[Samba]

Sirjee, yesterday night around 12am before going to sleep i casually clicked on this travelogue. That time i was unaware that it will snatch 3 hours from my yesterdays sleep..! But that was worth it.

Once i started reading it, i was so engrossed that i completed it in one go. Loved reading this. Enjoyed reading the Kolkata part very much. Its my native and i can very well relate to what you have gone through. During Durga puja at night when you were entering park street with heavy rain, i was near Parkstreet area enjoying the madness with my friends! That was Nabami night.

Yesterday night the time i completed reading your travelogue it was already 3am so i refrained from commenting that time.

The only thing i want to say is- What people do in few or more trips you have done all in one trip! Hats off to you and your team. Thanks a lot for penning down this beautiful travelogue. Rated 5 star.

[kaushik_s]

Same thing happened to me as Samba, I also clicked on it just before going to sleep and couldn't resist myself from completing it till 3.30am Very nicely written and loads of pics to the boot. Thanks a lot for sharing..

Now, about few things, that Landslide before Hyuliang was there in 2012 too when we went for our drive. One entire mountain section have collapsed taking the road with it into the abyss. Whole Hyuliang/Walong etc were cut off for more than 6 months. We stayed in Khoppa(Hyuliang) guest house and it was a nice clean place to stay. Couldn't find accomodation in Walong as the Guest house there was already occupied by some other people. When I read about you being told that KA Scorpio has crossed before you at Mahadevpur (Namsai) checgate, I almost thought it was us and then realized that you guys were there in 2013 and not 2012.
There is an another river crossing near Chongkham and that's probably a better route to reach Tezu from Tinsukia/Rupai instead of using either Chapakhowa or Wakro routes. But it's very difficult to find out unless you know someone in that area who can direct you properly or a regular road user there. We couldn't find it even after taking so many direction advices from the people there. Sadia (Chapakhowa) roads are very very bad due to the flood situation and also the negligence of the administration. We stayed in Chapakhowa for a day and had interacted with the very very helpful locals there.
2500Rs for river crossing was way too high, we paid 1400Rs for that private crossing in Nov 2012. Probably me being from Assam helped a bit in bargaining. The Saikhowa-Chapakhowa bridge is currently under construction and probably would take another 3-4 years to complete. Touted to be the longest River Bridge in India at 9km ro something length would be a boon to travel towards Arunachal from mainland.
Regards,

[Vikki@Hyderabad]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Congratulations on completing the Leh trip. will look forward to your travelogue. And will you also visit Arunachal?

Definitely, why wouldn't I? Have started preparing my better half already

[amansanc]

Congrats Hemanth for completing your dream drive and for the cute little angel

Read the thread in one go!! Amazing narration and pics. Thank you for putting up all the details so nicely.
I also dream of embarking on such long journeys later in my life

Cheers!!
amansanc

[nekfar]

Hemant, what a great Travelogue!.
One awesome, inspiring piece of travel document. Very well documented and presented. You really made us live through it.
Kudos to the three of you on this wonderful roadtrip.


Trust, any other roadtrip you guys now undertake would be a "piece of cake".

By the way, I really liked one of your remarks and I quote,
"Two Scorpios and a Safari coming at you and one with a red beacon...no one will bother to mess around, will they?
This was the only time I saw some political leader coming to the help of a common man: D"

[ashbhat2]

Wow !

Congrats Hemanth, first for the Amazing voyage and secondly for taking us through your voyage with such an awesome write up.

Just couldn't stop reading once I started and finished it all in one go. One of the perks you get with travelling in India is that you get to taste such a variety of cuisines. Being a big foodie myself, I was drooling at the pics of Kewpie's and Haldirams. Also Maggi at high altitudes turns into something entirely different. Survived on Maggi and omelettes on my Ladakh trip a couple of years back.

Rated 5 stars. Thanks for taking us along with you on your amazing journey.

[maheshramaling]

One of the best! Thanks for the detailed account of trip and wonderful photo's. This log is definitely worth a nice booklet! Good job and thanks again! A well deserved 5*'s from my end!

[Shanksta]

What an absolutely epic travelogue? I just cannot express my feelings in words! 4 corners in two years is just absolutely brilliant hats off to your determination and passion. Also loved the fact that you returned Airavatha in pristine condition! Respect! Read the whole travelogue in 1 go took 4hours but absolutely worth it.

