[bluevolt]

1500+ Kms, 4 Days, 4 States, 8 Cities, 1 Car and the Wanderer...!



Delhi->Manesar->Jaipur->Udaipur->Pushkar->Ahmedabad->Vadodra->Surat->Mumbai

"There's an interesting thing about coming home after a long journey. Nothing
changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realise what's changed, is you!"



Prologue

It was November 2011, when a humble white i10 joined our family.

http://www.team-
bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/115217-hyundai-i10-era-irde2-ownership-report.html

i10 was primarily my elder brother's car, but he hardly drove it till earlier this month. In April, 2012 he shifted to Ahmedabad and drove a new Toyota Etios Liva GD. Now with further shifting to Mumbai permanently, there was a need for another car in their family. Though he was reluctant with the idea of driving it all the way down to Mumbai from Delhi, I somehow convinced him that it will be one heck of journey. So dates were set, office leaves were applied and the day came - 8th July, 2015.

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Preparations & Itinerary



Before finalizing the trip, we thought of all possible options for transporting the car to Mumbai - Via Packers and Movers, Via Train Container, Via Road by driven by commercial/office driver, Via Road and self driving. Out of all the options, Via road and self driving seemed to be the best for me as this was first chance in my family where we could do such a long drive. The previous longest drive by me was at the max 500 kms round trip. Considering that we will be driving for over 1500 kms, I was not sure how the little i10 would perform on the highways.

After finalizing the trip in February, I got the car serviced from Hyundai SVC in March. Before starting off the trip, we got 4 liters of petrol in bottles with us in case of emergency. We didn't have a puncture repair kit, though having heard of good conditions of highways for the route, I decided to give it a pass considering the good condition of tyres. i10 was driven for some 8500 kms only in last 3.5 years. We packed lots of food stuffs including biscuits, cold drinks and few paranthas in case of quick refreshment and non availability of road side good eateries.

Since, I had to convince my brother and parents for this long journey, we made a very relaxed travel plan.



The planned itinerary was as follows -

-> Day 1 - 8th July- Delhi to Jaipur

Leave by 8 pm on 8 july and reach jaipur by 1 am and stay in jaipur for the
night ~ around 310 kms.

-> Day 2 - 9th July - Jaipur to Udaipur

Start from jaipur at 9 am on 9 july and reach udaipur by 6-7 pm and stay in
udaipur for the night ~around 420 kms

-> Day 3 - 10th July - Udaipur to Vadodra

Start from udaipur at around 9-10 am on 10 july and reach vadodra by 5-6 pm and stay in vadodra for night. ~ around 350 kms


-> Day 4 - 11th July - Vadodra to Thane, Mumbai

Start from vadodra on 11 july around 9-10 am and reach Thane, Mumbai by 6-7 pm ~ around 400 kms.

-> Day 5 - 12th July- Mumbai to Delhi

Return evening flight back home

The plan was such as there was no need of stressful driving. We mostly stick
with this plan only with slight modifications. With three drivers on board, it
was the very much a relaxed driving plan. Out of some 1600 kms in total, I
drove over 1000 kms with rest of driving shared by my father and brother.

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The Trip

Day 1- 8 July - Wednesday

So it was the evening of 8th July, 2015 when I left my office an hour earlier
than the usual time. Reached Dhaula Kuan Metro station, where my brother and parents were waiting for me. We started off the journey from Dhaula Kuan around 7pm and our first stop was around 8:30 pm at Manesar for a tea break. We stopped mostly at state tourism resorts for the stay and food/
refreshments.



Around 9 pm we again started our journey for Jaipur. At 12:30 am in the night we entered Jaipur and checked in at Rajasthan Tourism resort for the night stay around 1 am. Road conditions right from Dhaula Kuan to Jaipur were great. Hardly encountered any potholes, traffic jam, truck drivers nuisance, or any other problem by god grace.



There was a bit of stretch around 20-30 kms before entering in Jaipur i.e. via Amer kila, which was deserted with no truck, cars around. It was completely dark with our car speeding on the road. i10 was delivering great mileage, there was still good amount of petrol left in the tank. Spent the night at Rajasthan Tourism hotel.

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Day 2 - 9 July - Thursday

Next morning, we decided to have a visit to Jaipur's local attraction places but to our surprise, there was a bandh in Jaipur by BJP/RSS workers who were protesting against some temples demolition due to Jaipur metro construction work. All Jaipur borders were blocked and we were stuck in Jaipur till 11 am.

