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-   -   The F1 Roadtrip : Pune to Noida (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/110542-f1-roadtrip-pune-noida-2.html)

Excellent TL !!
I'm surprised to see the diesel rates at RJ.
You have given every bit of details precisely. However I had one question, How was the car so clean after so much of travel. Was there a washing section involved? I had asked the same question to Swanand in his goa trip.:D
I'm bit confused about accomodations. Was it all in friends/relatives? Please provide us the details.

Excellent pictures. The pictures for vento meet are bit of a blurr. Time for a tripod. Or, Place the camera on some immovable object and put it in a 10-sec shutter mode. It will work as a base which doesnt shake.

Sad to see the dent. Even mine got one or two. We can't avoid it.:Frustrati
How was the driving fatigue in the vento?
Awaiting more of the TL!

Will be up shortly! :)

(...ducking under the table...)

None of us had our tripods at the meet. Though I got one good photo (posted in my OT), using a telephone junction box as a support :p. Looking at our various poses, the watchmen in buildings around us were in a tizzy on what we were upto at 12:00 am!

No washing till I came back to Pune - wasn't sure if any car washes would worsen the dent. Actually the blue color hides a lot of dust in pics - there was a fine layer of dust & bug marks first day itself but it doesn't show.

But as I told Nilesh, you need to wait till we reach Delhi - the Vento couldn't get any dirtier!

As for the diesel rate, Delhi was even more cheaper!!!

Except for Jaipur (Shahpura), every other acco was at friends/relatives. Guess I missed out giving that details. Will put up a detailed post soon.

Yup, can't help it. Thankfully didn't get any more dents or scratches on the road.

Driving fatigue - hardly any. Atleast not on the Pune-Delhi side, considering the number of stops we took. Plus we had made the backseat into a bed, so that helped in case we needed any power naps.


Yay! Honestly it's a pain writing a travelogue! :D But awesome fun to read one - currently going through the Leh (Hvk & team) & the Bombay-Goa Jeep TLs while trying very hard to do some office work!

I found the Polo guy quite hilarious - he probably did atleast 2 round trips if not more!

AWESOME man!! Just the right combination of pictures and prose, just read until day 2 and could not help but reply!!! Good going!

Great pics and reporting! Loved the detailing that have been covered.

Bad to see the dent, but not it would happen in the traffic and road sense most guys have!

Cheers!

Excellent writeup Ninja. Loved the attention to detail! Very meticulously planned.
Same question as Mikons: How was the car so clean? Any washing involved?
Great pics too.

Sad to see the dent, but glad that thats been sorted out.

Please continue.

Sad to know the incident happened just after the meet. How a matter of minutes changes things. I know how livid I was (on myself) after my first scratch!

Also check out J.Ravi's "Leh in a Linea". Amazingly inspiring. My head is already teaming with similar plans!

He probably thought we were planning to have a drag race! :D

Great account of your trip ninja!

I look forward to the further instalments that bring us towards Delhi. Please do put up more food related details if possible :)

Too bad I didnt see your message about the data card on time. Well, you know whom to ask when you need it next lol:

The Vento seems to have performed exceedingly well as a highway cruiser. I will now need to include it in my TD list, which to be honest is only the words 'Optra Magnum' noted on a tissue paper. How did it do on the space and lumbar support. Did you find it necessary to take frequent breaks, other than the bio breaks?

I am sure all of us have kicked ourselves/ been harsh on acquiring the first dents on our cars, so I can claim to imagine how you felt then.

Wow!! Wonderfully Detailed Log Ninja!!
Good Work. Yup!! Diesel in Gurgaon is around 40 RS for 1 liter.
Driving Cost of my Ported Karizma and Vento almost comes out to be equal.

Waiting for more!!

CHEERS!!

Thanks guys!

Damn! This seems to be getting to be an habit by you guys! :D
Wait - lemme clear this up - fast-forwarding three days ahead.

