DEV BHOOMI - Day 2

5th July2010

All three of us wake up at around 4.45 am after a fitful sleep. Raring to go and achieve our next objective, Chandigarh before nightfall. Only matter of concern is the Bandh/ Strike call. We decide to move out anyway, and handle matters as they come.

5.30 am on the dot, our tea arrives with bread and butter sandwiches. Finish up and leave RTDC, Hotel Panna, Chittorgarh at around 6.00am. The town is just waking up from its slumber, but we were glad to see a lot of trucks on the road. Maybe the Bandh is not happening. Have to pass through the town, across a railway crossing, before we reach NH76. The roads are not too crowded at this point of time, and we reach NH76 at around 6.20 am.

Once again the roads are great, and this being part of the Golden Quadrilateral, very well maintained. We stop at a local road side dhaba to have a real breakfast at around 8.00 am. Its double omelet and parathas for breakfast. Bread not available.

A very cloudy and gloomy day. One look at the sky and we know that there is a lot of rain in store for us.

Proceeded onwards, heading towards Jaipur. Passed the Ajmer/ Nasirabad exit at around 9.20 am. Lovely roads, again well maintained, with adequate space for parking of trucks.

Reached the Kishangarh - Jaipur GVK Expressway at around 9.45 am. Traffic was a little dense. Maybe a little lesser than on my first drive through the expressway in January 2010. Did not feel like there was a Bandh on. A few towns on the way had their shops shut. But that was about it. Passed a place named Dudu. Arshad was highly amused by the name and insisted that I take a snap, so that it is recorded for posterity! Managed to buy a plastic pipe for the funnel from a shop in Mahela town. This is one expressway, where the towns are on either side of the road and not barricaded, unlike the Mumbai-Pune and Baroda-Ahmedabad expressways. Smooth roads nonetheless. Onwards to Jaipur, and we are greeted with showers. Reached the Jaipur end of the expressway by around 11.00 am.

Onto the Jaipur bypass, heading towards Delhi. Take a tea break at a local roadside dhaba. The lunch being prepared for some truck drivers, looks delicious. We are tempted to order some, but we resist the urge as we are really not too hungry. So teas it is and then some more snaps. Our first group photo happens.

Reach Kotputli at 1.30 pm. and encounter our first real traffic jam. One look at the place and you know that the Bandh/ Strike is not successful here! Tank up with diesel at a BPCL pump on the main road and move on. Cross Behror at 2.00 pm and head on towards Shajahanpur. (The place has to have a history lesson, will try to find out the next time I drive through). Stop a little after the toll plaza for lunch at a local dhaba. Again order simple veg food, 1 paneer dish, one dal and roti. It begins pouring while we are having lunch. Finish lunch and head off into the rain, towards Delhi.

Cross into Haryana state at around 3.50 pm, Manesar (NSG Headquarters, remember them?) passes us by, and before we know it we are at Gurgaon, paying toll at the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway toll plaza.

Reach the IGI airport at 5.00 pm and then we are in the maze that is Delhi. From hereon it takes us around an hour to get to the Grand Trunk road: NH1, that will take us to Ambala and onwards to Chandigarh. Lots of Bridge construction, Road widening, Metro work happening on account of the Commonwealth Games 2010, scheduled in October. Will all the works be completed? Lets wait and see?

We are at the Sonepat exit at 6.30 pm. Decide to stop at one of the many dhabas here, adjoining the highway. All of them are huge, really huge. Some of the dhabas are fully Air Conditioned. (Now whoever heard of AC dhabas?) Move on and reach Panipat town. There is a huge 4km long elevated road over the highway, with the town on both sides of the highway. Smooth sailing because of the elevated road. Dinesh is on the phone, arranging for accommodation at Chandigarh. Good news, we are to stay at the Officers Mess, Chandigarh Police Lines. (It pays to have contacts). All through this stretch of the highway, there are diversions for road widening, flyover construction, etc. Progress is a little slow due to this. Some traffic snarls too!

We reach Ambala at around 9.15, fill up diesel at a BPCL pump. I call up Jassi paaji (Jasbir Singh Bachal) for eating options in Ambala. He suggests Puran Singh Dhaba on the highway, but unfortunately we have already passed the place, no point turning back. Go a little further and stop at Paradise Tourist Resort and have dinner. Slow service, decent food. Its almost an hour since we stopped. Time to move on.

Reach Chandigarh at 11.00 pm after passing through the Ambala-Chandigarh Toll Plaza at 10.35 pm. Expressway is sort of a misnomer, its a nice and wide two lane road. Finally reach Chandigarh Police lines after asking for directions from a couple of people.

Ofiicers Mess, huge AC room, really big bath cum toilet. Wash up. Speak to the attendant, who assures us of tea at 7.00 am. No need to really start early tomorrow. Just around 400+ kms to Manali, our next halt. So we can safely leave by around 9.00 am. Watch a little TV and off to sleep.

To be continued.....................

DEV BHOOMI - Day 1

4th July 2010.