Considering that there was lots of time wasted in Jaipur, we straightaway started our journey for Udaipur skipping Jaipur's local attractions.
We started around 11:15 am from Jaipur and there was some heavy rainfall along the way for next 50-60 kms. Got the tank full before heading further. Road conditions from Jaipur were also in great shape. The highway is nicely maintained by the NHAI. Around 2 PM we reached Ajmer, visited the Ajmer Shareef and had our lunch. Despite the ramzan season, there was not much rush and had a good darshan at Ajmer Shareef.

After Ajmer, we decided to visit Pushkar, which was not very far from Ajmer. Reached Pushkar in an hour and visited the famous Pushkar lake and Lord Brahma's only Temple in India. Couldn't spend much time in Pushkar as we had to reach Udaipur on the same day.

We started from Pushkar around 5 pm and had a tea break at 7pm. After that, we drove till Udaipur and entered Udaipur at 11pm. Stayed and had lunch in Udaipur's Rajasthan Tourism hotel. The most of the stretch from Ajmer to Udaipur was single laned highway with pretty poor road conditions. I would say this was the most rough patch of the entire journey with construction of the multilane highway still in progress for that part of the route.

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Day 3 - 10 July - Friday

This was the day when we covered the maximum distance and reached Surat in the night. After visiting Udaipur City palace and couple of lakes around the town, we got the fuel tank filled, and started for Surat around 10 am in the morning. As soon as the rajasthan borders were crossed, I was amazed to drive on Gujarat's awesome highways. As always said, Gujarat's highways are really amazing with butter smooth tarmac. We stopped in Himmatnagar, had lunch and started further.

My initial plan was to visit Ahmedabad and Kanakria Lake but due to lack of time, I decided to skip it as we have visited Ahmedabad earlier in the past. Next was the Ahmedabad-Vadodra Expressway, this road truly justifies the 'Expressway' tag associated with it. Probably the best patch of Gujarat roads.
We had a quick tea break at Vadodra and got the tank full. Started for Surat around 5 pm in the evening and reached at 8pm. Though we could have reached Vapi, but since we were a bit tired, decided to stay here only.

In the evening, I experienced madning Surat traffic. I don't think I can compare this traffic with that of Mumbai or Delhi but something was very different about Surat's traffic. Stayed at a hotel as there was no Gujarat tourism guest house in Surat.

[bluevolt]

Day 4 - July 11 - Saturday

On the fourth day, we were closer to our final destination. Started at 9 am from Surat and we reached our Mumbai home at 2pm. There was some rainfall during this stretch. The roads were beautiful, traffic conditions were also good. This day was most relaxing as there was hardly any major distance to be covered. After reaching home, I drove to Kandivali East to meet someone and had Dinner in a hotel in Thane. Later in the night, the car was parked in our Aparment's reserved parking and the mission of transporting i10 from Delhi to Mumbai was accomplished.

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Day 5 - 12 July - Sunday

This was the last day of our trip. We went to local tourist spots in Mumbai like Gateway of India, Siddhivinayak temple, Worli Sea Link etc. In the evening, we reached airport and got back to Delhi with my parents around 11 pm. It was one heck of a journey - with the journey more memorable than the final destination. Driving through four major states of India for the first time was one awesome lifetime experience. I intend to repeat the journey sometime in future again - but this time it will be in either Honda City or a SUV which I am planning to have one in next 2-3 years.

i10 anyhow performed amazingly on highways. We maintained speeds upto 100 kmph with maxing out till 130 for few minutes on Ahmedabad-Vadodra Expressway. I was surprised by the good highway manners of the i10 and comfort wise also I had no issues with the car. The space, legroom is bit of issue for a 6" person else it is a perfect small car. Overall mileage we got is around 17-18 kmpl with petrol expenditure of around Rs. 6500-7000. Toll tax etc along the way added Some Rs. 1000-1200 more. As I parked the car in the apartment, Odo of i10 has crossed the 10,000 kms mark and now i10 is all set to rule the Mumbai roads for many years to come.

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With i10 shifted to Mumbai, we now have our WagonR and Honda City in Delhi to have fun with. Both the cars are in great condition. Not sure if I will be selling either of the cars anytime soon, though there could be an addition to the family in form of another car which might be an SUV (My heart calls for the Tata Safari) but due to parking space issues we might go for the next generation of Honda City which will be hopefully launched by 2018-2019.

Thanks for reading folks, my first long road trip Photo-cum-Travelogue.

[ampere]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[BUXX]

Excellent thread !!! And congrats on your first triple digit drive- the first is always the most special !

Lovely pics - very sharp - whats the camera you have used?
Just one thing though- they seem a bit overexposed.. Too much HDR?

