Gift A Dream Ride Day 13 Log Approved.

Beautiful Roads!

Well written Rahul! The Nh-15 to jaisalmer is fabulous, but an even better and just as sparsely populated tarmac is the Sikar - Churu - Hisar road. 250 kms of pure bliss

Keep writing, you have carved yourself a niche

Rahul, when you spoke about the never ending stretches I thought there's nothing that beats Nevada. Now both you & JD have shown the Nevada of India. Thanks to you guys. I wish strongly that I do this sometimes in my life time.

Rahul: terrific blog and super glad that you took the plunge for this heavenly experience. i doubt you will be able to rip your Ninja for that long anywhere in the country. This reminded me of my trip back in 07 on my zma, attaching a pic. Roads in Rajasthan are simply superb.

One hell of a log and boy am i glad i was proven wrong
Isn't it the same stretch in which the bollywood crap "Road" film was shot?

Thank you tourmaster! My only regret is that I had only 17 days and not 17 weeks, otherwise I would have explored every hair's breadth of Rajasthan. But I have plans to return there, and will definitely take a different route. How about the Abohar-Sriganganagar-Bikaner road? I have heard that road is also fab.

Let me do Nevada sometime and do a comparo And you do join in for my next trip to this road, I am definitely coming back!

Yes, I was very, very glad indeed. Yes, that is the only road I will ever test the speed limit of my bike on. And thanks for sharing your picture!

Thanks Sheel. Well, I had pictures, my map and memory to help me write. Don't think I could have written the log purely out of memory, not even the next day after the trip

Yeah, seriously buddy, I've been thinking a lot of riding, but I may not do a GQ, as I don't have guts doing it, but definetly will be less than that & will be a one hell of it; infact I've been thinking of a title too - 34 yrs + 19 yrs = XX Kms. Basically my age + the bike's age = XX kms of ride ; Thanks for the invite bluevolt; Looking forward to meet you sometimes during 14/15 April & will PM you on that.

The best thing is to ship your bike over to Delhi by train and ride onwards from there. Maybe this December, what say?

Stay with me when you're here on April 14-15 if you can. I'm out of town April 19-24th but should be in town the week before.

Great write up! You are one lucky guy to experience these awesome roads!!!


OT: I hope you are feeling better now with your back...

I was lucky - and to do it on a Ninja 250, no less! I will definitely go back to that area again!

And thanks, my back is much better now. Did not take 10 minutes just to lie down yesterday! But still confined to my house.

See, so let that be a lesson well learnt! Next time you do pan-India, take out 17 weeks

On a more serious note, let me know when you are up north next time on. Apart from fabulous roads, I could give you a taste of trans-Himachal off roads, if you are fond of offroading that is

The Sri Ganganagar - Suratgarh - Bikaner road is also good, but what I have heard from the grapewine, it is pot-holed at places, and gets pretty crowded at times.

The Gift A Dream Ride : Day 14: Jaisalmer - Jaipur, 755 kms



Jaisalmer is probably one of my favorite places in India. This was my second visit, the first being many years ago, when I was much younger. We had stayed in RTDC Moomal back then too, and Jaisalmer was explored on the seat of a cycle rickshaw and rental bicycles. So somehow distances had seemed longer because of the slower speeds. But those distances shrunk on a Ninja 250R, and places which seemed far away many years ago were reached in a matter of minutes. The same held true for the Sam sand dunes, located around 40 kms outside Jaisalmer. I had visited the dunes the last time in a mini bus, and it probably took an hour to get there. The best time to visit the dunes is either at sunrise or sunset, so that one could watch the sun rise up from the peaks of the dunes. But yesterday, I had reached after sundown, so I decided that the Jaisalmer sunrise should be at the Sam sand dunes, no less.

