JAMMU TO DELHI
The 17th Mile Hotel – looks good, would you recommend it?
At Bari Brahma on the NH1A itself. Most convenient hotel on NH1/NH1A, the only good one on the highway itself between Jalandhar & Patnitop. For someone coming from Delhi or Srinagar, looking for an overnight stay, this could be the best option – Jammu has lots of hotels like JKTDC inside the city, and Pathankot also. The hotel looks good, one of our friends has had food there and used its wash rooms & my friend Ajay in Jammu says it is a decent business hotel which they all patronise.
Isn't it scary driving on the chicken neck at Samba & Kathua?
Not as scary as it looks on the map.
The NH1A runs along the border to the west (and the lofty Dhauladhars to the east) – you cannot see it – and you can see all the rivers flowing towards Pakistan completely emptied of water as per the Indus Water sharing treaty.
This is a well-populated region, the road is a superb stretch of 4-laned superfast highway and similar to our onwards journey, we managed to touch the PB border & Pathankot very quickly.
How do you decide on your refuelling halts?
In the hills, I seldom let my tank come down below half, bearing in mind the limited number of petrol pumps, and also the fact that some run out of fuel often.
However, once I get into the highways, I start counting my paisas, I plan refuelling so that I take it in the cheaper States during a multi-State drive. JK being more expensive, and PB being super-cheap for diesel, I pushed the Scorpio bone-dry to Madhopur, the first town after crossing into PB & refuelled there.
Why this sudden fetish for cleaning the car?
As you may have noted already, my car would be disqualified from even participating in any Clean Car contests, it looks the least attractive cosmetically & the dents, hits & breaks don’t inspire any confidence, but the clean engine bay definitely will!
The underbody of the car takes considerable hits & damage during any drive in the Himalayas, especially Kashmir. Hence, I always suggest to anyone returning from such a hard drive to do a thorough underbody wash on returning to the plains. Reasons are simple – get the muck cleaned up. Then check the underbody for any damages – to suspension, exhaust piping, brake systems, fuel tanks, wiring, and any oil leaks. Will also highlight if any nuts/bolts are loose or gone. So obviously, as cleaning progresses, I get under the body of the car & personally inspect each component to assure myself that Allz Well.
The other reason for this clean-up is cops. Your car gets noticed when it is dirty, and cops waiting to pounce on out-of-State registered cars at slightest pretext, your car ends up being the most prominent vehicle on the road heightening the risk of a cop thumbing you down.
It cost just Rs 150 to wash the car thoroughly on the Pathankot bypass.
One other reason I stopped there for the wash is to delay my drive on the Pathankot-Amritsar road away from evening peak hour. The time spent in the water service workshop helped us beat the worst traffic.
Amritsar? But the road from Jammu to Delhi goes direct from Pathankot to Jalandhar?
We wanted to visit the
Golden Temple. Last year’s IPHE Expedition we had to give it a miss due to paucity of time, but this year we had decided that we will do it somehow & happily, our journey had go well so far, well within the stipulated timelines, so I had no hesitation in taking this detour to Amritsar.
As you said, the direct road to Delhi goes as follows:
Pathankot-Mukerian-Dasuya-Jalandhar
The route I took was as follows:
Patankot-Gurdaspur-Amritsar-Jalandhar
I heard that Pathankot-Amritsar NH15 is a total mess?
Well, it runs through very thickly-populated areas, with a town or village every 5 kms or so. No bypasses. Even the Gurdaspur bypass is incomplete. You can put your hand out & grab an apple or onion as you wade through vegetable markets in towns like Dinanagar. Buses are driven here – with all headlights on & horns blaring – like Beemers on expressways. I was almost swiped by one when I cheekily overtook one who was overtaking another on what is a narrow 2-laned road, and we brushed against trees & fields of the Punjabi country side. Later on, the bus driver strode across to us – when both of us were stopped at a level crossing – and we both glowered at each other at first, “had you....”, and we-could-have-avoided-this conversation, and then shrugged and walked away
Road widening is on, but road condition is good barring a few rough sections here and there. Sees heavy traffic all day, but very peaceful at night,. I always tell everyone to take this road before 8 am and after 10 pm. Hardly 100 kms or so, but took us almost 3 hours (I have done this late night in under 1.5 hours too)
So it was Butter Chicken at Crystal or Khulchas at Kesar ka Dhaba in Amritsar?
