A short and quick ride to 'Pushkar' & 'Ajmer'

DAY-I
This month started with a long weekend. 1st was a Sunday and 2nd was an official holiday here in North for Guru Nanak’s birthday. After the stressful ride to Binsar during Diwali I was caught with bad flu and fever which was still continuing. After that ride I thought myself that ‘m not going to ride anywhere during the month of November.

All of a sudden I got to know that ‘Pushkar Camel Fair’ is going on and the Fair will come to an end on 2nd November only. It was really great news for me because I was badly disappointed last month considering that the Camel Fair is over believing the wrong info I got. So it was just like a surprise. I always wanted to visit ‘Pushkar Pashu Mela’ to see/experience the camel trading. So it was a chance to ride but on the same boring Jaipur highway. Option was to drive and I was supposed to travel in a cage alone. But Amit Bhaiya (my super senior during my college days and now a great friend) decided to join me in the last moment and that to on his bike. I was initially thinking to go by car as I was not feeling that well but seeing his enthusiasm I decided to ride.

We initially planned to start the ride at 4, 4 AM. It is the best time to start the ride but we were late by an hour or so and hit the road at around 5. Winter is at the corner and the weather was really enjoyable.

Let me do an honest confession here. I was riding with Amit Bhaiya for the first time. But he already had a solo Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi ride in 16 odd hours. So after filling fuel in Amit Bhaiya’s bike I asked him, ‘Bhaiya, at what speed you are comfortable with?’ He replied, ‘I ride real slow’. My calculations went ?*%^!#. I whispered to Uni ‘Beta aaram aaram se jayenge, drench all your excitement. NH-8 is going to be more boring’. But to my surprise this guy was cruising beyond my imagination and I was struggling to catch him up. There were many stretches where we were doing 80-90+ as an average. At the next break I asked him this is your ‘real slow’!!! I hardly maintain this speed on NH, after a certain incident on NH-1 I used to prefer 70-80 kmph on Highways. Still he made my calculations wrong but in the other way.

Nothing so special about the initial 200 kms of ride on NH-8. I took the Ajmer route for the first time and it was fun. A new stretch of tar always gives a good feeling. After taking the Jaipur by-pass we got a very good stretch of tarmac and there only I opened my throttle crossing a 3 digit on speedo, or else we were doing constant 80-90 kmph thru out.

The Avvy Rider…






NH-8 is always welcoming…


The diversion from NH-8 for Pushkar…


‘Pushkar’ was our priority and I wanted to spend maximum time there. Even we skipped our lunch to reach there early. It was 3 PM when we entered ‘Pushkar’. But we wanted some food by then, so decided to find a place where we can stay as well as to dump our stuff and to park our bikes. But to our surprise ‘Pushkar cattle fair’ was over means all the cattle were sold and were missing at the trade ground. And most of the Functions were also over except a closing ceremony on day after. Or else the fair is quite similar to ‘Baliyatra’ (Sand Festival) of Orissa but of smaller scale. There were similar giant wheels, break dance and Mout ka kuan and even Video shows. Seeing this we diverted our mind to Ajmer. But we were hungry, so searched for a good restaurant with proper parking place and after having lunch we went to see the Fair.

The vibrant colours… (All these stuffs are for Camels n Horses)


Searching some Goodies for his Camel…


I really liked his ‘Pagdi’…


The Group…


Giant wheel anyone!!!


Ready for a Safari…



The crowd was really interesting and massive to me. Went to many shops who were selling stuffs for camels and horses, those were the most colorful shops. Got paan but meetha wala :P. Some more roaming, a visit to the trade ground and stadium where there was the stage for the Fair and all the activity were happening there. I was quite interested in camel racing, but it was over by then.

It’s puppet time…




‘Pushkar’ has the credit of having the only temple of our Creator God, ‘Lord Bramha’. Wanted to visit the temple but the dense crowd there and parking problem guided us outside of the city and finding the road to Ajmer.

Pushkar Sarovar… (it is dry now)


The distance between Pushkar and Ajmer is only 13-15 kms. And this stretch has some ghat like road and it felt good again. After crossing the hill we got to see the first view of Ajmer. The whole city was lit and was looking superb. Stopped for some captures and attempted some long exposure shots.

Ajmer, the first glimpse…




Reached Ajmer, got a good room in a hotel which provided us proper parking for our steeds and then visited ‘Dargah Sharif’.

After dinner we decided to reach Delhi ASAP next day which seems to be a maximum 6-7 hour ride.

I had an intention to visit ‘Sambhar’ Salt Lake which is only 40 kilometers off the NH-8. So we wished to start early, means real early. 4 AM was set as the target again and we signed off.

DAY-II
4 AM is still an obsession. It was around 6 when I got my face washed. Quick pack-up and we started at 7, Sun was still to spread his ray means a typical pre winter morning :D.

‘Adhai Dina ka Jhopra’ became our target overnight. It was found from the map that was provided by Rajasthan Tourism at ‘Pushkar’ and seems to be a nice piece of architecture so we both the architects decided to pay a visit. It is close to ‘Dargah Sharif’. This Lovely monument with blended Mughal touch is believed to be built in two and half days only. After a quick tour we started enquiring the road leading to Highway.

Amit bhaiya had some work and he wanted to reach Delhi at around 4 or 5 in the eve. Sambhar Salt Lake plan was little hazy but still the diversion was some 70 odd kilometers so we revved on NH-8 towards Delhi.

One more thing striked to my mind which was suppressed in day before, ‘Ahmedabad’. It seemed that this 1K stretch is doable at a stretch. Should I give this a try someday!!! Amit Bhaiya what you say, Jamnagar is not too far neither Dwarika :P.

In the other way ‘Sambhar’ plan was skipped. Have to ride again this 300kms stretch to experience that. Many days back when I Google for Sambhar, I landed at Old Fox Sir’s (Sandeep Goswami) blog and place seemed to be quite interesting. And after seeing the recent off-road session of our xBhp people the itch is more :D.

We got to see a stone query like thing and that to of white stones. From highway it looked quite interesting and we decided to go there. Spend quite some time there and I also managed to hurt my hand while trying to climb on a rock. Thanks to Amit Bhaiya for the Band-Aid, it was handy with him.

Next we only stopped for the breakfast. It became a long one; actually the sleep was not enough last night. So we just laid in a Dhaba at a Petrol Bunk.

After it we only landed in Manesar McDonalds and a surprise was waiting there as a BMW R 1200 GS. seeing that machine I forgot all my body aches and boredom. Man it was a brand new 2009 GS.

Find the detail specs and shoot-out here.

After spending quite some time with this reliable touring icon, we managed a ‘pet pooja’ session and started for home. But the GS fever continued for a day.