[khan_sultan]

Here is my share of pictures from Day 1.

A tractor which will get loaded with sugar cane.


Remember at the railway signals one used to see such sights. With these becoming extinct, courtesy the flyovers, the scene for such activities has now shifted to the toll plazas.





Cheers,

[khan_sultan]

For Day 2, Kumar had mentioned that we need to start @ 3.00 am since the stretch between surat & baroda is a nightmare and can take upto 10 hrs if we get stuck in traffic there. And to top it all, we have to drive some 1300 kms on day 2 -- upto Behror: right at the doorsteps of delhi

With this info, we reluctantly go to bed at approx 12.00 am and before we know Kumar has woken us up. The bed hadn't even got warm man and it felt like a blink of a sleep. We quickly get ready and head off at 3.15 am.

Hrishi and myself in Safari. Nahesh & Kumar in scorpio -- leading the way. Hrishi had only one agenda till daylight: keep the scorpio in sight.

For the first few 50 odd kms it was like this -- could see kumars scorpio on empty Mumbai roads:


The soon, for me, it started looking like this -- all hazy and sleepy and kumar's scorpoio looked like this to my eyes.


The sign were looking like something out of some horror movies.


It was such a sigh of relief when the daylight broke and we stopped for a short break. Oh man.. breaks, while traveling with Kumar is a 5* luxury.


Suddenly things started to become much much clearer and we saw familiar sights of trucks racing by early morning.


While we were enjoying, little we were to know that we would soon encounter the dreaded traffic at Surat...

[PatienceWins]

Congrats!! That is a great achievement.

Rated 5 star!!

Waiting for the next update.

[snaronikar]

Khan nice pics. How did you manage to get the hazy pics? Did you just shake the camera while clicking or you were dozzing off ?

[mjothi]

We had a sound sleep and all of a sudden a sound voice saying "Its time". It was like, only just now we went to sleep. We wake up half-heartedly [I hate getting up early!!!] and get ourselves ready in next 15-20 min. Our HVK is so much tuned to NH that, he made it a point to get his house within couple of minutes from the NH8.

Scorpio & Safari starts to exit from the apartment parking slot and zooms on the Thane road. Now, they are destined to reach Behror. HVK has told us that we need to start early to beat the traffic in Surat & Vadodara stretches. he was perfectly right. We could see the slowly increasing traffic and with the 7 Flyovers being constructed the traffic would have caused a huge delay, if we did not start in right time from Mumbai.

See the change in environment. Temple


Roads are still being constructed


We get a confirmation SMS from ramkya1 that he will be joining us in Ahmedabad. So, that adds to one more in the list from 3 to 4 to 5 now. Great going. We also had constant messages from deky about when we will be reaching jaipur. He was so kind enough to offer the place for the night. But our BOSS said we need to reach Behror without fail. So, he was constantly driving, driving and driving.

Sometimes, we need to lie him saying we wanna a take a leak so we can stretch our legs for 2 min. hehehe... But all his strict time constraints was what made this whole trip possible.

Some of the nice roads

We crossed the river narmada before Vadodara. Also, there was live commentary from our BOSS explaing the salient features of the stretches we kept crossing. Be it a river, factory, landmark or anything, HVK is well aware. He will lecture on those. may be he was thinking any of us will take notes to refer at a later stage. Hehehe, no saar. We will always make a call if we want to refer something! So, make sure you dont change your number. If you do, update us asap.

Expressway Toll


The expressway connecting vadodara and Ahmedabad is really wonderful. We had a wonderful drive on this stretch. Also, we had some CRDe Scorpio envying our Turbo Scorpio. Lol.

Some Accident scene in the Expressway


Then we take the Ring Road exit [not the usual Ahmedabad exit]. We exit and get we get a message saying that ramky is waiting at hotel. The landmark was given to HVK, we reach there to find a smart and well shaved person standing in that hot sun. Lol....

Our Hero from Ahmedabad.


The Safari & Scorpio is parked, we say hi to ramky, and get ready for the breakfast. it was now our HVK put a bomb saying, have nice food and next stop would be around 7 or 8pm. WHAT? Its just around 11am and next stop is at 7pm? Anyway, we thought first lets complete this meal to talk about that later. Had a good Paratho, oops, dosa.. oops no, veg biriyani. Man after all these drives I forgot what we really had for each days breakfast also. [We did had right?]

There was a lovely song going on. Not sure of what lang but it was too good to listen.

Whats a drive without the hood opened!!!


Then S&S [Scorpio & Safari] starts to head Udaipur.

Bulls of Gujarat


Some spoting of Indigo Flight!


Spoting of Classic!


