[parambyte]

So am sitting home in the lockdown and don't have much to do in terms of travel but look at old photos. I realised I have driven over 100,000 km in last 10 plus years. And I have loved every single mm of those trips (well, almost).

Here I am sharing mostly car photos from those trips. I hope there will be a chronology.

I did about 70k in my Skoda Yeti 4x4. I loved that car. When Skoda declared it EOL, I wanted to wait for the Karoq, but it wasn't being announced in India. Instead they brought in the Kodiaq which is great, but at that price I started looking for options.

The next 30k (and rolling) happened on my brilliant Ford Endeavour Titanium 4X4 AT. Love this car too.

This first picture is in Goa, around 2014 at the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary.

The second picture, I am not sure. I think it is somewhere near Padukone/Maravante? Where is a narrow strip of land on which the NH66 runs and you have the Arabian Sea on one side and backwaters on the other...

[parambyte]

Over the last 10 years, I have been, I guess lucky, to make many road trips across India. From Spiti Valley in the North to Tharangambadi and Wayanad in the South. I wish I could go North East as well.

(Some pictures are shot on mobile phones so please bear with the quality. Over the years, mobile phone cameras have improved in quality tremendously too).

This photo below is somewhere in the Coorg district. There is the beautiful spot with really tall trees. I don't remember, but I think these are eucalyptus.



This picture (below) is from a stay at Kotagiri. It was wild. I remember we were stuck in a an old, really large old cottage, all alone. The caretaker was an old man with silver hair and a limp who left at night. The internet didn't work and the lights went off. The house looked like a typical haunted house from the movies.




This image is from Tranquebar or Tharangambadi. What a beautiful old Danish Fort and the hotel was nice too. Around 2015, if I remember.


Somewhere in Himachal Pradesh, we were starving and looking for a place to eat. This was on our way to Spiti Valley via Kinnaur valley route. After many hungry kilometers, we found a tiny home-shop who made Maggi for us. This photo is from that place.


Maharashtra in the monsoons is gorgeous. This photo is somewhere near Nashik, again around 2014.


While monsoons have their charm, I love the Indian summers as well. The deciduous trees start shedding their leaves. A lot of the foliage is a golden colour with clear blue skies. In Maharashtra, in May, the monsoon clouds begin gathering, creating beautiful skies with fluffy cotton like clouds. This picture is from the Jawhar - Wada side of Maharashtra.


On the way to Aurangabad, we stopped at this little dhaba for a tea. It was surrounded with millet farms.


During one of our trips, we visited the Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat. The drive from Jambughoda to Champaner is gorgeous. This is shot from the drive.


This is in Spiti Valley. A hurried trip, I wish we had more time. Especially because I fell sick with altitude sickness made worse by my chronic insomnia.


Another drive in Maharashtra. This is near Karjat. I love the thousands of small streams scattered all over the country side of Maharashtra.


Another drive towards the Jawhar Wada side in Maharashtra, this time in the monsoons. See another photo above and see how much seasons change landscapes in India. I want to visit such places in every season... it's always something completely different.

[parambyte]

Some more shots from the Spiti Valley trip. The landscape looks beautiful. It's my dream to visit again in Summers and Winters. This trip was end of October, 2016.

Landslides are very common here. The Himalayas are young fold mountains, still growing. And the slicing through these brittle young mountains doesn't help much. We were stuck at this site for a few hours. Luckily we were carrying food.


Before driving to Spiti, I was very apprehensive about road quality and the car holding up etc. Read as much as I could find. However once there, I was humbly overtaken routinely by locals nonchalantly driving the Maruti Alto.


Coming back to the monsoons of Maharashtra.










Although rural drives are fun and the landscape spectacular, often one doesn't get good food. I always prefer eating local. In the very rural areas there are hardly any little eateries. So many of these trips are somewhat dependent on food, and you have to leave when you can't bear the hunger anymore. And often these trips ARE for the food. In rural Maharashtra I have eaten awesome fish and mutton thalis, jhunka - bhakri etc. And sometimes extremely bad, oily food too. But any excuse to drive.

I loved driving the Yeti. It was sprightly, as they say. When I removed my foot slowly from the clutch in the first gear, the car pulled ahead with huge force. It was fun to drive. I also had a reasonably good experience at service in Mumbai.

