[sachinj12]

Originally Posted by MX6

p.s. Hope sachin is happy now.

Yeah, but you have a tendency to keep travelouges incomplete, like khoj pointed out in your other incomplete travelouge.

[MX6]

@sami. Thanks.

Grishneshwar to Kannad the road was good. Two lane highway where I could keep 70 or so. With temperatures soaring, I turned on my A/c a notch above minimum.
Kannad ghats would rank as the craziest ghat's I've ever driven in my whole life.
It's like straight long ramp coming down. At the end one turn, then again long ramp coming down then another turn. Bang, I was down and out of ghat section.
What's crazier about the ghat was the fact that one side it was sheer drop. The other side near the rocky wall, they'd dug out a (for rain water may be?) kind of trench lining the entire ghat section. The road breadth offered only path for two trucks to go side by side. A bit this side, you fall in the trench. A bit on the other you fall off the cliff. But the road was straight!

The road to Chalisgaon was a breeze once down. And I took the Chalisgaon bypass which was a toll road and a belter. The bypass was done at 100 - 110.
In around 2 hours we'd reached Dhule from Grishneshwar. We were very hungry and decided to stop for lunch at tea time.

Found a nice hotel/ restaurant on outskirts of Dhule called Rasraj. Looked pretty nice with parks and play areas.
Not sure about the rooms. But must be good because the food was excellent.

Entrance to Rasraj


Nice places to eat. At the end is the a/c dining room for family alone. Seeing the play area I realised this is the first trip in ages I've made without my daughter and I'm missing her already


Ordered food and was waiting. When I saw this portrait on the wall, I sms-ed my wife - "Missing you both"


We left Dhule around 5:30 pm and after tanking up, at a BP pump, I asked the attendant about from where I'd get good roads. Road widening was going on between Dhule and god knows where and it was a pain in that stretch. Truck traffic was high as well. And we had another 280 kms or so to Indore.

The attendant stated they are this way till MP border.

And how far is that? Another 80 kms.

Not good I muttered. Not good at all. But with loads of musicians entertaining us from my 8gb flash drive and my mother (who always sits in front with me apart from my wife) nearby, we soon hit the road.

@sachin. Thanks for your patronage. But then only one of my travelogue is incomplete - Malham trek. The mahalog will take a while to be over as I've been to too many places!

[MX6]

The road from Dhule to the border was a pain. Jerky, full of trucks and dusty as well. Roads improved once we crossed over in to MP.
Soon it was dark. And we passed many villages. Stopped at a place around 8 in the night after long hours of driving (I was up by 5 am) to ask about road to Indore.
I saw construction of tunnels going on and widening of roads as well.
Then I hit the toll road on NH3.
Hurray, it's 4 lane after this. I had may be around 80 odd kms to Indore.
Hit the POI on my satnav and found a hotel called silver oak just on NH3 in Indore.
At 9 pm I parked my car and went to see the room.
1000 bucks for an a/c room + taxes. Checked in, went down to grab a quick bite.
Late lunch was excellent in Dhule, so decided to skip dinner. Got myself a giant slab of chocolate icecream and another of butter scotch for my mom and dad.
Went to bed at around 11 pm.
Distance travelled that day - around 650 kms
places visited - Shani shingnapur on his birthday and Grishneshwar shiva temple.
Breakfast - after shani shingnapur
Lunch - at Dhule
Dinner - Icecreams at Silver Oak.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by MX6

Breakfast - after shani shingnapur
Lunch - at Dhule
Dinner - Icecreams at Silver Oak.

Sleep - After reading MX6's above post
Dream - Shiva blocking MX6's way ! What a sight that must be!
Wakeup - In anticipation of reading MX6's next post

[aargee]

Originally Posted by MX6

But one of the magnificent temples in Modern India

Yes; sending shivers down my body when I looked at the massive structure.

Originally Posted by MX6

My garmin + satguide was bang on target

Ok, another tip found here; now I know what should I settle for. Thanks

Originally Posted by MX6

Afterall he was one of the biggest Shiva Bhakts

Very true & that's the reason on the legend of Gokarnam too

Grishneshwar 4.jpg looks like an abandoned place with all those dry grasses. Sad to see such things going unnoticed. Comparing this to the other thread on Canada where a drowned boat is being preserved as war memorial

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by MX6

Finally I reached the spot which said Grishneshwar temple, only to find that it's a mosque close to Aurangazeb's grave. Way to go Satnav.

haha,

jaana tha japan, pahunch gaya china!!!!

