[arun_kun]

Hats off Hemanth for the trips you have accomplished and for the details in documenting the journey.

I spent couple of hours in office shameless reading and ignoring my work. Kudos to you guyz.

[chinkara]

Fantastic thread. Rated 5 stars.
Sad to note that the worst experiences (people-wise) were in Kolkata. Increasingly I am noting this trend - for myself as well.

That checkpost before Aurangabad is notorious I think -- in fact 2 in Aurangabad region - the one leading to Waluj and the other on Kannad side. I too was stopped at both these places a number of times - and at night they even threaten you with trumped up charges if you don't pay up.

You can of course haggle and once I asked them to keep my papers and present them at the court next day, but it is not always possible.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Still thinking of the beauty of those Eastern mountain roads!

Nice travelogue, Hemanth.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

The parking attendants pushed every vehicle until they bump into each other

We were warned by our hotel owner in advance of this nefarious practice. So, we walked to Victoria Museum and Birla Planetarium and travelled in underground Metro [Maidan to Kalighat and back].

[Rags Rocks]

Amazing travelogue Hemanth. I just completed this thread and am planning to start the Ran out of Road thread next. Apart from the cost and time involved, it truly takes much more passion to accomplish, not just one but two cross country trips. Hats off to the effort Hemanth. The pictures and the crisp description truly kept me glued to the thread..

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by vittal

Can you also provide hotel room charges and discount on room tariffs e.g. ginger guwahati and other places. This will be of gr8 use whenever we plan a trip to these places.

In the 2012 Trip, we had taken photos of all the hotels that we stayed in and I had made a review of all of them. This time, we had not taken photos of many hotels. So I avoided doing that, since a lot of text and no pictures would get too boring. Since you have asked, give me sometime, I'll try to put together something less boring.

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Fantastic thread Hemanth.
OT: By the way I know Rajesh as he is friend of my ex-colleague Chaitanya. I will pm you on this later.

Thanks nkrishnap,
Well I know Chaitanya and so does he, but only the "hi, Bye" types because we two were colleagues too once upon a time.

Originally Posted by arun_kun

Hats off Hemanth for the trips you have accomplished and for the details in documenting the journey.

I spent couple of hours in office shameless reading and ignoring my work. Kudos to you guyz.

Thanks arun_kun,

I'm actually responsible for wasting quite a few people's time today

Originally Posted by chinkara

Fantastic thread. Rated 5 stars.
Sad to note that the worst experiences (people-wise) were in Kolkata. Increasingly I am noting this trend - for myself as well.

Thanks chinkara

Unfortunately many of my Kolkata friends are also sad about this. One of them told me that the bad governance has turned West Bengal to Waste Bengal

That checkpost before Aurangabad is notorious I think

Its the same case in many places in the country. Luckily for us a more precious truck came in and they let go of us

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

Nice travelogue, Hemanth.

We were warned by our hotel owner in advance of this nefarious practice. So, we walked to Victoria Museum and Birla Planetarium and travelled in underground Metro [Maidan to Kalighat and back].

Thanks J.Ravi

You were lucky with the Hotel guy warning you. We were lucky that we had put handbrakes on

And my apologies to you sir, I've forgotten to mention you in the credits section. Your valuable inputs about Bhutan and Nepal helped us a lot. Sorry.

[paragsachania]

Wonderful, Excellent, Brilliant, Fantastic, Awesome!! I am falling short of all the superlatives to describe this Travel of yours rightly complemented with loads and loads of Pictures and fitting narration.

And who said you can't see India without stopping over and visiting attractions?

Different roads, manners, people, food, culture, demography, emotions, behaviors, Fuel prices and what not. Traveling across the length (breadth here!) of India has lots to see and witness even while driving or simply halting, eating, sipping a cup of tea and interacting with people itself.

I have had hundreds of folks ask me and my friends on why did I not visit places when driving the GQ twice and my answer was simple - I glanced at our country's beauty by driving and will experience it more when I drive next time (see, it gives me another good reason for another drive).

I had one question to you and I am hoping that you will have to share similar experience as mine - How was the Aurangabad-Dhule drive via Kannad Ghats? I had loved it to limits, especially the density of so many trucks and the discipline they exhibited during ghat climbs and narrow sections.

[chinkara]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Thanks chinkara

Unfortunately many of my Kolkata friends are also sad about this. One of them told me that the bad governance has turned West Bengal to Waste Bengal


Its the same case in many places in the country. Luckily for us a more precious truck came in and they let go of us

I too am a proud Bengali born and brought up in Kolkata - my parents still stay there.
I am not sure whether the governance is corrupting people or people are getting the governance they deserve -- anyway let us not go off topic.

Thanks again for a fantastic thread - triggered memories of places I have been to and created and urge to visit the places you mention I have not been to.

[Sutripta]

Hi,
Great travelogue. Worth the wait. What also comes through is your enthusiasm/ exuberance but also the right amount of maturity. The two normally don't go together.

