Leaving Club Mahindra Ahmedabad
6.13 am – I start packing the last few items… Amma’s YouTube is not working so I had to make that work otherwise she will give me grief :):). She has to watch Tirupati Balaji and listen to Shlokas.
Dawn is just breaking … a beautiful view of the golf course outside. I wish we can wake up to this kind of a view everyday !! The air is clean, non-polluted. You can hear the peacocks calling out and the lotuses bloom as soon as the Sun appears. Today both the Sun and the nearly full Moon can be seen ….
I decided not to fill the hot water dispenser today as its a short drive to Udaipur.
Bittersweet moment – a trip finishing and prep for the next trip starting 😊. Krishnan and I are nomads at heart and happy to live off suitcases and in a car.
We left from Club Mahindra at 9.35 am. Said good bye to the young man called Pravindu who cleaned our room every single day. Took leave of Narsee Bhai who brought our luggage to the room and helped us to reload the car yesterday and today. It took us a couple of trips to load the car today because water and other items had to go in their respective places.
Gandhinagar – administrative Capital of Gujarat
We drove on NH47 through Bavla, Changodar, Ahmedabad, Prantij and Himmatnagar before taking the NH 147 to Gandhinagar. Beautiful roads and Gandhinagar is so green !! Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar showcase Modiji’s work as the CM of Gujarat. We crossed the Sabarmati river which is clean. Missed visiting the Sabarmati riverfront in this trip.
After you cross Gandhinagar, you get to NH 48 and from this point onwards it was the old route that we took when going from Udaipur to Ahmedabad.
12.58 pm – Near Shamlaji
We stopped for lunch at Shamaliya food court near Shamlaji. We ate at the Rajbhog restaurant. Krishnan and I ate Thepla and then rotis with Sev Tamatar, a Kathiawari speciality. I also ate the Vagherala rotolo which is basically Kothu Paratha but with Bajra Roti, besides the Bajra Rotolo (I grew up eating this). Amma ate her favourite dosa which was quite tasty.
Please do stop at Shamaliya Food court if you find yourself on this road. The food at the Rajbhog restaurant is outstanding. They just don’t tell you about all the goodies that they can serve.
Note – don’t enter the toilets. They are dirty and it seems there is no maintenance. 🙁
After crossing Gandhinagar the roads are again in a bad shape NH 48. Lots of diversions. Several flyovers are being built.
3.05 pm – Entered Udaipur. We thought we will fuel up the car before reaching the hotel but every single petrol pump was closed. Something seems to be wrong…
3.40 pm – we entered our room on the 7th floor in Radisson. Nice room. There is no basement parking for Radisson Udaipur. We just have to park on the street or pay and park at the mall next door. Krishnan spoke to the guys at the gate and we managed to park in a corner inside the gate, thankfully.
Getting the room set according to our requirements took about half hour. The electric kettle in the room had to be changed twice as it was not clean. Finally I made some tea. We also realised that there was strike going on by the Petrol Pump Union against the increased VAT in Rajasthan. Apparently they plan to go on an indefinite strike from tomorrow. We decided to try our luck after 8 pm and get the car fuelled up.
4.52 pm Avinash Sable won the gold in men’s 3000m steeplechase. We watched it live.
On that happy note, we slept for a couple of hours.
A road trip always has some drama … this time it was the Petrol Pump union strike.
8.53 pm – we left our hotel and reached Udai Petrol pump, the same Bharat Petroleum pump that we had stopped at when we left for Ahmedabad on Sept 10th. They were open !!
9.01 petrol filled.
9.06 Back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we plan to fill petrol on the highway… hope the strike doesn’t extend to the highways as the trucks need fuel besides travellers like us.
#BharatBhraman #LiveToTravel