I wish it was as smooth in the morning. I had some pending office work (aargh!) which was deadline bound, so I reluctantly took out my netbook at 5am in the morning, connected the data card and started punching out a boring excel sheet amidst lots of cursing. It was hard to focus because I was thinking about the sunrise which I might miss, which made me curse even more. But I somehow managed to finish the work on time, and I packed my bags quickly after a bath and early morning breakfast of fruits and flavored milk. When I went to the reception, the guy had not reported for duty yet, and I saw a janitor sweeping the floor. I politely requested to call the manager from his quarters since I had to leave. So he went out to call the guy, and I took this time to load my saddle bags on the Ninja. The guy did come in a few minutes time, and after I had paid him for last night's dinner (which was very reasonable, by the way), I got on my bike, started it and rode out of Moomal. As luck would have it, the road which went to Sam sand dunes was just left of the hotel, so I did not have any searching to do. The sun had not come up yet, and I was hopeful to make it just in time for a beautiful sunrise. The desert(ed) roads started soon after on the way to Sam, and I could not resist stopping and taking a few photographs:

The purple glow before the sunrise:



The roads were empty and smooth, though there were deep troughs, the likes of which I not seen before. For a brief moment at 80kmph, it felt like riding one of those swaying ships in amusement parks. I passed only two vehicles in that 40 km stretch, and very soon I was at Sam sand dunes. Lots of camel owners came running across at a prospect of a tourist wanting a ride, but I politely declined (in respect of time) and took many shots. The Sam sand dunes is not spread over a large area, but concentrated in maybe few square kilometers. I remembered it to be much bigger, but nevertheless it was a great sight. The sun obliged by rising up over the dunes, so out came my camera!


















As you can see, I took a lot of pictures, enough to drain whatever charge was left in the batteries! It was now past 7am, which meant I had to head back to Jaisalmer and then onwards to Jaipur. Getting back to Jaisalmer took another 20 minutes or so, and after topping off my fuel reserves, I took the familiar road back. But not before taking a picture of the Jaisalmer fort, though I would have preferred to shoot it at night.




The open road beckoned me once again, and this time I just let the Ninja go flat out, while crouched behind the windscreen, knees and elbows tucked in. I started off at a slight elevation, which meant I was going downhill and had momemtum pushing me ahead. I also thought there was a tailwind too, as the Ninja touched 160 kmph in a matter of seconds. But the speedo did not stop there; it kept rising on the straight and empty road, and finally the needle just moved slightly ahead of the center line between 160 and 180 kmph zone, which meant I was clocking in excess of 170 kmph. It stayed there for a few seconds, then dropped to a shade above 160 as the road started taking an uphill gradient. Jaideep had advised me to get the tires inflated a couple of psi north of recommended values, so that probably helped me get to that speed. If it was not for the luggage's weight and the accompanying drag, I would have seen 175 -177 on the speedo.





The Jaisalmer - Bikaner road has a couple of railway crossings and while yesterday I had managed to ride through the open barriers, I had to stop today at one of the 'phaataks'. Railway signal barriers in these areas close for a long time just to be safe, so after a few minutes, there was a little bit of traffic, including a convoy of army trucks. The Ninja became a magnet for bored folks waiting for the signal to open, so conversation between me and the rest of the guys flowed freely. One of the soldiers walks over to my bike.
"What is the kpl"? asks the soldier. It took me two seconds to understand what he meant - Mileage! I tell him the mileage, and he nods. He also seemed interested in my protective suit, and I had a feeling he had more than road rash to worry about in his line of duty. He pokes at my internal elbow, back armor and nods approvingly as if he wanted to order a container load for his platoon. By then we hear the loud 'hooot' of the approaching train, so the soldier bids me farewell and clambers back into the gigantic truck. The barriers soon open, and I leave my friends from the Indian army behind.







I keep on making good speed and soon crossed Pokhran. I almost ended up taking the wrong road to Jaipur since I forgot that I had taken a right at the Pokhran T point to Jaisalmer. So today I was supposed to take a left. But yesterday, I had noticed a broken down truck smeared with engine oil on its front at the junction, so when I saw the same truck today, my brain sent a signal to stop and go back. I did stop, and got back on the road to Bikaner. But in retrospect, I think I should have gone straight down that road since I would have crossed Jodhpur too, and entered Jaipur via NH8. Should have saved me a few hundred kilometers. But I was so tempted by the great road to Bikaner, the idea did not even cross my mind at that time.

I kept taking small breaks to rest my body and also snack up a bit and I took pictures wherever I stopped. Apart from the expected desert landscape all around, I also saw a few windmills, and an oasis like farm (with sprinklers, no less) in the middle of the desert. Don't ask me how he was getting that water, but the sprinklers were throwing water on the plants as if it was going out of fashion tomorrow!

