Distance travelled: 850 Kms
Mode of
transport: Road
Cost
involved 23000 for 2 people
Places
covered: Neemrana Fort and Ranthambore
Part 1/2
I have
lived in Delhi for 17 years now and you would believe that places such as
Neemrana.........
Ranthambore and the likes would be off my bucket list by now. Well some things happen, better late than never. So, when Rishi called in with the idea of a road trip during the Republic Day weekend I had to plan out something to cover a few places in about 3 days.
Ranthambore and the likes would be off my bucket list by now. Well some things happen, better late than never. So, when Rishi called in with the idea of a road trip during the Republic Day weekend I had to plan out something to cover a few places in about 3 days.
Before we
proceed, it is important that I tell you a few things about Rishi. Born
Haryanvi but looks nothing like it. If nothing kills him, his laziness will and
by virtue of that fact, planning road trips with such people are a pain but
then you can’t go back in time and correct too many of your wrongdoings. Thus,
I had to do ALL the work planning, mapping and sorting out details for the
trip.
We were
taking an 850 kms road trip covering 2 places; Neemrana and Ranthambore, each
with their share of offerings. I left office on the 25th of January
to reach Rishi’s place in Gurgaon from where we were supposed to start our road
trip early morning on 26th. Aunty treated us to some amazing food
(food that for some reason Rishi disliked) followed by long conversations about
life et al.
Morning of
26th January, we departed on time and a thick sheet fog awaited us
on the NH8 that would take us to Neemrana in about 2 hours but with Rishi and
his car you can expect a 80 kms ride to appear like a pain. After multiple
stops for fuel and tyre and a not worthy of a mention, we docked ourselves at
the Neemrana Fort Palace.
The
Neemrana Palace was built in 1464 that saw multiple aggressors in the form of
Muhammad Ghori and the British and was finally restored from a state of ruins
in 1986. It later opened its doors in 1991 as a private resort property
attracting the weekenders from Delhi and Jaipur alike. Obviously, as you would
imagine, the clientele is majorly the rich and foreigners. The prices are
astronomical.
We took a
small tour of the property before really finding it all the same all across and
headed for our planned activity: Zipling with Flying fox. This
zipline is one of the few in the country and is spread across 5 lines, longest
of which stretches for 700m. The entire trek, the safety briefing and the zips
across the 5 lines took us a good hour and we were back to where started from
at the Flying fox office. It is a wonderful feeling, taking those zips, gives
you a beautiful bird’s eye view of the entire property but you probably would
not want to do it more than once in your life. (I wouldn’t). A few pictures
later, we decided to head to our hotel after having lunch on the way.
Most of the
remainder of the day was spent recovering from the exhaustion of the trek and
the early morning drive and spending quality time with a certain Mr. Glen as we
prepped ourselves for the long drive to Ranthambore the next morning.
Morning of
27th January:
It was the
day to take the long trip to Ranthambore from Neemrana, approximately 360 kms
away. Fog and some of the best roads in India awaited us. Rajasthan roads are
amazing, particularly this stretch that connects Delhi through Alwar to Kota
and Nagpur onwards to Mumbai. It took us a little over 6 hours to cover the
distance that allowed us time to freshen up before the afternoon safari that we
had pre-booked for us.
We checked in at our resort, had lunch and waited
patiently for our safari ride, which conveniently chose to arrive 40 minutes
late. Our canter was assigned Zone 6 (read up more about the zones and
Ranthambore here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranthambore_National_Park and equipped with a lot of vigor and double
servings of excitement we calmly waited to spot a tiger. I am not going to bore
with the sambar deer, antelopes, vultures, deers we spotted but 3 hours later, we
were back to our resort disappointed of the outcome of the safari. You almost
start feeling cheated every time you come without spotting a tiger in
Ranthambore. Rishi and I thus took the logical call next, to go meet Mr. Glen
for a good evening that awaited us. The whole resort was lit with small
bonfires around the lawn with some traditional folk thingie playing in the
background. As the evening progressed, we met a couple from Gurgaon who were
founders of one of India’s leading fintech startups (they deal in peer to peer
lending) and got into a great chat. A few moments later into evening, I had
almost opened up a startup in my head and discussed everything that’s remotely
political incorrect about Gurgaon. When nothing was left, we chose to call it a
night.
28th
January: Disappointed by the no-show the previous, I booked another safari for
the next morning driven mostly by the hope that change of timings would
probably help my cause. So, with a heavy head and a lot of excitement, Rishi
and I set off for the safari again to Zone 6. This was already looking ominous.
So, 3.5 hours later and another no show, we were back to the resort. (Yes! I
know I titled it otherwise, it’s a click bait, made you read so far, guess
what? It worked). Everything that happened after that on the trip was bad. Bad
breakfast, bad roads (yes the same roads that looked amazing a day earlier).
The ride to Gurgaon was a fairly straight forward ride without much of anything
to write about. We did the whole stretch non stop (that counts for a credit. I
did my longest stretch 4.5 hours without stopping the car). After about 6.5
hours we were in Gurgaon and brought the trip to a close before driving to
NOIDA and prepping for the dreadful that week it was at work.
Coming back
from Ranthambore with a "no show" leaves a serious impact on your sanity. You are
ridiculed because you didn’t spot a tiger on your safari and you live in denial and shock for a
few days. So much so, that when you write a blog about your travels you
initially plan to lie about the spotting and put a fake picture but I am glad
that this blog is without one.
I hope you
liked this. I missed Kapoor and motabro on the trip. And as Kapoor said until
later, Adios Amigos :D
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