Sir, I sincerely request you publish both your epic journeys as books with complete details as it would benefit future nomads like me who wish to cover the 4 corners. I am planning for next year. North and West drive.

The most thrilling part of the travelogue for me was when you encountered those 10 men on bikes with guns. Must have been really scary.

Once again hats off on this epic journey and your simple yet brilliant and engrossing narration.

[JoseVijay]

Hemanth,

Congratulations on completing one among many of your dream drives. You have virtually taken us to places which most of us have not dreamt of. I admit I never knew or thought that Arunachal Pradesh was so beautiful. Amazing thread and wonderful pics. What a narration! Rated 5 stars. Although you have started the thread long back, it was worth the wait for us all.

What, Where and When NEXT? This is the question that all of us have for you. Hope you will bring us out of the suspense.

You have got a little cute Angel there! Congratulations and prayers for your family especially for the little Angel.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by vb-san

Excellent write-up Hemanth!

After the London-Mongolia trip report by Rejoy, this is one travelogue I read through fully in one stretch. Looking forward to your next epic journey!

Thanks vb-san,

The Mongol Rally is one of the items in the 'What next???' list
I will be the happiest guy on earth if I can do that some day.

Originally Posted by Ananth_shukti

I have been dreaming to do a trip like this, but not sure whether I could do it on a 10 year old TCIC safari which has done about 80K kms till now.

what I liked the most in your write up is the learning from your trip, Thanks for motivating lot of us , & do let me know routes like this are ok to go ahead for amateur like me.

Wish you to do many more trips like this .

Thanks Ananth_shukti,

If your vehicle is well maintained, then with good planning, it should not be impossible.
If it is a Single driver, then it needs more planning. Each driver is different, the main thing is not to overstress our body and minds.

As far as the learnings are considered...I believe that "If we don't learn from our experiences, then our life is wasted"

Originally Posted by aneezan

Its equally wonderful, how you actually kept to your plan of completing the trip within the time.

Thanks aneezan,

If planning is one thing, getting up early in the day is a key factor to keep up times. All said and done, Nature rules and it's Mercy is what you can only hope for.

Originally Posted by Samba

That time i was unaware that it will snatch 3 hours from my yesterdays sleep..! But that was worth it.

Thanks for the nice words Samba,
Sorry for robbing your sleep...I'm sleep-lover and I know how it feels to rob one's sleep

Enjoyed reading the Kolkata part very much. Its my native and i can very well relate to what you have gone through. During Durga puja at night when you were entering park street with heavy rain, i was near Parkstreet area enjoying the madness with my friends! That was Nabami night.

Its a different perspertive right? Recently I read a Travelogue of Bangalore on TBHP and it was refreshing to see my own place from a visitor's eyes

The only thing i want to say is- What people do in few or more trips you have done all in one trip!

But I would want to visit these places individually covering more in detail.

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

Same thing happened to me as Samba, I also clicked on it just before going to sleep and couldn't resist myself from completing it till 3.30am Very nicely written and loads of pics to the boot. Thanks a lot for sharing..

Thanks kaushik_s,
Sorry for robbing your sleep too, that too on a week day.

We stayed in Khoppa(Hyuliang) guest house and it was a nice clean place to stay. Couldn't find accomodation in Walong as the Guest house there was already occupied by some other people.

It seems we were very lucky.

When I read about you being told that KA Scorpio has crossed before you at Mahadevpur (Namsai) checgate, I almost thought it was us and then realized that you guys were there in 2013 and not 2012.

It would have been great if it were you

There is an another river crossing near Chongkham and that's probably a better route to reach Tezu from Tinsukia/Rupai instead of using either Chapakhowa or Wakro routes. But it's very difficult to find out unless you know someone in that area who can direct you properly or a regular road user there. We couldn't find it even after taking so many direction advices from the people there. Sadia (Chapakhowa) roads are very very bad due to the flood situation and also the negligence of the administration. We stayed in Chapakhowa for a day and had interacted with the very very helpful locals there...

...The Saikhowa-Chapakhowa bridge is currently under construction and probably would take another 3-4 years to complete. Touted to be the longest River Bridge in India at 9km ro something length would be a boon to travel towards Arunachal from mainland.

This information should help others planning to go there. Thanks for Sharing. We were really unaware of any such alternate route.

