[btirthankar]

Originally Posted by Majic

Thirthankar, salutations to your observations, point taken and would be adapted!

Originally Posted by LongDrive lover

Well said BT. Very precise observations. I just love the clarity with which you express your thoughts/ observations.

Thanks. I am glad it served the purpose precisely. I was busy all this while to close in on the last leg of my trip and had to postpone working on the remaining exhibition of this thread as it requires quite some content generation.

Here is the Mumbai-Kolkata Journey for the meantime. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...s-mum-ccu.html

[longford]

Originally Posted by btirthankar

I am yet to put a lot of content to this thread and am working on them.

In the meantime I wish to list down some of my perceptions on how my 6000 km drive with HVK was like.

[Disclaimer: This is purely a personal observation and opinions if any expressed herein are unbiased and not intended to be construed either as a recommendation or being analytical about it. We all drive our own vehicles independently and have our own ways of doing it. There is no such thing as an ultima-perfect driver.]

• There had not been a single moment where we had to do wheel-lock braking.
• He never zigs-zags through traffic.
• He never decelerates when he has vehicles even remotely behind. How he manages that is his personal skill.
• He decelerates much in advance when there is any apparent hurdle/slowdown ahead.
• There had not been a single anxious moment when I felt insecure.
• He prefers to drive undistracted, without music, GPS ogling etc.
• Yes he does take power naps, food on the go and the fuel breaks provide additional forced breaks.
• He sticks to the speeds as the roads permit. An arrow straight empty road like MPE he had touched 150kmph but very gradually. So no over-speeding or aggressive driving.

Conclusion: Contrary to my earlier beliefs, the key to his consistency is more due to the fact that he has had a good homework of his route and his minimal breaks.

Basu,

First of all, a very well written drivoblog and makes it very entertaining with the graphics.

Insights from HVK and yours, are amazing to read.

Your observations above on his driving is truly appreciated. I have been around for a year now and am truly awed by what many users have responded with. People like HVK provide the beacon light into many of the hinterland.

Plus your nutshell summary above reinforces that you can have a good drive if you plan well.

Thanks man. Look forward to more insights.

[hvkumar]

The log book and the GPS points of the trip can be viewed in the following like:
CENTRAL & SOUTH INDIA, January 2010 - hvkumar | Google Groups

To summarise the route:
Bombay-Gwalior: Bombay-Nashik-Dhulia-Indore-Guna-Gwalior
Gwalior-Kajuraho-Hyderabad: Gwalior-Jhansi-Kajuraho-Katni-Jabalpur-Pench-Nagpur-Adilabad-Hyderabad
Hyderabad-Trivandrum: Hyderabad-Anantapur-Devanahalli-Attibele-Salem-Madurai-Tirunelveli-Trivandrum
Trivandrum-Bombay: Trivandrum-Kuttikanam-Munnar-Udumalaipet-Coimbatore-Mysore-NICE Road-Tumkur-Hubli-Kolhapur-Pune-Bombay

The total distance covered was 6,001 kms, between Jan 15-28, 2010.
Some interesting routes which may be of special interest:
Khajuraho-Panna-Katni, a lovely new state highway to connect NH75 to NH7
Devanahalli-Whitefield-Varthur-Sarjapura-Attibele, a great way to bypass Bangalore from NH7 (Hyderabad side) to NH7 (Salem side)
Trivandrum-Munnar, via Kuttikanam & Kattapana
Coimbatore-Mysore, via Sathyamangalam
NICE Road, to bypass Bangalore, from Mysore Road to Tumkur Road (NH4)

[KSM-Vtec]

As always, here we have the bible to the following routes....

HVK without your logs at least i wouldent have been able to do my trips so smoothly.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

The log book and the GPS points of the trip can be viewed in the following like:
CENTRAL & SOUTH INDIA, January 2010 - hvkumar | Google Groups

To summarise the route:
Bombay-Gwalior: Bombay-Nashik-Dhulia-Indore-Guna-Gwalior
Gwalior-Kajuraho-Hyderabad: Gwalior-Jhansi-Kajuraho-Katni-Jabalpur-Pench-Nagpur-Adilabad-Hyderabad
Hyderabad-Trivandrum: Hyderabad-Anantapur-Devanahalli-Attibele-Salem-Madurai-Tirunelveli-Trivandrum
Trivandrum-Bombay: Trivandrum-Kuttikanam-Munnar-Udumalaipet-Coimbatore-Mysore-NICE Road-Tumkur-Hubli-Kolhapur-Pune-Bombay

The total distance covered was 6,001 kms, between Jan 15-28, 2010.
Some interesting routes which may be of special interest:
Khajuraho-Panna-Katni, a lovely new state highway to connect NH75 to NH7
Devanahalli-Whitefield-Varthur-Sarjapura-Attibele, a great way to bypass Bangalore from NH7 (Hyderabad side) to NH7 (Salem side)
Trivandrum-Munnar, via Kuttikanam & Kattapana
Coimbatore-Mysore, via Sathyamangalam
NICE Road, to bypass Bangalore, from Mysore Road to Tumkur Road (NH4)

[vijaythacker]

HVK, sir you are genuinely living GPS for travelling in india within this forum i know.Hattsoff to your skill and passion and thankyou for sharing those wonderful detailed information with us.This is why anyone who's travelling in any part of our country, finds your name first to ask,know,help anything.Keep it up.Basu, great thread and great sense of humour along with your usual clicking skills which makes this thread even more wonderful to read and go through.

[SmartCat]

HVK,

You are truly an inspiration for people like me! - I've had a couple of bitter cop encounters on highways too, and I've my own way of dealing with them.

