Introduction to our ROAD TRIPS - Some Dos and what to expect

Bangalore to Vaishnodevi TO Bangalore – 7259 kms

Total Cost involved: Petrol - Rs.50000       Due to April north Indian summer we use AC

                                                 Toll    - Rs.10000           Wstrn India roads are very good but have tolls

                                                                                 and parking fees at various locations. Also cost                                                                                          includes getting the car washed everyday

                                               Room - Rs.40000    1 for men and 1 for women - For 10 days -                                                                                               Avg price per room Rs.2000 (SHARING)

                                                Food - Rs.10000/person 

                                           ------------------------------

                                              Total - Rs.110000

                                           ------------------------------

TOTAL COST / Person:  Rs.35000 if four people travel and Rs.30000 if five people travel

                                            *  Apart from this our personal expenses etc would invlove another                                                           Rs.10000 or 15000 depending on our needs.

                                              * No shopping included in this.

WHAT TO BRING ALONG

• Your medicines is you are taking any daily and other emergency and general medicines.
• We will have a basic first aid kit in the car.
• Power banks, phone charger, multiple pin charging adapter, Indian pin adapter, spike buster, if possible a non-smart-phone with a BSNL sim card apart from your regular smart phone.
• We will be using google maps and also due to roaming mobile phones tend to lose their charge in about 5 to 6 hrs max. So its a good idea to carry good capacity power banks  which can charge atleast 4 times as we will be required to share with others also. The charging pins in the car all do not work. Also we can charge through laptops if we are carrying them.
• Its important to charge all the phones, power banks and laptops, cameras, ipods etc in the few hours that we spend sleeping in the room. So its a good idea to carry a good, working and with mimimum 6 points Spike buster as the hotel rooms do not have many electrical points. We might have to share one or two points with all our devices.
• We create a WhatsApp group with all of us and our family members so that we can share our whereabouts with them round the clock so that they do not worry about our well being and also to make them jealous about all the fun that we are having :) ;)
• Its a good idea to carry a couple of umbrellas, rain coats or jackets, sweaters etc.
• Do not carry one large suitcase with all your clothes. Especially do not carry large suitcases with wheels. Instead, make 3 or 4 small bags with clothes for 2 or 3 days, with each bag carrying all your emergency and daily medicines, toiletries, cosmetics and necessities divided into small quantities into all the bags. This is becuase it is very late by the time we reach hotels to sleep, usually beyond mid night, so we do not want to waste too much time lugging our luggage and need to grab a bag quickly and get to the room to catch the few winks of sleep that we get. Also, in the morning we leave early, usually at dawn, so we need to get back to the car and on the road quickly.
• We do not remove all the luggage from the car exept that day's small bag and our electronic devices like laptops, phones and power banks for charging. We keep the car locked and safe in the hotel parking as it is for a very short duration of maybe 4 to 3 hrs.
• Keep another bag with small quantity of emergency medicines, cosmetics, phone, power banks etc. Keep the spike buster handy to grab and carry into the hotel room when we disembark frm the car in the night.
• Bring along lots of spirit of adventure, being ready to face any situation and challenges etc. Bring along a memory stick full of lovely and latest bollywood, kollywood and english music so that we will be spending roughly 100 to 120 hrs in the car which needs that many hours of music. Otherwise we will have to listen to Ashok's Pakistani music and we will be tearing our hair out!!! :( 
• Carry cash and credit / debit cards. We usually do not do much shopping. Also, this time there will be no visits to weavers. So no stoppages for that. 
• Our sight seeing is usually done at very fast pace and usually point to point. No lingering and no wastage of time. So we have to be quick on our feet when we are off the car with minimum time taken to do the things we intend to do.
• Lots of conversations, fun and camaraderie happens within the car during the drives.
• Ashok does most of the driving. But when he requires sleep and rest others take over for a few hours. Especially the first three days of travel. Night driving is also required. We also take turns in navigating through google maps.

