Rajasthan – Tips and Tricks

When I decided to visit Rajasthan, I wasn’t very sure of the route I must take. I couldn’t find much information online as well. My friends’ wedding was in Jodhpur. Jaisalmer was to the west of Jodhpur and Jaipur to the east. Since Jaipur is a tourist destination, almost all direct flights are extremely costly. So, I took a flight to Ahmedabad since the total fare including return worked out to 6100 Rs in Kingfisher!

Only after reaching Ahmedabad, I realized there aren’t many buses to Jaisalmer The distance is about 500 to 600 kms. You need to rely on private travels. Only two or three ply, and they start only after 9 in the night. The bus is supposed to be a sleeper bus, with normal push back seats and berths just above them. There are curtains, but don’t expect any privacy. Every 30 minutes, someone will open the curtain to find if there is any vacant space. Hey I forgot to mention that there is no concept of seat number in these buses.

The bus plies via Salchor Barmer and then reaches Jaisalmer. It takes around 10 hours to reach the destination. And there is no concept of scheduled stops. Even if a cow turns towards the bus, the conductor will stop the bus and ask the cow if it wants to go to Bbarmer, Jaisalmer etc.
And when I got up in the morning, I was engulfed in smoke, which made me wonder if we were passing through some hills and if the smoke was of the clouds. But the stink reminded me, it was beedi smoke. There is nothing like no smoking within the bus. And worse, I couldn’t open the windows since it was very cold outside!

My suggestion would be to take a train to Jodhpur, and another train from there. Or better, take a flight to Delhi and take the Jaisalmer express. It’s a time consuming (Additional 7 or 8 hours) one, but worth it.

But at same time, roads in Rajasthan are really neat. But remember, it’s extremely dry and the routes aren’t that scenic. You get a feeling you are at the same place since the scenery doesn’t change much.

My travel arrangements in Jaisalmer were made by one Mr Manoj. His mobile no is +91 94142 69210. You can tell your budget, and based on that he will arrange things for you. I stayed for around 2.5 days in Jaisalmer and it worked out to some 3500 Rs(This included a night in the desert, dinner, camel ride and a vehicle at my disposal). So if there had been one more person it would have costed additional 400 or 500 Rs. That is all. And they treat you like a king.

Finally, I would like to talk about Jaipur. If I said, Jaipur was a disappointment it would be an understatement. I have never seen any city that’s as dirty as Jaipur. And it is chaotic. The entire city is like Ranganathan Street in T Nagar Chennai. You can travel by almost all modes of transport there. Train, bus, elephant, horse, auto rickshaw, taxi, cycle rickshaw. And food shouldn’t be a problem. Almost all type of cuisine available there. Add to it junk food eateries like McDonalds.

It’s called as Pink City since the market area buildings are made out of pink stone. It is not at all pretty. If at all you are traveling to Rajasthan don’t spend more than a day in Jaipur. Its not worth it. Half day you can visit the Amer fort, and remaining half you can utilize for shopping. It’s a shoppers paradise. And do buy stuff only from the government outlets, and ensure you get a guarantee card etc for the items you purchase. Don’t ever buy at roadside shops. And here is the phone number of an auto rickshaw guy in Jaipur. +91 98292 73940. His name is Sajid Khan. He will take you all around Jaipur for 300 to 350 Rs in a day. And he knows the shopping places really well. Bandini material is very famous there

I didn’t visit Udaipur, since I didn’t have much time. If visit, let me know how it was. To summarize, spend more time in places like Jaisalmer and Udaipur, and the barest minimum in Jaipur. Use it as a transit point, and of course for shopping. And yeah, the total trip cost me around 14K.

Will publish the pictures of Jaipur sometime in evening.