The place is ''khuldabad'' where Aurangzeb's grave is located.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by khoj

Sleep - After reading MX6's above post
Dream - Shiva blocking MX6's way ! What a sight that must be!
Wakeup - In anticipation of reading MX6's next post

Well, if you've already woken up, I'm sorry to have dismayed you. But then I'm pretty sure you'd have had a great dream.

Originally Posted by aargee

Ok, another tip found here; now I know what should I settle for. Thanks

Grishneshwar 4.jpg looks like an abandoned place with all those dry grasses.

You should read till the very end before deciding on what to settle for. See AP's comment below! The so called 20 lakh POI as claimed by MMI and Satnav is of no use when they show Aurangazeb's grave as Grishneshwar temple! Yes the route shown was perfect though it was to a wrong place
And the structure wasn't actually abandoned. It housed people who were smoking and gambling along with stray dogs resting in the shade.

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

haha,

jaana tha japan, pahunch gaya china!!!!

The place is ''khuldabad'' where Aurangzeb's grave is located.

Remember the road where there is a kind of turn around. One turning left to ellora and another going straight to Aurangazeb's grave and another on right going in to Aurangabad?
Satnav showed go straight for grishneshwar. I crossed khultabad and went straight further as per satnav's advice. Reached the end off the cliff overlooking the caves and temples below. Amazing views from there.

Coming up today - Another jyotirlinga and some lost history (very little of it).

[aargee]

Originally Posted by MX6

And the structure wasn't actually abandoned. It housed people who were smoking and gambling along with stray dogs resting in the shade

Oh!!! Horrible!!! Reminded me of the ghost neighbourhood in Detroit!!!

So which GPS is reliable? I guess it will be challenging for anyone to map routes in India; even if they do it with a perfect release, by then, the company will become bankrupt

[deky]

I happen to go on a South India Tour in my school days. I was amazed to see the style of the temples that part of our country has. The architecture with the details of the carving the temples had were amazing. I think one of the most beautifull temples I have ever seen in my life

Regards

[hvkumar]

MX6, your TL had an opening which a James Bond movie would be proud of!
Tell us about your route details too.

[LongDrive lover]

Good going with the story. Reached Indore, so what next! Ujjain-Omkareswar?..Waiting for the rest.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by deky

I happen to go on a South India Tour in my school days. I was amazed to see the style of the temples that part of our country has. The architecture with the details of the carving the temples had were amazing. I think one of the most beautifull temples I have ever seen in my life

Regards

Deky, spot on. While North India has it's grandeur in forts, south has them in temples. Many of north's temples were ravaged by invaders. Further, later kings had to start building stronger and grander forts to keep the invaders at bay. Not much invaders reached south completely. We all have read the 13 and 17 times invaders like ghori and gazni (gaznavi) have raided our temples. South kingdoms were more often having internal quarrels and wars and they wanted to show their might in building the biggest of the temples.
India that way is a country of diverse beauty. Nothing to match the great forts of the north and the grand temples of the south!

Originally Posted by hvkumar

MX6, your TL had an opening which a James Bond movie would be proud of!
Tell us about your route details too.

Proud? Wait till you come to that part HVK. Half of them would roll on the ground laughing.


And the trip logs with exact timings, km readings, route and road conditions will follow. I've saved the trip logs as txt file. Got to convert them to excel sheets.

Originally Posted by LongDrive lover

Good going with the story. Reached Indore, so what next! Ujjain-Omkareswar?..Waiting for the rest.

Patience LDL. There's a power cut at home. So can't upload photos in dial-up. And laptop battery is draining slowly too. So the story would continue with snaps once I have broadband again.

Originally Posted by aargee

Oh!!! Horrible!!! Reminded me of the ghost neighbourhood in Detroit!!!

