If you ever come across someone as excited about road trips as I am, I would give up traveling. Just kidding, I am just trying to give you an estimate of how much I love road trips. So, when my old college buddies called me up for a road trip to Jaipur, I was pretty darn excited. I think when I was called, I was staying in Delhi. I didn’t give it another round of introspection, I just agreed. Some of my friends were staying at Gurgaon at that moment and decided to rendezvous in Delhi. But I suggested that we should travel from Gurgaon instead. The travel distance would be shorter, and we would reach there within four and a half hours.
All I had to do was book a comfortable tempo traveler in Gurgaon that would take us to Jaipur. Once I reached Gurgaon from Delhi, which took me one and a half hours, my soul was prepared to grind the hours and make the most out of this road trip. I suggested that we take the NH8 since it was the shortest route to Jaipur from Gurgaon. The road has four lanes, and there will be minimum deviations, unlike NH24, which is unreliable.
From NH8 to the Pink City
We left for Jaipur at around 9:30 in the morning. Our tempo was quite spacious as opposed to a taxi. One of my friends did suggest booking a cab from Delhi to Jaipur, but I wanted to be on the road with my pals. The roads leading to Jaipur via NH8 is pretty smooth. The tempo traveler had little turbulence, and we blasted music as we used to in our college days. However, I did ask the driver to not exceed 80km/h, as I didn’t want things to be an overkill. I, for once, was surprised by how responsible I have become over the years.
Reaching Kotputli and realizing how irritable my friends can get
The drive was undeniably smooth, but what’s a road trip without any hiccups. On reaching Kotputli, I saw that there were two diversions, and one side was closed. The traffic on one lane felt like a speed breaker for everyone. Even though my friends are easily irritable, I started talking about our old college times. It blissfully distracted them till we made our first stop at Shahpura.
But distracting conversations are only productive when a car full of grown men aren’t famished. So, right after Kotputli, we decided to stop at Shahpura. I was looking for a place to smoke and ended up finding a restaurant that offered an open space. I suggested that we eat something light and be on our way since some of my friends tend to experience an irritable stomach. And I didn’t want to take the bargain. By now, it was established that I was a control freak, but I just wanted everyone to reach Jaipur safely.
Reaching Jaipur and Thankfully, without any Disasters
I could realize that we are nearing the city, and I was aggressively eager to set foot on the ground after four and a half hours. One of my friends had already set up a hotel, and we checked in quickly. I was quite surprised to see the small bar that the place had. I don’t exactly remember the name of that hotel, but it was somewhere near Johari Bazar. After changing into our new outfits, we set out of the hotel by 2:30 pm.
A quick tour in the Pink City
We headed towards the City Palace since it closes entry by 4:30 pm. The entry fee was uncanny, but we had to pay 35 INR each plus 50 INR for mobile cam. After the city palace, we headed towards the infamous Jantar Mantar. After Jantar Mantar, I could see all of my friends trying super hard to extend themselves in spite of being exhausted. So, we dropped all the plans and ended up on a small food venture. We shopped too, and it was quite an exhilarating experience to shop with these men-children.
We had to return the next day
After returning to our hotel and spending some time at the bar, we all went back to our rooms. Someone said, “was it worth all the rush? You can’t practically cover Jaipur in a day,” I said,” At our age, living in the moment is the best deal we can get. Even if it was a day worth of rush, I would take that over week-long exhaustion”.
