Why do we travel? I can think of a few reasons: to catch a glimpse of life beyond the familiarity of our homes, to taste new flavors, to experience landscapes and weather patterns different from our own, to witness natural wonders and man-made marvels, to meet interesting people, and to hear new words.
Khamma Ghani is the phrase we decided to hear this time around.
The first step in making a travel plan is, of course, choosing the destination. Everything else - the timing, the things to pack, the number of leave days needed, and any legal processes - depends on where we intend to go.
Thanks to the constant exposure to travel vloggers, we have a bucket list of destinations we hope to explore someday. The list gets updated every now and then, with current entries ranging from international destinations like Vietnam, Japan, and Italy to domestic ones like Meghalaya and Ladakh.
Rajasthan was never at the top of our list. True, it is one of the most heavily promoted destinations on India's tourism map. The state boasts a rich, royal heritage, numerous forts and palaces, and an arid landscape that isn’t found everywhere. Yet, our preferences lay elsewhere, so we never seriously considered it. And yet, Rajasthan is where we spent the last eight or nine days. Why?
During my time working in Delhi, I befriended colleagues - most of whom were from northern India. In fact, our onboarding-day friend group included two from Himachal Pradesh, one from Rajasthan, one from Bengal, one from Telangana, and two Keralites. After I quit my bank job and returned to Kochi, contact with the gang naturally dwindled, except for occasional greetings.
So it was a pleasant surprise when Laxmi, my Rajasthani friend, pinged me to invite us to her wedding in Rajasthan. This wasn’t just a polite invitation; she followed up, asking if we had booked our tickets and even sending pictures of mustard fields from her village to entice us to make the trip.
The decision was more complicated than I had anticipated. On one hand, we had a rare opportunity to experience a North Indian wedding in a rural Rajasthani village. On the other hand, this trip would delay the destinations on our list by months, perhaps even a year. After much deliberation, we decided not to miss out on the experience.
Once the decision was made, the research began. Apart from the actual travel, researching a destination and crafting the perfect itinerary is one of the most exciting aspects of travel for me. Since the wedding was in a village near Jaipur, our travel math suggested a week-long tour to cover some of Rajasthan’s top attractions. A high-level itinerary was set:
Arrive in Udaipur. Spend a couple of days there.
Take an overnight bus to Jaisalmer. Spend a couple of days there.
Take another overnight bus to Jaipur. Spend a couple of days there.
Travel to the village for the wedding.
Spend one last night in Jaipur before heading home.
Eight nights and nine days. Five leave days. We usually align our travels with holidays to minimize leave days, but there was no way around it this time.
Fast forward to the travel days.
Exactly one week before the trip, Nithya fell sick. It started with a fever and escalated into a severe throat infection. This wasn’t the kind of illness that could be cured with ginger lemon tea, paracetamol, and saline gargles. We made two hospital visits that week, hoping for a magic cure. By the end of the week, she was a bit better but far from her usual self.
Day 1: Kochi to Udaipur
Flights from Kochi to Udaipur were limited, so we booked an early morning flight that would reach by 11 AM. The flight departed at 5 AM, meaning we had to be at the airport by 3:30 AM. It takes about forty minutes to reach the airport, which means waking up at the ungodly hour of 2 AM. Long story short, we barely slept.
Our flight had a layover in Bengaluru, where Nithya led us to a Miniso outlet to buy neck pillows for the longer leg of the journey. She slept better than I did. I relied on my Kindle, immersing myself in Parambil from The Covenant of Water.
As the flight began its descent, the shifting geography was fascinating. From the lush greenery of Kerala, Rajasthan revealed vast stretches of arid land, interspersed with farms and windmills.
The flight landed in Udaipur on time. We booked an Uber and stepped out of the airport, trying to locate the pickup point. A man in an Uber t-shirt approached and guided us—even before we asked. A few minutes later, our cab arrived. The driver greeted us warmly, helped with our bags, and took off toward the old city. The first interactions we had in Udaipur were heartwarming. Throughout our stay, we found most locals to be polite, friendly, and calm—traits we don’t always experience elsewhere.
Udaipur’s old city is one of its most charming areas, home to attractions like the City Palace, Lake Pichola, numerous ghats, and narrow alleys filled with handicraft shops, jewelry stores, and everything else a wandering tourist’s soul might crave. We stayed at The Barefoot Boutique, a charming property in an ancient building with beautifully designed interiors. The host, Avinash, was another chill and pleasant person we met in Udaipur.
The one thing we missed in Udaipur was Nithya’s health. She couldn’t explore as much as we had hoped. We ventured out for some street shopping and a rooftop dinner overlooking the lake, but the cold winds sent her back to bed.
Day 2: My Solo Exploration of Udaipur
By morning, it was clear that Nithya needed to rest if we wanted to continue the trip as planned. So, I set out to explore Udaipur on my own.
First stop: The City Palace, a five-minute walk from our hotel. The ₹400 entry fee made me hesitate, but I trusted Google reviews that called it a must-visit. They weren’t wrong.
The Udaipur City Palace is an architectural marvel. Sprawling across acres and overlooking Lake Pichola, this former royal residence hides countless tales in its narrow corridors. I joined the slow-moving crowd, stopping at royal armory collections and intricately designed window sills. We passed through chamber after chamber, reading notes on carefully preserved artifacts, trying to imagine the bygone era.