Except.

When we were driving to Spiti Valley, we went via Jaipur. Around Jaipur, on the highway, everytime I crossed around 80 kmph the car would start vibrating very badly. I was scared because we were going into tough terrain, and were time limited because friends had booked office leaves, hotel etc.

I went to the Skoda Jaipur workshop. They lifted my car on the ramp, inspected and told me my rim was bent and needed replacement. I asked for the price of a new rim. They said Rs 26000. And it wasn't in stock. They asked me to check the next day. I asked the service engineer to show me where the rim was bent from (I didn't fall into any pothole or drove rashly over rough roads, was wondering). He pointed somewhere vaguely as he spun the wheel. I couldn't spot any issues. But he insisted. Anyway, disappointed and wondering what to do next, I left.

As I was leaving, one mechanic from Skoda Jaipur slowly walked to me and asked if I was from Mumbai (he saw my license plate). I said yes. So in the pretext of the conversation he asked me to get my wheel inspected at a prominent wheel and tyre store in Jaipur. I thanked him and went to the shop. They inspected all my wheels, told me my rims were 100% fine. They only needed alignment as some balancing weights had fallen off. Total cost including inspection, weights and Labour was around Rs 1500-1800 (from what I remember, maybe less). My Yeti never gave me another wheel problem. And here the official Skoda Service 'Engineer' was trying to sell me a Rs 26000/- rim. I mentally thanked the Skoda Mechanic once again from the bottom of my heart for suggesting this and would have hugged him if I met him again.

Except.
After one of my many drives to the Sahyadris near Pune, I heard loud knocking sounds from under the bonnet. Naturally, I was worried. I called Skoda Roadside Assistance. They said I should call for a tow to the nearest Skoda Service Center. I requested them to send a flatbed or at least a mechanic who can fix my car enough to drive to Mumbai, but they declined, with various excuses. (I never bought RSA again after that). So I slowly drove to the nearest Skoda Service Center in Pune. It was a Saturday evening and the workshop was shut over the weekend. They however let me park my car inside. I had to take a bus back to Mumbai.
Monday I was back to the Pune workshop. They told me my flywheel was gone (or misaligned, I don't remember). And the only solution was getting a new clutch and flywheel assembly. Cost Rs 86000/- or so. I was shocked. I told them I had extended warranty. It should cover. But they said it doesn't. I sat in the workshop and over a slow internet connection on my phone I downloaded and read the warranty in details. Then I accosted them again. It is covered. I insisted. Finally they agreed. Clutch isn't covered, flywheel is. I ended up paying around Rs 36000/- despite my extended warranty. Not counting my hotel stay in Pune.


This is somewhere near Nashik. I loved the skies on that day.


I had travelled a lot with my faithful Yeti and loved driving it. Been to a lot of interesting places, met interesting people, had great food and saw great landscapes...

[parambyte]

As Skoda stopped making the Yeti, and my car was already over 7 years old, I wanted to sell it and get something else. But I wanted an SUV only, so what were my choices? I wanted my next car to be somewhat of an upgrade to the Yeti in all terms.

- Skoda Kodiaq : Nice car, but expensive and not much of a power, torque or ground clearance over the Yeti. Most importantly the guys at Skoda were not taking my conversations and enquiries seriously. They seriously offered me 1.5 lakhs or so for exchanging my Yeti, which was in excellent condition.

- Jeep Compass : Love that car. But in terms of size, engine etc, all comparable to the Yeti. Didn't feel like selling the Yeti and buying something similar at a much higher price.

- Toyota Fortuner : Never liked its looks. Especially the new one. Wish they launched the FJ Cruiser or 4Runner in India. (It does look much better with the TRDPro Grill though).

- Ford Endeavour : Though very very very expensive (and embarrassingly huge), I was warming up to the Endy. I had extensively driven the Ford Explorer in the USA and we quite loved the car. The in-built Ford navigation in the USA is excellent too. I had a tough time getting one for a test drive, but when I did, my apprehensions about its drivability were put to rest. It drives almost like a sedan. The turning circle is something I can easily live with too. It had to be the 3.2 Litre 4X4 version but it was way tooo expensive. I spent many an anxious month, wondering how I will afford it. (Its massive water wading capability helped ease my guilt somewhat, as my building parking lot gets flooded every year).