[saurabh041086]

Nice shots and very elaborate write up. This goes straightaway into my favorites for my planned Delhi-Goa trip later this year.

[ghodlur]

Superb narration and some fantastic pics made your travelogue a lot more interesting to read. Alas, I should say your trip is incomplete without meeting any Mumbai BHPians. Had you PM'ed me, I would have met you on Ghodbunder Road. There is always next time.

[srinitdas]

The pics are great. The quality is top notch, no doubt. Reiterating the question already asked. What camera are you using?

But more than that, I am awed by the composition. You seem to have captured moments that come only fleetingly. You must have a very keen eye there.


Great experience. Keep driving.

[Aditya]

Nice thread, Anmol.

I've done the Mumbai - Delhi drive on many occasions now. I see, you have taken your time to do the drive by splitting it in four legs - not a bad decision. You've managed to get a whole load of brilliant pictures.

Udaipur is my favourite city along the route. The Ahmedabad - Vadodara Expressways is very fast, but a tad too straight and boring. Overall, the roads are a joy to drive on.

Only when you enter Maharashtra, does the traffic start getting heavy.

You've got some lovely pictures of Mumbai as well.

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by BUXX

Excellent thread !!! And congrats on your first triple digit drive- the first is always the most special !
Lovely pics - very sharp - whats the camera you have used?

Thanks Buxx. The trip was indeed special. It's like after dedicating initial six years to cars since I started driving, I got eligible for this grand drive.

Originally Posted by saurabh041086

Nice shots and very elaborate write up. This goes straightaway into my favorites for my planned Delhi-Goa trip later this year.

Thanks Saurabh. After Reaching Mumbai, I could feel the thirst of further driving and tempted to do Delhi-Goa- Delhi-Bangalore - Delhi-Chennai, infact covering the entire golden quadrilateral one day!

All these trips I will surely do, hopefully soon in my new SUV.

Will be glad if this thread could be of any help for your and other fellow BHPians future drive on the same route.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Superb narration and some fantastic pics made your travelogue a lot more interesting to read. Alas, I should say your trip is incomplete without meeting any Mumbai BHPians. Had you PM'ed me, I would have met you on Ghodbunder Road. There is always next time.

Hi Ghodlur, many thanks. I had this thing in my mind - to catch up with Mumbai BHPians. In fact, if I had one extra day, I would have definitely done Mumbai-Pune and meet Pune BHPians also. Time constraints didn't allow this time. But surely next trip, I would be meeting my Mumbai mates. In fact, my brother lives in Mumbai, I have asked him to join Team-BHP and get active among BHPians

Originally Posted by srinitdas

The pics are great. The quality is top notch, no doubt. Reiterating the question already asked. What camera are you using?

But more than that, I am awed by the composition. You seem to have captured moments that come only fleetingly. You must have a very keen eye there.


Great experience. Keep driving.

Thanks srinitdas. I am glad you all liked the pics. In fact, there are more pics, but I chose to share 10 photos each with every post of the thread. I would share more soon. Many of these pics were taken from inside the car, when my dad/brother were driving and I took the passenger seat for shooting.

Originally Posted by Aditya

Nice thread, Anmol.

I've done the Mumbai - Delhi drive on many occasions now. I see, you have taken your time to do the drive by splitting it in four legs - not a bad decision. You've managed to get a whole load of brilliant pictures.

Udaipur is my favourite city along the route. The Ahmedabad - Vadodara Expressways is very fast, but a tad too straight and boring. Overall, the roads are a joy to drive on.

Only when you enter Maharashtra, does the traffic start getting heavy.

You've got some lovely pictures of Mumbai as well.

Thank you Aditya. For me this drive will remain always special. Since my mom also accompanied us in this trip, we deliberately chose to make the plan as easy as possible. Also since this was first long trip that too be done in a small car, we wanted the drive to be as stress free as possible both for the driver and the car.

Mumbai traffic in the evening was really maddening. The jam before the toll leading from Thane to Kandivali wasted an hour for the round trip.

But driving in Mumbai was fun also for a Delhi-ite, one of a kind experience - a special one.

Originally Posted by srinitdas

The pics are great. The quality is top notch, no doubt. Reiterating the question already asked. What camera are you using?

Originally Posted by BUXX

Lovely pics - very sharp - whats the camera you have used?

I use a Nikon D3100. Most of these pics were clicked using the Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55 - 200 mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED Lens. I can blame this lens for bit of over exposure and little bit of PP. Other lens was the stock 18-55 mm Nikon lens.