WHAT TO EXPECT

• We usually have a fixed time to reach our destination. It would be typically 2.5 days. So the first day involves 1200 kms of travel which means we will be travelling for 15 hrs. The second day would involve 1400 to 1500 kms of travel which would mean 20 to 22 hrs of driving. The third day would be about 300 to 400 kms of travel. Which would be 5 hrs of driving.
• We usually carry a lot of theplas, chapathis and sandwiches with us for these two days and usually do not stop for breakfast, lunch or dinner to save on the time and to cover maximun distance.
• There will be typically 3 to 4 stops per day for filling up diesel once every 400 kms. This time is also utilised to visit the toilet, have some tea or coffee if there is a shop in the petrol bunk, buy biscuits, cold drinks etc, if there is a shop in the petrol bunk. The toilets might or might not be clean. But since we will be travelling in western and north India which are more developed for tourism, we might be lucky to find good toilets. It is adviced to utilise the facility at each and every stop as we never know when we might find the next one.
• Once we reach Mata Vaishnodevi, we have to do treck 14kms to the temple. So carry appropriate clothing for the trek and also a trekking bag to carry the necessities.

TOLL ON THE BODY

• Obviouslly you should not have motion sickness. Since we will be driving continuously for 12 days and typically 18 hrs a day, if you are a person who cannot drive without throwing up then this is not the kind of adventure for you.
• The travel invloves a lot of physical fitness. You should be able to endure sitting continuously for 18 hrs a day and be able to manage with minimum sleep. You should be able to handle greulling and hectic schedules.
• Women will develop swollen feet due to sitting for 18 hrs a day for 10 to 12 days. Your feet will begin to hurt by the 8th or 10th day. 

ITENARY:

Bangalore to Vaishnodevi TO Bangalore – 7259 kms

FIRST LEG - ONWARD JOURNEY

Bangalore to Surat to Chandigarh to Vaishnodevi – 3134 kms

Tuesday, 19^th April                                 

Bangalore to Surat – NH4 and NH8 – 1252 kms

Wednesday, 20^th April

Surat to Chandigarh – NH8 – 1411 kms

Thursday, 21^st April

Chandigarh to Vaishnodevi – NH1A – 390 kms

Afternoon - trek of 14 kms to Vaishnodevi temple and Darshan.

Night stay and rest in hotel there.

Darshan might be pushed to Friday, 22nd April.

SECOND LEG - RETURN JOURNEY

Vaishnodevi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Mathura, Agra, Jhunjhunu, Jaipur, Mumbai, Shirdi, Shani Shingapur, Poona, Pandharpur, Kolhapur, Bangalore – 4205 kms

Friday, 22^nd April: (LIGHT DAY)

Vaishnodevi to Amritsar – NH1A & NH 15 – 264 kms

Afternoon langaar in Gurudwara

Evening visit to Wagah border

Night stay in Amritsar

Saturday, 23^rd April: (LIGHT DAY)

Amritsar to Chandigarh – NH1 – 231 kms

Lunch and sightseeing at Chandigarh

Night stay at Chandigarh

Sunday, 24^th April: (LIGHT DAY)

Chandigarh to Delhi – NH1 – 260 kms

Lunch at Delhi and sightseeing in Delhi Metro

Night stay at Delhi

Monday, 25^th April

Delhi to Mathura – Yamuna Expy – 160 kms

Mathura to Agra – Yamuna Expy – 75 kms

Agra to Jaipur – Agra Bikaner Rd – 239 kms

Night halt at Jaipur

Tuesday, 26^th April

Morning sightseeing at Jaipur

Mid morning travel – Jaipur to Jhunjhunu – RJ Sh 37 & NH8 – 192 kms

Afternoon darshan at Baba Gangaram mandir

Evening travel – Jhunjhunu to Mt Abu – NH8 & NH 14 – 660 kms

{JAIPUR to Mt ABU – NH14 & NH8 – 494 kms}

Night stay at Mt Abu

Wednesday, 27^th April

Mt Abu to Mumbai – NH8 – 748 kms

Visit ti Siddhi Vinayak and Mahalakshmi temple in Mumbai Local

Night stay at Mumbai

 Thursday, 28^th April

Mumbai to Shirdi – NH3 – 252 kms
                Morning darshan at Shirdi

Shirdi to Shani Shingapur – NH 160 & MH Sh 166 – 75 kms
                Afternoon darshan at Shanishingapur

