Disclaimer: Take a bucket of popcorn & the beverage of your choice to go with it, this is going to be a long one.
Prologue:
Visiting every state of this vast country has been a dream we have been nurturing for a decade now. But it always looked too big task a to be put into a plan. During the lock-down 1 when we had nothing to do, in one of the discussions this topic appeared. During the discussion we realized it has taken us more than 10 years just to explore 4 southern states of India. At this rate it would take very long to achieve the dream of visiting all states. So we decided we needed at least one destination in every state to make a plan & state capital was an easy option, hence the state capitals were chosen.
Curiosity to know exactly how big this drive could be, took us to google maps. Half a day of a weekend went into making a route plan & during this process the UTs were added too. The final picture confirmed that this is not a practical thing to do. But since we had put in so much effort to make a plan, I added all the data to an excel file & saved it.
On 28th Dec 2020 I read an article in News paper where a couple from Bangalore had been to all state capitals on their bikes. This reminded me of the excel file I had saved. Got in touch with them and spoke to them about their experience.
Post this, we stopped thinking that this trip is not possible & we started thinking what if we do this trip.
Planning & Preparation:
We were sure irrespective of what we do, with this Covid waves coming one after another, it was impossible to decide on when a long trip like this can be planned.
But there was a shift in thinking from not possible to do the trip to what do we need to do to make this trip happen. ( I sound like Robert Kiyosaki who has famously told, "never say I cant afford it ask yourself what do I need to do to afford it." ). And this brought a list of challenges to work on as we started planning for the trip.
First thing we did as part of the planning was to breakdown this trip into one destination at a time.
Few questions we were looking for the answer were:
How long will it take to reach the destination?
Does it need a pit-stop or can it be done in a day?
If it needs pit stop what it should be?
Once we reach destination what are the local attractions to see? ( We decided to pick 2 per destination considering the time constraint )
Is there anything on the way to visit without taking a big detour?
What is the best time to visit?
Since India was gripped with deadly wave 2 of Covid we knew we could only gather information and feed it to Excel at that moment. And that is what we did with out even thinking about when we can actually start this trip.
At the end of this exercise we realized it could take us approximately 8 weeks to complete this trip and the distance could be anywhere in between 15,500 - 16,500 KMs. And we arrived at 2 possible time window to do this trip Oct - Dec or Mar - May.
Final route plan with destinations marked in sequence looked like this.
Oct - Feb is our favorite time to travel as the weather is ideal and nature is also at its best. Most of our past road trips have been in this time. But Oct 21 was when India was going through wave 3 with covid numbers rising. Also monsoon extended itself till Dec and there were floods in northern part of India. So it looked unlikely. We were not very keen on summer time as it is never pleasant to do a road trip in hot summer. But we were also not sure if it is wise to wait for Oct 22. A decision was made to start this travel as soon as we see wave 3 numbers starts going down and threat of another lock-down diminishes.
The biggest challenge with both the time window we had chosen was it was not very conducive for visit to Leh. But cant alter plan because of 1 out of 35 destinations we had planned. So we decided to leave Leh as probably not possible and go ahead with rest of the plan.
Next challenge was how do we do this trip in a car that is almost 10 years old. Also it is a hatchback so luggage carrying capacity, ground clearance and all these factors come into picture. We decided to remove the backseat and make space for the luggage & also travel as light as possible. This means we needed more laundry breaks. We started looking for which of the destinations are covered by Airbnb to rent a house with washing machine facility, that data was fed into the excel as well. All this was done without even knowing when we will actually be able to start this trip. It was just the desire that we wanted to do it rather than anything else.
By end of Dec 21, wave 3 peaked and it looked like starting the trip in Mar - May 22 a real possibility. Then my mind started playing games with me. I have done multiple road trips over the years. But none of them had been of this scale. My longest trip has been for about 2 weeks and not crossing 2000 KMs. And I had never driven beyond Konkan region in Maharashtra. So this was at least 4 -5 times bigger in terms of time and 8 times bigger in terms of distance. And 10 year old Skoda was also creating enough doubts in mind. Skoda has limited service centers across India and just 1 in entire NE. Decided not to doubt the car which has never us down in any road trip till now.
The places we have been to prior to starting this trip
But idea of driving 16000 KMs alone looked like a mammoth task and I kept thinking if it foolhardy to embark on a trip like this. My wife kept encouraging me saying "I know you can do it". Her desire to do this trip made sure she overlooked all possible challenges. I eventually decided not to look at it as a single road trip and look at it in pieces from one destination to another. This approach helped and the mental block disappeared. We also knew that the biggest challenge in this trip is going to be how we cope with constant change in food and weather condition on daily basis.
Once the wave 3 numbers started reducing we decided to start the trip by 3rd week of Feb. Anyways Leh was considered not possible so there was no reason to delay it.
Got new set of wheels for the car, got the annual service done along with thorough checkup of the car to prepare for this trip. But some unfinished business delayed the proceedings and we could not start the trip as intended. In the process I had already driven about 2000 KMs after getting the car ready for the trip. Finally the date for the trip was decided as 20th Mar. Now only and the biggest hurdle in front of us was to convince our parents to allow us to go for this trip. It took some time and persuasion, eventually that was done too.
As part of planning we made following rules for us to adhere to :
1) Consider this like a marathon and not a sprint.
2) No driving in the nights, driving window to be between 7 AM - 6 PM.
3) Do not drive beyond 7 hours in a day unless it is unavoidable.
4) Not to cross 110 KMs speed limit irrespective of how good the road is. ( I was able to stick to it in most parts)
5) Eat light, do not experiment much with food to avoid stomach upsets.
Route: Bangalore - Panjim - Mumbai - Dadra - Daman - Diu - Gandhinagar - Bhopal - Jaipur - New Delhi - Chandigarh - Jammu - Srinagar - Leh - Shimla - Dehradun - Lucknow - Patna - Gangtok - Guwahati - Itanagar - Kohima - Imphal - Aizawl - Agarthala - Shillong - Ranchi - Kolkatta - Bhubaneshwar - Raipur - Hyderabad - Amaravati - Chennai - Puducherry - Thiruvananthapuram - Bangalore.
We decided not to remove the back seat and split the luggage into 2 sections. Boot was filled with all the clothes and shoes which will not be unloaded on daily basis. All the accessories, camera, laptop, snacks, water cans, clothes to be carried to the room on daily basis were in the back seat. We were also carrying an electric multi cooker and good life milk packets to make our morning coffees. This cooker can also be used to cook maggi if needed. Added hooks to the car seat head rests which helped us to hang few small bags that holds things which might be needed to be accessed on the move. One of the hook was dedicated for garbage cover.
Luggage waiting for the car
Car waiting to be on the road
Luggage loaded
Road trip begins
Bangalore - Panjim:
A couple of days prior to starting this trip, we had visited some popular places in Bangalore to kick start the trip.
Vidhana Soudha looks like a golden palace in early morning sun light
State central Library
Cubbon Park
Day 1: 20/03/2022
Everyone knows how difficult it is to get a good night sleep before starting the trip because of all excitement, we too had similar experience and woke up by 3:15 AM. Most of the luggage was already loaded in the car the previous night. We got ready and left home by 4:30 AM. It had rained a bit the previous night and when we started it was still drizzling.
At this hour you dont have to worry about any traffic on the road, so it was a trouble free drive to NICE road and from there we took an exit to hit Tumkur road. We took our first tea break as soon as we hit Tumkur road. We generally start the trip early for 2 reasons; beat the traffic and find a nice spot to watch sunrise. But with cloud cover, there was no luck with sunrise, so we drove on. Our next stop was for breakfast around 7:30 AM.
This guy was enjoying an early morning drive too
Our next stop was near Hubli at this UP Daba for a tea, it was around 9:30 AM. We also stopped to buy some Dharwad peda for the road. It was still cloudy, which was pleasant to drive. Road condition was pretty good except for a stretch of 25 - 30 KMs after Dharwad.
We stopped for our lunch in Ramnagar at 12:45 PM, post this next stop was for fuel after crossing to Goa. We spotted this under renovation structure in Goa and stopped take few photos.
Safa Masjid
We reached Panjim by 3:30 PM and went to visit the monument we had planned to visit.
Panjim
Immaculate Conception Church
Every junction in Panjim was decorated like this
We had not booked any room for our night stay. This is the first experience for us to travel without booking a place. Our bookings are done well in advance all the time. This trip is different in every count from all the road trips we had done till date.
Quick internet search, found some hotels nearby and called them. Few were full, found a couple of them, didnt like them once we visited there.
Finally found a hotel in Dona Paula and checked in by 5:00 PM. We got freshened up, went to visit the Dona Paula beach. Because of cloud cover there was no chance of watching sunset. Had some snacks and returned to room.
Dona Paula beach
We were not very hungry by dinner time, so had some snacks for dinner and called it quit for the day.
Route taken: Bangalore - Chitradurga - Dharward - Ramnagar - Panaji
What we covered so far
Panaji - Mumbai:
Day 2: 21/03/2022
Considering the distance between Panaji and Mumbai, we had decided to split this distance into 2 days. There were 2 more reasons which influenced this decision. My friends live in Pune and we had not met in a while, so this was an opportunity to meet them and this also allows us to enter Mumbai the next day avoiding the evening rush hour.
We left from Panaji around 8:30 AM and our first stop was for breakfast in a small shop called Jagan at Porvorim after exiting Panaji. We had delicious poha and tea to kick start the day.
Being a Monday we had some traffic of office goers, but it was not much of a hassle to manage. We had to go through a bad section of narrow road for 6-8 KMs and we reached to road that leads to Amboli ghat. We made it a point to top up the fuel before leaving Goa considering the difference in fuel price between Goa and Maharastra. From here the road was 2 lane but in decent condition.
We stopped for some photos on the way. We were having a leisure drive knowing that the destination can be reached well before evening. We stopped for some sabudana vada and tea near Amboli waterfalls.
After the ghat section we entered Karnataka again near Nipani and connected to butter smooth NH48. From here we continued our journey on this road till Pune. Stopped for lunch at a daba after crossing Kolhapur. And till here I was familiar with the road as I had driven in these roads in the past, from here onward it was unexplored territory for us.
Well paved NH48
First meal in a daba of this trip
Our next stop was to try some satara kandi pedas after crossing Satara city. There are a lot of shops setup on highway around Satara who sell these pedas, and if you have not tried them before, these pedas are worth a stop. Our final pit stop was in the evening just before entering Pune to try misal pav in Kailash Express Inn ( This was a recommendation from a friend ).
We reached our friends place by 6:15 PM, had to encounter some evening city traffic but considering this road trip is all about visiting capital cities encountering traffic would be unavoidable. Rest of the day was spent in catching up with pending stories of last few years. This was mostly an eat and drive kind of a day and we enjoyed every bit of it.
Route taken: Panaji-Amboli-Nipani-Satara-Pune
Day 3: 22/03/2022
We left Pune around 9:00 AM. Had breakfast at a small hotel Shivay Vadevale, this one is just before entering the expressway. Once we entered expressway going was smoother. There were some sections here which was under repair.
Display unit showed 20.5 KMPL for Pune- Mumbai Express highway when we reached Mumbai. I dont go by what is displayed for mileage, I always prefer full tank method, but still I cant recall seeing a mileage of 20 + ever. We reached Navi Mumbai by 11:15 AM. We had to meet friends here. A quick hello and some snacks and we were off from here by 12:30 PM. Reached Gateway Of India by 1:30 PM. We spent almost an hour here clicking photos. It was cloudy and it was threatening to rain, but thankfully rain stayed away.
There was a Shivaji Maharaj statue tooo
Taj of Mumbai
We left from here at 2:30 PM. Our next destination was Malad, to meet another friend. We were given strict instructions to have a very light lunch and I knew I had to take him seriously. We drove via the famous Bandra Worli sea link road. Traffic was building up and going was slow. We reached Malad by 4:00 PM.
We left Malad after having some lip smacking home made Maharastrian snacks at 5:00 PM to Borivali, where we had planned to stay in a friends house. Though it was just around 10 KMs drive it took us almost an hour because of bad road condition and lot of traffic. Reached Borivali at 6:00 PM. By late evening rest of my friends and their families were also under one roof. Didn't realize how rest of the evening went by. Around 10:30 PM (Late evening in Mumbai) we decided to end the day with an ice cream and we stormed into an ice cream shop near by who was closing the business for the day. He couldnt resist the temptation of serving a big group of people, hence the business was done behind half closed doors. Perfect end for the day.
Route taken : Mumbai Pune Expressway
What we covered so far
Mumbai - Dadra - Daman - Diu:
Day 4: 23/03/2022
By the time friends left, it was past midnight, so we slept around 1 AM and woke up by 7. Had breakfast and left from Borivali by 9:45 AM. Advantage of staying in Borivali was we didn't have to struggle much to exit the city traffic to connect to Mumbai - Ahmedabad highway. It was cloudy and windy day. Just before exiting Maharastra a 20 lt empty water can came flying from some where and hit the car bumper. That's how strong the wind was, but thankfully no damage was done, I am guessing it hit the wheel instead of bumper which saved the car, lucky escape.
Once we crossed to Gujarat we spotted a beautiful temple on the roadside at Nandigram, Sri Simandarswami Jain Thirth. We spent about an hour exploring this temple and taking photos. A thing to note about this temple: For men, you need to wear pant/dhoti and for women covering the head is a must. If you are not carrying the attire needed, it is available for free to use in the temple.
We continued our journey from here and reached Dadra. The first thing we did here was to hunt for a petrol station and fill fuel (never miss a chance to fill fuel in a UT). One thing that surprised us about Dadra was the number of outlets selling marble stones for flooring, never knew this was a hub for it. We reached Sri Swami Narayan temple, Dadra by 1:00 PM. Temple closes by 12:00 PM, we spoke to the staff in charge there and took permission to click some photos from outside.
A beautiful temple, wish were in time to visit and check from inside. It was opening for public only at 4 PM, 3 more hours of wait was not possible for us on that day, so we decided to continue.
We stopped for lunch near Vapi around 1:45 PM. Post lunch we drove on and reached Daman by 2:45 PM. Here we first went to visit St Joreme Fort, a small fort built by Portuguese in 17th century.
From here our next stop was Daman beach and light house. Since it was very hot we didn't spend much time here in the beach. And black sand on the beach ( mostly because of the oil extraction in this area) didn't encourage us either.
There are some facilities for adventure sport here
We left Daman by 4:00 PM and continued our journey. On the way stopped for a tea in Valsad. Reached Surat where we had booked our accommodation for the night and checked in by 6:30 PM. Road condition was very good in most places. There were some bad patches once we entered Dadra and the route to Daman via Vapi also had some broken patches with huge potholes. We ended the day with a delicious Gujarati thali @ Purohit thali, Surat. This is a very famous restaurant, right opposite to Surat railway station. Wonderful food, but be ready for mad rush here.
Route taken: Mumbai - Nandigram - Dadra - Daman - Surat
Day 5: 24/03/2022
We checked out of hotel in Surat by 9:15 AM after breakfast. We were in for a sweet surprise when we saw our car shining clean in the parking area. Hotel staff had done complimentary car wash for us. We had bit of traffic to manage till we crossed Bharuch. We stopped for a coffee break @ McD in Bharuch. This place has clean toilets, so a recommended place for break on this route. From here traffic eased out and going was smooth.
