I am loving this unsolicited ritual of a trip with the year. Last year, we were hiking on Girnar. This year, we decided to escape the state of Gujarat and go to Udaipur. Well, the trip was a fun one. I do need to pen this so I can come back here to rejoy the fun we had.
Firstly, I was in a dilemma whether I was going to be able to make it on the trip or not. I had an internship planned for the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore — and they assured me I was shortlisted for the most part and just wanted to ask a few questions. Though later, the question of logistics came up, and I was in no state to make a commitment to go to Bangalore for four months to work (my moronic college wouldn't let me then, and nor is it letting me for another opportunity that has come now). Though I got the closure that the NCBS thing is off — and well, the trip was on.
Hats off to my friends who always plan everything out (anything not playing by their plans is a different thing). They planned the whole trip — starting from where we will go to where we will stay to how the itinerary there will be — while I lurked with my occasional criticism in the WhatsApp group.
We booked a bus to go from Ahmedabad to Udaipur, but the GSRTC scheduling sucks, and the bus that was supposed to be departing from Ahmedabad at around 12:15-ish was nowhere to be seen till around 1:30. Upon endless enquiring and the realization that the bus depot/station department just sucks and replies to enquiries like you have just asked them for a part in their parents’ will, we got to know that the specific bus we were supposed to climb/take getting late is not new. It often gets late.
Though after hours of trying to sleep and bickering in between about whose idea it was in the first place to choose to go by bus, we reached Udaipur in the morning by around 6–6:30-ish. The first thing we did was rent Activas and later rush to the hotel.
The first place we decided to go to was Bahubali Hills. It's a great place. Rahul spotted a lot of birds. On the way back, we had to go to a bar — because being born in a dry state never permitted us.
After the bar thingy, we finally made it to the City Palace. It was stunning — majestic, actually. Definitely one of those "if you go to Udaipur and don’t see this, what are you even doing" kinda places.
There’s a lot we did, but I don’t have the energy to write it all down. Maybe later, maybe not. Depends on how nostalgic I get. For now this will act as my time capsule.
Photos on the fediverse: @dharmik@social.photo on Pixelfed and @dharmik@linuxusers.in on our friendly snac instance.