2500Rs for river crossing was way too high, we paid 1400Rs for that private crossing in Nov 2012. Probably me being from Assam helped a bit in bargaining.

Outsiders are always looted. Its an universal truth. Although we knew we were paying more, since we didn't have any 'local support' we had to move on.

Originally Posted by Vikki@Hyderabad

Definitely, why wouldn't I? Have started preparing my better half already

All the best!

Originally Posted by amansanc

Congrats Hemanth for completing your dream drive and for the cute little angel
Read the thread in one go!! Amazing narration and pics. Thank you for putting up all the details so nicely.
I also dream of embarking on such long journeys later in my life

Thanks amansanc,
Kal kare so aaj kar, Aaj kare so ab.

Originally Posted by nekfar

Hemant, what a great Travelogue
Trust, any other roadtrip you guys now undertake would be a "piece of cake".

Thanks nekfar

I don't want to believe that as it may lead to over-confidence. Every roadtrip is a challenge in its own way. If we start believing that any one of those will be a "piece of cake", it will hurt in some other unexpected way.

Originally Posted by ashbhat2

Wow !
One of the perks you get with travelling in India is that you get to taste such a variety of cuisines. Being a big foodie myself, I was drooling at the pics of Kewpie's and Haldirams. Also Maggi at high altitudes turns into something entirely different. Survived on Maggi and omelettes on my Ladakh trip a couple of years back.

Thanks ashbhat2,
I completely agree with the food part. Unfortunately I have not taken many pictures of food this time because I was more busy eating them
Our country is truly a foodie's paradise

Originally Posted by Shanksta

What an absolutely epic travelogue? I just cannot express my feelings in words! 4 corners in two years is just absolutely brilliant hats off to your determination and passion.

Thanks Shanksta

Also loved the fact that you returned Airavatha in pristine condition! Respect!

It was our duty. Here I would like to quote Subroto Bagchi (founder of Mindtree) of a lesson that he was taught...
“You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”.
As a auto-enthusiast, I added a car to that list

Sir, I sincerely request you publish both your epic journeys as books with complete details as it would benefit future nomads like me who wish to cover the 4 corners.

Too many guys have asked me this...let me see if I can manage to do it.

I am planning for next year. North and West drive.

All the best!

The most thrilling part of the travelogue for me was when you encountered those 10 men on bikes with guns. Must have been really scary.

You bet, yes! That few seconds are still in fornt of my eyes

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

Hemanth,

Congratulations on completing one among many of your dream drives.

Thanks JoseVijay

I admit I never knew or thought that Arunachal Pradesh was so beautiful.

Not just Arunachal Pradesh, all the 'seven sisters' are beautiful. hoping to visit all of them

[amansanc]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Thanks amansanc,
Kal kare so aaj kar, Aaj kare so ab.

At an age of 19 years, its very difficult to convince parents.

[Freebird82]

Man, all I can say is thank you for doing this trip and sharing with us. Just gobsmackingly amazing. Has given me and my wife lot of motivation to for our next long trip.

Cheers.

[venkyhere]

Hemant, this is not just for you but also for all your NEWS partners :

1) the dedication to plan and then the discipline to actually execute the whole thing - really shines through like a beacon and inspires others. Not just the travel in itself, but the dedication and discipline to actually write down the whole thing for others.

2) how on earth do you manage to recollect all the minor details many many months after completing the actual travel ? hats off

3) there are only a few things in life which you can be actually feel proud about in the purest sense of the word - its not money/fame or anything such - it is really the exclusivity of experiences - and you guys managed to "earn" loads of it. The money used up & the days spent without family, is possibly the best 'investment' that you guys have done on yourselves. The trip surely would have changed you (for the better) as individuals and would have made you wiser for the inevitable hurdles in life

[rajeev k]

Completed the entire thread in one go and felt like I have just returned after an epic journey. Kudos to all of you and the Airavatha.

[samarth.bhatia]

Woah! That was an A.W.E.S.O.M.E travelogue.
What I loved about it

• Long hours behind the wheel on most days, but smaller hours on some other days (when needed, for instance in the beauty of Arunachal
• Excellent team work, despite different ages
• Covered tourist spots even after having driven for hours that day - says a lot about the vehicle and its levels of comfort
• Such large amounts of drama
• Such a well scripted travelogue - with excellent details

Thanks for sharing, Hemanth.
And congratulations on your baby girl

Cheers,
Sam