- Once in Hyderabad, I sensed a couple of cops salivating looking at the KA registration plate on the car. We pre-empted any unpleasantaries by stopping infront of the cops and quickly asked for some dumb directions before he could open his mouth. The driving directions questions put the cops off-guard and they started rattling directions. We quickly said "thank you sir" and left. We've done this a couple of times, and it works if you are the first one to speak.

- On highways in the night where there is no barricade, we simply drive through (at slow speeds) ignoring the waving cops (especially in places like Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, MP, UP etc). I can't imagine those lazy blood suckers chasing us or calling somebody ahead on wireless. And even if something like that happens, one can always explain that "Oh really, didn't notice it". I don't think the bribe payout will be higher anyway.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by smartcat

I've had a couple of bitter cop encounters on highways too, and I've my own way of dealing with them.

- Once in Hyderabad, I sensed a couple of cops salivating looking at the KA registration plate on the car. We pre-empted any unpleasantaries by stopping infront of the cops and quickly asked for some dumb directions before he could open his mouth. The driving directions questions put the cops off-guard and they started rattling directions. We quickly said "thank you sir" and left. We've done this a couple of times, and it works if you are the first one to speak.

I have followed the same strategy too

- On highways in the night where there is no barricade, we simply drive through (at slow speeds) ignoring the waving cops (especially in places like Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, MP, UP etc). I can't imagine those lazy blood suckers chasing us or calling somebody ahead on wireless. And even if something like that happens, one can always explain that "Oh really, didn't notice it". I don't think the bribe payout will be higher anyway.

Don't be sure of that, nowadays the cops are desperadoes who are well connected to police control rooms and will not hesitate to radio ahead to the next post to stop the vehicle - I've faced this problem, ignored the waving cops and have been stopped ahead thanks to a radio alert In UP, every cop whistles after you, best plan was to simply keep going. I have developed the fine art of never looking at cops - so that I can always say that I never saw them or heard them - since I have my windows closed all the time.

[btirthankar]

Originally Posted by smartcat

I've my own way of dealing with them.

@smartcat: Both of your ideas are smart and I believe in them.

Adding to what HVK said, the key thing is avoid "eye contact".

Eye contact in the evolutionary perspective among the 'instinctive animals within us' - may either signal intimidation or submission, both of which is harmful in those situations as we are discussing.
I am not an anthropologist, so the experts among us may please elaborate if they wish.

OT: On the same lines and on a lighter note - 'eye contact' with the opposite sex too has quite disastrous results.

[MX6]

I managed to get away from the cop at chikkamagalur after entering a no-entry by simply having a very sad face and stating this - Bahur bhook lagi hai. sign dekha nahin.
He not only let me go immediately, he also directed me to a hotel!

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by MX6

I managed to get away from the cop at chikkamagalur after entering a no-entry by simply having a very sad face and stating this - Bahur bhook lagi hai. sign dekha nahin.
He not only let me go immediately, he also directed me to a hotel!

Strangely, I have had problems with the one-way road in Chickmagalur too - maybe some 4-5 years ago - and I immediately offered him a 50 before he started talking business and wasting time with documents, etc. He was so startled by the generosity of my "tip" that he virtually saluted me and told me to go ahead on the 1-way road!

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by MX6

I managed to get away from the cop at chikkamagalur after entering a no-entry by simply having a very sad face and stating this - Bahur bhook lagi hai. sign dekha nahin.
He not only let me go immediately, he also directed me to a hotel!

Traveling with family helps sometimes. Often cops do not target cars with families inside.

[SmartCat]

I managed to get away from the cop at chikkamagalur after entering a no-entry by simply having a very sad face and stating this - Bahur bhook lagi hai. sign dekha nahin.
He not only let me go immediately, he also directed me to a hotel!

Neat! Let me add this to my arsenal of tools to deal with the cops. I look malnourished anyway since I'm 6 feet 2 inches tall and weigh only 64 kgs.

I've faced this problem, ignored the waving cops and have been stopped ahead thanks to a radio alert

Never faced this problem, so I need to know what happened next. How did you get out of this situation?

[hvkumar]

Traveling with family helps sometimes. Often cops do not target cars with families inside

Absolutely right. Normally, they don't but I've been stopped by cops in both HP and TN. But since I drive a Scorpio, they thought it was a taxi and all taxis are preyed upon by cops all over India.

This time, when the MP cops detained me, they told me (a) we would not have stopped you if you had ladies inside the car, and (b) have some minister call us up so that we can let you go, we don't want bribes.

Traveling with family helps sometimes. Often cops do not target cars with families inside

Same strategy, pleaded ignorance, never saw, never heard, was concentrating on driving through crowded town! And, as BT observed, the "eye contact" tactic saved me.

[ampere]

Two places where roads are turned into one-ways overnights are Bangalore and Mysore. Although BLR I had no issues. Once I ended on the wrong side in Mysore. Though not my fault, I followed the route given by locals and ended up on the wrong side ! I got away by paying an 50/- note for which the honest cop, gave me a receipt.

I was OK with that. I told him the reason, he said, you have a vehicle, you should have more sense not to trust those guys! Though it had some element of truth in it but those were the non-GPS times. I have a Garmin now and prefer to drive by that, if the POI is available on the map.

[TrueDreamer]

Gone through all the pages and it was very detailed trip log. Rated 5 Star. MH cop crap is really scary and wish law is amended soon.

@hvkumar: Your logs are very useful in planning like always.

@btirthankar: Your photos are very creative. Looking forward for the rest of them.