Adventures of Venom - 3!!!

Day 3: 14th November 2007
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Two days of biking and the enthusiasm is at its peak, but our bodies are not. Given that we went to sleep very late the night before, we have an excuse to start the day late.

We wake up at 800 AM, and laze around for a while. Finally we are ready to leave at 930 AM. A good Idli Dosa breakfast is filling. And it’s lovely to have a sambhar which does not taste ‘sweet’. Now that we are out of Maharashtra and Gujarat, the food is no longer sweet and that feels nice.

The ride is good and boring – nothing much is happening. And then suddenly we see something!!! By the time we realize what it is, we have already crossed it. But we turn and go back to have a good look at it. And we have a good laugh as well!!!
“Talk about competition” – this one is an ad painted on a huge rock, and says “Reliance se sasta Diesel”. If only Reliance was to ever see this! LOL! While I am trying to climb up, I see an ugly looking red and green huge chameleon, waiting to pounce on me, obviously hating that I am trespassing in its territory! I am shit scared but also want to act brave!!! Well the snap comes out really funny!

The next stop is Jodhpur which is still a good 250 Kms away. I insist on purchasing some singharas. For those who don’t know what it is – it is a triangular thorny fruit (or is it a vegetable, not sure) which is peeled and the sweet pulp is eaten. NO - It’s not as bad as it sounds here, it’s actually nice. So there I am – peeling and eating singharas on the pillion seat. Also trying to put some in VS’s mouth – sometimes missing the mouth and getting the nose!! Some way down the road, we get stopped by the police (I had been thinking since long – we look like terrorists, how come we haven’t been stopped as yet). Didn’t I tell you I have a black tongue?

So back to the police story – the policemen want us to show them all the bike papers. They seem disappointed at not finding anything suspicious. Then they want us to tell them all about the 2 of us and where we are off to. They are more disappointed. And then they finally come to the point – “Chalo Diwali karte jaao” Simply translated, that would mean they want money. This annoyed me and I asked them “Hum acche bhale jaa rahe the, hume roka kyu?” So one of them grins and says, “Namaste karne ke liye”. Translated again, that would mean, ‘we stopped you for money’. VS has no intentions of dragging this issue, and he promptly pays them and we walk towards the bike. I hear one of them calling, “kya kha rahe hian madam?” Translated to - we want to eat it too. So gave my packet of singharas to them and we rode off (sob sob)

Today is the day of detours – so we take a deviation – don’t know where, but follow the signs to a Jain temple. It’s worth the extra 60 kms. The temple, like all other Jain temples, is pure marble and is almost 900 years old. It’s the “parshwanth temple”. The pujari doesn’t seem to like the way I am dressed and makes a face, but he doesn’t have a choice. The temple is quiet and serene, and a Jain family (a very large one I must say) is performing some sort of rituals. We are clearly unwelcome and so we take leave after spending good 20 minutes over there.

We reach Jodhpur at around 400 PM. The trip meter reads 1110. We are pleased with ourselves.

Our 1st destination is the Mehrangarh fort. The entrance is grand and standing at the gate, I am thinking about how cool it would be to be living in this, in those days. Shit! Why wasn’t I born a princess!!! VS parks the bike and we can't find a place to keep the bags. So VS has to carry it in his shoulders. He promptly decides that he wants to take the lift to the top (the fort is very well managed. The tour starts from the top and ends at the ground floor. You have an option of climbing to the top or taking the lift – the top is 12 floors high, though the fort only has 4 floors!!). We finally manage to get a place to keep our bags, now its better!

Each room in the fort has its own story and the history is fascinating. My “wow, imagine” is driving VS nuts.The fort took us a good 2 hours to complete. And it was beautiful. I have no words to describe it here. The glass rooms are out of this world. They apparently were the bedroom! Wow man, imagine waking up in the morning to such a beautiful room! There I go again!
There is the dining room, the children’s room, the kitchen, the meeting room, the entertainment room, the guest room and what have you. I almost had a debate with VS on whether I would marry him if I were a princess… maybe if he agreed to come and live with me in the palace. He promptly refused. And that was the end of the discussion.

It is now that we realize that all the forts / museums close at 500 PM. It’s a miracle that we were allowed till 600 inside Mehrangarh. We have loads of places to see and no time at hand. We compromise on just visiting the places – the thought of being a part of it is enough. We are just short of running towards our bikes, but then it’s of no use – it’s already 615 PM.

It’s now that we notice that some a%&^hole has reset our trip meter to zero. Can you believe that!!!! We are pissed, we are upset, but there’s nothing we can do. So we move on.

We visit the “Jaswant thada” which is just outside the ‘Mehrangarh’ fort. This used to be the Royal crematorium – it still is. We tried to click a picture of the actual monument, but bad light and no access didn't do any good! We had to come back without one. Next we tried to visit the "Umedh Bhavan Palace". We were not even allowed entrance, leave aside getting any snaps. The watchman (or should I say the royal guard), shooed us away. . We then tried the “Mahamandir” – which as the name suggests, is a HUGE temple. It has now been converted to a school (a good thing to do, but has taken away the historical value of the monument)

We now started worrying about the night halt. It was only 800 PM and it didn’t make sense for us to stay back in Jodhpur. We should proceed towards Ajmer. But Ajmer is another 250 Kms from Jodhpur and there is no way we can make it all the way. We decide to take a night halt at Byawar. It’s a small town almost 70 Kms before Ajmer and is a decent place to stay. We reach Byawar at around 1200 mid-night. Dead tired and sleepy - looking around for a hotel. We tried Raj Darbar, but no rooms available. Then we tried Vinod, still no luck. Damn the wedding season!!! Raj Darbar and Vinod were the only 2 big hotels that we had done a ref check on – now what to do?? The receptionist at Vinod helped us out by telling us of another one – Hotel Vikrant. He said it is small, but a place where families live and you could stay with your wife. That’s all we need dude, give us the directions. Finally we managed to check in a room at around 1230 AM.

The only room available was a single room - means, we have to sleep on a single bed now… well well I don’t mind ;) The room was one of its kind, it had a basin in the room!!!!! Yes you heard it right. But we didn’t have any choice, nor the enthu to go and find some other place!
So we sleep like logs again.
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Day 3 ends. Trip meter reads 165 (remember that a%$^hole who set it to zero)….. 10 more days to go