Finally bit the key-chain, took a big loan and went for it. It gave it guilt pangs for a couple of months. The mileage (vs Yeti) made me almost regret. But I soon grew to loving the car. It's fabulous. And a very enjoyable drive too.

In one of my first trips, somewhere in North Maharashtra. My maps app led me to this narrow underpass. Sitting inside the car I wasn't sure if I could pass through without scraping my rear view mirrors or overhead antennae. Stepped out to check and got this great shot. There was enough space to pass through easily.



From the same road trip, these photos are somewhere ahead of Dhule in Maharashtra.





This is somewhere ahead of Jalna, if I remember.


I love the Sahyadri Mountains and will take any offer to drive there. These images are from near Pune in the Sahyadris.





I love the forested patches near Jawhar and visit them whenever I can. This is one such stretch in the monsoons.




This is the beautiful road. On the left is a sharp drop leading to a river-stream. On the right is the continuing climb of the Sahyadris...


On another route around Kasara in Maharashtra. This bridge is over a stream which had schools of large fish swimming happily in it. Spend some time watching the fish before driving off again.


We have done plenty of runs between Mumbai and Jaipur.
Here are some images from that route. I also love the Aravalli range and their landscape.

Somewhere in Rajasthan, the evening light was too beautiful. There was a waterbody on the right side of the image. We stepped out, took some photos and had chai at the quintessential charming chai tapri.


I had mentioned earlier how much I love the look of the Indian summer. This photo is in a forest stretch near Ranthambhore. It's winters but the look is pretty much like summers. The dhonk trees have shed their leaves. The foliage is golden brown. The skies are a beautiful blue. The Aravalli hills watching over...


Driving through Rajasthan is fun. The landscape is beautiful and there are plenty of good dhabas for food. We haven't gotten it wrong too many times, for food. However, as I write, the entire NH48 in Rajasthan is being re-worked upon. It's a nightmare. Unwittingly I got caught in it more than a few times, but will have to remember to find alternative routes.

In the July of 2018, we drove to Hampi. While there, we wanted to go wildlife spotting and learnt that the Tungabhadra Right Canal has a rough road next to it and one can easily spot many wild animals especially the Indian Eagle Owl. Unfortunately when we reached the whole stretch was dug up for some 'development' and there was nothing to see.

[parambyte]

Hampi is beautiful and one must drive around it's beautiful landscapes. (The architecture is another thing, but this post is about the road trips).


I love the huge boulders strewn along the land. And the Tungabhadra flows along...


Earlier in 2019 we had some work in Rajasthan and decided to go driving. Once in Jaipur, our friends who have recently moved to Himachal for a life dedicated to full time farming invited us over. (It's a tough tough life and there is no glamour there, as many feel. It's hugely soul satisfying, I believe).

Here, somewhere in Palampur we were searching for an agricultural resource. We entered a wrong lane, but I didn't care. It was a fun drive.






The return trip was back via Rajasthan. A little forested patch in evening light.


One thing I can say is, the Ford Endeavour is a great drive even through rough roads. As vouched for, by this beautiful Rufous Treepie who came and sat in the window of the moving car and bummed a ride over maybe 200 meters.


When I bought the Endeavour, I researched a lot online, and the Team-BHP official review helped a lot. Plenty of people here said they changed the stock tyres and went for other, better ones (Yokohama and Michelins).

I stuck with the stock MRF Wanderers, mostly because of the money involved. I was still trying to cope with the guilt of spending so much money on the car itself. Once driving from Udaipur towards Mumbai, we took a rural detour because of some work. My Tyre Pressure Monitoring system suddenly showed me low pressure in the front right tyre.

I pulled over to the nearest tyre puncture repair shop I could find. (I have noticed, especially in Rajasthan, it is almost impossible to find a working air compressor at any fuel station). It was a typical road side shop, perhaps more suited to local motorcycles than large cars. We visually inspected the tyre in a hurry (without removing the wheel, for starters. It was way in the interiors and I wanted to check into a better more well equipped tyre/wheel shop later) and found nothing. He inflated the tyre and took readings. We had a chai meanwhile. Checked the reading again, seemed normal. We drove on and reached Mumbai without any issues.