On the way to Rajasthan




Entering Rajasthan Border


From here, the roads are awesome. The turns, straight, ghats all are very well done.

Well build Roads of Rajasthan


Safari was behind the Scorpio and going at constant speed. Suddenly safari wanted to have some photoshoot. So, it decided to stop at some milestones to take some pics of itself standing next to it. We take some pics, and again start to follow our Scorpio.

Ha, atlast nearing Udaipur...



We did see some other companies offering gas in other states.

NRL


After Udaipur, its NH76 to be taken to reach Chittorgarh. Infact this was the first city we entered. That too because, the Bypass was not completed.

Roads closed - Bypass getting ready


While passing the city, we were shown the glimpse of the Victory tomb. We crossed the town and continued towards jaipur. The connection from the town to the GQ in Chittorgarh is not yet done, and its very messy. Normal cars would really have tough time to get on to the GQ. once you reach the GQ, its an excellent drive. When it was around 7-8pm, bell started ringing in everyones stomach. We took some courage to reqeust HVK to stop for dinner and finally we suceeded in it. We stoped in a Rajasthani hotel and had nice roti, jeera rice. Whether it was really nice, or the starving made it look too delicous, we dont know.

Ramky, where is the photo of this hotel Chef? Can you please post it

Then shopping time. Got a Marble flower vase just to cool my better half. Then started to RTDC hotel in Behror. We met deky and his wife near the outskirts for Jaipur. Poor fellow, was waiting for us in the cold night. They were waiting for us with hot coffee, sandwich etc. Had a small and nice meet with them and started from there.


We reached around midnight in RTDC. Before even we started to go to bed, the first instruction was "You should be ready by 4am".

Who said this? its nobody guess.

This is how you would be after 1300KMs of drive.


Rest to follow...

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by mjothi

..... that we need to start early to beat the traffic in Surat & Vadodara stretches. he was perfectly right. We could see the slowly increasing traffic and with the 7 Flyovers being constructed the traffic would have caused a huge delay, if we did not start in right time from Mumbai.

6-lane widening work is going on in NH8 between Surat and Baroda, which means lots of turn-offs, flyover construction, traffic jams and slow speeds. By reaching Surat around 630-700 am, you can beat the daytime traffic. We left Thane (Bombay) at 300 am, and reached Surat at 630 am, which ensured our safe and speedy passage. Ankleshwar town which is normally a mess was clean and we passed by without any problems. One earlier occasions, bad time planning has resulted in my being held up in jams for as long as 1 hour in each of these points. Baroda bypass has 7 Flyovers under constructoion, can also delay you, but we passed by around 9 am without delays.

Then we take the Ring Road exit [not the usual Ahmedabad exit]. We exit and get we get a message saying that ramky is waiting at hotel.

You can exit the Baroda-Ahmedabad expressway 1 km before the Ahmedabad exit onto the road to Udaipur. Watch out for the prominent signboard announcing the left turn to Himmatnagar/Udaipur. The exit is onto the Sardar Patel Ring Road, and takes you to the Ranasan Round and NH8. Will save you at least 15-30 minutes in time by not taking the Ahmedabad bypass.

After Udaipur, its NH76 to be taken to reach Chittorgarh. Infact this was the first city we entered. That too because, the Bypass was not completed. The connection from the town to the GQ in Chittorgarh is not yet done, and its very messy.

Hopefully, the bypass will be completed in the next 6 months.

We stoped in a Rajasthani hotel and had nice roti, jeera rice.

Hotel Panaghat at Kishangarh on NH8 just before the Kishangarh-Jaipur expressway till gate. Also a good place to stay.

Then started to RTDC hotel in Behror. We reached around midnight in RTDC.

A tip - we had the telephone number from the RTDC web-site, so we called them up and booked a room over the phone from Kishangarh, 5 hours in advance, and they were good enough to confirm availability and the booking. Otherwise, we could have struggled to wake up the receptionist at midnight.

[hondadude]

Finally the much awaited travelogue started flowing. This is really inspirational stuff guys. Hats off to all of you.

Originally Posted by mjothi

Wow, HVK opens his car and shows us what he has bought for the drives. Oh man, it has EVERYTHING you need to live for next one week. From Fruits to Jucies, from bread to biscuits, from kakra to muruku, from water to electrol, and what not he had cheese spread too... ha, I remember now, he mentioned that he forgot to get jam for the bread.

Would have loved to see a pic of that.

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

With this info, we reluctantly go to bed at approx 12.00 am and before we know Kumar has woken us up. The bed hadn't even got warm man and it felt like a blink of a sleep.

Originally Posted by mjothi

We reached around midnight in RTDC. Before even we started to go to bed, the first instruction was "You should be ready by 4am".

