feel guilty and depressed, and claustrophobic. The one outlet that I have - writing these blog posts - also takes some time to bake the posts, make them brown to perfection. So I decided to take the easy road - recycle and reuse. Here is one I found in my attic ... one of the earlier published posts (appeared on RE website earlier under Imran's name):. Happy Holi! ... Hope you will enjoy this as much as the recent ones: Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad - Chail Kufri Shimla Here's to the third absolutely crazy madcap bike ride of the three Nomads. This time, the distance is the greatest ever. The terrain we scaled is equally great in beauty and the fun, unimaginable... There's nothing like unplanned trips. Correction, there's nothing like trips planned for one thing and which materialize into something totally different. This is about a trip planned to Mussoorie, which went right ou...