We found some road side vendors selling local fruits and stopped to pick some for the road.
After crossing Vadodra traffic was almost non existent.
Wood Apple
Sweet tamarind/ Jungle Jalebi/ Madras thorn
Mulberry
We took deviation to state highway at Vataman. From here it was mix of 4 lane and 2 lane highway, but they were all well paved roads. We stopped for a buttermilk here. A little further ahead we spotted Vatnam Chokdi Dharmadham Adhinath Jain temple. Stopped here to take couple of quick photos before we moved further.
Once we crossed Sanes we got to see a lot of salt fields on the road side all the way up to Bhavnagar. We had booked our accommodation in Bhavnagar for the day and we reached our hotel by 4:30 PM. After check in, had some snacks and tea as we had skipped our lunch.
This entire stretch the road was of excellent condition, did not encounter even one patch of bad road. Gujarat has lived up to the reputation of having best roads so far for us.
Route taken : Surat - Bharuch - Vadodra - Vataman - Sanes - Bhavnagar
We took some rest as it was very hot outside. In the evening went out in search of famous Gujarati sweets to Muni Pedewala. This is certainly a recommended place to try the Gujarati sweets in Bhavnagar.
Thandi Penda
Rajbhog Mattho
Kesar Shrikhand
Kesar & sada churma laddoo
By now one of the rules we had made of not experimenting much with food had gone out of the window.
Day 6: 25/03/2022
We checked out of our hotel in Bhavnagar around 9:00 AM after our breakfast. We took route towards Somnath and Dwarka. This is a 4 lane coastal highway under construction. So most of the places road was broken to non existent. Going was slow because of the road condition.
Overhead condition was pleasant with good cloud cover.We stopped for a tender coconut at a place called Vadli.
Spotted these kingfishers resting after their breakfast
Saw this Skoda fan in Vadli
Spotted this colorful temple on the way
Spotted this jugadu setup where some sort of a vehicle has been converted into a mobile sugarcane juice shop
By the time we reached Diu it was 3 PM. It took us almost 6 hours to cover a distance of 200 KMs because of the poor / under construction road condition. Had our lunch in Diu and checked into the guest house we had booked around 3:30 PM.
Route taken : Bhavnagar - Trapaj - Talaja - Bhaguda - Mahuva - Pipavar - Timbli - Una - Diu
We had spotted some flamingos when were approaching Diu, this was about 8 - 9 KMs from the guesthouse we had booked. Since it was very hot in the afternoon and also we were very hungry we skipped taking the deviation to watch them from close quarters and proceeded straight away. Afternoon heat was severe, so by the time we decided to go out it was almost 5:30 PM. We spoke to the guest house owner and got our stay extended by a day to explore Diu. We also spoke to a working staff there who agreed to wash our clothes for an extra fee.
First we visited INS Kukhri memorial (a must visit place in Diu).
From here we went to Gangeshwar Mahadev temple. Specialty of this temple is, during the high tides sea water enters the temples through a small canal engraved in stone and washes the shiv lings.
Had thepla and tea after the temple visit
After the temple visit we visited the Khodidhar beach's sunset point and waited for the sunset to conclude the day.
There was this colorful temple too on the beach
Car was enjoying some cool sea breeze
Day 7: 26/03/2022
We woke up early and went to Ghoghola beach, but since it was cloudy, could not witness the sunrise. From here we went on in search of flamingos that we had spotted the previous day.
We reached wet lands at Naliya Mandvi, but there were no flamingos. Instead there were a lot of pelicans and other water birds. Spent an hour here clicking photos.
Pelicans
Black winged Stilt
Citrine wagtail female
Black tailed Godwit
Naliya Mandvi wetland
From here we went to Fudam bird sanctuary expecting to see some flamingos. This place was disappointing and there were no birds here. We spotted Fudam church in front of it and visited. After the church visit we went to have our breakfast and returned to guest house by 10:00 AM.
We handed over the clothes to be washed and took some rest. We left again around 12:00 PM to visit Diu Fort. This is a huge area and needs at least an hour to explore.
Pani Kotha, this was prison during Portuguese era, also used to keep a watch on sea movement in the later stages
There was a light house too in the fort
We left from Diu fort in an hour. We visited St. Paula's church and Diu museum. Museum was closed, not sure if it is operational. After this we had our lunch and returned to guest house by 3:00 PM.
In the evening we went to visit Diu port. If you like colors this is the place to be. Most colorful boats you get to see in one place. Clicked some lovely photos here and went to watch sunset to Jalandhar beach. But because of cloud cover we could not watch the sunset. Had some maggi, lemon soda and just sat on the beach side till 8:00 PM and returned back to room.
We collected the clothes which were given for washing and paid the balance amount to the guest house owner. We had planned to checkout early in the morning, so we didnt want to keep any formalities for the morning.
Diu - Gandhinagar:
Day 8: 27/03/2022
As planned woke up early and left Diu by 7 AM. Guest house owner had warned us that road condition is not that good, so we needed time to reach Gandhinagar. As soon as we exited Diu gate, our car completed a milestone.
At around 8:00 AM we stopped in a small town called Dhokadava for our breakfast.
Fafda
Jalebi & Channa laddoo
Methi Bhajiya
This entire route is via state highway and Major District Road (MDR) . In most parts the road is narrow, but condition of the road is good. Because the road passes through villages and towns the going was slower.
It was a very hot day, so we took breaks to hydrate ourselves very often. Our first break post breakfast was at Amreli for a tea, then a tender coconut at Botad. We stopped for lunch at Dhandukha at around 1:00 PM. Post lunch we drove on and stopped for fuel in Ahmedabad around 3:00 PM. Our next stop was at Adalaj Stepwell at 3:50 PM. It was about 42 degree here, but once we entered the step well area temperature cooled down by good 10 degrees, an amazing structure.
This place was crowded, so we left from here in 30 mins and reached our hotel in Gandhinagar by 4:30 PM. In the evening we went to visit Aksharadhama temple which was at walk-able distance from our hotel. Here no camera and phone are allowed inside, so no scope to take photos.
We saw another temple at a distance so we went in search of entry gate. After asking around and misguided a couple of times, we finally reached the temple.
Vishwa Maitri Dham Borij Jain Tirth
We returned to our hotel room post sunset. Took some rest and went out to try some street food. Also tried some desert in Radhe Prem Ni Mithaiwala and called it a day.
There is one thing you need to be extremely careful about when you drive in Gujarat, people here have the habit of opening the door of moving car to spit the gutka they are eating. So watch out if you are looking overtake someone.
Kaju Anjeer Mattha & Green Apple Mattha
Kesar Dudh
Route taken: Diu - Amreli - Lathi - Gadhara - Ranpur - Bagodara - Balva - Ahmedabad - Gandhinagar
What we covered so far
Gandhinagar - Bhopal:
Day 9: 28/03/2022
We left from our hotel in Gandhinagar around 8:30 AM after our breakfast. We took NH 48 and drove on. Nothing much to see on this route. Road condition is very good in most places especially till we cross Gujarat. Traffic was manageable too. Our first break for tea was at Menpura at a hotel called Pet Pooja. This hotel has very impressive art work across all the walls.
Once you take a turn from NH48 to NH47 there are not many food options available, so plan accordingly.
For those who want to take advantage of difference in fuel prices before crossing Guj to MP, there are hardly any fuel stations closer to border. An IOC fuel station is available closer to Dahod, I guess about 2 -3 kms before Dahod (this is about 25 km before border), but it sells only Diesel. If you want petrol, take a deviation off NH47 to Dahod smart city, at about 500 mts in, you have another IOC station where you can fill petrol. Found one more Reliance petrol station after Dahod, I think it was after about 8 Kms or so. As I had already filled petrol, didnt check what is available here. No fuel stations after this in Guj on this route.
Once we crossed to MP, road condition deteriorated a bit and driving in the opposite direction at whatever speed you like became legal. We stopped for lunch at Dattigao in a daba. It appears that toll charges are much higher in MP compared to all the states we covered so far. (I could be wrong). The drive was mostly uneventful, surroundings are much drier here so there is nothing much to see around on this route.
Once we reached Indore around 4:00 PM, google map played its usual trick and took us through some real narrow lanes before we reached our hotel around 4:20 PM.
Route taken: Gandhinagar -Ahmendabad - Chandial - Kathlal - Ladvel - Godhra - Limkeda - Dahod - Jhabua - Indore
We took some rest after check in. Went out late in the evening to Chappan Dukan to experience some street food. This was at walk-able distance from our hotel. You get to eat a variety of food here and the place is maintained really clean.
Day 10: 29/03/2022
We checked out of our hotel by 8:00 AM and went to Chappan Dukan for our breakfast. Had Indori Poha and tea. City was yet to wake up completely, so we had no traffic to negotiate while exiting the city.
On the way in Rolupipalya we spotted a temple and stopped to take some photos. We spent about 30 minutes here.
Pushpagiri Tirth Jain Temple
As the heat was unbearable, we left from here soon. On the way stopped for a sugarcane juice and on the outskirts of Bhopal we stopped for a tea. We reached our destination, Taj Ul Masjid by 12:30 PM. We parked the car here and went to visit the mosque.
After this we had our lunch and buttermilk at Radhe Krishna Bhojanalay right across the street from the mosque. Post lunch we had couple of attractions to visit, when we checked the map it showed just about a km of distance, so we decided to leave the car and went walking.
Shaukath Mahal is in complete shambles, not worth the visit. Clicked couple of pictures and we walked further.
Spotted this one on the way
We walked towards Gauhar Palace, this place is not open for tourists any more and some sort of cloth sale was going on when we visited. Clicked couple of photos from outside. Spotted a small garden and a huge lake right opposite to this palace. We went there to get some respite from the afternoon sun.
Uppar Lake
By now we had realized that choosing to walk during the afternoon was a bad idea, so we took an e-rickshaw to Taj Ul Masjid where we had parked our car. We had booked our stay bit outside the city to help us exit the city avoiding traffic next day. We reached our hotel by 3:30 PM.
All that walk in the hot sun had drained us completely, decided to rest for remainder of the day.
Route taken: Indore - Dewas - Ashta - Sahore - Bhopal
What we covered so far
Bhopal - Jaipur:
Day 11: 30/03/2022
We checked out of our hotel in Bhopal around 8:30 AM after our breakfast and started our onward journey. Our destination for the day was Kota. Going was good as the road condition was very good in MP. But weather was very hot, also we could not find many hotels to take tea breaks on this route.
Passed through huge number of shops where truck drivers buy their goodies.
Spotted this DJ van, mostly used in wedding processions here
Traffic was very little except for some trucks, but you have someone or the other driving on the opposite side here in entire stretch, so need to be watchful. We bought some oranges on the way as we couldnt find any hotel for lunch here.
Once we entered Rajastan, had some deviations to take because of road construction, in rest of the places it was 2 lane roads of decent condition. We spotted a hotel in Khandiya and stopped for lunch.
Farmers were taking their harvest home
Post lunch we continued and stopped near Kota at a place called Ghatotkacha circle when we spotted this massive statue. Had tea in a tea shop near by and reached our hotel by 4:30 PM.
Route taken: Bhopal - Kurawar - Narsinghgarh - Raigarh - Aklera- Jhalawar - Ranpur - Kota
Day 12: 31/03/2022
We checked out a bit early from Kota as our stay did not include breakfast. We spotted a beautiful Gurudwara just out side the Kota city. Then stopped for breakfast at a daba in Bundi.
We continued our onward journey post breakfast. Daba had just opened for the day, so it took some time to serve our breakfast. Our next stop was at another hotel at Tonk for a tea. Road condition was excellent throughout.
We had booked a house through Airbnb for 2 days in Jaipur. We reached our host's place by 12:30 PM.
Spotted one more colorful temple on the way
Route taken: Kota - Bundi - Deoli - Tonk - Niwai - Jaipur
Once we checked in, we went in search of Rajastani thali for lunch and had lunch in a place called Thali and more and it was delicious and filling.
Our host's neighbor owned this one
But to my utter surprise, I struggled to find them as their workshop does not even have a name board outside. And when i went inside it looked like a local mechanic's workshop and nothing more. Wonder how they do what they do in a place like this.
Spoke to the owner who was happy to answer most of my questions, on his request did not click any photo of the project they are currently doing.
Anyone who is interested in knowing what exactly they do, check the below links:
We returned back to the house we were staying by 4:00 PM and took some rest.
At 5:30 PM we went to visit Hawa Mahal. Traffic in these narrow city roads are difficult to manage and it took some time to reach the destination.
We returned from here and on the way stopped to see Hawa Mahal again. And reached home by 9:30 PM. Our afternoon lunch was too heavy and we had access to kitchen so we made maggi and had for dinner.
We went in search of breakfast after searching on google and shortlisting a place and found out that it was closed after reaching there. Came back and went to Laxmi Sweet corner on our host's recommendation for breakfast. Had Dhudi halwa, dry fruits laddoo, samosa and tea. Also got some ghevar parceled.
On our way back got a haircut done and also did some grocery shopping so that we can cook our meal during our stay here. Our host was kind enough to allow us to use his washing machine to wash our clothes at a nominal fee.
Post this I went in search of a tire shop and got the wheel alignment done as it was due.
Our lunch was some fruits and ghevar. Rest of the day was spent resting as we were feeling tired after relentless travel all these days. In the evening washed the car, re-arranged all the luggage in the car & cooked some sandwich for dinner and called it a day.
What we covered so far
Jaipur - Delhi:
Day 14: 02/04/2022
We left from Jaipur at 8:00 AM after thanking our hosts. We stopped for breakfast in a road side daba at Shahpura. Our next stop was once we crossed Rajastan for fuel and the next to that was in Bilaspur for a tea. This is a well traveled road, road is wide but this is an average quality road with a lot of roughed up surface to drive on.
We had some traffic to manage once we entered Gurugram, we reached our destination Qutub Minar by 1:15 PM. We had some snacks here in a food outlet near by and bought the entry tickets.
We spent almost 1.5 hours here clicking photos, what a massive structure.
We had to meet a couple of friends here, met them in City Walk Mall. Here we had our late lunch too. In the evening around 5:15 PM we checked into our hotel room.
Later in the evening went out for some street food and had momos in Aunty momos.
Spinach and beetroot momo
Route taken:Jaipur - Chandwaji - Kotputli - Behror -Gurugram - Delhi
Day 15: 03/04/2022
This was our day to explore Delhi as much as possible. We took it easy in the morning and left from our hotel around 9:45 AM to visit Humayun's Garden Mausoleum. It was a short drive and reached there in 15 mins. This is a huge complex area with multiple structures. You need about 2 hours at least to explore all of it.
Isa Khan's tomb
Afsarwala Tomb & Mosque
Bu-Halma's Tomb
Nila Gumbad
Humayun's Tomb
We left from here around 12:15 PM and reached parking area of Red Fort. We took an e-rickshaw from here and went to visit Jama Masjid.
This place was crowded, so we returned quickly after taking few photos. We returned back to Red Fort area. We were informed that we can only see it from outside. It was very crowded too, so we returned from here after a quick visit.
For lunch we had chole kulcha, chole rice and lassi. We were feeling bit uneasy after roaming around half a day in 40 + degree centigrade temperature, so we decided to return back to hotel to take some rest.
In the evening went out to try some street food and had dahi balla, ram laddoo and sev puri.