I guess this rigor ensured that you guys completed this drive in the time you did. But man, doing this for six days in a row requires a lot of discipline.

Kudos to all of you again for completing this and thanks for sharing the travelogue. Eagerly waiting for more.

[hvkumar]

We love the 3 am starts because that is usually the leanest hour on highways and for the next 5 hours, one is the supreme king of the road without any pedestrians or miscellaneous traffic to worry about. And one is most productive during that time. For example, when we left Bombay at 315 am, by 635 am, we had covered 262 kms (262 kms in 200 minutes, without pushing the car a single bit), and 1058 am, we had covered 515 kms, which many would have thought is a full day's work.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by hondadude

Finally the much awaited travelogue started flowing. This is really inspirational stuff guys. Hats off to all of you.



Would have loved to see a pic of that.

Well, here is a rough listing of things we carried:

Fresh Fruits:
Apples, Oranges, Moosambis

Dry Fruits:
Badam, Raisins, Pistachios

Khakras
Bread
Amul Cheese Spread
Biscuits - different types ranging from Parle Gs to Krackjacks and Special-Diet Ainseed biscuits ("Dog" biskies)
Sugar boiled sweets
Alpenliebe
Mint Fresh
Bhujia
Moong Dal
Kara Sevs
"Murukkus"
"Thattais"
Bel Puri Puris
20 litres water - Aqua Guard water from home, not packaged



Energisers:
Leh Berry Drink
Amul Spiced Lassi
Electral

[pjbiju]

What a trip guys! Congratulations to each of you. Please take your time and do full justice to the travelogue. For HVK, it must have been another routine short drive

[hrag]

Originally Posted by mjothi

This was the land mark given by HVK for us to reach Cembur. Now what? We are suppose to take the straight.

Then we ask about jr. HVk and answer is, he is on tour. Lol. Jaise baap, waise beta. Umm.

Wow, HVK opens his car and shows us what he has bought for the drives. Oh man, it has EVERYTHING you need to live for next one week.

Straight in Kumar's parlance meant "follow the traffic (taking a 30 degree right)" . You know me - I'm a simple man, I went straight (as taught in school).

We ask about Jr. HVK? Why do I not even remember that question? Maybe because I knew 2 days earlier that he was on tour. Maybe, maybe not


And what do I have in the Safari? Nothing Not even drinking water .

I have no pictures from Day 1 (25th). Fantastic report mjothi. Keep the report flowing.

Edit: Day 2: Only when we reach Surat do I realize why Kumar is adamant about a 3 am start from Bombay. Surat is a mess (i'm being polite).
I have nothing relevant in the Safari (other than Shahnawaz'z tow rope and 300 Nm of torque, lol) and Kumar graciously gives us a bag of goodies for the Safari at night on Day 1.

[hrag]

Fun driver's notes continued:

The dinner at Hotel Panaghat @ Kishangarh was delicious not because we were starving. Authentic Rajasthani cuisine (in Rajasthan) is to die / kill for. I have never understood the fuss behind "dal" (paruppu in the right meaning for some of us) until that night.

Dhiraj (deky) & Parul - you are good people, May God bless you.

[Nutty Nair]

What an awesome way to usher in the New Year. Perfectly in sync with Team BHP spirit.
Congratulations to "The Famous Five" & oh yes! Absolutely Fevicoled to the thread

[HappyWheels]

Great narration, guys!

MJothi - great snap with that "8" in between your pants!

And you should not have posted the comment "We did see some other companies offering gas in other states." just below a snap of Khan, with that grin! ROFL!!! I mistook it till I noticed the snap below! You cheeky fellow!

EDIT: 5-star'd this post.

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

.... How did you manage to get the hazy pics? Did you just shake the camera while clicking or you were dozzing off ?

He he he.. this is no camera shake . This is how I was seeing things and maybe the camera too.

Originally Posted by mjothi

....We had a wonderful drive on this stretch. Also, we had some CRDe Scorpio envying our Turbo Scorpio.....

Here is the CRDe Scorpio trying to overtake the 2.6 Turbo without any success -- over a 75 Km stretch.



Some more sights on Day 2 in Gujrat & Rajasthan

The REALLY BAD stretch between Surat & Baroda.


We in Safari even attempted some off-road/gravel driving here. It was fun for a short while


God fearing people on a religious walk.


A true people mover and very cost effective too and at the same time colorful.


An accident gone horribly wrong. Can't make out if it has been banged from front or rear


It looks like the donkey breeding farm or maybe the donkey mating season.


An abandoned fort -- somewhere in Rajasthan.


The all brown landscape of Rajashthan


Cheers,