Shani Shingapur to Poona – Kopargaon, Ahmednagar Pune Highway – 161 km

Night stay at Pune

Friday, 29^th April

Poona to Pandharpur – NH9 – 210 kms
                Morning darshan at Pandharpur

Pandarpur to Kolhapur – NH 204 – 204 – 182 kms
                 Afternoon darshan at Kolhapur

Kolhapur to Bangalore – NH4 – 611 kms

Saturday, 30^th April

Buffer Day

Sunday, 1^st May

Rest Day

                                                   

Day 2 of The Great Indian Road Trip with the Monster Driver and The Beast

Day 2: April 4, Nagpur to Guna - 600 kms

Check out of Hotel Majestic Manor, Nagpur        : 7:10 am

Hotel tariff                                                            : Rs. 3710

Starting meter trip reading                                     : 125191 km

 The day 2 of our great road trip began on a very good note. We got up early and had a complimentary breakfast of very good tea and toast and started at 7:30 sharp from Nagpur. The previous night we had discussed with the waiter at the Dwaraka hotel about which of the two routes is a better route for us to take to Delhi, the route via Jabalpur or the route via Bhopal. He had suggested that we go through the Bhopal route because the roads are better and the roads on the Jabalpur route are undergoing construction and are difficult. We were reminded of our drive from Adilabad to Nagpur through bad roads and decided to take the Bhopal route.

We set out from the hotel with great enthusiasm as Ashok had

done 1200 kms the previous day and the previous day’s drive was fresh in our minds and we were hopeful to repeat the performance and reach Delhi itself by that night.

1^st Fuel Fill  : 8:13 am : Koradi Rd, Nagpur         : 34.67 lts  : Rs. 1870 : meter reading 125210

9:07 am  : Bhopal 286 kms away   : crossed Maharashtra and entered MP

Alas! Our hopes were dashed to smithereens as soon we realised that the road in Madhya Pradesh are not as good as the roads in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. All the roads in Madhya Pradesh are just two lane roads and do not have a road divider. The roads pass through all the towns, villages and hamlets. They do not have proper signage or the markers nad reflective stickers. In short the roads are twenty to twenty five years behind the roads of the rest of India.

9:30 am                : Agra 805 kms away      

The traffic sense of the people is also very poor. You find a tractor charging at you suddenly. It was very surprising to see people sitting on their haunches at the edge of the road with total disdain to the moving traffic and absolutely no fear of being mowed down by a bus or a lorry. The vehicular traffic, people and animals keep criss-crossing on the roads making it very difficult to negotiate through the traffic. I was surprised to see a large number of calves throughout MP. You will find cows on the roads in regular intervals. There are far lesser number of private cars and vehicles as compared to other states. But the truck traffic seemed to be far greater due to the narrow roads.

10: 15 am             : Beetul 46 kms : Bhopal 223 km

11:00 am              : Brief stop at the Rukmini Balaji Mandir, Beetul

Just as we were slowly beginning to get disappointed by the road conditions in MP we came to a town called Beetul where we came across a Rukmini Balaji Mandir We dashed into the temple for a quick darshan and started on our journey hoping to hit the 4-lane highway or the 6-lane highway at the earliest. The road after Beetul did not have any potholes and was smooth. But it was still a two lane road with no road divider.

11.45am               :  Witnessed a gruesome road accident

At about 11.45 we saw a gruesome accident where a water tanker had hit two people travelling on a bike.