What we covered so far
Delhi - Chandigarh:
Day 16: 04/04/2022
We checked out of our hotel in Delhi at around 8:00 AM. Since there was some delay in serving breakfast we decided to have it on the way. Combination of city traffic and some construction work made sure that it took us about 90 mins to pass the city limits. Our first stop was for breakfast in Amirk Sukhdev, wonderful breakfast and airport like washroom facilities. We should thank our friends who suggested this place.
After crossing the Delhi limits the road condition improved drastically and traffic was also moderate.
Our next stop was in Kurukshetra for a lassi. We drove on and reached Chandigarh at around 1:15 PM. This city has to be the greenest city we have visited so far and cleanliness too is a notch above rest of the cities.
We checked into our hotel by 1:45 PM, had lunch and had a nice afternoon nap.
Route taken: Delhi - Panipat - Kurukshethra - Ambala - Chandigarh
In the evening we went to visit Rock garden around 5:30 PM. In hindsight wish we had reached a bit early here, there is so much to see. We were here for about 2 hours.
There was a doll museum too which was setup in the theme of a village
From here we went to sector 22, had some snacks and dinner and returned to our hotel room by 9:30 PM.
The rock garden was way better than what we had expected and certainly was the highlight of the day.
What we covered so far
Chandigarh - Jammu - Srinagar:
Day 17: 05/04/2022
We checked out of our hotel in Chandigarh by 8:15 AM after the breakfast. We filled fuel to take advantage of the lower price in a UT. There was moderate traffic till we exited the city limits. Google map suggested a route because of which we took a deviation from highway and entered a 2 lane state highway road. This road was of average quality, but we got to see some country side of Punjab. Also came across a field full of colorful flowers. On inquiring we learnt that the farmer is growing these flowers to sell the flower seeds to nurseries.
We got connected back to the highway after about 20 Kms stretch, from here onward we had excellent 4 lane highway to drive. We were also given langar prasad on the way. Our first stop of the day was and McD @Balachor. Lunch stop was at a hotel in Channi, HP. Most part of this route is in Punjab, some section in HP before you hit Jammu border.
An Auto rickshaw in Punjab
Once we entered Jammu, we had some deviations to take and had some rough patches wherever the road construction was going on. We checked into our hotel room by 3:45 PM.
Route taken: Chandigarh - Jalandar - Pathankot - Birpur - Jammu
In the evening at 5:00 PM we left our hotel to visit Mubarak Mandi palace. Google took us through some bad patch of road and we finally landed behind the palace complex. We had a steep climb from here to reach the palace.
This place is under renovation by ASI and did not look to be in good shape. There were some locals who had come to play and for evening walk here. Did not look like a favorite spot for travelers. We spent about 45 mins here and took some photos.
The museum was closed
Our next destination was Bahu fort. We tried the route suggested by google, it took us through some roads which was fit for tractors. We returned back, tried 2 different routes after asking the locals, even those did not lead us anywhere. After trying for about 45 mins, we decided to take photos from far and move on.
We could also spot a temple complex on the foot hills of this fort from far
We also got a birds eye view of the Jammu city. We went to city center area, had some snacks in a coffee shop and returned to our hotel by 7:30 PM.
Day 18: 06/04/2022
We woke up by 6:00 AM and we were ready for the most anticipated day of our journey by 8:30 AM. To begin with exit from Jammu was a breeze and road condition was pretty good.
After exiting the Jammu city, the road began to ascend steadily and road quality remained excellent with 4 lane highway throughout. And we began to see the himalayan range in the horizon.
We entered Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee tunnel. This is 9.5 KMs long engineering marvel, the longest tunnel you can drive in. Once we crossed this tunnel, we were no longer seeing the mountains, we were amongst it. From here we encountered under construction road, so had to deal with a lot of slow moving traffic and dust. After a bit of bad stretch of road, the road condition improved again and I could focus more on the nature's beauty outside.
Glacier melted to form this beautiful waterfall
We stopped for lunch at Zainbal around 1:45 PM. Toll road started from here and road condition was much better.
We entered Banihal - Quazigund tunnel. This tunnel was yet to be officially opened for public, but traffic was allowed on trial basis. This tunnel is also equally stunning and approximately 8.5 KMs in length.
Snow capped mountains started to appear in the far announcing we were closer to our destination. And we also got a glimpse of what we were going to see in terms of natural beauty.
We reached our home stay at around 4:30 PM in Srinagar. It was one heck of a drive, there were some parts of road that was challenging, but we were happy that we were in the most beautiful part of India.
Highlight of the day was driving through Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee tunnel (9.2 kms length) and Banihal - Qazikund tunnel ( 8.45 kms length).
We had to extend our stay in Srinagar due to road closure for maintenance between Sonmarg and Kargil.
You can use the following facebook link to check the route status between Srinagar and Leh.
Route taken: Jammu - Udhampur - Patni top - Ramban - Banihal - Srinagar.
Our home stay owner spoke to his relative who has a shikara business and booked his shikara for the evening ride in Dal lake. We just didnt want to to sit inside the room here. For the first time in this trip sitting out side in the sun was not a concern for us.
Spotted this Eurasian sparrow right outside the room
Around 5:30 PM we went to Dal lake for the evening shikara ride. Dal lake is at a walking distance from the guest house, so it took us less than 10 mins to reach the lake. I dont think I need to say anything about this boat ride, the photos are self explanatory.
Once the sun went down and the lights were switched on of these boat houses and shops around, this place transformed into a completely different place.
We went to the floating market area where you can shop for clothes and spices of Kashmir. Most of these shops sell things at rates guide lined by government, so you find good quality at a nominal rate.
We returned to our room after the shikara ride, had dinner and called it a day by 9:30 PM. A perfect end for an awesome day.
Day 19: 07/04/2022
We started our day leisurely, had breakfast and left from guesthouse around 10:30 AM. Our first destination was Botanical Garden. It was a short drive of 15 mins, but the route takes you around Dal lake making it a very scenic route to drive. We spent about 30 mins here clicking photos.
Spotted this Himalayan Bulbul in guesthouse premises
We left our car in the botanical garden parking area and went walking towards our next destination, Tulip garden. We were lucky to be in Srinagar during the tulip blooming season which allowed us to visit the tulip festival that happens for about 3 weeks every year in Apr - May season. We spent almost an hour here and as the crowd started to build up we left from here.
We left from tulip garden around 12:15 PM towards our next destination, Pari Mahal. BSF does a thorough check of your luggage here as this route takes you right in front of Governor's house.
We were not taking out most of our luggage from car when we check in, only things needed for a day used to go into the room. So we had all the luggage with us, all the luggage was scanned here. Do not carry your drone here (we didnt have one). Drone will not be allowed and will have to be left at the security check post. In fact this was the only time our luggage was checked in the entire trip.
We reached Pari Mahal by 12:45 PM. Parking area here is very cramped, the last 30 mt or so road is very narrow and only 1 vehicle can go at a time. Saw multiple cars taking time to get in and get out of the parking area. There was no one to manage the vehicles here when we went, which added to the mismanagement.
From Pari Mahal you get a beautiful birds eye view of the Dal lake and the mountains around it. We spent about 30 mins here. From here we went in search of a hotel for our lunch.
Had burger for lunch at a place called Kullad Chai and awesome gulab jamoon pan and mango pan in a place called Mast Banarasi Pan next door. They have some unique flavor of pans, worth a try.
We returned to guest house by 2:45 PM, took some rest. It also rained a bit once we came back to room. Rest of the evening was spent roaming in the market area around the Dal lake.
Day 20: 08/04/2022
Our original plan was to stay in Srinagar for 2 days and go to Leh from here. However traffic update suggested that the road is closed for maintenance and the expectation was, next day on wards traffic would be allowed on either side. We came to know about it previous evening as the route update happens around 5:00 PM for the next day. So we had planned to visit Gulmarg taking advantage of an additional halt day here.
We had our breakfast in a near by hotel and we were getting ready. Our guesthouse owner learnt about our plan and suggested us to visit Wular Lake instead as Gulmarg would be crowded.
We left from our guesthouse at around 10:15 AM. This lake is about 70 KMs drive outside the city. We had some traffic to negotiate inside the city because of road closures. Police closing the road temporarily and diverting traffic is a common practice in Srinagar.
Once we were out side the city, traffic was less and road condition was good too, though it was just 2 lane highway.
There were apple orchards on either side of the road on this route
After about 40 Kms of drive, road narrowed down further and we started a steady climb. Once we were on the top of the hill, we had first glimpses of the lake from above.
Last 3 Kms the road is very narrow with no tarmac, 2 cars can barely squeeze past each other here. But we had no such issue as we didnt come across any on coming vehicle while going. Finally we reached the lake around 1:00 PM. A 70 KM drive took us close to 3 hours because of multiple photo stops.
Gadwall female
Pekin duck
Indian runner duck
There were more birds here, but to try and keep the length of this blog short not adding more here. There was no one here other than us at this place. There are no shops for food or snacks here too.
We left from the lake after an hour of exploring this place. We were looking for hotel for food on the way in smaller towns. Because of Ramzan month all hotels were closed during noon. We were carrying some fruits, bought some biscuits and cake in a bakery and managed our lunch with them. We reached back our guest house by 4:30 PM. Evening was event less, went out had some snacks and returned back.
Day 21: 09/04/2022
After the Srinagar - Leh road was closed for maintenance yesterday, for today the traffic was allowed only from Leh to Srinagar, so our expectation that the traffic would be allowed from either side was wrong. This meant an additional day's stay in Srinagar as we waited for our turn to continue the journey.
Our guest house owner came up with another recommendation, that meant we change our plan to visit Gulmarg again. After visiting Wular Lake as per his recommendation it was impossible for me to neglect his recommendation. So we decided to to visit Doodhpathri.
We left the guest house around 9:15 AM after having our breakfast. As soon as we exited the city limits we had snow capped mountains in front of us and the road showed that we were going towards them.
However google soon enough directed us towards some narrow rural roads and we also started to climb the hill from here. But the suggested route was not of good condition and we kept passing through some village markets and crowded areas. So the going was slow.
We stopped for a tea break on the way and from here we decided to take help of locals for the right route. Finally We reached Doodhpathri around 12:30 PM. It took us 3 hours to cover a distance of 55 Kms.
There is an entry fee to be paid here at the gate. From here the road condition improved a bit.
After driving about 5 - 6 KMs we arrived at the parking area. We were stopped here by the pony guys who provided with horses to explore this area.
En route when we were asking for direction from locals one of the local guy had informed that we need not take the horse ride here though they compel us to take, instead we can drive through this meadows area all the way till the river bank.
So I refused to park my car and take the horse from here, after some persuasion that turned into an argument they finally let us go. So it is just a business tactic by these guys, their defense for not allowing us to drive was this is their livelihood and if we drive they loose an opportunity to make some money.
Once you drive for a KM from the parking area you get another entry gate where you have pay an entry fee. Here there are cottage facilities available to stay and also few options for trekking for those who are interested in trekking. We arrived at Shalingang river bank and parked our car. We spent almost an hour here clicking loads of photos and enjoying the nature.
We left from here at 2:30 PM, had lunch just outside the Doodhpathri main gate. There are some road side vendors who had set shop here and sold Missi roti, Maggi, khawa, chai. We had lunch in one such place. Food was good, but way expensive than we thought. But that is understandable that the only source of income is during the tourist season from the people who visit this place.
On the way back google took us through the right route and we were back in guest house in just 2 hours.
Finally got the route update that next day the traffic would be allowed from Srinagar to Leh, so washed car, did all the packing, settled the guest house bill in the evening and called it a day.
What we covered so far
Srinagar - Leh:
Day 22: 10/04/2022
We had started this trip thinking visiting Leh might not be possible, but we were about to start our day driving towards Leh. So we thanked our luck for making it possible for us to visit Leh in the beginning of the travel season.
As per the J&K traffic police guidelines, we had to cross Sonmarg gate by 8:00 AM. We woke up at 4:00 AM, got ready and checked out of guesthouse by 5:00 AM. Initially going was bit slow because of multiple reasons like morning walkers had taken up most part of the road, it was still dark and foggy so visibility was poor and lot of places the barricades were kept to slow down the traffic as we exited the city limits.
We stopped for a tea after crossing the Srinagar city. By then we could see that the day break was happening and the peaks were already lit with the sun light. A wonderful sight.
Road condition was OK in most places and average in some, but there was nothing to be alarmed about.
We reached Sonmarg at around 7:15 AM, well within the time we had to cross. From here onward we let all the drivers in hurry go at their pace and slowed down considerably to enjoy the surroundings. By now we had enough light to see around too.
Sun kissed Sonmarg
After crossing Sonmarg our photo stops were almost one every KM or so. It was not possible for us to not to take a photo at every turn and twist as the terrain kept changing. The best part is you just need to point at any direction and shoot, no photographic skills needed.
Road condition from Sonmarg was switching between average, bad and worse very often and melting snow had made the road wet all over. But we were happy to drive slowly and soak in all the beauty around. There were a lot of taxis racing with each other and trucks trying to cope with the terrain which made sure that the going slowed down further. Every traffic jam was an opportunity for us to step out and take some photos.
We reached Zojila pass around 10:00 AM. Zojilla was very windy and cold, car indicated external temperature as -5 degrees.
We drove on from Zojilla pass, the road condition improved a bit from here. This is when we realized that we had not had our breakfast yet. We were so engrossed with watching the terrains pass by, this had just skipped out of our mind. We stopped for breakfast at Maithan.
Once we entered the Kargil district road condition improved drastically and we started moving away from the snow.
We reached Dras at 11:45 AM and stopped to visit the Kargil War Memorial. We spent about 30 minutes here paying our respect and clicking photos.
From Dras onwards road condition was excellent and terrain turns flat with very minimal climbs and land turns almost barren. We drove on and reached Kargil at 1:45 PM. We had booked a guest house here, checked in by 2:00 PM. We went out had lunch, came back to room and took some rest as we had started our day early. In the evening, went out had some snacks and also picked some snacks from a local bakery for the road.
A beautiful house with the apricot orchard in the background
Route taken: Srinagar - Sonmarg - Zojila Pass - Dras - Kargil
Day 23: 11/04/2022
Our initial plan was to stay in Leh for 3 days and continue our journey via Manali route. But the previous day we had a confirmation that Manali route was still not open for public. We had already spent 2 extra days in Srinagar than what we had planned for waiting for the Leh route to open. We had just covered about 35% of our over all trip with another 10,000 KMs at least to cover. If we spent one additional day in Leh it meant we adding 2 more days to our trip looking at the pattern of traffic management of J&K police. Considering all this we decided to stay in Leh just one night and start our return journey.
With all this calculation done the previous night, we woke up early by 5:00 AM and checked out from our guest house by 7:00 AM. Plan was to spend as much time as possible en-route enjoying the surrounding as we reach Leh. This day traffic was allowed from Srinagar - Leh, this meant there was not much on coming traffic and people who started from Srinagar had not reached Kargil yet, so we had all the road for ourselves.
Our first stop was for a tea right after exiting the Kargil city. We had picked some cup cakes the previous evening, they went well with the tea.Our next stop was for breakfast at a daba in Mulbekh. Most hotels were yet to open as this was beginning of the travel season. We were informed that most of the hotels and homestays operate only from May onwards.