Sand dunes - check. Powerlines - check. Greenery - ok... Sprinklers - What the ...?!



Windmills:


Stereotype coffee table book picture. But what the heck.


Cool shade - time for a rest!



I found a nice tree and parked my bike below it to rest. I also took out my netbook and connected my datacard to look at the entry map into Jaipur. I had booked a room at the red fox hotel, so I was figuring out the best way to reach there. After I was satisfied, I began shutting down my computer. Ganesh (aargee) called me to check where I was, and he also commented he could hear the 'windows-is-shutting-down' chime in the background. After a brief chat, I prepared to leave, packing my netbook into the tail bag. In midst of this, I saw a RE approaching - there are couple of guys on the bike with touring luggage, and they wave at me, smiling. I wave back at them, and then got on the bike and started riding towards Sikar.

After a few hours, I cross Sikar and Reengus and I could sense the traffic swell up considerably. By the time I cross Chomu, the road turned into a very busy highway. I keep going, and I finally reached the outskirts of Jaipur by 5pm. The area was called Vishkarma Industrial area, and I stopped at a safe spot to rest for a few minutes and also pull out google maps on my netbook. After being assured that I was on the correct road, I get back on the Ninja and keep going straight till I reached Pink City. For those of you know who are a little behind on general knowledge, let me enlighten you on a very important historical fact. Pink city is called thus because the rider's face becomes pink from the frustrating traffic within a few minutes of riding a motorcycle in the Pink city. My face turned pink too, and while a leisurely tourist in a tee and shorts might have appreciated the finer nuances of Pink city, I was in a tearing hurry to get out of Jaipur's answer to Chandni Chowk! The tiredness of the past 750 kms and the heavy leather suit weighed down on me heavily, and I longed to take a cold shower and snuggle beneath the soft covers of hotel bed.

I found the hotel after making a few phone calls for asking directions - the Red fox hotel was on the Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, and a brand new one at that. I think they had just opened the hotel or something, since the huge parking in the basement had a fine layer of dust on the floor and smelt of fresh paint. After parking the bike and taking off the saddle bags, I took the elevator to the reception on the first floor. Now, by this point, I did not look like any of the regular guys staying at that hotel. No crisply ironed shirts, pants and shoes. No sir. The last 755 kms were spent riding through the desert dust and 140 kmph + windblasts, so I was covered with a respectable layer of the earth's finest. The guys at the reception looked at me real strange, and it took a few seconds for them to recover!

I was soon handed over the keys, and I took the elevator to the next floor up. The rooms looked as advertised on their website - clean and well laid out, with a flat screen TV and Wifi! The soft sheets beckoned invitingly, so I dumped my leather gear on the floor, and then jumped straight into the shower for a refreshing cold water shower (they had hot water too, btw! ) I changed into a tee and a pair of shorts and stretched myself on the bed and flipped through channels.

Red Fox hotel, Jaipur. It is owned by the 'Lemon tree' hotel group - cost me around Rs. 2500 a night. Worth it, I would say.





I decided to get some dinner in the restaurant downstairs. It was a great buffet spread, which I savored, and on the way out I bought some flavored milk and juices (my GAD regular) for the trip next day. I wanted to leave early, so I asked the restaurant manager when was the earliest I could eat breakfast. He said 6am, and I told him it was too late, so would it be a good idea to pack something at night instead? Without blinking, the guy said the restaurant will be ready at 5.30am, so I need not worry. When I heard that, I was a bit skeptical and doubted he would make good on that promise. But little did I know...

As I lay in my bed after dinner, I marveled at the experiences of the days past. What started off as a spirited send off at the Silk Board flyover in Bangalore almost a fortnight ago had transformed into a real adventure, speeding over the vast desert plains of India, with just my Ninja 250 for company!

Sure buddy, will take up your offer! The next bunch of leaves will only be available in winter - my boss is going ballistic after I applied for a vacation next month for another 15 days! And this is after I was missing in action at office for 17 days in February.

Posted Day 14 just now too!

Gift A Dream Ride Day 14 Log Approved.

Some beautiful text accompanied by lovely photographs. Thanks for sharing these, bluevolt.