None of the two wheeler riders in MP wear a helmet. There is a wonderful saying in Hindi ‘Sar salaamat to pagdi hazaar’. Both the riders had passed away on the spot. A crowd was gathering around and we would have been stranded there for hours. But Ashok got down a dried up pond to the left where a vehicular path was visible and bypassed the crowd and climbed back to the road.

Our phones were running out of charge and the charging points in our Scorpio were not working. Amrita figured out a way to charge all our phones through our laptops. Apsara was the navigator and she used both our traditional foldable map from TTK and the Google maps very efficiently to give directions to Ashok.

We did not come across a single toll booth throughout the day. That is when we realised that toll booths are good as they mean that the roads are good and they are 4-lane or 6-lane roads. So from now on we decided that we will feel happy each time we see a toll booth and pay the toll without complaining.

12:20     : Bhopal 109 kms away                   : roads continue to be really bad

2:00        : at Obaidulgunj                                : roads are horrible

2:25        : by passing Sagar and heading towards Bhopal  : hope roads are better

2:30        : Lunch break     : Hotel Jay Kay resort      : very tasty dal chawal roti

2^nd Fuel stop       : Bhopal

We took directions from the security person at the resort and from many people on the highway. Finally one elderly chacha advised us not to go via Indore but to take the route via Dewas. That would be NH 86 and then we will meet NH 3 at Delhi. Roads continued to be bad and narrow and frustrating.

3^rd Fuel Stop       : 4:45 pm              : Rs. 2237             : 41.68 lts             : meter reading 125572

On NH 3               : Gwalior 405 kms away

4:35 pm                : Gwalior 386 kms away

7:20                        : Toll plaza           : Guna                   : Rs.20   : Gwalior 200 km away

Just as we paid the toll and proceed towards Gwalior, we reached the end of road and a sharp left turn of a perpendicular road. It was dark and Ashok missed the huge road divider and the car went over the road divider. We heard the noise of metal rubbing against concrete. Thankfully as Ashok was driving at less than 55 kms/hr, he was able to bring the car down but he soon realised that he does not have control over the steering wheel.

It was a devastating moment for Ashok and Apsara. Both of them began to see our vacation coming to an end right in front of their eyes. I kept telling them to calm down and just take the car to the side and stop. We were in the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of Guna, in pitch darkness. Ashok took a slow u-turn and brought the car to a halt by the side of the road. We got out of the car and removed the torches out and started figuring out what to do. Ashok was still in shock and I was consoling both Ashok and Apsara.

After a few moments we realised that since Guna is a large constituency of Jyotiraditya Scindia, it must have a Mahindra Motors. We googled and Amrita found that there was a Rishab motors in Guna. Ashok called Just Dial adn got the phone number and immediately called them. He spoke to Ankit Pachauri the Works Manager and explained the situation to him. Akhil was about to leave for the day and so he told Ashok to leave the car by the side of the road and leave and he would look into the matter the next day. But Ashok explained to him that he has family with him. Akhil immediately said that he would come there with his team at the earliest.

The Road Divider

We had to wait for an hour for the team to arrive which was sixty anxious minutes. On the bright side I was able to see so many stars in the sky due to the pitch darkness and wanted to do some star gazing and study of the constellations. But I knew that if I had mentioned it at that point in time, all the three would have boxed me left, right and centre. Finally, it was like seeing water in a desert when we saw the Mahindra vehicle arrive with Akhil and his team of 4 mechanics. They quickly changed the tyre to the spare tyre and Akhil drove us himself to the Mahindra Motors service centre. He assured us that they would fix the vehicle first thing in the morning as a top priority.

We checked into Hotel Sara and slept like lgs as we were drained both physically and emotionally.  We were not sure whether we would be able to proceed with our trip the next day.

Day 1 of The Great Indian Road Trip with the Monster Driver and The Beast

 Day 1: April 3, 2013 – Bengaluru to Nagpur – 1200 kms

The day began early at 3:30 AM. We got up, had coffee and quickly loaded all our gear into the Scorpio and left on schedule at 5.15.