Ta - da! Presenting the "dirty picture" (pun intended)

Day 6 - While returning from the F1 race track


And no, absolutely no wash during the trip.


That was a glorious trip - more important because he did it all alone (single driver), and took a car to places one wouldn't dare to with a Fiat!

Boss,
Food was my top priority during the entire trip :D Actually a lot of the lunch/dinners was gobbled up even before I could take pics, so will be putting details only as and when we did the honors. But yes, there are a few pics coming up.

Vento is a perfect car for the highway - generally I make it a point to stop every 2-3 hours (for the car), but this is one car where you can have the cake & eat it too. Didn't matter if I was going at 140+ or 40 for any amount of distance, no issues at all. Kept an eye for any kind of noises/problems - none. Even the tires held up - zero punctures.

Plus to my surprise, the space is enough for 5, for city drives. Guess I'll let @dippy or @f50 clarify on that matter later - they were the ones sitting at the back (center seat facing the hump) during the Delhi-Noida F1 trips.

Total number of times I couldn't clear the ground - zero.

Niranjan, I got goose-bumps reading the Vento thread. I own one and I know how reliable it is and it was indeed thrilling to read about its performance to Delhi from Pune. Just A_W_E_S_O_M_E ...!!! Waiting for more pictures.
Lucky that the dent was on the outside. All dents are fixable. Drive with care dude...!!!

Thanks Ninja for the pic . Me and Swanand are at peace now.lol:
Please continue.

Not so soon ninja bhai, some others among us are generally not-at-peace types! You also need to confirm that it didnt rain enroute and that an enthusiastic chowkidar didnt wash/ wipe the Vento on one of your overnight halts :)

Waiting for the next instalment

Rajasthan is a state of fluctuating landscape. After the plain-jane roads of Gujarat, the initial 100 odd kms are curvy & winding through green hills. But soon the greenery dries out to give way to a dry landscape, which again in a short while gives way to these glorious hills. All within a span of 150 odd kms!

And all this in a state that is supposedly covered with sand dunes in most of the districts! Actually we wouldn't have minded a few dunes too!

So Rajasthan = Nice & curvy roads amidst the greenery?


Hold on, maybe the actual Rajasthan = dry landscape?


And now hills? What next - ice capped mountains?


Soon we reach the city of lakes, Udaipur. I love these grand gates that tower over the entry into the cities - better these than the ugly octroi gates that indicate the start of most maharashtra cities.

Welcome to Udaipur


Now ideally we should have taken the bypass that leads directly to NH76 (shown by the placeholders in the map below) But I get a call from another friend who resides at Udaipur, and has invited us for lunch. And a good decision it was (as we found out on the return trip from Delhi). The bypass is a 2 lane road that is in horrible state with quite a few craters spread across the 15 odd kms. As my friend later updates me over the lunch, the route that we take through the city (shown by the blue line in the map) is a nice, empty stretch that goes through the city & joins at the junction of NH8 & NH76.

Different routes via/through Udaipur - placeholder show the bypass, while the blue line is the route we take


We enter the city and await my friend. Soon the lady is greeted by a Swift Dzire and she follows him to his place.





She is brought to this grand mini-palace kind of house, with a huge garage, and a nice garden with a fountain & all. We wonder if we have reached some royal outhouse or something, when my friend nonchalantly states that most Rajputana houses are like these only :D

Check out the garage at the end


Who has a fountain in their garden in today's world!


The weather is warm with cool breeze, so we decide to have the lunch outside. My friend gives us a few updates on the road ahead & suggests us to take care to not to enter into Jaipur city, especially the old city as we might get delayed in the city traffic; an advice which we conveniently forget later in the evening. :D



Soon it is time to leave and we start out for Jaipur, our next pitstop.

wonderful writeup there! can't wait to see the F1 track pictures!!

:OT
are you ninjatalli on pagalguy too??