The next day we started at 1.30 A.M. However about 10 kms after Visakhapatnam, there was a stange sound coming from the AC.
We did AC work at Kolkata before leaving for Bangalore, so was not sure why there was a problem.
Called Tata Motors helpline, but they took almost an hour to reach there. They confirmed that the noise was from AC, and we could continue to Bangalore without switching on the AC.
The manager did try to charge us Rs. 300 telling that night calls are not covered, but a quick chat with Tata Motors sorted out the issue.
We started from Visakhapatnam at around 4, loosing more than 2 hours. There were little traffic. There is a pump which fills Nitrogen in the tires, seems to be a big pump.
Drive to Vijaywada was uneventful. We passed through Vijaywada around 12.30 P.M. Visakhapatnam to Vijaywada is about 400 kms, ut we took a long breakfast halt, and there was lot of traffic around the city.
Soon after we passed the city the road condition was not that great. We had lunch in a roadside dhaba opposite to a drinks company. Highly recommended.
There was an accident on the way to Guntur. A bus rammed into an auto. It is possible that the auto was at fault, like there were multiple incidents with us on the way where autos just drives the way they like in GQ. In one incident we had a close shave when an auto decided to come to th eright lane for taking U turn ignoring other vehicles.
On the way we had another road block due to a possession crossing GQ. We were worried that we might be stuck there for hours, but the road was cleared in 10 minutes or so.
We reached Ongole around 4. We decided to get our checked at Ongole workshop. They diagnosed the AC fan to be faulty. The same fan was changed at Just Services. But they advised us to continue without AC.
We lost another 1.5 hours there.
Although we thought of staying at Ongole, we continued till Nellore. It is possible to go to Chennai in one day from Visakhapatnam if you are starting early. We drove at an average speed of 80-100 kmph, and still we could have made it to Chennai if we did not stop in the workshop.
However, it is better to stay at Nellore due to the heat and humidity in Chennai.
The city is about 7-10 kms inside from GQ. The traffic is horrible. In one event where we had to take a U-turn, we ended up blocking the traffic for a couple of minutes. We found a decent hotel nearby and stayed there.
That day there was an announcement from the Ministry regarding Telengana which created lot of protests in Hyderabad and Telengana region. Also, there was a bandh in Chittoor distric the previous day.
We decided to leave early the next day, and drive through Chennai. There are a number of COCO pumps between Nellore and Chennai.
We wanted to refuel at Chennai, but it was hot and the traffic was bad. There is no proper directions in Chennai. If you are driving through Chennai to Bangalore, continue on NH5 till you reach a roundabout with a huge flyover over you. Take a right there and get on the flyover. Drive for a couple of kms and then you need to take a right on the Bangalore GQ. We did not have any GPS here, but we used our Nokia handset with BSNL SIM and a map effectively to navigate through this area. BSNL SIM shows your current location accurately on a nokia handset at least, not sure about other models. No GPS is required.
We had lunch outside Chennai. Chennai traffic does not seem to be managed well at all. Also the trucks don't care for other cars.
Drive to Bangalore was uneventful. We reached Electronics City by 6.30 P.M. We were not sure about the NICE road. So continued on the Hosur Road. We were really surprised at the rapid development of infrastructure. Electronics city traffic was reaaly bad 4-5 years back. But this time it took us about 30-40 minutes to reach Silk Board from Electronics City.
Last edited by sumannandy : 11th January 2010 at 13:31.
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