Just as we crossed the toll booth on Airport road, we crossed a large hump and heard a loud noise of the kind that w e hear when a Kinetic Honda goes over a hump. We kept hearing it for two more kilometres. Ashok, the diligent driver he is, did not want to proceed further without getting it thoroughly checked and examined by a mechanic. We stopped by the side and everyone was hit by a wave of disappointment. Ashok started saying that lets go back home and make flight bookings and leave by flight tomorrow. I kept insisting that let us get this repaired and see how big the damage is and how long it will take to get this checked.

Ashok started waking people up and calling the mechanic who had serviced our vehicle, the guys who did the wheel alignment and their higher ups. The India Garage people told us to come to Sireesh Motors @ Yelahanka which was close by and he would send a mobile repair vehicle. We drove up to Sireesh Auto and waited for 2 hours when Ashok kept getting more and more frustrated because the mobile vehicle guys were not coming soon enough for him.  The first mechanic of Sireesh Motors arrived at 8:00 am and seeing him was like seeing a beautiful sunrise. He took a round in the vehicle and after examining the vehicle immediately declared that the problem is minor and the spring of the shock absorber has got cut and it can be set right in 45 mins or 1 hr.

But we had to wait for Sireesh Auto to open so that we could get it done which would be at 9:00. It lead to more frustrating moments for Ashok. The mobile repair vehicle also arrived with the two mechanics. Even they gave the same verdict about the vehicle. As soon as Sireesh Motors opened, all of them got done to work and changed the spring within no time while we waited in the visitor’s lounge watching Munna Bhai and we were on the road at 10.15.

We were crusing on Bellary/Hyderabad road NH 7. Ashok started screaming ‘JAI’ to all the Gods, Vajpayee Thatha and the National Highways Authorities, Mahindra Motors, Scorpio and anyone else he could think of. We were delayed by 5 hours but our trip was on and we were excited to be on the roads again. The roads were all 6 lane roads throughout and Ashok did a continuous 140 km/hr to 145 km/hr continuouslt and we were clearing hundreds of kilometres at the blink of the eye.

SOME STATISTICS

STARTING METER READING        : 123990 Kms

1^st Diesel filling                                  : 33.26 lts             : Rs. 1736             : @ 5.20 AM on 3/4/13

1^st TOLL PAID                                      : Devanahalli      : Rs. 20                  : 3 times because of the breakdown

2^nd Toll                                                  : Bagepalli            : Rs.50                   : 11.15 am

As we were approaching Pennkonda, Andra Pradesh, the sun was reaching its zenith and the hear was searing. But the Air Conditioner in the car was keeping us cool and we were guzzling bottles after bottles of chilled water which I had carried along with me. Mt mother in law had made us yummy chapathis with a smearing of tomato and onion spicy sauce. We were all hungry and we gobbled up the chapathi rolls as though we had not seen food for eons. The music system was blaring out some hit music of all languages which Apsara had downloaded. We had a minor glitch with the music system as well as the displayed stopped working. But the DJs Apsara and Amrita figured out a way of navigating through their ipods and iphones.

Just as everything was looking perfect, our stomachs full, music in the background, Car flying like a rocket and it was 11.35, there was a stoppage at Pennakonda as there was a political protest. The Telugu Desam party workers had gheraoed a local MLA and they had all squatted on the road and were not allowing any traffic to pass. A smart local Policeman came up and explained that there was a political protest and we could not go further. Ashok launched into chaste Andhra Telugu and explained about our trip to him. He in turn explained about what was going on and assured us that they have been given permission for 30 minutes and 20 minutes more was left and that he would flag us off first as soon as it was over. The local SI and Commisioner were also present to ensure that there was no violence and things went on smoothly. Now all we had to do wait those 20 minutes which started looming large on our heads as though it was 20 hours. I was reminded of Einstein’s wonderful explanation about theory of relativity “when a beautiful girl is near you, 10 hours seem like 10 seconds but when you are sitting on a hot plate, 10 secs seem like 10 years”. Just as we were into a heated up debate about Telangana politics, the good police officers waved us on and we were once again cruising along with great glee and a whoopee! War cry.

