Team-BHP - Hyderabad-Goa-Hyderabad 9/12/09-13/12/09 Suzuki Swift vxi 2006
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DAY 1: 9 DEC,2009 - Started at 0400 from Hyderabad

Members: Me, begum, friend, his wife.

Desired route: Hyd-zaheerabad-humnabad-gulbarga-bijapur-belgaum-goa
Route taken: Hyd-zaheerabad-humnabad-gulbarga-bagalkot-belgaum-londa-ponda-Panjim(Goa)!

Well, to start off let me tell you that all our planning had to be thrown out of the window for the forward trip. Car originally chosen was my friend’s ALTO due to good economy and the fact that he has a gas kit installed as well. The trip was a sudden plan as the telangana agitation was going on and my parents had warned me not to go. But I thought of going ahead anyways. On the evening of DEC 8th, I told my friend to get ready as we would leave at around 0300 the next day. So, the same evening I told him to get his car tanked up (both tanks, hehe!) and I get a call from him that he has to go to a marriage and he’ll fill it up later in the evening. Suddenly I hear from the people that TRS (Telangana Rashtriya Samiti) has called a bandh and all petrol pumps would be shut for 48 hours starting tonight. I called my friend and he said that he’s stuck in the marriage ceremony and cannot move. I then took a 35 litre jerry can and rushed to the petrol pump only to see that its shut down because its out of stock due to the sudden rush of public. Rushed from one pump to the other only to find long queues. The reason I took a can is because my car (SUZUKI SWIFT vxi 2006) was already full of fuel, but didn’t have permission to take it (I told my mom that I would take a cab and wont drive myself). We, then decided to take my car as we were sneaking out in the night ;-).

Caught a power nap 2330 to 0130. Had to pick them up at 3:30 AM, his house was re-done for his recent marriage and spent 15 min to see it. Left at about 0400. Took the tolichowki-gachibowli-miyapur route towards zaheerabad on NH9. The weather was cold and visibility was nil in some parts on the way. But roads were nice and smooth.


Hyderabad-Goa-Hyderabad 9/12/09-13/12/09 Suzuki Swift vxi 2006-pic-1.jpg


to be continued...

Sorry guys, i guess i messed up the thing. Well, here's the complete travelogue - start to finish. You can see the images in the above post.

DAY 1: 9 DEC,2009 - Started at 0400 from Hyderabad

Members: Me, begum, friend, his wife.

Desired route: Hyd-zaheerabad-humnabad-gulbarga-bijapur-belgaum-goa
Route taken: Hyd-zaheerabad-humnabad-gulbarga-bagalkot-belgaum-ponda-londa-goa!

Well, to start off let me tell you that all our planning had to be thrown out of the window for the forward trip. Car originally chosen was my friend’s ALTO due to good economy and the fact that he has a gas kit installed as well. The trip was a sudden plan as the telangana agitation was going on and my parents had warned me not to go. But I thought of going ahead anyways. On the evening of DEC 8th, I told my friend to get ready as we would leave at around 0300 the next day. So, the same evening I told him to get his car tanked up (both tanks, hehe!) and I get a call from him that he has to go to a marriage and he’ll fill it up later in the evening. Suddenly I hear from the people that TRS (Telangana Rashtriya Samiti) has called a bandh and all petrol pumps would be shut for 48 hours starting tonight. I called my friend and he said that he’s stuck in the marriage ceremony and cannot move. I then took a 35 litre jerry can and rushed to the petrol pump only to see that its shut down because its out of stock due to the sudden rush of public. Rushed from one pump to the other only to find long queues. The reason I took a can is because my car (SUZUKI SWIFT vxi 2006) was already full of fuel, but didn’t have permission to take it (I told my mom that I would take a cab and wont drive myself). We, then decided to take my car as we were sneaking out in the night ;-).

Caught a power nap 2330 to 0130. Had to pick them up at 3:30 AM, his house was re-done for his recent marriage and spent 15 min to see it. Left at about 0400. Took the tolichowki-gachibowli-miyapur route towards zaheerabad on NH9. The weather was cold and visibility was nil in some parts on the way. But roads were nice and smooth.

Stopped at zaheerabad for our morning (fajr) prayers. Next stop was NOOR dhaba just before humnabad and we had some nice poori bhaji and also attended to nature’s call(s) ;-)
The cold was almost unbearable for all except me (got a nice natural cover of body fat hehe!). We then decided to go to Gulbarga which is about 65 KM from there. Pretty neat roads and we cruised to gulbarga in less than an hour. Now, our biggest mistake of the trip. I was the only one awake at the time and I missed the right turn at SHAHPUR which would have taken me to BIJAPUR. Instead I went on for only about 20 KM and asked a few locals about the way, a very confident fellow asked us not to go back but to go on and we would be in bagalkot via a short cut. I said to my friend why not… then after about 20-30KM more began our worst nightmare. The roads were so bad that we had to go at only about 30-40 KMPH. Finally reached bagalkot in the evening (lost about 2-3 hours and the “short cut” was about 50KM longer!!!). Only plus point was we got to see Almatti dam and it was huge!

