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 4 : April 6, 2013  

The previous night we had slept at 4:00 at a petrol bunk on Karnal road. Ashok’s non-stop driving from had helped us to cover up a good amount of the distance. Even then, we were supposed to have checked in at The Club Mahindra resort at Mashobra the previous morning. But due to the two breakdowns, one in Bangalore and hte other in Guna, we had lost one day and had to call and inform the resort that we would report the next day.

We woke up in our Scorpio at 6:30 am and after freshening up as best as we could we tried starting the Scorpio to just hear eerie deafening silence. It was a big blow to us and just when we thought that we had overcome a major obstacle, here we had another one staring at our face within a few hours. Just then two good Samaritans came out of the Petrol

Bunk office and told us that we had kept the lights on the previous night and slept. They had come to tell us but saw that we were sleeping too deeply and did not want to disturb us. They sweetly offered to push the car and assured us that with two pushes it would start. Push they did, with Apsara, Amrita and me joined in the fun. Just as they had predicted, with two pushes the Scorpio started and we were on our way. Alas! I forgot to take the pictures of both the petrol bunk and the two good souls and remembered only after we had crossed a good 50 kms.

1^st Toll Stop         : Karnal                 : Rs.90

We stopped at Mayur Dhabha on Karnal Road. Had very good chai and got up to proceed with our journey. Our adventures were not yet done with us. Ashok threw the Scorpio keys to Apsara and she missed and it fell. When Ashok tried to open the door it let out the burglar alarm and the Autocop had got spoilt. Every time we tried to start, the Autocop would go on. The entire dhabha of people were continuing with their work totally unfazed and nonchalant to our predicament. I am sure being located on the highway, they must have seen every kind of auto trouble on this planet. Just as Ashok was wondering what to do and calling the Mahindra people in Guna and in Bangalore, I went to the petrol bunk next door and tried to see if there are any mechanics available there. There were a few puncher guys but no electrical guys. As I was explaining our situation to the fellow there, a milk man with large milk cans strapped to his bike gave me a card of a Car accessories showroom with the mobile numbers of the mechanic and Ashok called him. He told Ashok what to do over the phone and the car started. We all scrambled into the car and set out immediately. We decided not to stop anywhere as it would be extremely risky if that car did not start again.

2^nd Toll Stop        : GMR Chandigarh to Ambala      : Rs.31

We could see the mountains and were thrilled to bits. We started cruising along on Chandigarh - Ambala road.

3^rd Toll Stop        : Panchkula         : Rs.25

11:00 AM             : Himalayan Express Highway

The roads are too beautiful. 4-lane world standard road again by the Jaypee group. Both the Yamuna Express Highway and the Himalayan Express Highway are their projects and they have done a wonderful job of giving world standard roads to us. Driving on these roads is sheer pleasure and you do not experience any fatigue on these roads however long you drive. Hopefully they can lobby with the Madhya Pradesh government and build similar expressways in MP also.

11:30 am              : Solan

The view was breath taking and all the green, step farming and charming towns, quaint little villages and hamlets on the way were very beautiful. We were amazed at the cleanliness on the way and the Himachal Pradesh had done a wonderful job of keeping crass commercialisation at bay by not allowing non Himachalis to own property on the hills. Also, because plastic is not allowed and banned in Himachal Pradesh, we did not find any plastic bags, covers, Lays and Kurkure packets and plastic bottles. We passed by Solan ay 11.30 am. Solan is called the “Mushroom Capital of India. It is a beautiful city and we passed by the Jaypee University.

12:30 am              : Shimla

We reached Shimla and drove through the town. We were finally glad and heaved a sigh of relief for finally having made it to our destination after three and a half days. We passed by the Central Potato Research Institute and the HP Agricultural University both of which had some very beautiful garden and landscaping. The HP University is also beautiful. We passé the Mahindra Motors Showroom and were glad at the sight.

12:55     : Dalli Tunnel      : Mashobra 6 km

We reached the Club Mahindra Resort at Mashobra at 1:30 and checked in to great relief. The Autocop alarm went off many times nad we realised “Houston we have a problem” moment had arrived again. After having bath and freshening up we had very tasty and sumptuous lunch at the resort restaurant. Ashok called the local Mahindra Motors guys and asked them to send a mechanic over to rectify our remote key problem. As he had driven non-stop for almost 22 hours with just a 2 hour sleep, he was dead tierd and went off to sleep and asked me to deal with the mechanics. They arrived at 5:30 and disabled the Autocop and made the key manual controlled. We would have to lock and open manually every time and check each and every door each and every time we parked the car. But that option was much better than having the car’s alarm go on every time we stopped and also not knowing whether the car would start again. I asked the resort people to get the car washed and finally settled in to enjoy my short stay in Shimla.