Birds eye view of Kargil City
Eurasian Magpie
Red billed Chough
The Future Buddha
We exited Kargil district as we drove towards Leh. We had stopped so many times for photos that it had taken us 3 hours to cover first 60 KMs. Road was in excellent condition so there was little attention needed towards it, I was able to see around more in this route compared to Srinagar - Kargil stretch. Our next stop was at Fotula top and the next one at Col. Kushalchand Memorial.
Lamayuru Monastery from where we stopped for tea
Spotted this beautiful temple on the way
We reached Leh by 3:45 PM and checked into our hotel. Immediately went to market area and had some snacks. Also we had to buy few things from market as per the request of our homestay guy in Srinagar. We had informed him about Manali road not being accessible, hence had asked him to keep a room for us in Srinagar for our return journey.
Route taken: Kargil - Lamayuru - Nimmo - Leh
In there evening at around 5:45 PM, we went to visit Shanti Stupa. This was a short drive of 10 mins from the hotel. We took a lot of photos here, waited till the sunset and returned to hotel by 7:30 PM.
View of Leh City from Shanti Stupa
What we covered so far
Leh - Shimla:
Day 24: 12/04/2022
As the Leh - Manali road was not open we had to take the longer route to Shimla. We had to retrace a major part of the route which we had taken to reach Leh as part of the new route plan now. Looking at the brighter side of it, at least we knew what to expect in terms of road conditions.
Since we were in no hurry to reach Kargil, we started our day in leisure manner. We checked out of our hotel room by 9:45 AM after having breakfast. On this day traffic was allowed from Srinagar to Leh, so we were expecting to get some oncoming traffic only post lunch.
Our first stop was at Hall of Fame. This is army run museum where you get a lot of information about the wars India has fought over the years. Also you can do some shopping here in an army run store. We spent almost an hour here and left at 11:00 AM.
Amalgamation of Indus and Zanskar rivers
Himalayan Tahr, female
Though we were taking the same route that we took yesterday, when you see the things from the opposite side, the terrains look much different and we didnt feel at all that we were driving on the same road again.
We stopped for lunch at Army run canteen, Tiger hill cafe at Kalsi and reached Kargil by 4:45 PM. Rest of the evening was spent exploring the Kargil city on foot.
Route taken: Retraced the route taken on day 23
Day 25: 13/04/2022
Our guest house in Kargil was right next to the main market. The whole night there was truck movement. We learnt that most of the goods comes from Srinagar and rest of the country once a week in the night and it was that night of the week. Entire street was buzzing with activity of unloading the goods till 2:00 AM, so we could hardly get any sleep.
We woke up by 4:00 AM and checked out by 5:00. As per the traffic restrictions we had to cross Kargil city gate before 6:00 AM and had to reach Sonmarg gate by 10:00 AM. It was very dark when we started our drive and there were lot of trucks to accompany us. We let them pass and drove slowly.
It was very cloudy and in a while it started to drizzle. We realized weather would not be kind to us this day. In a while rain intensified and once there was some day light we saw the entire terrain had a thick white coat all over. It had snowed heavily in the night.
In a while it stopped raining and started to snow. Initially it was small flakes and then it intensified. It snowed for about good 30 mins. We reached Zojlla pass by 8:00 AM. Driving was bit challenging as it was my first experience of negotiating this kind of terrain. After Zojilla pass snowing stopped and it started to rain again. This created a lot of slush and there were some stretches on road where the black ice had started to form. Negotiated this stretch with utmost caution as applying breaks was difficult here.
By the time we came near Sonmarg weather had cleared and road condition was better too. We crossed Sonmarg gate by 9:00 AM and stopped for breakfast.
Post breakfast when we were near to Srinagar City stopped to get the car washed and reached home stay by 12:30 PM. In the after noon had a good sleep post lunch as we hardly had slept the previous night. Evening was spent rearranging our luggage. As we non longer needed the jackets and winter wear they were tucked into one corner of the boot. Over all first and wonderful experience of driving in snow, enjoyed every bit. Though it was the same route that we had taken 2 days ago, the condition was completely different during the return journey.
Route taken: Retraced the route taken on day 22
Day 26: 14/04/2022
We had a long distance to cover this day and in a route which is notoriously famous for traffic jams. So we decided to leave early in the morning. We had woken up by 4:30 AM and checked out from home stay by 5:45 AM. The ploy worked as we had literally no traffic as we exited the city.
We were able to cover 75 KMs in first 1 hour. From here the traffic intensified and going was bit slow. We stopped for breakfast around 7:30 AM in a daba. This guy was just opening the shop, he took his own sweet time to prepare breakfast.
We got stuck in a traffic jam for about 20 minutes near Quazikund. After the tunnel the road condition was bad, so we were not able to cover much distance. From Udhampur the road became narrower and traffic was horrible from here till we reached NH44.
Once we entered NH44, road condition improved and we were able to cover some distance. We stopped for lunch at BPCL food court Gagwal.
We reached our hotel in Jalandhar by 5:15 PM and checked in.
The day's drive can be divided into 3 parts. First one hour where we covered 75 KMs, second stretch of 135 KMs took us 5 hours and the final stretch of 210 KMs took us 4 hours to cover.
Route taken: Srinagar - Anatnag - Quazigund - Patnitop - Udhampur - Patankot -Jalandhar
Had our dinner in Food Bazaar, tried some chats and deserts. A good place to experience street food and punjabi dishes.
Day 27: 15/04/2022
This was suppose to be a easy day to drive with not a big distance to cover, but google had other ideas. We checked out of hotel in Jalandhar by 8:30 AM after breakfast and started our journey towards Shimla. First half of our journey was smooth with excellent road conditions till Ghanauli. After this road condition became average.
At Nalagarh google map suggested a deviation to state highway. The first few kilometers were bit narrow road. I got suspicious about this route and stopped and asked the locals for direction, who confirmed we were on the right road.
As we went ahead the road condition started to deteriorate and we had a lot of potholes to contain with. After a while potholes were far and few but the road became so narrow that only one vehicle could pass. We were climbing hill here. We had very few on coming vehicles, but when ever we found one we had to find a place where both can pass through and continue the journey.
There were no hotels for food or tea on this route. We stopped for lunch as soon as we entered Shimla around 2:45 PM. Post lunch we started our final stretch of 5 KMs to our hotel. Google map was having a field day. It took us for a round trip of the city and we took 1 hour to reach the hotel finally at 4:45 PM.
Route taken: Jalandhar - Phagwara - Kathgarh - Ghanauli -Nalagarh - Kunihar - Shimla
In the evening we went to mall road by walk. The best part of Shimla is you can turn in any direction and you get to see the beautiful view of the valley all around.
We walked past Himachal Pradesh Parliament house and Army training center.
Had some snacks and dinner in mall road and returned to our hotel room by 9:30 PM.
What we covered so far
Shimla - Dehradun:
Day 28: 16/04/2022
We woke up around 6 :00 AM as we wanted to leave early so that we get enough time to explore Dehradun. Parking space is in short supply in Shimla, so every hotel packs their parking area to the extent possible. I had observed this the previous evening and informed the hotel management to allow me to park the car near the gate which allows me a quick exit early in the morning. They informed that there will no challenge in moving out of parking area and they will facilitate whatever needed. Though I wasn't sure, they sounded confident so believed them. When the time came to checkout, I informed them to clear the path so that I could move my car out. This is when they started searching for who owns which car and who has the key for it and all sort of things. They had to take out 5 cars for my car to come out of the parking area.The whole process took 30 minutes resulting in delayed start as I had feared.
Finally we left from Shimla around 7:45 AM. Hotel owner had warned me not to take the route we had taken on our way to Shimla and had guided us where not follow google map. So we took the route suggested by him. First 10 - 12 KM road was bad with a lot of potholes. We filled fuel and stopped for breakfast at Shogni.
Swallow nest inside the hotel
After the initial bad patch of the road rest of the route was in excellent condition. I am glad I spoke to the hotel owner and asked his opinion about the road I had to take.
We had a tea break on the way and stopped for lunch just before reaching Dehradun at Doiwala.
Autos of Uttarakhand
We reached Dehradun around 2:45 PM and took about 30 minutes to figure out the right direction to our hotel courtesy google maps. Finally we checked at 3:30 PM.
Route taken : Shimla- Kandaghat - Kasauli - Panchkula - Shahzadpur - Nahar - Paonta Sahib - Dehradun
After some rest, in the evening around 5:00 PM we left for Buddha temple. It took us about 30 minutes for us to cover 10 KMs because of the evening traffic. Once we reached the location, it was a challenge to find a parking spot for the vehicle. Do keep this in mind if you decide to visit Buddha temple.
We spent about 1.5 hours here and took a lot of photos and left to our hotel around 7:00 PM.
Stopped for a tender coconut on the way and reached hotel around 7:30 PM. Dinner was at Dominos later and we called it the day.
What we covered so far
Dehradun - Lucknow:
Day 29: 17/04/2022
We checked out of hotel in Dehradun by 8:00 AM. Our first stop was for breakfast in a daba at Doiwala. We passed through a bridge over Ganga river before we stopped at Haridwar for some quick photos.
Ganga during summer, less water but can imagine the vastness during monsoon
Crested Serpent Eagle
Haridwar
We stopped for a tea around 11:45 AM. As suggested by google we took a deviation from Rashipur. Next 40 odd KMs road condition was average to bad and most part was 2 lane road. Eventually we connected back to 4 lane NH and going was easy from here onward. We stopped for lunch at UP22 @ Shankarpur around 2:30 PM. This daba has clean rest rooms and good food. We reached Bareilly and checked into our hotel room by 3:30 PM.
Route taken: Dehradun - Haridwar - Mirzapur - Najibabad - Kotawali - Dhampur - Afzalghar - Kashipur - Swar - Rampur - Bareilly
Late in the evening we went to Chaat Sarovar which was at walk able distance from our hotel room and tried some snacks for dinner.
Day 30: 18/04/2022
We had booked a house via Airbnb for 2 days in Lucknow. We reached our host's house by 1:15 PM. We cooked lunch and had and also got access to host's washing machine, so used the opportunity to get our clothes washed.
Route taken: Bareilly - Katra - Banthara - Shahjahanpur - Sitarapur - Lucknow
In the evening went walking and visited Jama Masjid and Chhota Imambara. Jama Masjid's external design replicates Rumi Darwaza. As it was late in the evening, we were not able to visit any other monuments.
Jama Masjid
Chhota Imambara
From here we took an auto rickshaw to Chowk. Had kulfi and chats and we roamed around the market place here. We got our dinner parceled, tried some tandai and returned back to house by 9:30 PM.
Day 31: 19/04/2022
Woke up early in the morning and went out by walk to see rest of the monuments. We visited clock tower, Rumi darwaza, step well and Bara Imambara.
At Bara Imambara we were informed that we had to take a guide compulsorily as they have a rule that if a couple visits the place then a guide had to accompany them. Found this rule very strange and thought there is something fishy. We informed them that we wont need a guide and suggested that we will go in individually and see the place and come back. A supervisor approached us and tried to give a logic behind the rule that couple use this place as park and to avoid such situation they are insisting on the guide. We informed them about our travel and told him that we wouldnt need the guide and happy to go alone individually. He realized that their tactic is not working with us and allowed to go in without the guide.
Also note if you visit Bara Imambara and Chhota Imambara on the same day there is no need to buy separate entry tickets as same ticket works in both places.
Clock Tower
Rumi Darwaza
Bara Imambara
We returned back home by 10:30 AM exhausted after 3 hours of walking and had our breakfast. Later went out to buy some grocery to cook lunch.
Total 8 + KM of waking in the morning had drained us, took some rest in the afternoon post lunch. Evening was spent getting the car washed and rearranging the luggage as we prepared for our onward journey.
What we covered so far
Lucknow - Patna:
Day 32: 20/04/2022
We had a long distance to cover this day, so we woke up early by 4:30 AM and started our journey by 5:45 AM. City was yet to wake up so getting out of the city was a breeze. We spotted a fuel station and filled fuel. Once we exited the city we entered Purvanchal Expressway.
Purvanchal expressway was yet to be officially open but the traffic was allowed. It was a delight to drive in this route with almost no traffic. About 5 - 6 KM stretch here was yet to complete out of the 330 KMs we drove. In this stretch we had to take the service road and the service road is 2 lane highway in itself.
Since this road was officially yet to open it meant we had no fuel stations, hotels or restrooms on this route. We observed that these facilities were getting built. When they open there should be few complex areas where fuel, food and restrooms will be available through this stretch. It also meant there was no toll to pay and there was no speed monitoring system in place. So we were able to cruise through this stretch in no time.
It almost looks like an airstrip
We also spotted some Nilgai in the large stretch of grassland adjacent to this road. When we were about to exit the expressway we spotted a hotel with restroom facility open. We had our breakfast there. We had covered almost 350 KMs in less than 5 hours so far.
Once we exited Expressway at Buxar road condition worsened. There were large potholes to deal with and most of this stretch was just 2 lane highway. Traffic was high too to add to the difficulty. We stopped for lunch at Arrah and continued our journey. Reached Patna by 4:30 PM. After exiting the Expressway we had covered about 150 KMs and it took us more than 5 hours.
First we went to visit Golgarh. We spent some time here and clicked some pictures. Had a tender coconut on the way and checked into the airbnb home we had booked by 5:30 PM.
Route taken: Lucknow - Purvanchal Expressway - Buxar - Arrah - Patna
We had some clothes to be washed as we could only get some of them washed in Lucknow. Evening was spent relaxing after a long drive. Late in the evening went out walking in search of dinner. Here we got to witness a marriage procession on our way.
What we covered so far
Patna - Gangtok:
Day 33: 21/04/2022
We woke up leisurely, cooked our breakfast and checked out from the airbnb house around 8:45 AM. We got stuck in the morning city traffic, so it took us close to 90 mins to cover the first 20 KMs as we exited the city. Situation improved a bit post that however most part of the NH was just 2 lane and we had to pass through villages and smaller towns on the way. It took us about 3 more hours before we found decent stretch of highway for some relaxed drive.
We had not taken any break since we started. Our first break for the day was for lunch at Bhakhtiapur. Post lunch we were able to cover some distance bit easily. We stopped for a tea on the way way. When we were about to reach Purnia, our destination for the day, google took us through some narrow lane and we got stuck in the traffic. Last 2 KMs took us close to 20 mins and we finally reached our hotel close to 5:00 PM.
It was very hot that day and I was completely exhausted even though we had not done anything other than driving. So we decided to just stay in room and relax for rest of the evening.
Route taken: Patna - Bakhtiarpur - Begusarai - Khagaria - Naugachhia - Purnia
Day 34: 22/04/2022
This section of the trip was the second most anticipated part after Leh for us. Had read umpteen travelogues about NE states and also had seen loads of youtube videos of travelers of this section. So the excitement was high.
We started our journey from Purnia around 8:00 AM. We had our breakfast in hotel before checking out. Our first stop was for filling fuel in Purnia. Getting out of the city was not difficult as the city was still waking up.
Once we crossed Bihar and entered WB road condition improved. It also became much greener and we started to see a lot of banana cultivation here. We stopped for a tea on a road side shop, this was the area where there were lot of tea plantation.
In Siliguri we spotted a mall and stopped there as we had not found any decent place for bio break since morning. Here we saw a burger king outlet and got our lunch packed. After Siliguri this section of road turned into winding ghat section and road condition worsened too. Here it also started to rain on and off which made us slowdown further.