After a couple of hours, my tour ended, and I debated trying the palace food court when Nithya called, asking me to bring lunch. We shared an elaborate Rajasthani thali back at our stay.
She looked slightly better but was still far from full recovery. After a short rest, I set off for my next stop—Saheliyon Ki Bari.
The maps showed it was three kilometers away, and I foolishly decided to walk. The route took me through less scenic parts of the city, making me regret my choice. When I finally reached the garden, I found it to be just that—a simple garden. No wow factor awaited me at the end of my effort. Exhausted, I rested under a palm tree before catching an auto back.
By evening, Nithya decided to step out for a bit. We also needed to buy her medicine. But the cold air drained her energy, and she returned to bed worse than before. Our overnight bus to Jaisalmer was at 10 PM. At 8 PM, she was still in bed, hoping to feel better. I got us hot Maggi from a nearby stall.
We packed, hailed an auto to the pickup point, and braved the cold night. The bus was slightly delayed. Nithya wrapped herself in layers, trying to keep the cold at bay. Finally, the bus arrived. We loaded our luggage and climbed into our assigned bunkers, hoping for some sleep.
Adieu, Udaipur. You will remain in our hearts.
Day 3 - Deserted desert
The landscape had drastically changed by the time we woke up and pulled the window curtains of our sleeper bus aside. Vast patches of barren, arid land—interspersed with shrubs and windmills—welcomed us. This was the sight we had seen as our flight flew over the largest state of India.
Jaisalmer is in the eastern parts of Rajasthan, where the famous Thar Desert lay in wait for us. Therefore, it is safe to say that a visit to Jaisalmer is not complete without visiting the sand dunes and, if time permits, spending at least a night in the makeshift camps. We had gotten the contact of a person who arranges desert tours from our friends, who had vouched for their services.
As the bus neared Jaisalmer town, we were approached by agents trying to woo tourists into choosing the institutions they preferred. When we informed them that we had already made our bookings, they suggested we cancel them and go with them instead. From the calm, laid-back people of Udaipur, we now experienced the more pushy nature of tourist agents—something we had encountered a lot more in Kashmir.
We ignored the agents and alighted from the bus. An auto took us to the main entrance of Jaisalmer Fort. Known as Sonar Quila (Golden Fort) for the way it shines in the evening sun, it is truly a sight to behold. The only fort in Rajasthan where people still reside, it felt as if we had been transported to a different timeline altogether.
Exhausted from the overnight bus ride, and with Nithya’s health not at its best, we dragged our baggage into the stay we had booked—right inside the fort. The thought of living inside a historic fort was an added attraction when booking the property. However, the excitement was short-lived once we arrived. From the tiny but cozy stay we had in Udaipur, this one seemed shoddy and in need of some upkeep. Living in an ancient fort comes with its own caveats, I suppose—although the glowing reviews for the property had painted a different picture in my mind. Most of the stays in Jaisalmer are quite pocket-friendly, though.
After breakfast and a shower, we contacted our desert tour guide, who arranged a day tour for us before we headed to the Sam Sand Dunes camps.
Stop 1 - Gadisar Lake. Okay, so noon is probably not the best time to visit a lake. We wrapped up the visit in ten minutes or so, snapping a few pics.
Stop 2 - Patwon Ki Haveli. A heritage museum with architecture and detailing that would leave you spellbound.
We covered the major highlights of Jaisalmer by forenoon and set off for the desert after lunch. From the town, it’s about a forty-five-minute drive to the desert camps—a long road with endless stretches of nothingness all around. Saddam Bhai, who drove the Bolero, asked us to play some Malayalam songs on our phone. Excited as we were for our first desert experience, we blasted the songs from Avesham.
The season is a major deciding factor when planning a trip to Rajasthan, especially in the desert. It gets unbelievably hot in the summer months—so much so that tourism is at a bare minimum, and they start bringing the tents down by March. They go back up at the onset of winter, probably in October.
We were traveling in mid-February and were likely among the last batch of tourists for the season. When we arrived at the camp, we realized we were the only guests that night in a camp that had over a dozen tents. The hosts welcomed us warmly, offering us a refreshing drink and showing us our tent stay. The tent was far more comfortable than our stay inside the fort.
We rested for a bit until a jeep arrived in the evening to take us on the desert safari. We hopped onto the uncovered convertible and set off. As the jeep dashed through the sand dunes, the driver suggested we stand up for a better experience. We bounced and shook as the vehicle twisted and turned, holding onto the rails for much-needed support.
The jeep drifted a couple of times before reaching a sunset viewpoint, where we saw campers from other sites as well. You could take a camel ride or an ATV ride, but we decided against those and simply sat on the sand, watching the fireball go down one more time.
Dinner was ready shortly after we returned from the safari. They prepared a campfire just for the two of us, which provided great comfort in the daunting desert cold. We were also treated to a traditional Rajasthani cultural show featuring songs and dance performances. The sparse number of guests did take away some of the vibrancy of the show, though.
After an eventful day, we finally withdrew to the comforts of our tent, wrapping ourselves in layers of blankets—making a burrito out of ourselves, as she likes to say.
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