Ladakh Trip: Day 3 (Udaipur->Jaipur)

Ride Summary: Distance 430 km Time: 8 hrs

I had my alarm set for 4 am and thanks to the Haywards 5000, today I did not wake up earlier than the alarm. Did the ritual of packing/loading and off I was around 5 am towards Jaipur. After leaving Chittorgarh, I had a choice whether to take the state highway or continue on the National Highway. I was kinda glad I took the SH9. No trucks. No cars. Just me on the road. Interestingly, the toll booth gels well with the Rajasthani culture.

I wonder what's with Rajasthan and cows. Ever since I have left, haven't seen so many cows road side. Especially in low light conditions, they looked dangerously close. Another thing peculiar about Rajasthan was very few cars. Only trucks and me of course :)

I stopped for breakfast at a petrol pump that seemed to have a decent restaurant. Only 2 young boys were running the show. They offered me this menu card for breakfast. I was like, seriously? Out of desperation, I ordered pakodas. The boy in the picture below, Kanha, came and said pakodas nahi milenge. I asked him what I could eat in that case. And he goes Parathas? Wonderful I said, leke aao. He got me an awesome paratha; freshly prepared, one could tell. Since I hadn't seen anyone else in the kitchen (which I regularly peek into to see what's going on), asked him who is making those parathas. And to my surprise, young Kanha, about 11 yrs old, gave me a demo of the 2 parathas that followed. He infact, is teaching another kid how to make them. That, to me, is Incredible India!

Moving on from Incredible India to the "It happens only in India" series, I saw this :) Jugaad is genetically programmed!


Adults from the nearby village, after seeing me ride, had a very puzzled look on their face. Kinda like they have seen some alien. In contrast, young boys have a glow; they are delighted to see a a biker in full gear riding a motorcycle. I wonder whether these boys will lose this charm and grow up to be the same puzzled looking adults. I hope not.

As I approached Ajmer, it was 10:30ish. It was already getting very hot and I decided to drop the Darga plan and head straight to Jaipur. The temperatures were in the lower 40s but the road felt close to 50. Even around 11:30, when I was only about an hour from Jaipur, I decided to stop for lunch. I wasn't hungry but it was too hot to ride. When I took my gloves off, I couldn't touch the bike. Opened the iphone and saw a message on it which said something like "Too hot, please cool down to use iPhone". I was keeping myself hydrated at all times but these conditions are far from ideal. I noticed that I wasn't going to the washroom at all yet drinking liters and liters of water. The heat was sucking all of it.

I reached Jaipur around 1 pm. Looked for the youth hostel that has opened up. European styled dorm-living for youngsters. It's a start-up from IIM-C graduates. I really wanted to give it a shot; hence checked in at Zostel. I found it to be a very cool place. A group of French students is in the same dorm as mine. A couple from Argentina just checked out. The staff here, Sapan and Anand are extremely friendly and were delighted to add a biker to the Zostel collection! I took a shower, ordered some food, had it delivered, finished my dinner (Yes, dinner at 5 pm!) and in parallel did the job I hate the most. Any guesses? ......................... Laundry !!! Yup, laundry is all done. Thanks to the Jaipur temperatures, drying was not an issue. I am pretty tired as I write these words and am gonna pass out soon. I have a 3 am alarm tomorrow to beat the heat :D Sharing a few pics of Zostel. M off!