We spotted a nice location after crossing Kalimpong with a nice view of Teesta river and stopped to have our lunch. Rain too had taken a break so we could have our lunch in peace.
Post lunch we kept climbing the ghat section and it kept raining. Road condition was not good too. Finally we reached Gangtok around 4:15 PM. Google map again took us through some narrow steep climbing road and half way through this section we were informed that this section of the road is one way from 9:00 AM on wards. However locals helped us to go through this last section of the road and we finally reached the hotel by 4:45 PM.
It kept raining heavily for rest of the evening, so we did not have any chance to venture out.
Route taken : Purnia - Baisi - Kishanganj - Islampur - Siliguri - Sevoke - Kalimpong - Rangpo - Gangtok
Day 35: 22/04/2022
We woke up early in the morning as sun rises much earlier in this part of the country and went on to the terrace of the hotel to get a majestic view of the surrounding areas. Here we spotted some birds too.
Blue whistling thrush
Rufous Sibia
Verditer flycatcher
We had our breakfast in the hotel,this included local delicacies like luchhi and guguni. As we were planning our day and checking for the locations to visit, google suggested most of the places were close by to our hotel. Weather was pleasant too and after few days we had some cooler weather to enjoy. So we decided to leave our car behind and explore the places on foot, a decision we regretted later in the day.
Our first destination was Thakurbai temple. We started from our hotel around 9:15 AM. Soon we realized that we had to be hiking mode and not in walking mode here. All roads here are either steep incline or decline, you cant find any stretch of plain land here at all. By the time we had reached the temple we were completely exhausted though it was just couple of KMs of walk. Walking in this altitude needs different level of fitness. There was covid vaccination camp setup in the temple premises and there was huge crowd gathered for vaccination. We did not spend much time here and left immediately.
Thakurbai temple
We decided we had enough of hiking for the day and took taxi to our next destination, rope way station. Once we got down from the taxi we saw the entrance for Namgyal Institute of Tibetology. This was in our list of places to see, so we decide to visit that first.
Its about 500 Mts of walk and most part of this stretch is not very steep to walk. Once we reached the gate we were informed that institute was closed on Saturday and Sunday. We realized another place we had in our list, Do Drul Monastery was just ahead and continued to walk further. After Monastery visit we returned back to rope way station and started our rope way tour of Gangtok city. Though we took taxi , we ended up walking another 2 KMs to add to our morning hike.
Rope way ride gives you awesome birds eye view of the city and surroundings. The ticket covers to and fro journey which takes about 20 minutes to complete.
From here we visited a cafe and had some snacks and juice to energize ourselves. Our next destination was Tsuglakhan Monastery. We searched for taxi, most were unaware of this destination and few who knew claimed this is outside the city limits, so were advised to take intercity taxi. Google was suggesting it was just 3 KMs away. This is where we realized that it was a mistake to leave the car in hotel.
We decided to walk, google took us through some real steep very narrow walking path and they some steep steps. We stopped and inquired with locals, again we got mixed results. Some didnt know there was a monastery with that name, some had heard the name but didnt know where it was. Finally we met couple of people who confirmed we were on the right track and we were almost there. From this point it took us another 45 minutes of hiking to reach the monastery. But once we reached the location we realized it was worth all the trouble to walk up to this point.
We managed to find a taxi to MG Marg after walking a bit from the monastery. He dropped us almost a KM before MG Marg as there was huge traffic jam. So again we ended up adding another KM of walk even after taking taxi.
We had read about a hotel here who serves nepali dishes, so we decide to have our lunch there. This place is worth a try if you want to explore something unique.
Thakali veg thali @ Hamro Bhansa Ghar
Post lunch we went to explore MG Marg. We were informed that except for food and medicine business rest of the shops are closed on Saturday and Sunday here. We were next to Thakurbai temple, our first destination in the morning. Taxis were not allowed to stop by police as there was some political rally about to start. We decided to surrender to our fate and walk back to our hotel room. We finally reached hotel room around 3:30 PM completely exhausted. We slept for a while and when we woke up weather had changed and it had started to rain. We decided not to venture out and stayed in the room.
What we covered so far
Gangtok - Guwahati:
Day 36: 24/04/2022
We stopped for breakfast at Oasis Cafe. This place is on the ghat section when you climb down from Gangtok and has a wonderful view of Teesta river for you to enjoy as you have your breakfast. They also have very clean washrooms. There is a huge statue of lord Shiva right in front of this cafe.
We drove till Sevoke and took deviation from Siliguri road towards Guwahati. From here on road was in good condition throughout. After the rains in last few days in this region entire stretch was looking green and fresh.
This interesting statue of Ganapati was carved out of the stone on the road side
In this entire route you will either see forest, tea estate or arecanut plantation on either side of the road. It was a surprise fro us to see such a green side of WB, had not expected this. Stopped for tea on the way and we entered Assam. Our lunch was near Gossaigaon, a veg thali in a restaurant named Mongolian daba. Not sure why that name, there was nothing Mongolian about it.
Cinerous vulture
We reached our hotel in Bongaigaon by 4:00 PM. There was a tire shop open even though it was Sunday. After check in went there and got the wheel alignment done.
To sum it up, it was a very pleasant day to drive with good weather and green surroundings.
Route taken : Gangtok - Rangpo - Sevoke - Jalpaiguri - Barobisha - Gossaigaon - Bongaigaon
Day 37: 25/04/2022
We left from our hotel in Bongaigaon around 8:30 AM after our breakfast. Road condition was good, mostly 4 lane highway and weather was pleasant too. We crossed a massive bridge over Brahmaputra river on our way and entered Guwahati by 11:00 AM.
Our destination here was Kamakya temple. Google did its usual thing and guided us through some narrow city lanes. We took guidance from locals who showed us the route to the temple. Eventually we reached back side of the temple, parked the car near a tea shop and walked rest of the distance to reach temple.
We spent almost an hour here, completed darshan and left for Fancy Bazar area. Had our lunch at Shahi Darbar and explored the market area. We finally reached our guest house around 4:30 PM.
Evening was spent planning the route for next few days. As there was threat of flood in Assam because of rain in past few days we had to get the latest information about the route to plan our trip ahead.
Route taken: Bongaigaon - Simlaguri -Pathrela -Rangia - Guwahati
What we covered so far
Guwahati - Itanagar:
Day 38: 26/04/2022
Today's destination was not part of our initial plan, this was an impromptu decision made to visit Kaziranga national park as we were close to it. We had booked our resort the previous day when the plan was made to visit the national park. As it had been raining for few days in Assam, safari was possible only in one half the national park and the rest was already closed. So we had to reach the central area ( Kohora ) to be able to go for a safari. We had made our booking accordingly.
We woke up early and were ready to check out by 7:15 AM. Our homestay guys served us bread and tea as their kitchen was not open yet. We had the basic breakfast and left from there by 7:30 AM. There was some traffic as we exited the city and once we were out of the city traffic thinned down.
In some time we started to feel the need for a proper breakfast. We spotted a hotel called Ni4 and stopped for breakfast. Here we had the best dosa in a month. It was a surprise to find a full fledged south indian breakfast menu here. We continued our leisure drive after the breakfast, road condition was excellent in most parts.
Once we reached Amluckie gaon we had some bad stretch of road to contain with. Enroute you get a spot with the name rhino view point, around that area there is high probability of spotting rhinos in their natural habitat. We were lucky enough spot Rhinos, elephant and barasingha here.
We reached resort by 12:45 PM. Our lunch was ready and we had lunch as soon as we checked in. We had a safari booked for 1:30 PM, so we had to hurry up with lunch.
Route taken :Guwahati - Jagiroad - Nagaon - Puranigudam - Jakhalabandha - Kaziranga
At 1:30 PM we started our safari. There was an elderly lady from Kolkatta who was travelling solo and didnt want to book the entire jeep for herself. She requested us if she can join us and share the cost, we agreed to accommodate her. As per our safari vehicle driver it was predicted to rain in the evening, so we were in a hurry to leave so that rain does not trouble us. Safari was for 3 hours. Now I will let the photos do the talking.
Hog dear
Asiatic wild water buffalo
Indian roller / blue jay
Fish eagle
Pied hornbill
White browed gibbon
This guy didnt want to give me a pose
parting shot
When we returned back to our resort at 4:30 PM, it had already started to drizzle a bit. We had our evening tea and walked around the resort a bit to get a feeling of the forest area. It started to rain late in the evening and continued to rain through the night.
Day 39: 27/04/2022
Woke up early after not so good sleep because of frequent power cuts throughout the night. But morning was much brighter as there was no rain. Wildlife was active around the resort. We had our breakfast and checked out by 8:30 AM.
Green Imperial Pigeon
Initial 50 KMs or so was the same route we had driven the previous day, so there was no surprise there with the quality of road. It had started to rain as soon as we started our drive hence there was no wildlife in sight. After the first 50 KMs, road condition was good till Tezpur. From here road condition started deteriorating and went on to become worse. But there was enough greenery around to enjoy the drive. We stopped for a tea in Biswanath Chariali around 11:45 AM. Here we spotted a KFC outlet and got 2 burgers packed for lunch. This turned out to be a good decision as we did not find any good restaurant on the way for lunch.
We stopped for lunch before entering Arunachal Pradesh. Our next stop was at Hollongi gate to get the ILP done to enter Arunachal Pradesh. ILP was a quick 10 minutes work. The last 20 odd KMs stretch had some deviations because of 4 lane highway work. We entered Itanagar around 2:15 PM.
Our first stop was Itanagar Gompa and we reached there by 2:45 PM. We spent almost an hour here taking loads of pictures.
It started to rain all of a sudden, so we had to cancel our visit to rest of the places we had planned. We went to the hotel and checked in by 4:00 PM. Later in the evening weather cleared and we were able to go out and explore the Itanagar market area. Visited a cafe and had coffee and snacks.
Route taken: Kaziranga - Jakhalabandha - Jamugurihut - Gohpur - Maj Gaon - Hollongi gate (ILP done here) - Dhipu - Itanagar
What we covered so far
Itanagar - Kohima:
Day 40: 28/04/2022
There are 2 route options from Itanagar to Kohima. Most popular one is through Majuli. This route needs you to take a ferry and water levels in Brahmaputra was at dangerous levels because of recent rains. Hence, we were advised by our friends not to take this route as ferry ride was not very safe.
We checked out from our hotel in Itangar at 8:00 AM, after our breakfast. Here we happened to meet some retired govt officials from Karnataka along with their families who were on the last day of their trip to Arunachal Pradesh. We knew first half of the road as we had travelled in this route on our way and we knew the roads are not in good condition here.
Spotted Mithun, state animal of Arunachal Pradesh on the way
Once we crossed Tezpur we observed a huge traffic jam of 1 + hr Nagaon, so we decided to take the Golaghat road. This meant we had to drive through Kaziranga national park again. We knew that the road condition here was good. We stopped for lunch near Kohora @ Green Ashiyana and had an Assamese thali.
From here it was a new route for us, it was beautiful with forest and tea estates on either side of the road. After Golaghat there were some section of the road which was not so good and this was a drive through the jungle. Around 4:30 PM, we reached Dimapur, border town to enter Nagaland.
We stopped to get the ILP done, but we were informed at the gate that ILP need to be collected from the DC office in Dimapur. It was already closed for the day. We informed them about the booking we had done for a guest house in Dimapur and asked if we could stay in Dimapur so that we get the ILP next day to which officials agreed.
We checked into our guesthouse by 5:00 PM. At the guesthouse we explained the situation about our ILP to the owner and for our luck one of the working staff there knew someone who works in DC office. He spoke to that person and went and got 2 forms for us. We filled it and handed it over to him and he gave to the person from DC office. We were informed to collect the ILP form from DC office in the morning. This eased our nerves a bit and also knew that we would save time the next day.
We also completed the milestone of covering 10,000 KMs in this road trip.
Route taken: Itanagar - Gohpur - Jamugurihut - Tezpur - Bagori - Bokakhat - Golaghat - Sarupathar - Dimapur (ILP to be done in DC Office, Dimapur)
Home cooked dinner served in guest house
Day 41: 28/04/2022
We woke up around 6:30 AM and when we were getting ready we had a surprise in waiting. The guy from DC office had got the signature of the authority and had come to give us our ILP. A great gesture of hospitality. So we got our ILP done without even visiting the DC office.
We left from guest house around 8:30 AM after having our breakfast. Road condition was good for most part and last 15 - 20 Kms when we started to climb to reach Kohima road condition was average. We entered Kohima around 10:00 AM.
Once we entered the city, going was slow as there was a lot of traffic. We reached Kohima war memorial in around 30 mins. We spent about 45 mins here clicking photos and reading about the history. We also spotted a lady from TN who was looking for her grand father's name in the martyr's list here.
Once we came back to the place where we had parked our car, we realized we were close to naga bazar. We spent another 45 mins exploring the market area. Also spotted a nail in the rear wheel pierced in a very weird angle. It had pierced across the top layer rubber sideways. Removed it, inspected for any leak of air, didnt find any damage.
Our next destination for the day was Naga heritage village, Kisama. We reached here at 12:45 PM and went to visit the 2nd world war museum. There was no one here except for a care taker who switched on all the lights of the museum for us.
After the museum visit we went to visit Naga heritage Village. Care taker of the museum had informed us that no traveler visits this place except for the naga festival season. This is the place where all the cultural activities are held during the famous naga festival. You find huts of all the tribes of Nagaland here. This place is managed by the art and culture dept. We spotted few people who were picking/plucking some local fruits from trees here and some people who were having party with chips and beer. Hope they will clean the mess they were making there.
By the time we finished exploring this place it was already 2:30 PM. There was one shop which was open there and we approached it to see if we can get lunch. Shop owner didnt have anything other than cold drinks, chips and biscuits. This lady did understand hindi but couldnt speak, she pointed us towards another shop which looked close and asked to us to check for lunch there. When we went there, there were few people playing cards and one lady in the kitchen. This shop owner was kind enough to put his game on hold and cook noodles for us. We had lunch and left from here and reached our hotel by 3:30 PM. We took some rest after close to 3 hours of walking we had done since morning. Evening was spent in the hotel as it started to rain and we could not venture out.
Route taken: Dimapur - Nihoto - Sechu - Kohima
What we covered so far
Kohima - Imphal:
Day 42: 30/04/2022
We could not sleep well because of the frequent power cuts and some noisy guests. It also kept raining heavily throughout the night. Hotel staff had not switched on the power backup for some reason. We checked out from the hotel after our breakfast at around 8:30 AM.
First 30 odd KMs road was in pretty bad shape, so going was slow. Our first stop for the day was at the Manipur border at Mao for ILP. ILP was provided in just 5 minutes after basic enquiry about where we were coming from and what was the purpose of our visit.
Once we crossed over to Manipur the road condition improved multifold and surroundings were beautiful too. We had multiple stops for photography. We were driving leisurely as the distance to cover was not much for the day.
We stopped for fuel first and for tea after a while. We were surrounded by thick forest in most of this stretch with few villages to pass by once in a while. As weather was clear we were able to see mountains for as far as we could see. Most of these mountains are covered with bamboo.
Restaurants and fuel stations are difficult find on the way here. We stopped for lunch when we closer to Imphal. We had our lunch at restaurant Apaibi @ Khonghampat. From here the last 25 KM stretch of road was in bad shape again with quite a few potholes to manage.