Two days later in Mumbai when I drove the car out I got the same TPMS error on the same tyre. Drove to the nearest tyre shop. Removed the wheel and found two nails well immersed in the tyre. My guess is the nails would have gotten into the tyre in Rajasthan itself. But the 2 year old tyre held out. The entire drive from Udaipur to Mumbai. Thereafter the car was in parking for two days before I noticed the error again.

I haven't had any issues with the Ford yet (touch wood, thankfully). It's a great car, very fun to drive. It easily overtakes on highways when you want to (there IS a slight turbo lag, but when you read about engines you give it that leeway, and it's not bad actually). The service is not too expensive. Actually it costs almost the same as my 12 year old Maruti Swift. (Whenever I take my Maruti to the official service centre, they try to make a bill of around Rs 8-10k. I realised it's probably in their KRAs, so have been visiting a local trusted guy where it's a fraction of the cost and the car runs as good as a 12 year old car will, in a city with high humidity and sea breeze).

In the first few months of Ford Endeavour ownership, my fuel lid flap wasn't opening at the fuel station. I called Ford Service and they promptly sent a service engineer on a bike. He inspected, and said the flap motor needed to be changed. Asked for my permission to break the flap so I could fill the fuel (the tank was low on diesel). Then called his bosses, took authority for warranty replacement, broke the flap so I could fill the fuel. Then I drove to the service centre 14 km away. They kept the car for a day and replaced with a new fuel lid flap assembly, at no cost to me. I was happy at the prompt response.

In another rather funny incidence, we were driving towards Rajasthan and decided to halt the night at a friend's place in Mount Abu. For some reason, the map had routed us via Ambaji. It was some festival time and the town was jam packed with tourists, so we reached Mt Abu late into the night. It was winters and it gets really cold out there. We parked the car inside the friend's property and went for our chai. I was feeling cold so thought would get my jacket from the Endy. Then I realised I may as well get our luggage too. I was trying to grab the luggage with one hand and my jacket in the other hand holding the key. In a moment of lack of concentration, I kept the luggage out and pressed the automatic rear door shut button. As the door slowly closed shut, I realised I had left my only key inside the boot. I heard the door lock engage with a click. Oops.

We were supposed to leave the next morning for Sawai Madhopur. Not with the key inside the car.

Everyone offered suggestions. In modern cars, you can't just push a ruler down the window to open the gate. My friend and the other folk around the house kept trying various things. One person even tried compressed air into my key hole. I had to request them to not do it at the risk of damaging some key components (pun un-intended).

I remembered Ford Road Side Assistance I had subscribed to. But I didn't have their number. And in this place in Mt Abu, there was barely phone network, leave alone internet. So I called the sales executive from who I had bought the car at Ford. It was around 11:30 pm and the poor chap was sleeping. He told me the RSA number is on a sticker on the rear right quarter window. Sure enough. I called RSA. As usual they asked for a thousand details to verify before moving ahead. I was getting impatient. Then they asked what had happened. And suggested I use the second key.

The second key was in Mumbai.

There was a brief pause. The RSA guy then had a brilliant idea. Said, 'Sir I have a solution for you. Please look for a sharp hard object, and break your window glass'.

I wasn't going to do that. He, to his credit, offered to send someone to help me break my window.

Of course I was't going to do that. I had a long journey ahead. I couldn't break my car window. In my imagination I was hoping RSA would send some engineers on a bike, or a Ford car full of tools, who would be carrying gizmotic laptops with master RF keys and my engine/chassis readers, which would easily unlock my door. No. Break the glass, they said.

Anyway, I had a better idea, which was probably as expensive as breaking my window. But less harassing.

We always leave a set of house keys with my in-laws. I called an office colleague and requested him to co-ordinate with my father-in-law, reach my house, get my key from my almirah, take the first train possible and come to Mount Abu. In return, I would give him a small holiday in Rajasthan. He was more than delighted. My father-in-law was briefed who went to my house and I guided him to the key over the poor phone network (thankfully I remembered exact colour of box cap which had the keys, helps). My colleague had meanwhile found the right train to Mt Abu which landed late in the night. His train got delayed, but he still reached, though very late into the night. I had to repeatedly brief him to be careful and not step out as my friends property is surrounded by forests, with leopards and bears regularly walking in.

