September 13, 2026
In September 2026 we decided to go for a Rajasthan tour in our car. This was to be a long tour. We would enter through Kota/Bundi and go as far as Tal Chhapar via Jaipur. On the way back we would go straight to Bharatpur bypassing Jaipur and exit through Agra.
This is a kind of loop.
A few kilometers after Kanpur (which is after Benares and Allahabad) there is a bifurcation on the GT Road (earlier NH 2 and now NH 19). The one going straight goes towards Ettawah and Agra etc. We took the left one on the fork and went towards Jhansi/Shivpuri which is on the edge of MP and UP. From here we went next to Bundi via Kota. You enter Rajasthan somewhere soon after Shivpuri.
Starting from Calcutta our days looked like this. Benares - Shivpuri - Bundi - Jaipur - Tal Chhapar - Bharatpur - Benares - Home.
We stayed for two nights in each of these stops except Bundi where we spent three nights. Our original plan was to spend just one night in Benares and move on towards Shivpuri the very next morning. But early in the morning we realised that both of us were too tired for back to back two days of very long drives. We chose to stay on in Benares for a day of rest and more malai (one of the reasons why I like staying in Benares is the malai from Pagla's shop in Biswanath gali).
This is one of the advantages of a self drive trip. You can be flexible with your schedule. We hardly ever book a hotel in advance.
In terms of preparation I got the car serviced a couple of weeks before the trip and bought an Annual Pass for the highway toll. For Rs 3000 you are entitled to cross 200 toll plazas on the national highways. If we had to pay individually, toll itself would cost around Rs 10,000 or so. We crossed around 60 toll gates. The annual pass is valid only on national highways maintained by NHAI. It does not work on the state highways. There you pay through your normal fastag card at the individual gates. In Rajasthan we had to take a few state highways where money was deducted from my fastag balance.
Day One. Calcutta to Benares. August 30, 2026
Start from home - 76555 Km @ 5.10 am
Reached Hotel Rahi Benares - 77289 km @ 5.30 pm
Total driving time - 12 hours 10 min
Total distance - 734 km
Total trips - 10 (including Vivekananda Setu)
In Benares we stay at hotel Rahi and curse it every time. It is a UP Tourism property located near the main railway station. The rooms are below par and virtually nothing works. We have to check the flush, geyser and AC. If you have any two of these working you take that room. Every time we swear we will never come back again but end up doing exactly that. A. Because it is a known devil but the devil is really bad. B. It is very inexpensive. Rs 1600 per room. C. It has a decent parking space for our car. There is a Plaza Inn nearby that looks more plush with decent parking. Perhaps next time we will stay there.
Our drive to Benares was affected by a few unfinished flyovers in Jharkhand, You have to take the narrow service road and they are in pathetic condition with loaded trucks moving very slowly. This creates very long jams. We lost at least two hours negotiating these bottle necks. It takes a few seconds to write it but moving through these jams takes a toll on your mental health and nerves.
This time we took an exit into Benares that we had never taken before. Our google map interpretation was wrong somewhere inside the city and ended up travelling a long distance inside the city to reach Rahi. Lot of people these days stay near the highway at Chitaipur. I did not do that because that is very far from the main action point of Benares which is Dasashwamedh Ghat where malai is available.
Staying outside Benares near the highway is very convenient if all you want to do is rest for a night or two. Staying near the Ghats makes most sense but I don't do it because a. driving through the narrow congested streets would be a nightmare and b. getting parking space is next to impossible. I had stayed at hotel Lara (which is right next to the ghat) once and they organised parking in the basement of a new building nearby. But reaching Lara is a real pain after a 10/12 hour drive. So locationally this is the best compromise. The ghat area is only Rs 20 by auto or Uber motorcycle taxi.
This time I forgot my reading glasses which I realised about 10 minutes after starting from home. After reaching Benares I also realised that I had forgotten the tooth brush too. That can be managed with a new one but the glasses had no back up. I had to deal with its absence.
Benares was just its usual self except that the Ganga was flowing very high. Dasaswamedh Ghat was almost deserted and the river was just a few steps below the road level. On Monday the area had very few tourists. But Sunday, the day we arrived, Godaulia was quite croweded.
I usually take an Uber motorcycle to reach Godaulia because autos drop you off quite far from there due to entry restrictions for them till 9 pm.
I had 200 gms of malai on both the nights from Pagla's shop. The seller himself was not too sure if I could digest so much of pure condensed milk. But my stomach quite managed it. This time I also bought 250 grams of ghee from Pagla, which he procured from someone else. We have to see how we like the taste after getting home (I am writing this from Benares on the penultimate day of our trip).
Day 3 - Benares to Shivpuri
Start from Rahi Benares - 77289 Km @ 6.30 am
Reached Col Gill's Tranquility Farm - 77938 km @ 5.30 pm
Total driving time - 11 hours
Total distance - 649 km
Total trips - 9
We started relatively late from Benares. Monisha cooked Maggi in the room on our stove, complete with eggs, tomoatoes and onions etc. We started in right earnest when Benares was just about waking up. I took the straight forward old GT Road which has been made into a very wide 4-lane road. This connects the new GT Road or NH 19 at a place called Mohansarai. From here you turn right towards Allahabad. First comes Allahabad and you take the bypass. Next comes Kanpur which has a 30 Km elevated bypass avoiding the city. Some 30 Kms or so after the elevated corridot ends comes the bifurcation that I wrote about earlier.
