I would not call the first two drives in our Delhi-Mandvi trip unexplored — the first being Delhi to Ajmer. It was after months of planning that we finally embarked on the journey. We were up at 4 am, to be honest no one slept, and set off two hours later while it was still dark.
I didn’t realise when I dozed off. At 8 am, we stopped for coffee at a Cafe Coffee Day outlet along the highway. Luckily it was not foggy and we were reached Ajmer in time for lunch.
After a lunch of hot chapattis and dal, we slept and woke up when the sun was setting. Sadly, we it was too late to visit the Pushkar mela. Instead, we chose to drive through the town, where somewhere along the streets we bought hot kachoris. Since I don’t enjoy kachoris, I shall just tell you that my family enjoyed it a lot. Later, we returned to our RTDC accommodation and decided to call it a night (we are sleepyheads).
The next day, the first day of 2015, wasn’t as eventful. We had to get to Ahmedabad, which meant a daunting 525 kilometres. It was no joke! This time karma wasn’t as kind and we had to encounter a fog cover and light rains. Not a great combination, I must say.
We had lunch around 4 pm, after officially entering Gujarat, and called it a day by around 10 pm. The next day we took a break, so to say, but we had a line-up ready. At 9 am, we knew we had to visit a baoli, a vintage car museum and also the famous Law Garden. We left for the baoli at 1030 am.
In Ahmedabad, we realised how important it is to keep asking locals for directions and not rely on technology alone. There were two ways to get to the baoli. One went through a village and could barely be called a road, while the other was the route more popular with tourists. We decided on the former, which was a mistake in hindsight. Our poor black Honda was almost crying for mercy by the time we reached the site.
It was here that we relished a snack called Dabeli, before heading to the vintage car museum that houses about 150 cars. All of them mentioned the country, year of make and the name of the owner on a placard. After feasting our eyes on the beautiful cars, it was time to pay attention to our growling stomachs. We then returned to the hotel and had a club sandwich each.
Around 8 pm we went to the Law Garden, a market that is set around a roundabout and is famous for the local handicrafts and goods. Each of the four roads are dedicated to a purpose —one for food, one for clothes, one for jewellery and another for footwear. After spending half an hour in the clothes lane, we attacked the food lane.
The next day was when we saw ‘unexplored India’. We were supposed to reach Hodka village, which is close to the Indo-Pak border, in the Kutch district. We reached around 4 pm and slept like logs.
Later in the evening, we set out into the village, which the villagers say has three names —Hodka, Hodku and Hodki. The following day we entered the Rann of Kutch. We encountered no hassles along the way, except that we required a permit.
Now, the place where permits are issued had just one person on duty who could only speak Gujarati. Well, we got it after all. In the Great Rann, we tasted the ‘soil’ out of curiosity. It stung, it was salt after all. Another thing we observed was that if you tried to dig into the salt, you would see water seeping out.
At the resort, the locals told us that the three things we should there are visiting the Rann, India bridge (which was a place that became significant after the Indo-Pak war) and Kala Dungar (the highest point in Kutch). We didn’t have enough time for all three, but we did make it to Kala Dungar.
The final destination on our itinerary was Mandvi, which is the southernmost point of Kutch. The resort we were booked in had 10 tents, no one of which had any latches interestingly. Also, the bathroom had no doors, just flaps that acted as partitions. The two days that we stayed over, we would wake up around 8 am and go for a walk along the beach, which was barely a few metres away. Breakfast would follow, after which we would get into our swimming costumes and laze around on the beach. After lunch, we would get a shut eye and then have dinner. It is safe to say we were up to no good.
On the journey back to Delhi, we were supposed to halt at two places. One was Chitrasangi (on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border) and the other one was good old Ajmer. Both days we covered approximately 400 kilometres each.
At Chitrasani, we halted at the Balaram Palace resort, which was originally the residence of a king. Although it is a place where people come to meditate, I didn’t quite believe it. The place had speakers all around with Bollywood music straining through them. Second, a train track was quite close.
Everyone was quiet when we left for Ajmer. It was the end of the holiday, time to get back to the grind. But I am glad as this was another drive off our bucket list.
We now have a drive cooking along the Southern coast of the country. Hope it materialises soon.