We entered Imphal around 2:00 PM and reached our destination Kangla Fort by 2:30 PM. Here we spent more than an hour exploring the place. This place looked like famous picnic spot for locals, we found a lot of locals in big groups here.
Information about the temple in the fort
From here we went to Ema Keithel Complex, a local market run by women. Explored the market area for a while. It became cloudy and it was about to start raining, so we decided to go and check in to our hotel.
We reached hotel around 4:30 PM, as soon as we reached the parking area of the hotel it started raining heavily. Rest of the day was spent in the room as it kept raining throughout the evening.
Route taken: Kohima - Mao (ILP is done here) - Maram Bazar - Senapati - Kangpokpi - Kanglatongbi - Imphal
What we covered so far
Imphal - Aizawl:
Day 43: 01/05/2022
Rain was a constant companion for us throughout this leg of our NE drive. This day was no different, it had rained in the night and it was raining when we woke up as well. We had our breakfast and checked out of our hotel in Imphal around 8:15 AM. As soon as we started the drive it started to rain heavily. Road condition was excellent to start with. From Bishnupur the ghat section started and rain too started to subside a bit. After a while it was on and off drizzle which allowed us to stop and enjoy the beautiful valley around the this route as we climbed the hill.
From Jouzangtek we took a deviation to a SH which was much narrower and from here road condition was average with few potholes appearing out of no where. But there was hardly any traffic in this route so it was not such a big challenge to manage the bad road. We stopped countless number of times to take photos and absorb the beautiful views around. During one such stop, when we were busy clicking photos we heard some rumbling noise and when we turned around we saw some shooting stones coming down from the hill just ahead of where the car was parked. This experience made us quicken our journey a bit and the stops became less frequent from there on.
We came down from the hills and arrived at Koupam Valley where we spotted a beautiful lake, some houses and a small waterfall on the road side. We spent about 15 - 20 mins here and had some snacks that we were carrying with us.
We continued our journey and in a while we connected to NH37 at Rengpang. We had covered a distance of close to 70 KMs on SH with very narrow road and with average road condition till here. Once we connected to the NH all hell broke loose. We had almost no road in most places with real wide potholes. All these potholes were filled with water because of the rain, so it was not possible to judge a safe passage through it. There was hardly any vehicle movement here, whenever we found local cabs or goods careers we waited for them to go through these crater like potholes to understand the line I can take. When that luxury was unavailable, stopped the car, got a stick and checked for depth and then drove through them. Even though I was careful car hit bottom 3 - 4 times in this stretch because of some stones buried inside the water which I had failed to spot while checking. Road condition improved once we crossed to Assam in Jiribam. This 90 KM section of NH37 took me 5 hours to cover. We had forgotten that we had skipped lunch trying to manage this route. This is easily the worst section of road I have driven in this entire trip.
There were some sections which were worse than this, but I was so engrossed in trying to pass through it, forgot to take photos. Because the water was filled in the potholes it increased the difficulty, else this route can be managed without scrapping the bottom of vehicle with careful driving.
There were no hotels or fuel stations on this stretch, so our lunch too was fruits and snacks we were carrying. From Jiribam road condition was good and we were able to cover rest of the journey with no drama. Reached Silchar by 6:15 PM. It took 10 hours to cover 260 KMs and at the end of it we were able to make it through without any damage to vehicle. We had early dinner as we had skipped lunch and called it a day.
Route taken: Silchar - Lailapur - Vairengte ( ILP done here) - Vakultuy - Bikhawthlir - Kolasib - Bulpui - Mualvum - Aizawl
I was told there is an alternate route available that goes via Bishnupur - Singngat - Hliappui - Aizawl , not sure how is the road quality of it. I had mixed reviews about it when I inquired with locals.
Day 44: 02/05/2022
Woke up early because of thunderstorm, lightning and power cut. Because of power cut hotel could not provide hot water so had to take bath in cold water. Even kitchen was yet to open and even after waiting till 8:15 AM hotel staff could not provide us the breakfast, we decided not to wait any longer and checked out. We found a small tea stall out side the hotel and had tea and bun. It started to rain again, so we decided to stop searching for breakfast and start our journey. There was water logging in many places due to continuous rain as we exited the city. It stopped raining after a while and going was easy, road was also in excellent condition.
When we were exiting the Assam border we had to stop and enter all our details with CRPF. Once we entered Mizoram we had to stop for ILP at Vairengte. The guy who issues ILP was on a breakfast break and a lot of people were waiting here for him to return. During the conversation with some local people from Assam who were also waiting for ILP we were informed that route from Aizawl to Agartala was in horrible condition, so we were advised to go to Agartala via Silchar. They also informed that it is a routine here at Mizoram border for the authorities to make travelers wait for ILP. Finally after waiting for 90 mins the guy returned form his break and we got our ILP. After driving for couple of KMs we were again stopped at another check post where we were again asked the question about purpose of travel and other general questions and also they checked our luggage for name sake. This whole process took another 30 mins. We finally entered Mizoram and continued our journey. Road was in excellent condition and surroundings was green and fresh after the rain.
We could not find any good hotel for snacks or lunch. We stopped at a small hotel on the road side for noodles and tea, but we could manage to have only tea. We left from here and found a bakery and stopped to have some snacks, cup noodles and juice. By the time we reached Aizawl it was 3:00 PM and it started to rain again. We checked in to the guesthouse we had booked as it was not possible to go out anywhere to explore in the rain.
Route taken: Silchar - Lailapur - Vairengte ( ILP done here) - Vakultuy - Bikhawthlir - Kolasib - Bulpui - Mualvum - Aizawl
We got access to the washing machine here, so did some laundry work. We had excellent view of the city from our room, enjoyed that view for rest of the day as rain kept pouring on and off. Our dinner was at home stay cooked by our host, our first proper meal of the day.
What we covered so far
Aizawl - Agartala:
Day 45: 03/05/2022
Woke up early in the morning to watch sun rise behind the hill. It was a
wonderful sight as sun peaked out behind the mountains with Aizawl city in the foreground. We had a leisure morning as we were not in a
hurry to leave. We had a short distance to cover today and it was the
same route that we had taken previous day, so we knew the conditions.
Washed the car, had breakfast and left from the guesthouse around 9:00
AM and left to visit Solomen's temple. We reached there in about 15
minutes, but it was closed for public during pandemic and was not opened
yet. We clicked few pictures from outside and left by 9:45 AM.
For the first 3 KMs road was narrow and in bad condition. Once we
connected to the main road it was wonderful. We were retracing the same
road we had taken from Silchar - Aizawl the previous day. There is
nothing much to write about here. No decent restaurants on this route
for tea breaks, so we took couple of stretch breaks when rain allowed us
and drove on.
Reached our hotel in Silchar by 2:00 PM, checked in, hand lunch and took
some rest after that. In the evening went walking to explore Silchar
market area as rain had taken a break. We had booked a home through
Airbnb in Agartala, so did some grocery shopping so that we can cook
our meal there.
Route taken: Retraced the route taken on Day 44
Day 46: 04/05/2022
We woke up early, got ready and checked out of the hotel in Silchar by 7:30 AM. Though morning happens early here, you dont get any breakfast options till 9:00 AM in Silchar. So we did not waste any time searching for it and started our journey. Thankfully there was no rain this day and we had no trouble in getting out of the city. After driving for a while we stopped to have muffins and fruits which we were carrying, that was our breakfast. Road condition was excellent in Assam and there was greenery all around.
Once we crossed Patharkandi we stopped and asked a policeman about the route we can take to Agartala as google was suggesting 2 options. Policeman and the taxi driver who was standing with him advised us not to take the route that goes closer to Bangladesh border as this route was under construction and was filled with slush because of recent rains.
Near Chauribari when we were closer to cross to Tripura google asked us to take a deviation from NH8 and took us through some narrow lane filled with potholes. This stretch was for about 4 KMs and we entered Tripura beyond the entry check post. After crossing Ambassa for about 30 KMs there were broken stretch of road which was under construction. We thanked our luck for not having to drive through this stretch when it was raining. Here we were stopped by police as there was some traffic jam ahead, few trucks were also waiting here. We took this opportunity to have some more fruits as there were no restaurants available for snacks.
Once we passed the under construction stretch we had no issues with the road and it was a delight to drive. We reached Agartala city around 3:00 PM and went to Domino's for lunch. Post lunch did some more grocery shopping and reached our host's house by 4:45 PM. Evening was eventless, completed laundry work as we had access to washing machine here. Had home cooked dinner and called it a day.
Route taken: Silchar - Badarpur - Patharkandi - Dharmanagar - Panisagar - Kumarghat - Manu - Ambassa - Teliamura -Agartala
Woke up leisurely, had home cooked breakfast, washed the car and got ready to go out by 10:00 AM. Our first point to visit was Ujjayanta Palace, we reached there in about 20 Mins. However, we were told that the palace opens at 11:00 AM. We decided to visit the Indo - Bangladesh border at Akhuara first. This place is just outside the city, but the last couple of KMs road is very narrow and in horrible condition. To add to it traffic is very high here obviously. We reached the border area around 10:45 AM.
This is a friendly border with moderate security to manage it. However, without a genuine reason crossing of the border is not allowed. Beating retreat ceremony happens on Saturday and Sunday here. After a quick visit we returned to Ujjayanta Palace. Here we spent almost an hour exploring the place and visited the museum. No photography is allowed inside the palace.
Post the visit wife had an appointment with a parlor, I too took the advantage and got a haircut done. Post parlor visit we had our lunch and after that went to visit Hawker's market. After exploring the market for a while we decided to return back to homestay as it was threatening to rain. Reached homestay by 4:00 PM and rest of the evening was spent rearranging the luggage in car and preparing for the onward journey.
What we covered so far
Agartala - Shillong:
Day 48: 06/05/2022
Our destination for the day was Silchar again. That meant we knew the road condition as we had driven in this route 2 days ago. As we were in no rush to reach our destination we took it casually in the morning. We cooked excess breakfast and carried for lunch as we had not found any restaurants when we drove this route. We left from our homestay around 8:00 AM.
Weather was pleasant and rain gods were kind to us as well, our first stop for the day was for a tea in a small tea shop on the roadside.
When we approached Assam border we avoided taking that 4 KM stretch we had taken filled with potholes and stayed with NH against the will of google maps as we didnt want to repeat the mistake we did last time. Once we crossed the border we had about 8 - 10 KM stretch of half constructed road. Wherever there was road it was good rest were bad, but the horrible thing was these joints where the good road and bad road meet, these joints had at least 4 inch height difference so had to go through them with care. For once google maps was right, we ended up taking 10 KMs of bad road instead of 4.
After this stretch we stopped and had our lunch we were carrying. Reached our hotel in Silchar by 4:00 PM. In the evening went out and had some tea and snacks.
Route taken: Retraced the route taken on Day 46
Day 49: 07/05/2022
Once we crossed Assam border and entered Meghalaya we stopped and had the fruits we were carrying as we could not find any restaurant for breakfast. Road started snaking up the hill and rain too started intermittently. Surroundings were beautiful which has been standard throughout the NE India. We had multiple stops for photography. We had our breakfast at Elaichi @ Khliehriat around 10:00 AM.
Road condition was good where we had toll roads, rest were ranging between bad to average. We drove slowly as we had not much distance to cover. Whenever it did not rain we could enjoy the greenery around and as the name suggests you get to see a lot of cloud at eye level as you climb higher. We reached Shillong around 1:45 PM.
We had our lunch at Dylan's cafe and reached Cathedral of Mary around 2:45 PM. We spent about 30 mins here and clicked a lot of photos.
From here we went to the guest house we had booked and checked in by 4:00 PM. We took some rest and in the evening went to Police Bazar and explored the market area. Also tried some street food for snacks. Got a Pizza parceled, came back to guest house and had for dinner.
Route taken: Silchar - Kalain - Malidor - Thangskaai - Khliehriat - Jowai - Shillong
NE states are the most beautiful part of India but because of constant rain we could not enjoy this area as much as we would have liked. Our initial plan was to spend at least 3 weeks in NE. We had to hurry a bit because of rains and threat of flood especially in Assam as Assam was a connecting point and we had to pass through it to reach every state.
Having said that this area deserves better roads, was surprised to see the condition of NH in these states, can imagine how the rural roads could be. Another area where we found challenging was to find places to eat and for bio breaks especially for female travelers. Hope the infrastructure improves here.
What we covered so far
Shillong - Ranchi:
Day 50: 08/05/2022
Woke up early by 5:30 AM as it was already very bright by then. We had time in hand so we were lazing around in the guest house. We cooked our breakfast, had and got ready by 8:45 AM. When we came to the car I observed that the rare left tire looked depleted a bit. Checked for puncture and nail, didnt find any, decided to get it checked on the way and we started our journey.
Our first stop for the day was Elephant falls. Crowd had already started building up when we reached there around 9:15 AM. There are about 50 steps for you to climb down to reach the falls. This is a 3 stepped waterfall. We spent about 30 mins here and left.
Our next destination was Litlum. Followed google map and it took us to a road which was not motorable in car, may be fit for a bike. We asked around and locals confirmed that it was the right route. Decided not to venture with a dodgy tire and moved on.
Next stop for us was Umiam Lake view point. Google map took us in circles inside the narrow city road and we almost lost an hour trying to figure out the right route. We decided to first connect to a highway and then look for route to view point. Once we connected to the highway the going was easy. We reached the view point at 11:00 AM.
Kept an eye on the condition of the tire every time I stopped. It looked like it had about 50% of air in it, but did not experience any discomfort while driving. Kept driving and looking for a tire shop as we passed each town. Being Sunday we could not find any shop open to get the tire checked. We had booked our stay in a hotel in Boingaigaon for the day. When we stopped for a tea I remembered visiting a tire shop in Bongaigaon to get wheel alignment done. That was a Sunday too, I called them up hoping they were open and they informed they will be available till 8:00 PM. So I had a backup plan in case I dont get a tire shop on the way. I wanted to keep driving as long as possible as changing tire by unloading all the luggage from the boot would have been a very tedious an time consuming affair and tire had stopped loosing air further and holding up as it was when we left.
We stopped for lunch after crossing Guwahati @ Joyguru. We reached our hotel in Bongaigaon by 4:00 PM. Road condition was excellent with minimal traffic except for while crossing Guwahati.
In the evening took the car to the tire shop got the puncture fixed, there was a nail in it. Also got the wheel alignment and a full body wash done.
Route taken: Shillong - Umaim Lake view point - Jorabat - Guwahati - Rangia - Pathsala - Bongaigaon
Day 51: 09/05/2022
Our destination for the day was Purnia. We had driven this stretch in parts when we drove from Purnia to Gangtok and Gangtok to Bongaigaon about 3 weeks before. So we were well informed about the condition of the road.
We started our day around 8:00 AM after checking out from our hotel in Bongaigaon. It was a non-eventful day, roads were excellent throughout. When we stopped for a tea, a truck driver guided me to take the bypass of Siliguri to avoid the city traffic. We stopped for lunch @Jagannatpur after crossing Siliguri around 1:45 PM and reached our hotel in Purnia by 4:00 PM.
In the evening met relative of our neighbour in Bangalore who lived in Purnia. Highlight of the day was spotting a lot of vehicles from Bhutan on the way.
