Chasing Sunsets

My first major road trip

Rajasthan was my first major road trip, and that alone made it different from everything I had done before.

It was November 2004. I was living and working in Haridwar, and I had a relatively new car — a Santro I had bought only about six months earlier. Prasannaa travelled with me, and this was our opportunity to take the car out on a proper long-distance journey.

There was no great expedition plan behind it. We simply wanted to travel through Rajasthan, see the places we had heard about and discover what it was like to cover long distances by road.

What followed became one of those trips that stays in memory less because of a single event and more because of the road itself.

Setting out

We started from Haridwar and headed towards Delhi before entering Rajasthan.

The Santro was still relatively new to me, and this was the first time I was really putting it through the demands of a major road journey. On many days we covered more than 300 kilometres, and I did all the driving. Prasannaa had a driving licence, but on this trip the driving remained mine.

The route gradually unfolded through Jaipur, Bikaner and Deshnoke, then westwards towards Jaisalmer and Sam. From there we moved towards Jodhpur, travelling through Barmer, before returning via Jaipur and continuing on to Agra.

It was a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short journey.

But that was also the point of the trip. The journey between the destinations became as much a part of the experience as the destinations themselves.

There was a particular satisfaction in watching the landscape change as the kilometres accumulated. We had started in the north, moved through the major cities of Rajasthan, travelled deep into the desert region and then began the long journey back.

Jaipur and the road ahead

Jaipur was our introduction to Rajasthan on this journey.

From there, the trip quickly became a road trip in the true sense. We weren’t staying in one place for long. Each destination was another stop on a much larger loop through the state.

Our accommodation was largely in RTDC hotels, which made the logistics fairly straightforward. After a long day on the road, having a known place to stop mattered more than luxury.

The rhythm became familiar: drive, arrive, explore, rest and then get back on the road.

At the time, long-distance road travel itself still felt like an adventure. There were no smartphones guiding every turn and no expectation that every hotel, restaurant or stop could be researched instantly. Much of the journey was simply about getting from one place to another and figuring things out along the way.

That made the Santro an important part of the experience. It wasn’t just our transport. It was our constant companion through the journey.

Deshnoke

Deshnoke left one of the strongest impressions on me.

The place was unlike anything I had encountered before, and it was one of those stops that made the journey feel worthwhile even after hundreds of kilometres of driving.

What stayed with me was not simply the destination itself but the experience of arriving there and discovering something completely different from what I had imagined.

Travel often works that way. You may know a place by name before you visit, but the actual experience is rarely what you have pictured in your head.

Deshnoke was one of those places for me.

It also reinforced something that would become a recurring theme in my travels: some of the most memorable places are not necessarily the ones you spend the most time planning for.

Towards Jaisalmer

The further west we travelled, the more the character of Rajasthan changed.

Jaisalmer was another strong memory from the trip. The landscape, the sense of distance and the feeling of being deep inside the desert region made it stand apart from the cities we had passed through earlier.

We continued towards Sam, where the desert experience became even more apparent.

By this stage, the Santro had become our constant companion. The car was only six months old when we started, and by now it had carried us across a substantial part of Rajasthan.

There is something special about a road trip in a relatively new car. Every unfamiliar road becomes part of the car’s first major story, and this was certainly the case with the Santro.

The long stretches of road also changed the way I thought about distance. A place that looked close on a map could mean hours of driving. A destination wasn’t simply somewhere we arrived at; the kilometres in between became part of the memory.

Jodhpur and the return journey

From the Jaisalmer side we continued towards Jodhpur, travelling through Barmer.

The distances were significant and the driving was demanding, but there was never a sense that we had to rush through the journey. The road itself was the experience.

Jodhpur became another stop before we turned back towards Jaipur.

By then, the trip had developed its own rhythm. We had become comfortable with long driving days and with the idea that the next destination was simply another part of the same journey.

From Jaipur we continued towards Agra.

The Taj Mahal was the final major stop of this journey, bringing the road trip to a natural close before we headed back towards the familiar surroundings of the north.

What the road taught me

Looking back, this was more than simply a trip to see Rajasthan.

It was my first major road trip and my first real opportunity to understand what travelling long distances by car could be like.

The Santro had been in my hands for only about six months. By the end of the journey it had travelled across a large part of Rajasthan, through cities, desert roads and long stretches where the destination sometimes felt very far away.

I also discovered something about myself as a driver. I enjoyed the long days on the road. Covering hundreds of kilometres wasn’t simply a means of reaching the next place; there was something satisfying about watching the journey unfold through the windscreen.

Deshnoke and Jaisalmer remain the strongest destination memories from the trip, but the larger memory is of the road — the long drives, changing landscapes and the feeling of moving from one part of Rajasthan to another under our own steam.

The trip also reinforced something I would discover repeatedly in later travels: a journey does not have to be perfectly planned to become memorable. Sometimes the best part is simply being on the road and seeing where it takes you.

This was the beginning of my love for major road journeys.

And perhaps that is why I still remember this November trip as Chasing Sunsets — not because we were literally chasing every sunset, but because the road kept pulling us towards the next horizon.

Exact travel dates will be added when available.