Trip with the wheels on my legs

Iam planning a very rushy trip to northwest india. I would like to hear your opinion on my itinerary. and also answers to few of my questions.
before that let me clarify few things. I have extensively researched in the internet and come up with this itinerary, so please dont take me for some lazy ass

day 1 fly to mumbai from chennai, stay in mumbai
day 2 Do some official work in mumbai, Elephanta caves in the evening
Fly to ahmedabad
day 3 Do some official work and rush to mt abu for dilwara temples.
here my concern is how early i have to leave ahmedabad to reach the dilwara temples between 12 to 3pm?
take a bus to udaipur
stay in udaipur
day 4 spend a day in udaipur and leave for jodhpur
day 5 spend a day in jodhpur and leave for jaisalmer
day 6 spend a day in jaisalmer and leave fot jaipur
day 7 spend a day in jaipur and leave to delhi and subsequently leave to amritsar
day 8 visit the golden temple and leave for delhi
day 9 spend a day in delhi
day 10 leave to agra and visit tajmahal and agra fort and leave to khajuraho by bus.
here my question is how is the bus frequency to khajuraho from agra?
day 11 spend a day in khajuraho and leave to jhansi
and subsequently leave to chennai.

i look forward for your comments and suggestions

thanks

So you do already know how long some of those journeys will take, and how little time it will leave for looking at the places you are visiting?

Are you absolutely sure you want to do all this? It seems far too manic to be workable, but you say it's what you want so I'll just say that I hope others can help you with your queries.

If a schedule like that is your idea of fun, I won't be accusing you of being lazy!

Haylo, don't be coy.

This is far too rushed. The questions you've asked are really not the problem- you're going to have no time at all in Jaisalmer or Jodphur. You need to seriously scale down your ambitions here, I'm sorry to say.

If you take a look at the Maha Rajasthan Itinerary Info thread, which is a sticky at the top of this Itinerary forum, it gives you some ideas for what you can achieve in the time you have.

I think you need to cut out at least three stops from your plan to make it remotely worthwhile. Sorry! (Plus I'm not sure why the huge detour to Khajuraho. I'd say it's not worth it)

I wasn't being coy, I was being cruel.

He says he's done the research, who am I to argue with that?
If he wants to do it I'll enjoy reading the trip report, which would no doubt be very helpful to others planning this sort of trip.

(I wasn't all that cruel, I did say that it seemed too manic)

On the train, it's four or five hours from Ahmedabad to Abu Road; from there you have to get a bus or a jeep to Mt. Abu, so you will probably have to leave Ahmedabad around 5am -- my train schedule is very old so you'll have to check further.

Most of my transportation is on night by train. My plan is to leave a place after 9pm and reach my next destination in the early morning. and i have plan to stay overnight in some places.The problem is i have very limited time and want to utilise the fullest possible.
I most probably cut down on khajuraho and stay in delhi for one more day.

anyway thanks for your replies.

As you actually already have a full day in Delhi, I would suggest you use that extra day somewhere else, to break up your journey a bit. Jaisalmer deserves more than one night.

You will drive yourself insane, please reconsider your itinerary. Add more time at each place, and leave the more remote destinations such as Amritsar, Jaisalmer, Khajuraho until next trip.

It's good to be optimistic, but it is very important to understand just how long it takes to organise and execute travel in India, leaving aside all the other standard delays and frustrations (have you been to India before??). Be aware of the following distances and travel times.

Ahmdavad -> Mt Abu is around 220kms, so 4-5 hours
Jaipur -> Jaisalmer 621kms, so looong travel times
Amritsar-Delhi I believe is around 450kms, so around 10 hours.
Jodhpur -> Jaisalmr 285kms.
Agra -> Khajuraho 395 kms

You don't mention modes of travel for every leg, be very careful not to rely on planes, trains, buses, even private transport running like clockwork. There will always be delays (airport delays, breakdowns, traffic jams, accidents, etc etc etc). You may/will find that even after a leg that should only take 4 hours, you've blown the day away with the other delays.