When my colleague reached it was already past 1am. We met early next morning in the chill of Mt Abu. I was delighted to have the keys. My colleague was delighted to visit this interesting place in Mt Abu. He stayed back an extra day at my friend's places then went back via a couple of stop overs in Jodhpur and Ahmedabad. I moved ahead with my journey.

And was wondering if I should renew Ford RSA.

[parambyte]

There are other road trips abroad which are not included in this 100,000.

We had rented the Opel Insignia in France. It was a nice drive but I am not into such 'executive' sedans. Also it was a family trip and I didn't get much head space to indulge with the car.




In one of the USA trips we got the GMC Acadia. It was nice, again short-lived trip. I was hoping for a Grand Cherokee but there were none available.
The GMC had 6 Cyclinders, half of which would shut down when not needed for fuel economy (Active Fuel Management Cylinder Deactivation). I would get a live feedback on my dashboard. It was nice to see how all cylinders would fire up when I pressed the gas. And on cruising how it would come back to three.

Also, the rear view mirror had blind spot warning in the shape of a small glowing star. At first I didn't understand why the star would light up. Then I realised it was warning me of a vehicle in the blind spot.

Nice car. Took this photo when we had stopped at one of the highway Mexican 'Dhabas'. Some of the best Burritos I ever ate. (actually food is pretty good almost everywhere abroad. About Indian Highway food, I think maybe I should start another thread).


But the car which won my heart was the Ford Explorer. Large, powerful, spacious, effortless, huge rear view mirrors, huge doors, ample space for luggage, absolutely fantastic navigation system built in (Ford Sync). It climbed wet and snowy winding roads of the Sierra Nevada without so much as a whimper.










It was this experience with Ford that made me choose the Endeavour later. And I haven't regretted.

[Aditya]

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

[haisaikat]

Excellent thread dear, you seemed to have covered a major part of India already. Rated 5 stars.

The GMC looked much a size like the Endeavour, how would you compare them? USA may not have such bad roads as India until you go for an intentional forest trail if I am not wrong.

I also invite you to be the guest of East and North East sometimes which as per your accounts above is still an uncharted territory . Till then happy conquering with your Ford and please try to put together some selective TLs even if very short writing but can be with loads of photographs. Would have loved to see detailed accord of Rajasthan and Spiti. Such explicit thread keeps us alive during these locked up times.

[parambyte]

@Aditya thanks for moving the thread.
@haisaikat thanks for the kind words.

The interesting thing is, I have grown up in Kolkata. But all those growing up years, I never visiting the beauty of the East. Travel was twice a year journeys to Jamshedpur in my maternal grandma's and aunts' house. I love the journey though, by Ispaat Express. The food in the trains, the views, and Jamshedpur used to be a beautiful town. I dream of driving down to Kolkata and visiting Jamshedpur, Jhargram, Asansol, The Dooars, Darjeeling (where a friend's sister runs one of its most iconic joints, and I never ever visited it), Digha, Puri etc.

I would love to start a thread on the drive from Mumbai to Kolkata. recommenced routes, people's experiences etc. There are some existing threads but they are all kind of old, and things change very quickly, especially in the times we are in.

About GMC. It was a lovely car. The truth is I wanted to rent a Jeep Grand Cherokee. But Alamo didn't;t have one on the days I wanted. They offered me a Chevrolet Silverado, but it was sooooooo huge I didn't take it (this was a short trip only). So the Alamo lady suggested the GMC Acadia, I wasn't very keen and she was surprised I wasn't. But then I took it.

I don't remember much but it was a well appointed well finished car. Compared to the Ford Endeavour, yes probably similarly sized.

GMC Acadia in mm : (L) 4917 X (W) 1915 X (H) 1745
Ford Endeavour in mm : (L) 4903 X (W) 1869 X (H) 1837

It drove effortlessly. The interior fit and finish seemed top class and everything seemed to fit tightly well. For the Ford Endeavour I feel things could fit more 'tightly'.

The roads in the USA are definitely better/ I won't get into the obvious left vs right driving. But here are some interesting observations:



- You cannot just stop anywhere on an American Highway. So if you like the scenery or just want to stretch your legs and want to stop, you cannot.