So which GPS is reliable? I guess it will be challenging for anyone to map routes in India; even if they do it with a perfect release, by then, the company will become bankrupt

All GPS in India are reliable completely. But no maps are reliable. Not even google maps. HVK pointed out in some thread about google maps showing existing route from valparai to parambikulam or something like that, which doesn't exist.
AshishPallod has this great habit of checking whether he can see the route google maps suggest in google earth. If it's not visible, it's not there.
MMI also showed the Raigad road existing, where I got lost due to route shown by satnav.
But the PND offers so many benefits. Not all can decorate their cars with post-its full of trip logs while driving over 130 kph. I let the PND do that. And more or less they are all accurate to some degree after which we need to use our brains a little.
Especially when your navigator asks you to turn left when you are mid way on the elevated toll between bangalore and hosur!

[MX6]

Next morning we checked out of silver oaks at Indore. A couple of rounds on the sangam palace circle to get on to the correct road. Crossing the Manick baugh overbridge we had a small stop in front of a level crossing. Then we were on SH27 that goes to Ujjain. The other route through Dewas is longer. This road was in prime condition though they were 4 laning it.
Once on SH27, we belted down the 60 kms in 50 minutes. Ofcourse, we couldn't get anything to eat for breakfast because every open place we could see only Jalebi's for breakfast. Man. I'd have loved to have them provided they come with Sambar and Chutney.
The earlier night, I was doing a relentless run to reach Indore in saner hours and was litterally darting in and out overtaking trucks, with constant down shifting.
Later I realised that due to such high rpm running, I might have ended up heating the compressor belt or so. The next morning, a/c was blowing out complete hot air, steaming hot. The compressor was never engaged I guess.
So with ambient temperature around 45 degrees, we had to do the run from indore to ujjain without our a/c.

The good thing about SH27 is that it leads directly too Mahakaleshwar temple. It took me 5 mins or so to enter Ujjain, keep on the straight road and immediately find a nice parking area.

We had to part away with out bags and footwear which was locked in a locker. The ground was scorching hot and I was hobbling all around. Surprised to see locals walking barefoot without any issues. One can make out who were outsiders from the way they hobbled!

Here are some photos taken from my mother's mobile inside Ujjain - Mahakaleshwar temple. 1.3 megapixel camera. So not excellent images.

The grand temple of Ujjain


Restoration and repair work happening


All the crowd is under the tree. No one dared to step on the sun


Sankat Mochan Hanuman


There were over 100 dieties and small sanctums in that big temple complex. But then, it was too hot to visit all.


Rudrabhisheka happening. See the big linga behind, nandi in front and before the nandi, they were doing Milk Abhisheka to the smaller Lingam (urchava). Shiva is called as Abhisheka Priya. He loves Abhishekams. Actual photo of the shiva lingam from outside the temple where they'd put up unbreakable glass walls so that people can catch a glimpse of shiva from outside itself.


The new building near had the glass wall. The shiva lingam is actually in the basement of the big temple (older one) that's beside this one.


Old Shiva temple. Has a bit of history behind it. Huge plaque there outlining the history. Behind this we had the temples of the Sapta rishis. I saw them from far away as it was scorching.


Way out of the temples. More temples!


We were out and my father was speaking with someone. One of the temple guides who was stating what all can be seen in Ujjain.
I told him that we wanted to go over to Gadkalika temple and then to a nice restaurant. For 20 rs he sent a boy with us who would come show me the route to Gadkalika temple and then from there to a nice restaurant with great food. After lunch we thought of driving to the last of the temples. But seldom did we realise, that Shiva would block my way!

Up next - Gadkalika matha temple.

[MX6]

When we were about to get in to our car to go to Gadkalika temple, I spotted the famed public transport of Ujjain.
I'd love to travel by this one day. May be I'll buy one 10 years later and drive this to office everyday. 10 years I wanted to buy a chakda and go to office in that. Now that I'm in Middle management, I have to upgrade and this fits the bill perfectly. No offense meant to users of this vehicle. I really mean what I said.

[vrprabhu]

Guess it is time for the annual raise, eh? What are tricks you techies have up your sleeve to snag that raise...

MX6, without the history and insights, the travelogue lacks depth. Of course, the flavour and touch are still there, but...

By the way, Shiva must have opened his divine eye after seeing you hop and jump - and blessed you with a sprain, to take a well deserved break