The signage on board said ‘New Delhi 1882 kms’ which looked so close yet so far...

3^rd Toll   : Ananthpur        : Rs.90   : @ 12.40 pm      : 214 km in 2 hr 25 mins with the 20 min stoppage

                                                               

The signage on board said ‘Hyderabad 340 kms’ looks like we can have tea at Hyderabad

4^th Toll   : Karegalli                                   : Rs.80

5^th Toll   : Dronachalam or Dhomne           : Rs. 80                  : 1:25 pm

The signage on board said ‘Hyderabad 247 kms’. Bypassing Kurnool @ 1.50 pm. Did 105 kms in 70 mins.

6^th Toll                               : Kurnool              : Rs. 75                 : 1:50 pm

2^nd Diesel Fill up                : 50.30 lts             : Rs. 2610             : Milage reading 124441

The signage on board said ‘Nagpur 675 kms’, ‘Hyderabad 155 kms’

7^th Toll   : Rs. 51  : 2.50 pm

2:55 pm Hyderabad just 100 km away. 2:57 Hosarpet. 3:00 Hyderabad just 95 km away. 3:15 Hyderabad just 70 km away. 3:20 Hyderabad just 60 km away!!!!!

8^th Toll                   : Rs. 53                 : Raikal                                                  : 3.21

Reached Hyderabad at 3:45 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nagpur 515 km away. 

9^th Toll                   : Rs. 40                  : ORR Pedda Golconda                   : 5:15 pm              : Nagpur 501 km

Stopped at Medak Dist, Manoharabad, Sri Atithi restaurant at PSR Auction Yard. Had lovely gobi manchurian, paneer pakoda, veg fried rice and veg Manchurian. They served us very hot and tasty tea which rejuvenated us all and we were raring to get to Nagpur. 5:35 started from Manoharabad.

10^th Toll     : Rs. 105   : Medak   : 5.37 pm              : Nagpur 370 km

Crossed a town called Sadashivnagar. Were remembering Bangalore and also Anu, Prerna and Ashutosh who are from Sadashivnagar.

Nizamabad       : 6:38 pm  : Nagpur 316 km                               : it is getting dark

3^rd Fuel Filling     : 7:05 pm  : Balgonda  : 54.14 lts   : Driving mileage 816 kms  : filling fuel every 450 kms

11^th Toll    : Rs. 30    : Nirmal               : 7:20 pm

7:51 pm                 : Nagpur 227 km

8:16 pm  : Driving mileage 1000 kms !!!     : 10 hrs

8:21 pm  : Adilabad            : Nagpur 200 km

Our great Indian road saga started from Adilabad. The roads are very bad from Adilabad. It took Ashok 40 mins to navigate 50 kms while up till now he was doing almost 100 kms an hour.

12^th Toll                 : Panderkavada                 : Rs. 30                  : 9.00 pm                              : 150 km to Nagpur

13^th Toll                 : Wander                             : Rs. 50                  9:55 pm                                : 94 km to Nagpur

14^th Toll                 : Berkedi                              : Rs. 80                  : 10:37                                   : 36 km to Nagpur

11:00 pm

I had enquired with one of the professors at VNIT, Nagpur on where to have dinner and where to stay. Based on her suggestion we stopped at a wonderful garden restaurant on the outskirts of Nagpur on the Airport road called “Dwarka”. It is a garden restaurant and has a very spacious and well spread out garden. They have a large car parking and very welcoming atmosphere. There was a big dance party going on and loud music. The play list included many old and new Bollowood hits and some English songs thrown in. It was a very relaxing atmosphere and we had to wait a good 20 to 25 mins for our veg Kolhapuri, Dal Tadka and rotis to arrive. We used up the time to chat with the waiters and enquire about the various routes to take to Delhi. The food was very tasty and we were ravenous. We reached the Hotel Majestic Manor at around 12.30 and it was 1:00 by the time we slept thoroughly exhausted but very happy and satisfied for having done 1200 kms in one day. Thanks to the wonderful roads and Ashok’s superb driving and our never say die attitude.