Soon we reached Belgaum and roads got better.
It was getting dark and I was tired and decided to hand over the wheel to my friend. Unfortunately he took us towards Londa and entered the forest region. The road from there was truly terrible, pathetic (is there a worse word?!). From moon craters to potholes, some road-less roads and everything bad. That road is not even walkable, never ever take that road guys!


DAY 2 – DEC 10
Anyways, we managed to reach PANJIM at about 5 AM, bad time to reach!! The place where we decided to put up was near calangute beach. The resorts were a little expensive for us (Rs.1500-3000), then we searched and were lucky to find PLAZA de ANTONIO about 3-4 KM from calangute beach.


Great place (good clean rooms, pool, massage etc) I would recommend this to everyone. It has nice rooms with balconies, Hall, bathroom, bedroom, great! TV, fridge , AC (extra cost). Got a nice bargain for 800 rs. Per day. Grabbed two rooms as we were dead tired after 26 hours of journey.

Had breakfast at Anand sagar udipi hotel and slept till afternoon, got up got ready and headed straight to calangute beach.

Clicked some photos and went straight into the Arab sea. Had a great time till sunset and then went around the city for some shopping (women y’know!) Night time was spent at Baga beach and the waves and the stars gave us good company.

DAY 3 – DEC 11

Our second day in goa we went around panjim and saw the amazing yachts and casinos on ships in the river. Really amazing boats there, saw some big ships too!

Evening we again went to calangute beach for a swim and hogged some sea food too at chic fish in calangute market. Good market that.. some amazing stuff there! We also had fun on the motor bike in the sea, that was scary! Went around for some more time and then it was time to sleep as we had to head back home the next morning because my wife had to get back to office on Monday. We all wished we could spend some more time in amazing goa!

DAY 4 – DEC 12

Checked out of the hotel at 6 AM, my friend had some food poisoning or something and was really sick! Vomitings and all!! Well, I decided to drive and this time I made sure we get some good roads! Headed straight to Mapusa and asked about a good road toward belgaum and good road we got! Amazing roads through the mountains there with superb view!

We took the road to Amboli for going to belgaum. Just before amboli – Surprise we saw a huge waterfall!! Road side bandies served amazing hot wada pavs and omlette!! It was great! We climbed up to the waterfall and had a great time. Spent about an hour there at the waterfall and playing with monkeys.

Soon we reached amboli and then through nice but narrow village roads reached belgaum comfortably. Now came the tricky part, my friend suggested we take the NH4 to pune and from there we should find a way to get to bijapur. NH4 was a blast!

Hit 150 KMPH in my swift but stayed on only for about 60-70 KMS. We then headed to a village named Chikodi and then to Athani, very good roads, on the way we saw nice trees, stole sugarcanes and also saw some windmills! Nice fun.

At Chikodi cross roads we went to ganesh tiffins to have some brilliant meals and dosas!! YUM!

Reached Bijapur and it was almost evening. Got on to the highway and was smooth as butter! Reached gulbarga in 2 hours 15 mins. Flat! That’s 162 KMS!

Then enjoyed the good roads till we got home at around 0230 on 13th dec. The return trip took us just 20.5 hours and considering that we stopped for almost 4 hours on the way for food, piss, imlis, windmills, sugarcanes and more piss!

It was a good trip! Hope you enjoyed my writing and the pics.

^^ 26 hours for Hyderabad - Goa, that seems to be quite a long time to travel approximately 700 kms. Did you have to stop for long time somewhere in between?

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowdrive007 (Post 1647214)
^^ 26 hours for Hyderabad - Goa, that seems to be quite a long time to travel approximately 700 kms. Did you have to stop for long time somewhere in between?



there were quite a few stoppages for food, sight seeing and nature calls.. but the bad roads from gulbarga to bagalkot took us all day! i missed the turn towards bijapur which would have taken us on the highway... thats where we lost quite a bit of time(also distance ~800KM). the return journey i took care and travel time was approx. 16 hrs. distance 750KMs.

Also anyone going to goa... avoid the londa-ponda road. its hell for your car. if u see a sign board saying LONDA, that means you must turn back even if it means going back even a 100 KMS!

@unoczar: Good and concise write-up. But more pictures especially of Goa would add the requisite jazz to the thread.

BTW I somehow get this feeling that you somehow took a long road as the avg driving time including breaks shouldn't be more than 15 Hrs for 750 Kms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MileCruncher (Post 1651449)
@unoczar: Good and concise write-up. But more pictures especially of Goa would add the requisite jazz to the thread.

BTW I somehow get this feeling that you somehow took a long road as the avg driving time including breaks shouldn't be more than 15 Hrs for 750 Kms.


you're right MC, thats while going to goa. our return journey was around 15 hours excluding breaks. our breaks are a little extra ordinary... imagine the ladies spending half an hour for nature call and 45 mins or so for plucking imlis from the trees on the highway!!! lol!

about the photos... we did click around 3-400 photos.. but most of them have us in them.. and being a little conservative... i'm sorry that i cant publish. i'll try to post as many as i can though. thanks.


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