One small note from my side:

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Serfanguri>Dotma>Kokrajhar>Bahalpur>NorthSalmara>J ogighopa>Guwahati

Serfanguri was where we had to leave the 4-Lane highway and enter single village road.
Although we would have preferred more of 4-lane roads, we had already realized that Sutripta's suggestions are the best in this part of the country. We drove non-stop in the route given to us.

If you remember you had missed a turnoff just after Gossaigaon. The new route given (Serfanguri - Dotma - Kokrajhar) was to bring you back to the old route. But this was about 30 KM longer, 15 KMs of which were over really bad roads. I did not ask you to turn back because you had already covered 10 of those 15 KMs.

Normally for various reasons, I don't guide people along back country roads. But with you all I felt confident.

Regards
Sutripta

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Wonderful, Excellent, Brilliant, Fantastic, Awesome!! I am falling short of all the superlatives to describe this Travel of yours rightly complemented with loads and loads of Pictures and fitting narration.

Thankyou paragsachania

And who said you can't see India without stopping over and visiting attractions?
Different roads, manners, people, food, culture, demography, emotions, behaviors, Fuel prices and what not. Traveling across the length (breadth here!) of India has lots to see and witness even while driving or simply halting, eating, sipping a cup of tea and interacting with people itself.

I have had hundreds of folks ask me and my friends on why did I not visit places when driving the GQ twice and my answer was simple

A drive on the GQ-That's on my radar since sometie now. Hopefully someday, I will do that.

I had one question to you and I am hoping that you will have to share similar experience as mine - How was the Aurangabad-Dhule drive via Kannad Ghats? I had loved it to limits, especially the density of so many trucks and the discipline they exhibited during ghat climbs and narrow sections.

Now in the hindsight, yes, we didn't encounter any indisciplined truck driver. However because of the high density traffic and the narrow roads, it consumed a lot of time. We were always on the move but we were not covering distances quickly.

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Hi,
Great travelogue. Worth the wait. What also comes through is your enthusiasm/ exuberance but also the right amount of maturity. The two normally don't go together.

Thankyou so much for the nice words

One small note from my side:

If you remember you had missed a turnoff just after Gossaigaon. The new route given (Serfanguri - Dotma - Kokrajhar) was to bring you back to the old route. But this was about 30 KM longer, 15 KMs of which were over really bad roads. I did not ask you to turn back because you had already covered 10 of those 15 KMs.

Normally for various reasons, I don't guide people along back country roads. But with you all I felt confident.

Yes, we do remember that and we corrected that in our return journey.

Just out of curiosity, can I ask you what gave you that confidence?

[laluks]

Goodness Gracious, what a travelogue

Read through once, need to come back again to note down many points. I am always planning to go to West Bengal, but it never materialises.

Keep driving and give us many more happy hours reading

[Pumpy_Raj]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Fantastic thread Hemanth. I am still on the first page.

OT: By the way I know Rajesh as he is friend of my ex-colleague Chaitanya. I will pm you on this later.

A well deserved 5* rating for the thread



I too had the same feeling. The safari storme (I know this travelogue has the older safari) is slowly growing on me seeing these travelogues. On a lighter note, if I end up buying the Safari Storme, I will solely blame Hemanth and Tsk

Hi KP, was wondering how i know you and was . Later Chaitanya reminded me. Just a memory refresh. How are you doing these days.
We had a lifetime experience and those days were the best.
One Note to all: If anyone plans to visit Arunachal, take your time / relax and spend an extra day so that you can enjoy those unseen Nature.

[alokgunhal]

@hemanth.anand Excellent Travelogue of the NEWS! I am sure you have made many BHPians add this to their bucket list. The details in which you have captured the feeling of doing this drive is commendable. The photographs compliment the writing style and are crisp. Rated 5 stars already.

Enjoying the passion of driving on roads in parts of our nation which are less visited and sharing the sights and sounds is what we like to do and am sure the question of What Next will be answered soon with another Mega Drive.

Cheers!

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by Pumpy_Raj

Hi KP, was wondering how i know you and was . Later Chaitanya reminded me. Just a memory refresh. How are you doing these days.
We had a lifetime experience and those days were the best.
One Note to all: If anyone plans to visit Arunachal, take your time / relax and spend an extra day so that you can enjoy those unseen Nature.

Rajesh, you seem to have forgotten the cricket days . Need to catch up with you guys soon.

You guys for sure had a wonderful time and it is quite evident from the pics and the details on the travelogue. As usual Hemanth has penned it down brilliantly.

[Rajain]

Guys

This took some time to read and yes the time was worth it. The detail that you bring to your TLs, the pictures and the information on the cost/kms done/hours driven/average speeds - I mean you have a wonderful TL at hand.

I had followed your Leh drive last year and especially after you guys wanted to make it large and after getting back to Bangalore further drove away to Kanyakumari.

For anyone planning a north south corridor and staying in either south or north part of our Hindustan it is somewhat easy since it is naturally on the way. In your case you guys had to travel a fair bit to get to the east west corridor and then do a full run across the country.

Great show.

Cheers