After you take the road towards Jhansi there comes a small town called Orai. Bandit Queen Fulan Devi was born in one of the villages near Orai. We were going through what was once infested with dacoits. But now that is a profession of the past. The dacoits have mostly joined politics and are to be found mostly in our Parliaments and state legislatures. But this write up is not about politics. It is about our travel.
We crossed Jhansi in the afternoon without entering the town. Shivpuri was a matter of 100 Kms from here. About 15 years ago we had come to this side of India and drove from Orchha to Bundi. Shivpuri was on the way. The region seemed very pretty with lots of water bodies and lakes etc. The road itself went through a very desolate part of India. We wanted to experience all that once again.
This time we would take a break in Shivpuri at Col Gill's farm. We reached the farm at 5.30 when there was adequate sun light. Shivpuri is on the right hand side of the highway that connects Jhansi and Kota. Col Gill's farm is a little before Shivpuri town. We could find our way quite easily with help from Google.
We had earlier spoken to Col Gill but did not book rooms with any confirmed date of arrival. They were very happy to receive us. Col Gill, who should be around 70, runs the farm stay with his wife, daughter and a beautiful bull mastiff named Olympia. He is a retired colonel. His wife is from Shillong and also an ex-army doctor. They live here with their daughter who is preparing for her competitive exams after post graduation. Col Gill had a Calcutta background too. I think his father had settled there and owned the large petrol pump in Birati which had a famous eating joint next to it. He used to travel to Calcutta quite often till his mother passed away recently. He is very conversant with the road route from Calcutta to Shivpuri.
The farm is actually a farm with massive agricultural land that extends right upto the horizon with a river possibly going through the middle of it. His grandfather had purchased this land and there are quite a few Gills living nearby who are his cousins. Col Gill is a serious farmer. He has some four tractors of different sizes. Each has its own application, different from the others. He said during plantation or harvesting season there are at least 100 farm workers milling around all over the place.
Apart from growing paddy he also grows different types of vegetables and lintel etc. Virtually everything that we ate there over the two days came from his farm - including the wheat. The entire cooking was done by Mrs Gill herself. There were a few maids but they only helped to serve the food.
The Gills are a family that you take an instant liking for. They are both excellent conveersationists and there is genuine warmth in their behaviour. Col Gill even treated me to high quality single malt on the second evening.
On Col Gill's suggestion we went to see a nearby fort. Garh Surwaya. It's an ancient Hindu fort and the best part of it was we were the only visitors there when we went. It was a beautiful tranquil old fort. Well kept and peaceful. It is in ruins in places but it cannot be called ill maintained.
We also went driving to the nearby lake which can be seen right from the highway as you come from Jhansi. It is a Ramasar site but we could not see any bird life. The lake's area seemed massive.
There is a Madhav National Park just before Shivpuri town. It's a tiger reserve. It was closed due to the monsoon regeneration break. We went to the Shivpuri town in the evening but it was a total waste of time. It is a very non-descript small town with narrow roads. There is a museum and some historic chhatris (cenotaph). But obviously in the evening everything was closed.
The only thing worth remembering about Shivpuri is the number of stray and owner less cows on its streets. Some of them even had collars with reflectors, lest they are knocked down by speeding trucks. Those who may not be aware, after India was taken over by the right Hindu nationlist party BJP, slaughtering cows has been banned in most parts of India. So once a cow or bull or ox becomes non-productive, the cattle farmers release their livestock out in the open to fend for themselves. They roam around and eat plastic and die. Many become victims of road kills. There is a concept of gaushalas, that is, shelter for such stray cows but it's more of a scam than genuine charity work. Gaushala operators get money from the government and other private donors and pocket it without feeding or keeping cows.
We even saw signages on the highways cautioning drivers about stray cows. The problem is more prominent in Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan etc which are very devout Hindu states and largely vegeterian.
We would certainly be coming back to Shivpuri to explore the nearby destinations like Khajuraho, Orchha, Chanderi, Datia, Gwalior or even Bhopal. These are not too far from here. Possibly that is when we would check out the museum and chhatris.
Staying at Col Gill's farm makes eminent sense. The rooms are fantastic. Large and tastefully furnished. The bathroom is larger than my bedroom in Calcutta and everything works perfectly despite the place being relatively quite remote where getting trained plumbers or electricians is difficult.
Shivpuri has an MPTDC tourist lodge but it is frightfully expensive. While Col Gill charged us Rs 2500 for a night the MPTDC property costs Rs 5600 or something. Absolutely pointless wasting so much money.
Col Gill is from a very distinguished family. While, ex CEC MS Gill was his uncle, his grandfather's cousin Col Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon fought the British with Netaji's INA. We saw a very thick book written by him. I hope to procure it if available. His rooms are full of books by and on Indian army.
Day 5 - Shivpuri to Bundi