Route taken: Bongaigaon - Hasimara - Jalpaiguri - Silliguri - Islampur - Kishanganj - Dalkhola - Purnia
Day 52: 10/05/2022
We checked out of our hotel in Purnia at 8:00 AM after the breakfast. There was not much traffic to start with, so exiting the city was not an issue. But this route was of average condition throughout Bihar and we had to pass through multiple villages and smaller towns. Going was slow because of traffic and road condition, also we had traffic jam because of an accident which added another 30 mins to travel time.
Once we crossed to Jharkhand, road condition improved drastically. Most part of this route is 2 lane highway but the road condition was excellent and there was hardly any traffic too. Our first stop was for fuel.
We continued our drive and stopped for lunch at a road side daba @ Dumka. Post lunch the drive went smooth as the roads were empty and weather was very pleasant too. Once we crossed Dhanbad google map first took us through a section of Kolkata - Delhi expressway. This expressway is the widest road I have ever driven anywhere, I guess it was 6 lane on each side. Google map took us to a narrow road from here and as we continued the road condition became bad - worse - horrible. Finally we arrived at a closed gate behind a railway station and google map asked us to take a U turn. We could see local 2 wheelers crossing this section through broken section of compound wall and connecting to the road on the other side. we followed a local car and went through 2 KM stretch of dust bowl with no road and finally connected to the broken road section and continued our journey. Sun was about to set and it was getting darker and we were in a very bad narrow stretch of road with hardly any traffic around. But the evening sky was looking so pretty, we couldnt help but stop to soak in that beauty.
We finally reached Bokaro at 5:15 PM where we had booked our hotel for the day and checked in. An initial estimation of 372 KMs turned out to be 419 KMs drive. But Jharkhand surely surprised us with the quality of highways and greenery.
We took some rest and went walking to the main market area. Later we met our neighbours from Bangalore, they were in Bokaro at their relative's place. Dinner was some yummy street food.
Route taken: Purnia - Bhagalpur - Dumka - Jamtara - Dhanbad - Bokaro
Day 53: 11/05/2022
We woke up really late and by the time we checked out of the hotel it was already 8:30 AM. We had our breakfast in restaurant in town center and proceeded towards our first destination of the day, Cooling point. This is a huge reservoir and you can see the Bokaro steel plant on the other side of it.
Weather was very hot, so we left from here in few mins and went to visit Jagannath temple, Bokaro. It was so hot by this time that we did struggle to enter the temple bare foot. We spent about 30 mins here before leaving Bokaro around 11:00 AM.
We had a short distance to cover this day, we had multiple stops to rehydrate ourselves with tender coconut and sugar cane juice on the way. Road condition was excellent, though 2 lane highway in most places. We entered Ranchi around 1:30 PM. One of our friends had booked us a guest room in Ranchi, we checked in by 2:00 PM. Had our lunch and took some rest. In the evening met my friend and his family, had dinner and called it a day.
Route taken: Bokaro - Dantu - Peterbar - Gola - Ormanjhi - Ranchi
Day 54: 12/05/2022
Woke up leisurely and had breakfast. By the time we left guest room it was past 10:00 AM. We did not have much plan for the day, our first point to visit was Jagannath temple, Ranchi. We reached there around 11:00 AM.
We headed towards our next destination Sun temple. On the way went past the assembly house of Ranchi. Google took us out side the city and into some real narrow lanes and we reached the wrong Sun temple. It was already noon by then. We returned to the main city and went for lunch at Kaveri restaurant. Has to be said that this is the best thali I have had in this entire trip.
After that filling lunch all I wanted to do is take a nap. Returned to guest room by 2:30 PM and took rest. In the evening went for a long walk to digest the lunch. Had a light dinner to end the day.
What we covered so far
Ranchi - Kolkata:
Day 55: 13/05/2022
Our friend had invited us to stay in her place at Kolkata and our aim was to reach home only after her working hours. So we had whole day on our hand to explore the places on the way.
We woke up early and checked out of our guest room by 7:00 AM. Getting out of the city was easy as traffic was almost nonexistent. Our first stop for the day was for breakfast on a roadside daba and had puri and tea.
Roads are excellent in Jharkhand and this one was no different. Amount of signboards on the roadside about the tourist attraction shows how serious this state is about the tourism. You literally do not need the assistance of maps here.
Our first stop for the day was Surya temple at Bundi, we reached here at 8:30 AM. Clicked few pictures and left from here in 30 mins.
Our next stop was Maa Dewri Mandir at Diuri village and we reached here by 9:30 AM. There was some festival going on in this temple and it was choka-a-block with devotees. We saw no scope to enter this temple, so took some photos from outside and left in about 20 mins. A very beautiful and colourful temple and had read that the Maa Durga statue here has 16 hands instead of 8 which is the case in most temples.
Our car completed a milestone of 1,11,111 KMs on this day.
As we had time on our hand we were looking for places to explore on the way and spotted the signboard for Chandil Dam and took a deviation from highway to check this place out. Reached Chandil Dam at 10:15 AM.
It was a very hot day, we stopped for a tender coconut on the way and our next stop was at Jamshedpur for a buttermilk. We were filling our stomach only with liquid and didnt feel like having lunch. Roads were excellent even on West Bengal side and going was easy.
We reached Kolkata by 4:30 PM and went to South City mall for some snacks. Had snacks and filter coffee @ Vaango and reached our friends house by 6:30 PM.
We were catching up after good 7 - 8 years, so by the time we finished sharing stories of all these years it was already 3:30 AM.
Route taken: Ranchi - Bundu - Jamshedpur - Baharagora - Darisali - Kharagpur - Kolkata
Day 56: 14/05/2022
Woke up very late after the previous night extended almost till the morning, had a leisure morning and by the time we left our friend's house it was almost 12:00 PM. Our first destination was Victoria Memorial. On the way we were stopped by the traffic police and was fined for breaking the traffic rule.
Bit of an explanation on what exactly happened: It was a junction, the left road goes around the flyover pillar on the left hand side, the center road goes on the right side of the pillar and merges with the left side road and goes straight and the right side road goes right. Since there was bus on the left lane when I approached the junction I took the center road and connected back to the left road after the pillar. Apparently that is violation of traffic rules in Kolkata. I asked the police if people going straight cant take that road who can for which he did not have an answer. I was asked to pay 2000 Rs fine failing to which I was asked to visit the police station to give my explanation in writing. I ddint want any hassle in a place I was not familiar with so I decided to pay even though I knew that I was being duped here. I was informed that I would receive the receipt on WhatsApp which never arrived which confirmed that it was just a ploy to loot the visitors. Had heard enough stories about Kolkata police, got a first hand experience of it. Thankfully that was the only time I had to pay fine in this entire trip.
We reached Victoria Memorial and did not find any parking area for the vehicle, a local shop guy asked us to go to St. Paul's Cathedral which is less than 5 mins walking distance from memorial and park our car there. So we ended up visiting the cathedral first.
After a quick visit to Cathedral we went walking to the Victoria Memorial. We almost spent an hour here exploring the place and clicking the photos.
We stopped for a lime soda on the way and went to visit the next place in our list, Eden Garden. When we reached there we were denied entry. It was not just us, there were at least 3 or 4 other families who were tourists who had come there. Explanation given to us by the security staff was, it was closed after covid and will remain closed for 3 years (he didnt know the starting and ending date of this 3 year period). This was in spite being listed as open for public in Kolkata tourism website. As I write this Kolkata tourism website still says it is open for public visit. If you plan a visit, please double check.
Disappointed we left from here for the next place in list Howrah bridge/Rabindra Setu. We could not find any parking space around the bridge so we just drove through it.
From here we went to South City mall around 4:30 PM and had some snacks and filter coffee and returned to friend's house and rested for remainder of the evening. Later in the evening went to a nearby shop and had puchka.
Day 57: 15/05/2022
This was a rest day for us before we start our last leg of journey towards south.
We went out in the morning to Udupi Hotel and had breakfast and had tender coconut on our way back. Rest of the day was spent at home chit chatting and also completing some laundry work. In the afternoon, our friend had ordered some home cooked Gujarati food which we relished thoroughly. In the evening went to a nearly sweet shop and ended the Kolkata visit on a sweet note.
What we covered so far
Kolkata - Bhubaneshwar:
Day 58: 16/05/2022
My wife woke up early with uneasiness and headache and she was not feeling great. My opinion was to take another rest day in Kolkata but she didnt want to add more days to travel and told me that she would sleep in the car. We left my friend's house at 6:45 AM. Getting out of the city was easy and road condition was good too. There were a lot of speed breakers and barricades for the first 50 odd KMs after which going was easy.
We stopped for a tender coconut on the way, my wife skipped breakfast and I had some fruits and drove on. After crossing Kharagpur, we had few deviations because of road construction barring which road condition was good throughout.
Once we entered Odisha first stop was for fuel and next stop was for lunch on a roadside hotel in Dharmanagar. Had Odisha style thali here. We reached our hotel in Bhubaneswar by 3:15 PM. My wife spent rest of the evening taking rest. This was an uneventful day and no photos enroute was taken as the official photographer was out of action.
Route taken: Kolkata - Kharagpur - Jaleswar - Soro - Dharmanagar - Chandikhol - Cuttack - Bhubaneswar
Day 59: 17/05/2022
We woke up by 6:00 AM and thankfully my wife was feeling fresh, a full day of rest had helped her recover well. Our plan was to visit few temples in the city. We had our breakfast and left the hotel by 9:00 AM.
As soon as we reached the first location in our list we realized that there were way too many temples here than we had imagined. We decided to cover as many as possible till we get tired of exploring. We visited multiple temples and clicked loads of photos. Only Lingaraja temple does not allow you to take your cameras and mobile phones inside, so we had to walk around the temple complex and climb a vantage point to take photos. We were very impressed with the way all these temples and monuments have been maintained and cleanliness of the surroundings.
Aishaneswara temple
Lingaraja temple
Chitrakarani temple
Bindu Sagar
Parasurameswar temple
Mukteswara temple
Raja Rani temple
Brahmeswar temple
Rameswara temple
It was 1 :00 PM by this time and we were exhausted by roaming around in the hot sun. We returned to our hotel, had lunch and slept for a while. In the evening around 5:00 PM went out to visit Ram temple and Ekarma Haat to explore some local handicrafts.
Bhubaneswar was real surprise in terms of how well the city is planned and how cleanliness has been maintained. Very wide roads and ample parking space were the highlight of wherever we visited in this city.
What we covered so far
Bhubaneshwar - Raipur:
Day 60: 18/05/2022
We woke up as usual around 6:00 AM, got ready, had breakfast and checked out of our hotel in Bhubaneswar by 8:15 AM. We had some city traffic to manage as we exited the city. Initial 25 odd KMs drive was in SH which was narrow and of average condition. Once we connected to NH 655, road condition improved. Our first stop for the day was for fuel and the next one for a tea.
Once we connected to NH 55 road condition became a mixed bag. This entire section of road was under construction, so wherever the construction was complete, we had 4 lane concrete highway and the rest was 2 lane pothole filled road. This slowed down our progress drastically. Most of this route passes through reserve forest area, so we had no option for food. We had our lunch once we reached Sambalpur @ Dominos at 2:45 PM. Post lunch we reached our hotel and checked in by 4:00 PM. Later in the evening went out to explore the Sambalpur market area.
Route taken: Bhubaneswar - Athagarh - Badakera - Tubey - Bonda - Redhakhol - Jujomura -Sambalpur
Day 61: 19/05/2022
For this day we had an appointment fixed for our car service in Raipur. One of my friend who knew the service manager in Skoda service center, Raipur had booked an appointment. My car needs general service every 15,000 KMs and it was more than 17,000 KMs since the last service. I didnt want to take a chance and keep driving till we reach Bangalore, but this also meant we loose some time or an extra day during the travel for car service.
We checked out of our hotel in Sambalpur at around 8:15 AM after having our breakfast. We had to squeeze through some narrow roads to get out of the city. After this initial 6 - 8KMs we connected to 4 lane butter smooth NH53. By this time, I received a call from service manager of Skoda service center in Raipur to ask me what time I would be bringing the car. I informed him about my travel plan and fixed a tentative time of post lunch, he also promised to complete the service in 3 hours which was a relief.
Going was very smooth because of excellent road conditions, we stopped for fuel and tea on the way. We entered Raipur around 12:00 PM and checked into our hotel by 12:30 PM.
This is the quickest I have covered 300 KMs matching with Purvanchal Expressway, that says a lot about the road conditions.
Route taken: Sambalpur - Bargarh - Sohela - Raitiya - Churakute - Saraipali - Pithora - Arang - Raipur
Post lunch, we visited the Skoda service center and handed over the car for service at 2:00 PM. Servicing was done quickly as promised and we were out of there by 6:00 PM.
We left for Budha Talab from here and stopped for a tea on the way. We spent rest of the evening at Budha Talab clicking loads of photos.
We returned to our hotel around 8:30 PM, had dinner and called it a day.
What we covered so far
Raipur - Hyderabad:
Day 62: 20/05/2022
We started our journey at 9:00 AM after checking out of our hotel in Raipur. Having driven on NH 53 the previous day we were expecting good roads to continue. We had some traffic to negotiate till we crossed Bhilai, from here traffic reduced and good roads continued.
There were some sections of roads where we had to take deviation because of repair work barring which road condition was very good throughout. We stopped for fuel and tea on the way before entering Maharashtra.
We entered Nagpur at 2:00 PM and went in search of lunch. Bit of googling and found this restaurant called Ruchkar and had Maharashtrian thali there.
Post lunch we went to the house we had booked via airbnb and checked in by 4:00 PM. Rest of the evening was spent in the house relaxing as it was very hot to venture out. We also completed 15,000 KMs of drive in this trip.
Route taken: Raipur - Bhilai - Rajnandgaon - Chichola - Deori - Sakoli - Nagpur
Day 63: 21/05/2022
This was day for some long-distance drive but we were expecting good roads. We checked out of house after cooking and having breakfast at 8:00 AM. Road condition was good in most parts with occasional patches of bad road to keep you alert. Once we crossed to Telangana bad patches disappeared.
We stopped for fuel, this was the most expensive fuel of the entire trip. We spotted this small tea outlet called Nest Mini on the roadside and stopped for tea. Our next stop was for lunch on a roadside hotel near Sadashivnagar. A typical Andhra meal which was too heavy to digest so we had to stop for a tea again to avoid dozing off.
We reached our hotel in Hyderabad and checked in by 4:00 PM. In the evening went out walking near the hotel and had some street food for snacks. Dinner was in an Andhra mess.
Route taken: Nagpur - Butibori - Vadki - Adilabad - Armur - Chegunta - Hyderabad
Day 64: 22/05/2022
We woke up leisurely, got ready and left our hotel at 8:15 AM to visit Charminar. Roads were almost empty and we reached the location in 30 mins. We had our breakfast in a small roadside outlet near Charminar. There was not much of a crowd early in the morning, so were able to spend almost an hour here clicking a lot of photos.
There was an outlet of Pista House at a walkable distance from here, visited it and bought some biscuits and Khubani-Ka-Meeta. The heat was unbearable by this time, so we returned to our hotel by 11:00 AM.
We left from our hotel at 1:00 PM and reached Subbayya Gari hotel by 1:30 PM. This place was overcrowded and we had to wait for close to 45 mins to find a table. By the time we were done with lunch it was 3:00 PM. We had plans of visiting Golkonda caves after this, but heavy stomach and hot weather influenced the decision of postponing it for next visit.