As we drove towards Amritsar, we polled our friends on phone & SMS on the best places to eat in Amritsar, and we got quick responses from many, including SS-Traveller & BolBolero. Alas, that was out to be, but we were quite happy to have the langar food at the Golden Temple, primarily because the darshan itself took time – and hotels would have been closed. It is always an uplifting experience to partake of the food at the Temple langar.
One has heard of congested roads in Amritsar? Should one park the car somewhere & take a rick to the Temple?
The Golden Temple in Amritsar is located in a very congested part of town, and access roads are narrow, crowded and congested. But all roads lead to the Temple. Follow the sign boards and you will be taken to a fantastic multi-storied car parking building. Park your car here and then walk to the Temple is hardly 10 minutes away. I guess old people will be exempted & allowed to drive closer to the Temple.
How did the spoilt dal makhani spoil the evening?
You may recall that the dal makhani or whatever we had at the otherwise-fabulous Kashmiri lunch in Jammu was spoilt and that hit Romin badly. He could not come to the temple, he was in acute suffering.
What was the hurry, I say? Why not stay over at Amritsar, what is this kolaveri to get to Delhi the same night?
The Golden Temple was very crowded. It took us almost 1 hour to enter the sanctum sanctorum & once inside, we also got a chance to see the religious ceremony of unveiling the Granth, spying down from the first storey!
The decision to leave Amristar a little after midnight on an all-night drive was a deliberate one, because I had to be back in Delhi the next evening for Lalu to catch his flight back to Bangalore & driving the NH1 by day – because of the road widening mess – was an impossible task. I also had a personal meeting in Sonipat and a meeting with friends scheduled later that evening in Noida, so the night drive to Deli was the best thing to do.
How bad was NH1?
Very bad. Boy, were we relieved that we were driving Jalandhar-Ludhiana-Ambala-Panipat-Sonipat-Delhi by night and not by day when all those narrow roads – thanks to innumerable flyovers under construction in towns and at busy crossings – and many rough sections. Thanks to the night drive, we reached Rai, short of Delhi is a little over 6 hours, what would have been an all-day ordeal had we taken a night break.
Why halt at Sonipat when Delhi was so near? And what is this visit to McD all about? And I never thought Sonipat is a sight-seeing place to go around in after such a wonderful drive to Kashmir & HP?
I had a personal meeting near Sonipat & the HR Tourism Ethnic India resort at Rai a little after Sonipat was a perfect fit for me. On the highway, a decent place, not cheap but quite reasonable considering that Delhi hotels would have been a rip-off. So Lalu & I hired a hotel room there, so that I could take a couple of hours nap before going ahead with the rest of the agenda for the day, while Romin & his wife decided to hitch hike their way to Delhi to stay with a cousin in South Delhi.
So how did the team disburse once it reached the NCR?
As originally planned, Lalu was to fly back to Bangalore from Delhi.
Romin had no concrete plans, but when he got tatkal train tickets back to South India, he decided to take a long-distance train journey back.
I was to return back to Bombay in my Scorpio alone.
What is the significance of this Mukkarba Chowk?
Very important intersection for those coming to Delhi north. This intersection is where you turn left towards the Ring Road to take you to Mathura Road (Nh2), with connections to NH24 (Moradabad-Nainital) and Nh58 (Hardwar). The road straight leads into Delhi and at Azadpur some 3 kms ahead, you can take the direct road to Dhaula Kuan/Airport and NH8 (Jaipur). Simple route to escape inner Delhi.
Looks like you did not have any problem navigating Delhi?
Delhi is an easy city to drive through thanks to the Ring Roads and the superb signages. I have full knowledge of these arterial Ring Roads, but nothing else inside the city itself. As long as you know where you have to go, you can navigate with the help of the large overhead sign boards. Those going to Jaipur side (NH8) have to simply follow the signboards for Dhaula Kuan/ Airport/ Gurgaon.
Meet in Delhi?
Yes, we members of the Face Book Group
HV Kumar - Fan, Forum & Message Board decided to have an evening get-together at Noida, so that was my only business in Delhi before moving on..
After Delhi, what happened?
The entire North India grid collapsed, and they started pointing fingers at me.........