Night 1: After the flag-off at Atria Mall, Worli, we had the whole night to spare and the simple objective of getting as close to Daman as possible. So of course, we dropped by at our friend/follower Siddharth and Shruti’s place for the night. The hosts were welcoming and the early morning cereal was a great send off gift! After lotsa hugs and tears, we bade farewell to kick off the journey!

Food - 10/10, Place - 12/10, Ambience - 10/10!

Night 2:  Our drive to Surat via Daman made us learn the first flaw in our plan - it is NOT possible to do justice to two places in one day and give our followers interesting content at the same time. Of course, we covered Daman decently well (we still have 2 posts remaining from there!) but Surat was completely ignored. What we did see of Surat were the many flyovers and the bollywood-ish Autorickshaws. Our night stop was at Hotel Yuvraj of the Best Western Group. The food was decent (great shrikhand puri!) and the place was neat. Nothing much to write about since we crashed early to start on our trip through the rest of Gujarat.

Food - 8/10, Place - 7/10, Ambience - 5/10 (typical hotel!)

Night 3: Our stay in Ahmedabad was at the ITC Guest House at Shahibagh. Namrata’s influence! Neat place and great place for an unbeatable price - Rs.100 wonly saar!

Place - 7/10, Ambience - 5/10

Night 4: Having spent all our time in the Rann, we decided that Mt. Abu was out of reach and halted at Mehsana. More friends/followers pitched in and directed us towards the Water World Resort also known as Shanku’s Water Park. The place has great cottages for only Rs.2600, with quite neat interiors. The downside was the food - too spicy!

Place - 8/10, Ambience - 8/10, Food - 4/10

Shanku’s Water Park

Night 5: At Jodhpur, we stayed at the homely Ratan Vilas. The mansion belongs to the Maharaj Ratan Singhji, a famous polo player in the 1920s. The place is charming, magical and will leave you wanting to stay back for much longer.  The rooms are neat and simplistic and take you back to a time when there were no TVs, and funky swipecards for switching on the power. The courtyard outside is the most romantic setting I’ve been in - dinner under the stars, candle-light at the table and lilting Rajasthani folk music in the background. The owner Mr. Brijraj Singh spoke to us at length in the morning about the place - more on that later!

Place - 11/10, Food - 11/10, Ambience - 20/10

Ratan Vilas, Jodhpur

Night 6: Last night, we took Mr. Brijraj’s advice and pitched tent at the Jas Vilas in Jaipur. This place is similar to Ratan Vilas but is nowhere close on the magical ambience. The rooms are wayyy more opulent and detailed, but the charm is nowhere close. In all fairness, the Jas Vilas is more enchanting than any commerical business hotel. The food’s great and the home-cooked flavor is unbeatable. Of course, the biggest deal was the majestic bathroom in the room!

Place - 9/10, Food - 9/10, Ambience - 9/10

Jas Vilas

Next stop, Agra!