- However there are designated turnouts where you can pull over and stop for a brief while. The Maps app as well as roads are extremely well marked with distance to next turnout.

- No one (almost) is aggressive win the highways. No one will honk you. If I drove slowly (at the limit of the highway of 75mph), there will be trail of cars following me but NOT honking. I would get embarassed, and pull over into a turnover so everyone could overtake me (obviously at higher than speed limit, which I wasn't risking). Then would continue driving.

- You don't had random equivalents of India's chai-tapris. Either there are resting places which are very well designed or you drive into a large fuel station compound with restaurants, convenience stores etc. The resting spaces have always been excellent. Usually on a small mount, they have clean as a sparkle toilets, wooden tables and benches for eating your own food, a vending machine for coffee and good clean marked parking space. No food. Only what the vending machine has. No one here too. But I loved these spots. If you carried your own picnic baskets there are great places for stops.

- Everyone drives peacefully in lanes. No one drives slowly in the fast lane. Very few, if at all, jump lanes.

- In Manhattan we were walking down lanes along Wall Street and the financial district. A narrow lane, wide enough for one car only, was held up by one utility truck who's drive was unloading goods for the convenience store. There was a long queue of cars waiting. No one honked.

(Notice lane driving in NYC)


Compare this to driving in India. At night, even in the day, drivers behind me, maybe a kilometre away, are constantly, non-stop, annoyingly so, flashing their headlights to get head. Honking and weaving their path through lanes as if they are playing a video game. It's disgusting. Leads to unnecessary anxiety for everyone else on the road. Why? What is the need for such driving?

In India most people drive straddling two lanes. It's so so annoying.

On the Mumbai Pune 'Expressway', the slow lane (extreme left) becomes the 'fast lane' because every egoistic driver thinks she/he is driving fast and chugs away at 50kmph on the fast lane. No one admits they are driving slowly. So the slow lane is left free and you can actually drive faster on it. The irony.

And of course, the fact that the country driving in USA is very pretty, helps.



You see more choice of, and prettier cars, than India. Unfortunately we don't have too many exciting looking cars in India (I should start a thread on this).

[snan]

Great thread. I love the explorer too - have owned one now for over a decade which I use when ever I'm in Dubai. If you loved the new explorer, you will absolutely love the older generation one. It's beast and I found the new one a "kiddo" when I test drove one. See if you can find more shots of the south of France circuits. Amazingly beautiful roads with so much old world charm - just that I'd love to forget the amount of money I paid for food and everything else !

[Dragonheart22]

Thank you, Paramveer Singhji for this thread. There are umpteen threads on Team-BHP that log travels/trips, but your' felt unique. In your manner of summarizing all your travels over the years, highlighting some cherished memories, I could sense a contagious joy of tripping!
Wish you many more such trips in the future!

On a side note, either you have a very strong memory or a dedicated storage of photos of your trips. In the age of digitalisation, mine are all strewn across multiple phones, multiple apps (Orkut,Facebook,Google), that it would be a task to organize them all together for a summary log.

[parambyte]

@snan I would have loved to 'explore' the Explorer more, unfortunately we don't have access too such vehicles here :(

@dragonhear22 thanks for your kind words. Will definitely try and create more threads.
As for my photos: I have started organising them in a separate hard drive and name folders by the destination+year (Hampi 2019). This way it helps me remember. Also when bored we look at old photos and revive memories.

Here is another photo. A rest turnout on a European Highway. Note the table and bench. 2017.


Speaking of old photos and memory, here are some. I have noticed how quality of road trip has changed over the years because of traffic (I should start a different thread on this. So much to talk about.)

These images are from around 2002. Shot on film negative I scanned them recently to find these interesting 'Instagram' type colour shifts.

This is the Mumbai - Pune Expressway. Note the lack of traffic. It's impossible to find t this empty today. Also notice the famous Mumbai Kali Peeli Fiat Taxi on this highway. Never seen it on the highway in recent times.

Around 2002, either side of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway had forests and/or agricultural fields. Over the years these have been replaced with second/third homes and resorts and zillions of real estate billboards. And multiple food-courts.

I wonder what happened to the shortfall of crops grown here, replaced with seldom used properties. (Same is true of many places).