Also, we found unless you organise all your travel ahead of time (either difficult or expensive), or make it real simple (eg planes + private car/driver) you will easily spend a few hours to half a day organising your onward travel for each leg (husband and I, upon arriving at every location would make organising our onward travel second order of business after finding a place to stay / dump our bags).

Also, I believe Elephanta Caves close in the late afternoon...check opening times and days.

Also, suggestion: Mt Abu is lovely, but the stunning Adinatha temple in Ranakpur is just as breathtaking as the Delwada temples in Mt Abu. As your time is short, why not hire a car between Udaipur and Jodhpur, stopping at Ranakpur and Kumbulgarh (huge long old fort) on the way?

Good luck!

thanks guys for all your concern.
By the way, Iam an Indian, though currently living in singapore.
Iam quite familiar with how things works here especially train system, but not with the budget airlines because there were no budget airlines when i left india to live somewhere else.

I can see that guys here are missing my point. so let me give my detailed travel plan here.
please be reminded that this travel plan is only for young or fit people with time and budget(somewhat) constraints and definelty not for the first timers.

nov 02 : Leave chennai at 15:00 arrive mumbai 16:50 - Indigo airlines. Night stay at mumbai.

nov 03 : Official work at mumbai, elephanta caves
Leave mumbai 16:40 arrive ahmedabad 17:40 - Goair
Night stay at ahm.

nov 04 : official work at ahm. night stay
(looks like i cant head to mt abu the same day!!!!)

nov 05: leave to mt abu - 9707 Aravalli exp 5.30 to 9.30am
evening leave to udaipur by bus 5 hrs
reach udaipur and night stay

nov 06: sight see udaipur with ranakpur side trip(if possible, rent a car as someone suggested here)
leave to jodhpur

nov 07: book a day tour. leave to jaisalmer by 4810 JU JSM exp. 23:00 to 05:00

nov 08: stay in jaisalmer
nov 09: leave to jaipur by JSM DLI exp 16:00 to 04:50

nov 10: book a day tour. Leave to delhi by bus.
bus reaches delhi by 00.15am and subsequently take a train KIR ASR exp at 3.30am and reach amritsar at 11.55am

nov 11: visit golden temple and leave to delhi by Golden temple mail 21.35pm to 07.00am

nov 12: full day in delhi and night stay

nov 13: to agra and take tamilnadu exp to chennai.


before confirming this plan i would like to know if anyone had taken these trains before and could let me know how punctual they are ?

I will only comment on the mumbai part

How much time do you expect the official work to take and where is the location of this work?

the trip to elephanta caves - (From gateway of India and back to gateway of India) - will take at least 4 hrs.

To catch the 16:40 Go Air flight, you have to leave Gateway of India atleast by 2:30pm .

Hi,

I agree with Nayan, it will take you at least 1+ hours to get to/from Elephanta Island. You're going to be very rushed and there's every chance you won't make the airport in time. The roads are chaotic in the late afternoon.

As far as the journey to Mt. Abu, it's a nice place but you are not allowing yourself the time to get from A=>B and onto C. I would give Mt. Abu a miss at this stage and instead, take the train or bus to Udaipur.

Have you considered taking a car to Jodhpur with a stop-off at Ranakpur for a few hours ?

Rather than booking a day tour, just to keep things tight, you could keep the driver (from Udaipur) and get him to take you to the Maharaja's old fort; new fort and the local city center. It would help you to speed up your time there.

I can't be 100% certain, but I felt there was a train or other transport going from Jaisalmer up towards Amritsar. It may save you time going Jaisalmer => Amritsar => Delhi.

Jaipur (imho) is not that great a city.

The other thought I will leave you with is that you are being heavily reliant on the trains being on-time.

Things can happen along the way (eg. the recent Delhi bombings; train breakdown; etc.) which could severely hamper the train timetables, over which you nor anybody else has any control.

I would be wary about booking too many trains for such short stop-overs which don't seem to allow you much (if any) flexibility.

Cheers
Zoltan