18 Dec 2018: We started our journey by tasking Google for route selection for our first destination “The Pink City, Jaipur”. All though not my first time in Jaipur, but still it was never as exciting as this one. Maybe because he surprised me or the excitement of driving down in our own vehicle or maybe his presence.
We started our journey at 0900hr from Meerut, that’s the peak traffic time if someone decides to go to Delhi. Somehow we managed to reach Eastern Peripheral Expressway at Ghaziabad and then continued on Western Peripheral Expressway skirting the entire Delhi-NCR traffic. Near IMT Manesar, we moved on NH 48 which directly takes you to Jaipur. Strangely enough, the traffic on NH 48 moves differently than how it ideally moves on a 6-lane boulevard. As it’s winter presently, initial NH 48 has the typical Bollywood scenic beauty of ‘Sarso ke kheto ki peeli chaadar'(remember Simran and Raj in DDLJ). This later changed into industrial buildings of different shapes and sizes, having names good as a tongue twister.
We halted on a bylane for a small lunch break. FYI, if you are looking for restaurants or dhabas on the peripheral highway, you will be seriously disappointed. There are no restaurants, dhabas, or even filling stations until you reach NH 48. Post lunch we started to roll once again and reached Jaipur around 1730Hr. Where we already made our bookings at the Army Holiday home. BTW we had to show them our wedding photos to get our room keys. (You must be thinking why? because somehow the receptionist didn’t believe that we were married as I was not having any ID proof-carrying my husband’s name on it).
After getting our room keys we quickly changed and went to meet an old mate ‘Sundar’ in the city. There we enjoyed the authentic Rajasthani delicacies prepared by his mother. For rest who would like to enjoy the same can either visit ‘Dal Baati Churma’ at Sawai Sadan or ‘Thali & More’ at C Scheme, Ashok Nagar. We have personally been there and both are equally good and authentic. For busy individuals, they are even available on swiggy and zomato. So this day comes to an end with delicious food at Sundar’s home. Time to sleep tight and prepare for tomorrow’s trip to the Pink City, Jaipur.