Day 3 of the Great Indian Road Trip to the Himalayas with the Roadaasura and the Beast

Day 3 - April 5, 2013

Guna to Karnal

3:55 pm to 3:55 am

The day dawned early for us. As we were very tired the previous night we slept like logs in Hotel Sara that we had checked into the previous night. The Hotel was very good and comfortable. We got up a little late at 7:00 am and got ready. We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and Ashok set out to the Rishab Auto the service centre of Mahindra motors in Guna. Ashok’s friend Anand who is the DGM of India Garage had called his counterpart, Archana Dixit at Guna and intimated her about the urgency of the situation. Both her and the works Manager Ankit Pachauri took special interest in our situation and started work on our car with all the mechanics at their disposal.

Me, Apsara and Amrita stayed in the hotel room. I took the time available to post my first day’s post on fb.
It was 2:30 pm and Ashok called to tell us to have lunch. We had packed and were all set to leave. So we went to the restaurant and had very tasty lunch and also got some lunch packed for Ashok. We checked out of the hotel and brought all the luggage downstairs and sat down to wait for Ashok.  Ashok returned with the car at 3:50 and we finally set out of Guna at 3:55.

Again we were driving through the crazy MP roads. The two-laned roads that had no road divider. People walking on the roads, sitting on the roads. Trucks and buses. I noticed that the number of private cars was very less throughout MP as compared to other states. I wondered whether the state of roads was the reason for hte less number of private cars or the less number of private cars was the reason for the state of the roads.

We encountered quite a few traffic jams that were very peacefully sorted out by the MP walas. Whenever there was a traffic jam, there was no honking as is common in Bangalore, no shouting, no fights, did not see any traffic policemen or regular policemen. The people, usually a tempo driver or a truck driver or an auto driver took the initiative and the traffic jam would get moving slowly but surely.

5:45 pm                : Gwalior 117 km away

6:00 pm                : Gwalior 105 km away

1^st Fuel fill up stop            : 43.87 lts             : Rs. 2349.67       Trip metre 1995 km

8:40 pm                : Crossed Gwalior             : roads are still bad          : Agra 104 kms away

9:20 pm                : Agra 64 kms away          : Roads are amazing now. 4-lane with divider.

Finally we were back on 4-lane roads. The roads had road divider. There were signs at regular intervals and reflectors and early warning systems. We were finally relieved to be out of the mess that we had inadvertently got into from Adilabad and were in for the past 48 hours.

10:00 pm              : Agra 27 kms away

10:20 pm              : Had very tasty Kulfi at Agra

we were so happy to finally be o good roads that we decided to celebrate by eating some Kulfi. We found a very nice Kulti cart and had two Kulfis each as a mark of victory over uncertainty and unpredictability.

11:15 pm              : Entered Yamuna Express Highway         : Delhi 197 kms away

11:20                     : Toll Stop            : Rs. 320

It was beautiful to drive through the Yamuna Express Highway. It is a 6-lane international standard highway and a sheer beauty to drive on. We were cruising along and Ashok surprisingly maintained a steady 100 km/hr because the signs kept reminding at regular intervals that the speed limit was 100 km/hr. Ashok was getting sleepy and the kids were fast asleep on the back seat. I kept cracking lame jokes and kept a chatter going to keep Ashok awake.

When it became really unbearable, he stopped at the exit point. We ate the left-over food from Hotel Sara. It was still tasty and the kids also woke up to have a share of their bite as well. Suddenly three dogs came charging out of nowhere smelling the food and we had to keep shooing them away continuously. It was surprising to see dogs on Yamuna Express Highway.

We started again and soon entered Delhi at 2:15 pm.

2:30 am                : Fuel fill up         : 34.74 lts             : Rs. 1684             : Trip mileage 2418

Navigating through Delhi was tough as we had to drive through Delhi to reach the Karnal – Chandigarh highway. We crossed Delhi at around 3.30 pm and drove on the Karnal road. We started hunting for a hotel to stay and found that all the ones on the highway were full and did not have any rooms. Ashok was really sleepy and could not drive any more. After the Shock absorber spring breaking episode at Bangalore and the Alloy wheel breaking episode at Guna, we had the third road trip experience. Ashok drove into a petrol bunk and parked the car under bright lights. At 4:00 am we closed all the windows and locked the doors and slept in the petrol bunk.

On this day Ashok became ROADAASURA from Monster Driver.

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.

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 ....