Total driving time                       : 13 hrs

Total milage                               : 1200 kms

Total number of toll booths         : 14

Total toll amount                        : Rs.834

No of fuel refills                         : 3

Total fuel filled                           : 137.7 lts

Total amount paid                      : Rs. 7253

Total number of stops to refill ourselves    : 2 J     : one chai stop and one dinner stop J

It was all in all a very action packed day filled with drama, suspense, action and comedy. As I switched off the lights to sleep at 1:00 I was humming the song “Yuhi chala oh rahi yuhi chala” from Swades and was into deep slumber within a few seconds....................

The Monster Driver and His Beast on a Great Indian Road Trip with their family - Chapter 1 : Preparations

PREPARATIONS

We are planning a major road trip. Bangalore - Nagpur - Delhi - Shimla - Manali - Jaipur - Ahmedabad - Mumbai - Bangalore in 11 Days. Around India in 11 Days.

No. of travellers - 4
Driver - Ashok
Passengers - Apsara, Amrita and Asha (who can also be an occasional driver, i.e. if the main driver lets her)
Vehicle - Scorpio

The exitement has started. The day Ashok got the reservation to the Club Mahindra Resort at Gables Mashonbra, Shimla called Whispering Pines we decided that we will not go by air but we will drive down. It had always been our dream to do a road trip across India and especially drive on the Golden Quadrilateral which Ashok fondly calls as Vajpayee Thatha road as it was the former Prime Minister of India Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee who initiated the Golden Quadrilateral project and connected India seamless and brought about an economic boom and a travel revolution.

We discussed at length and chalked our a route that we will take. Since AShok is a veteran driver with more than 300000 kms of driving under his belt, he knows the routes and what it takes to drive.

Onward Journey

Wednesday      Apr-03             Bangalore to Nagpur    1069 km

Thursday         Apr-04             Nagpur to Agra              819 km

                                                       Agra to Mathura       58.70 km

                                                      Mathura to Delhi     159 km

Friday              Apr-05             Delhi to Shimla             367 km

Saturday          Apr-06                         Shimla

Sunday            Apr-07                         Shimla

Monday           Apr-08                         Shimla

Tuesday           Apr-09                         Kulu                208 km

Wednesday      Apr-10                         Manali              40 km

                                -----------------------------------------------------

                                                TOTAL                    2720.70 km

                                -----------------------------------------------------

The Beast is being made ready. This trusted beast of Ashok 'the monster driver' has done more than one lakh kilometers. Its the safest vehicle. The monster driver loves this beast to death and they have a very special understanding between them like that of a pet (doberman) and its master. Just like a doberman this beast is very loyal to only its one and only monster driver master and one gentle touch is enough for the beast to understand the comands of its master and do his bidding. The beast is getting pruned and oiled. Its being being readied like a bride is readied for her wedding. Wheel alignment, oil changes, AC gas checking, all electrical connection checking etc. The music system will be checked tomorrow on a special request by my daughter.

My daughters are DJ Apsara and DJ Amrita. Out of about 600 hours of driving time they have divided the timings equally amongst themselves when each of them gets to play their music. So they are busy downloading all kinds of music and I am sure that the entertainment part of the journey will be well taken care of.

I, on my part am checking out all sorts of blogs for different dhabhas on the way and the local cuisine available so that we can taste all the flavors of India. I am more focussed on the breakfast, lunch, dinner and the tea coffee stops. We also will need a lot of water. I have also stocked my medicine supplies with tablets for vomiting, motion sickness, loose motions, stomach aches, fever etc.

Here's to a lot of packing, preparations and lots more exitement.... All set to leave tomorrow ....