The day had finally arrived, when I set out on my long cherished dream of DRIVING down (or should I say up) to LADAKH. I am accompanied on this crazy (that's what people kept telling me) dream drive by two of my dear friends:- Dinesh Maskeri(R) and Arshad Husain(L), both probably as crazy as me.

and my old faithful Bolero Sportz 2004.

Left the house at 4.00 am (Yeah that's right), to be greeted by pouring rains. What a start! Picked up Dinesh and then Arshad from their residences, and we were on our way. Reached Dahisar Toll plaza by around 4.50 am. That is the last we would be seeing of Bombay for the next 15 days.

Made good time on the road, even though it was pouring. The NH8 running through Maharashtra till the Gujarat border is nothing to write home about. But Gujarat is another story altogether. The roads are wider and better surfaced. There are stretches, where some flyover construction is going on, but the diversions are clearly marked and the road itself is not too bad. Stopped at Udwada to have breakfast and teas. Dinesh took over the driving from this point and managed to keep up a good speed.

After Surat the road gets even better. We stop somewhere near the Kosamba exit for a tea break. The Surat - Bharuch section is actually a 6 lane highway. Before you know it you are at the bridge over the river Narmada. Onwards to Baroda and we reach the Baroda exit at around 11.30 am. Time to refuel before we hit the Baroda-Ahmedabad Expressway (NE-1).

The NE -1 is a nice stretch of tarmac and you can easily keep a very fast pace, without having to worry about potholes, etc. We reach the Udaipur exit at around 1.00 pm.

Onto the Ahmedabad ring road, where we stop at a place called Hotel Gaamthi, a very ethnic kind of place, with lots of charpoys. Have a delicious Kathiawadi meal, topped with some cooling Chaas. Leave after an hour (too much time wasted, in my opinion) and head towards Udaipur. Unfortunately miss a turn and then take a wrong turn. Better sense prevails and ask around for directions. Finally onto the right road, Chiloda circle. This part of the road is a 2 lane highway, well paved, but 2 lane nonetheless. A little crowded at places.

Finally onto the 4 lane NH 8, again superb roads. Make good time. Arshad driving. We enter Rajasthan at around 6.00 pm. Stop for teas at a roadside dhaba, at Bichiwada.

Sitting in the back and enjoying the drive, A.C. full on and then suddenly, start getting a burning smell in the car. Panic sets in. Its the first day, this should not be happening! All three of us step out of the car: Maybe the brakes are jammed, Maybe the tyres are under inflated/overinflated, Maybe there is loss of coolant, Maybe a thousand other things have gone wrong. Call the mechanic in Bombay. As luck would have it, he does not pick up his phone (Its a Sunday, remember). Do a thorough visual check and find no fault. The smell has stopped now. Decide to drive on. I take over the wheel. Drive on for few klicks, without the A.C. No problem. Heave a sigh of relief. Put on the A.C. as it has started raining and the glasses get fogged up. Go on for a few more kms. and the smell starts again. Stop car, get out, check again, nothing unusual. Again no smell after the car has stopped. Decide to drive on, without A.C.

And then it starts pouring. I guess the NHAI did not take into account this amount of rain over a short period of time. There was water logging at many places on the highway. By the way, the Bolero has this nasty habit of spraying water on itself (sort of like an elephant) and more specifically on the windscreen, whenever it passes through a large collection of water. Believe me it is scary, you can't see a thing on the road. The only prudent thing to do is to slam on your brakes and wait for the water to drain off before proceeding. (Wipers don't help). Went through a series of starts and stops due to the rains and the water logging. On the flip side the burning smell somehow had not reappeared. Progress was a little slower than anticipated.

Managed to reach the Udaipur bypass at around 7.30 pm. Contemplated, whether to carry on till Chittorgarh or halt for the night at Udaipur? Chittorgarh it was, so made a call to RTDC Panna in Chittorgarh and booked ourselves a room for the night. Drove on through the rain, with pretty poor visibility. Average speed had reduced considerably.

All through, we were discussing the possibility of not being able to drive onwards tomorrow, because of the Bandh call given by all the opposition parties. Decided we would face that hurdle tomorrow and concentrate on reaching Chittorgarh tonight. Reached Chittorgarh town at around 9.15 pm. Headed straight to the Petrol Pump, to tank up. Decided on filling the spare fuel cans for the next day as a precautionary measure, in case of the Bandh/Strike being enforced and petrol pumps across the route being shut.

Reached RTDC Panna at around 9.30pm. Checked in to our room. Very decent and large. Ordered food at the restaurant and had a simple dinner. Paid up for the room, the dinner and for the next days breakfast and teas, which we insisted, be served at the unearthly hour of 5.30 am. The staff was quite accommodating and assured us that we would have teas and breakfast at 5.30!

Retire to our room, wash up and discuss plans for the next day. Hope we reach Chandigarh before nightfall, hope the burning smell doesn't appear again, hope the bandh/strike doesn't affect the highways and a lot of other hopes!

to be continued...................