We returned to the hotel room by 3:30 PM and slept for a while. Once the sun went down we ventured out again, explored some areas around hotel, had a burger for dinner and returned to the room.
What we covered so far
Hyderabad - Amaravathi:
Day 65: 23/05/2022
Our destination for the day was Amaravathi, but we could not find any decent hotel here for the stay. We decided to visit this place and drive further instead of staying there. So this became the only state capital in this whole trip where we did not stay over.
We started from Hyderabad after checking out of our hotel at 7:00 AM. Road condition was excellent, but there was some traffic to manage for the first 70 odd KMs. There are multiple small restaurants and food trucks on this route, so there are lot of food options here. We stopped at one of the food trucks and had our breakfast. Our next stop was for fuel and then later for a filter coffee.
Road condition was excellent, in most places it was arrow straight 6 lane highway with minimal traffic. Once we were near to Vijayawada traffic thickened and we had to slow down drastically. We took deviation towards Amaravathi from Vijayawada. Highway was closed after crossing the city and we were diverted to a very narrow lane from here. Road condition was horrible in most parts, some sections were so narrow that even 2 cars could not pass each other. It took us more than 90 mins to cover this last section of 40 KMs.
We reached Amaravathi around 12:45 PM. This place does not even look like a capital of a state. It is smaller than most B towns and we could see farming land as close as 1.5 KMs to the city. One of my friend later informed me that actual city is getting developed somewhere else.
We reached the Dhyana Buddha temple complex around 1:00 PM. This was the hottest day of the entire trip for us, temperature was 48 degree centigrade. We spent about 30 mins here and took some photos.
We wanted to visit Amaravathi Stupa, but it was closed for lunch. We did not find any restaurant for us to have lunch and heat was also too severe to wait for another hour. So we decided to move on. We had booked our stay in Guntur. We reached Guntur around 2:30 PM and had our lunch at Nagarjuna's Chutneys. We checked into our hotel by 3:30 PM.
Route taken: Hyderabad - Vanasthalipuram - Choutuppal - Chithuala - Narkekal - Suryapet - Vijayawada - Aamaravati - Guntur
Once the sun went down and it was much cooler, we went out to explore Guntur city. Had some snacks and tea. Ended the day with a simple dinner.
What we covered so far
Amaravathi - Chennai:
Day 66: 24/05/2022
Though the title says Amaravathi - Chennai, this day's drive was from Guntur - Chennai.
We started our journey at 8:00 AM after our breakfast from Guntur. It was a short distance to get out of the city and to connect to NH and we were on butter smooth NH in no time. Entire stretch of road was in excellent condition and I would be nitpicking if I try to find fault with this road. We stopped for a tea first and then for an ice-cream on the way. There was greenery all around on this route, but it was so hot that it was almost impossible to step out of the car and enjoy it even for 5 mins.
Pulicat Lake has been in my bucket list for a real long time now. Seeing the signboards for it on this route tempted to me to take that deviation and visit even at the cost of reaching the destination late than initially planned. I was not even sure if this was the right season for flamingos and I was certain that mid noon is not the ideal time to spot birds. I still wanted to go there and see, so we took that deviation towards the lake from Sullurpeta. It is a total of 13 KMs drive from the NH, after roughly a KM of bad patch of road you get NH quality road to drive with lake on either side.
It was so hot that it was almost impossible to stand outside even for 5 mins. My wife refused to get out of the car just after couple of mins out in the sun. After driving for about 3 - 4 KMs on this stretch I was able to spot some flamingos in the lake. Once I started taking photos camera got switched off because of the heat. I had to let it cool and then cover it with thick hand towel to avoid getting heated up before continuing to shoot. But at the end of it, taking that chance and coming here was worth it.
As soon as we connected back to NH, we stopped for lunch at Fortune MR Grand, Sullurpeta. Post lunch we drove on and when we were about to reach Chennai it started to rain. A 15 - 20 mins of rain cooled the temperature down a bit and made our last leg of the drive for the day pleasant. We reached our hotel and checked in by 4:30 PM.
Route taken: Guntur - Ongole - Kavali - Nellore - Gudur - Sullurupet - Kadirvedu - Chennai
After freshening up, we went to Marina beach. Beach was about 15 mins walking distance from the hotel, on the way had tea and some snacks. I am not sure if this was a low tide or the specialty of this beach, there is a huge sand bed (300 - 400 mts) for you walk on and a lot of shops set on the seashore. We watched the sun go down and walked on the beach for a long time along with enjoying snacks being sold on the beach.
We returned to our hotel room by 8:30 PM, took a shower, had some curd rice for dinner and called it a day.
What we covered so far
Chennai - Pondicherry:
Day 67: 25/05/2022
We checked out of hotel room in Chennai by 9:00 AM as breakfast got delayed a bit. Having a short distance to cover this day, delayed start was not such a big worry.
Our first stop for the day was Santhome Cathedral Besilica, we reached there by 9:15 AM. There was a huge crowd of tourists already in this place by the time we reached, so we had a quick visit, took some photos and left from here.
Our next stop was Valluvar Kottam, this was a short drive from cathedral and we reached here by 10:00 AM. We spent about 30 mins here, the heat was unbearable, so we rushed back to the comfort of our car.
From here we headed towards Pondicherry. We had some city traffic to negotiate and by the time we were out of the city and on ECR it was 11 :00 AM. Road condition was decent enough and width kept changing from 4 lane to 2 lane frequently.
Enroute we took an impromptu decision and took a deviation towards Mahabalipuram and reached by 12:00 PM. We visited Shore temple, Arjuna's penance and Krishna Mantapa. By this time heat again made us get back into the comfort of the AC in our car. We left Mahabalipuram by 1:00 PM.
We stopped for lunch on the way at Sai Sarvana Bhavan and reached our hotel in Pondicherry by 3:00 PM.
Route taken: Chennai - Mahabalipuram - Kuvathur - Marakkanam - Pondicherry.
After taking some rest we went to visit White town, Aurobindo Ashram and Rock beach, had a coffee and snacks in A2B on the way.
We returned to our hotel by 7:30 PM, freshened up and went out for dinner. Once I entered the restaurant I realized that we were in the same restaurant which we had visited 7 years ago. We returned to our hotel room by 10:00 PM after dinner.
What we covered so far
Pondicherry - Thiruvananthapuram:
Day 68: 26/05/2022
We had a long distance to cover this day, so woke up early and checked out of our hotel by 6:30 AM. There was not much traffic, so getting out of the city was easy. We stopped for a coffee as soon as we were out side the city limits.
NH 33 was in decent condition in most places with occasional deviations because of construction work. But there were too many trucks on the road early in the morning. We stopped for breakfast at Balaji Restaurant, Gedilam. From here onwards traffic reduced and road condition improved.
We stopped for fuel on the way and our next stop was for a glass of Jigarthanda. Once we connected to NH 44 road condition improved multifold. This NH has to be one of the smoothest highways to drive in India.
Our next stop was for lunch at Nila restaurant, Valliyur very late in the afternoon. We reached Kanyakumari and checked into our hotel by 4:00 PM. We had visited Kanyakumari in 2007 during our honeymoon drive, it was good to be back here after 15 years. The first impression suggested that a lot had changed, obviously.
A junction from where all roads lead to Kanyakumari
Route taken: Pondicherry - Vilupuram - Ulundur - Perambalur - Thiruchanapalli - Madurai - Virudhunagar - Tirunelveli - Kanyakumari
Later in the evening we went to the beach, but unfortunately we could not watch the sunset as it was a cloudy evening. We stayed on the beach till late in the evening, had some snacks and ended the day with a dosa at Sarvana Bhavan.
Day 69: 27/05/2022
It was still cloudy when we went to bed, so we had no hopes of watching the sunrise. When we woke up at 5:45 AM sky was clear and we got a good view of sunrise from our hotel balcony.
We got ready after a while and went to have our breakfast in one of the many restaurants on the beach. On our way back we visited sunset point and drove beyond it to a beautiful part of the beach with no human being around us. Spent more than 30 mins here clicking loads of photos.
We returned to hotel room, got ready and checked out by 9:30 AM. We had a short distance to cover this day, so we were in no hurry, so we decided to take the SH hugging the coast instead of the NH. Road condition was average with few potholes unexpectedly springing up, narrow roads and lot of traffic. But that was expected when we decided to take this route.
We stopped at multiple places to click photos. Also found wild jackfruit in one of the village shops and stopped to eat it. As a child I used to relish this fruit which used to grow on our neighbour's tree, had not eaten this fruit in more than 30 years now.
We reached Thiruvananthapuram by 12:45 PM. There was some political rally happening in the city so the traffic was in complete mess. We reached Mother's Veg Plaza to have Kerala Sadhya lunch, it was interesting to watch a traveler from South Korea who was sharing the table with us trying to figure out how to eat this lunch. Post lunch we went to visit Kanakakkunnu palace. Once we reached there, we were informed that this place is closed for public for a while now. We checked into our hotel by 2:00 PM and took some rest.
Route taken: Kanyakumari - Colachel - Karungal - Kollamkoda - Poovar - Kovalam - Thiruvananthapuram
Plan for the evening was to visit Kuthira Mallika Palace and Padhmanabha Swamy temple. Since we were staying at a close proximity to these places we decided to walk and explore the city. On the way visited Pazhavangadi Ganapati temple and spotted Vettimuricha Kotta.
Pazhavangadi Ganapati temple
Vettimuricha Kotta
Once we arrived at Kuttira Mallika Palace, we were informed that a section of it is closed for public and the remaining is an art gallery. Decided against entering it and we went to visit Padhmanabha swamy temple.
To enter the temple you have to wear the prescribed attire and no camera or mobile phone is allowed inside the temple. So we were able to take photos from only outside. We waited till the sunset, clicked few photos and returned to our hotel room.
For dinner had Kerala parotta and called it a day.
And that covers all the states
Thiruvananthapuram - Bangalore: (Homerun)
Day 70: 28/05/2022
When we started this day, the plan was to drive as long as possible and see how far we can reach, take a pit stop and continue the next day. We also wanted to see if this can be done in one day, so we wanted to start early to make sure time does not become a factor for us to stop halfway through. Having said that I didnt want to push myself on the last day to make sure we reach home the same day. It would have made no difference if we reached the same day or the next.
We woke up early and checked out of hotel by 6:15 AM. Plan was to take NH 66 till Nagarcoil, then NH 944 to connect to NH44 and then it would be NH 44 all the way till Bangalore. Our first stop was for a tea on a roadside tea stall who had just opened for business for the day. Next stop was for breakfast at Udupi International restaurant, Kumaracoil.
NH 66 had some traffic to tackle with even though we had an early morning start. But once we connected to NH 44 traffic just vanished and the butter smooth road opened up. We were able to churn miles here with ease. Sky too was at its artistic best and I kept driving and crossed Madurai with another coffee and a fuel break in between.
Our next stop was for lunch at Sri Nathi Restaurant, Paramathi. Once we reached Dharmapuri there was some traffic jam and this added about 30 mins to our travel time. We stopped for a coffee one last time on this trip and reached home by 6:45 PM.
Thus, it turned out to be the longest drive day in terms of time and distance on the last day of this mega trip.
Route taken: Thiruvananthapuram - Nagercoil - Velliyur - Tirunelveli - Madurai - Dindigul - Namakkal - Salem - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore
Facts & Figures:
Total No. of Days: 70
Total Distance covered: 18025 KMs
Car: Skoda Fabia 1.2 Elegance HTP (2012)
No of drivers: 1
No of travelers: 2
Amount of fuel consumed: 1144.88 Lts
Mileage achieved: 15.74 KMPL
Toll paid per KM: 0.74 Rs
Running cost per KM (Fuel + Toll): 7.5 Rs
No of NHs touched/driven: 72
Min. temperature encountered: -5 degree C
Max. temperature encountered: 45 degree C
No of breakdowns: 0
No of punctures: 1
No of times fine paid for traffic rules violation: 1
No of times luggage was checked: 4
No of states where ILP needed: 4
No of places where vaccination certificate was asked: 1
No of states where mask was mandatory: 0
Fuel (Petrol):
Most expensive: 120.57 Rs /Lt (Telangana)
Cheapest: 94.72 Rs/Lt (Dadra)
Average cost: 106.47 Rs/Lt
Note: During the travel period there was a sharp rise in the fuel prices because of hike in crude oil price.
Split of distance covered:
No of days where less than 100 KMs covered: 13
No of days where the distance covered is in between 100 - 250: 21
No of days where the distance covered is in between 250 - 400: 23
No of days where more than 400 KMs covered:13
Least distance covered in a day: 0 KMs (23/4/2022)
Maximum distance covered in a day: 714 KMs (28/5/2022)
Photography Gear:
Panasonic FZ100
Nikon P900 (Wildlife)
Motorola Edge 20 Fusion
Nokia 7 Plus
Shopping:
My wife has a list of things we bought that runs up to 3 pages. But that is not important, I am adding this to let you all know how we managed to shop all that when we literally had no space in the car to carry them. We used the courier facilities from Jaipur, Srinagar, Lucknow and Ranchi and sent the things we shopped to home. That way lack of space need not stop you from buying the things you want when you travel.
Epilogue:
This brings me to the most difficult part of this entire travelogue when I am trying to put it in few words about the experience we have had over 70 days.
If I have to put it in a single word that would be unreal. It still feels unreal, and I end up pinching myself when I think about this trip. If I have to single out one factor that I did not like that would be weather. Summer is my least favorite time to travel and we ended up having our best road trip in summer. But if I look back, this could not have been done in any other season as winter would have made sure we miss out on Leh and monsoon has become too risky to travel of late. So summer was not an ideal time for us, it was ideal time for this trip.
I will not get into categorizing or rating what was best and what was worst as that is personal choice and can also become controversial. And it would not be right on my part to judge a place by visiting it for 2 -3 days. All in all, it was a wonderful experience with hardly anything to complain about. Yes, there were some bad roads and some bad traffic, but they are part of any road trip. On a good day you will have lesser trouble with road and traffic but you can never avoid it completely.
I would like to call myself lucky that we were able to complete this road trip without any health issues or issues with vehicle. When a journey goes from not knowing how to complete to not knowing how it ended, it would invariably be awesome.
Me and my 2 companions of this trip
This is how the location history on google maps looks like after this road trip ended. Now to compare it you will have to scroll back all the way to the first section of this travelogue.
By the way hope that popcorn bucket lasted this while.
Gr8 narration and enjoyed it to every bit...
ReplyDeleteWe (myself & spouse) are travel-freaks and we'd love to do this in our lifetime...
God bless you...
Happy Riding ahead...
Thank you very much. Do connect whenever you plan if you need any input from me.
DeleteAmazing post! Enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much
Deletehow did you guys manage your work and leave
ReplyDeleteSelf employed, so didnt have to ask for leave.
DeleteVery well narrated!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Dheiru..
DeleteShort of words ..but to put in simple words...just loved it....❤️❤️❤️
ReplyDeleteThank you very much,,
DeleteAwesome!! Loved the narration.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much
DeleteFantastic narration 🔥🔥 visualised each and every bit… Thank you very much:)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the appreciation, I am glad you liked.
DeleteI learned something new today. Thanks to your post! Read this article Leh Ladakh Couple Bike Trip
ReplyDelete