Adventure on the way to Kathmandu – III

It was 11 AM and we started the journey again. I had more confidence in this road than before, evident as we started enjoying the nature and the view. We climbed the next hill and down with much ease. With no vehicle in front, I had to only keep up the pace with the climb and to keep a watch on the incoming vehicles in the blind curves. Quite a success, I would say as we were conquering the Himalayas. But unlike my 20s, I was more composed with the confidence. I was conscious about the ill effects of being overconfident which can end you in disastrous situations leaving irreparable dent in life although there are huge learnings from such events, it is usually be preventive than corrective.

Now, that we were moving towards the next hill, the quality of the roads got deteriorating and patched with stone fillings wherever there was a huge crater (I cannot say pothole considering the size of the road breaks). It is quite usual that there is no possibility to get the perfect grip in such roads and when it is level road, it is not a concern since the gravity does not play against you. However, in Himalayan steeps, such roads can be definitely challenging for the most experienced of the drivers. The length of the steep roads were also more in some of the stretches and it was evident that there were earlier landslides, which were cleared for the vehicles. The SUMOs now have started slowing down and the black smoke was seen more often when the pushed the vehicle in the lower gears.

After winning the first hills, we were ready for any challenge that could be posed. Now that victory has been a routine, the confidence can get you to scale more heights but the challenge could also be levelled up. I was going to feel the Level up in any video game now, which barely I could understand. To start with, it started drizzling and Amit started murmuring that rain could toughen our climb. We reached the next hill and moving slowly. The SUMO ahead is no more visible and the ones behind were quite away given the higher speed which we had maintained to quickly move up the steeps. We reached a spot where there was a steep run required and in normal circumstances, it could have been easy to scale with no vehicles upfront and we can move with speed and reach the top of the steep. However, in this case we cannot move fast since there was a vehicle (Maruti Suzuki Alto) that had stopped at the top (in the picture below) in the middle of the road. I was aware that if we stop in this steep, with the stones, there is a possibility that the vehicle could start sliding without the possible grip but fortunately, it did not slide since I could get a small patch of mud between the stones. Amit was quick enough to jump out the vehicle and put some stones behind the wheels to arrest any future haphazard movement of the vehicle sliding down. I had not left any space for the vehicles to pass and we need to quickly move forward.

As I was thinking, Amit ran to the Alto and helped the Alto to move forward. There were 4 more adults who got the Alto moving forward and escape the steep. The Alto had reached the top most point of the steep and was comfortably to the side. As I could see some space on the side of the Alto, I started accelerating the Terrano and fly down the paths between the stones. Quick to move and struggle intermittently, I reached the top, with the speed took the right curve and parked to the side to allow Amit to get in. Now there was no drizzling and there was sun again. Nature was just challenging us for the moment. I had realized that there are always people around these hills ready to help. It is clear that when Nature gets more and more challenging, people live in harmony.

After the struggle, Nature was welcoming with the beautiful sceneries and the chill weather. I remembered from my school that Himalayan range in layered and the lower range in Hilly and the grow as we move north of the Range. Never believed that I would experience this as close as now. When we started from Hetauda, Amit mentioned that as we climb the first hill, the second looks bigger and keeps climbing in height. This was evident quite clear, as we climbed the first hill, the second was more steep and higher and so on. Now, that we were climbing down another hill, it was comfortable to climb down. At this height, we could experience the chill weather. To enjoy the weather and the nature, we made another stop.

Adventure on the way to Kathmandu – II

As we were about to reach the diversion point where we need to start the road to Pharping, there were many TATA SUMO vehicles jumping all (at more than the recommended speeds) around the small curves and it was obvious that these vehicles were loaded with passengers (the front wheels were anytime going to miss the gravity hold, what we could say a “wheeling”). I could certainly understand the power of the TATA SUMOs, thanks to the taxi drivers in the Bangalore traffic who can chop off your rear view mirrors if you don’t watch for them. But these drivers in Nepal, were testing the toughness of the SUMO to a different extreme and Amit mentioned that these vehicles carry passengers from and to Kathmandu on a daily basis with atleast 10 passengers.

As I was chasing one of the SUMOs and pushing the capabilities of the front wheel drive Terrano, we crossed many small villages and some narrow roads with curves. As we reached the check point to enter the registry with the vehicle permit and the vehicle registration number, I could see that there was this young man just climb on to the top of one of the SUMOs. First, I was wondering if this energetic young man is going to lift some luggage to the top of the vehicle but then he was going to travel sitting on the vehicle. Wow.. It is possible to ride over the vehicle in a plain terrain wherein the vehicle has no chance of bouncing left to right, when taking those corners. But I had to contradict my thoughts and rewrite the memory that this is also possible. Don’t know how many of my prejudices would get erased and rewritten before I reach Kathmandu.

As the vehicle was swaying in the curves, the man on the top was solid stuck to the roof. Was able to grasp a photo of the same (above). I was quite well able to hold to the speeding SUMOs and was lucky to have the power in my vehicle. Especially the quicker response from the vehicle maneuvering helped in progressing the curves and the steeps much faster but then we reached a point where our vehicle was challenged.

The roads were tarred and was able to provide the necessary hold for the tires. Better with no moist on the roads, which could have made the vehicle slip without the necessary grip and given the lesser power of the 2-wheel drive, we would have struggled, worst case could have ended with a mishap if the situations were not favorable. Certainly, I was not expecting these steeper roads. Only that I was enjoying the chase, the adrenaline has kept me going without noticing the hilly steeps that we were conquering. Worst case, if there had been a slower traffic, I would have struggled to keep up with the pace and would have got stuck on the road. Thanks to the rushing SUMO ahead.

Coming back to the road, as we were climbing the second hill, the SUMO got slower and slower, in some places he had to get to the first gear to get the torque required to pull the weight. His lowering of speeds, made us to lower our speeds and subsequently there was a point where the momentum was not enough to pull us up. Our 2 wheel drive started giving up. It was at this point that the engine suddenly stopped. I pulled the hand brakes and released the clutch, the vehicle had come to stand still now. There was a queue of atleast 3 vehicles behind us, since we were between the SUMOs and as they were all bumper to bumper and standing in a slope, there was no chance for the SUMOs behind to get ahead. As I put my hands outside and asked them to pass us, I could witness the torture in the eyes of the driver behind me. With my T-shirt sticking to the seat, I could realize that moment that I was sweating even when the weather was soothingly chilly. I turned to Amit and asked, “Do you want to drive?” (I have been sticking to the driver seat from Bangalore for almost 2300+ kms and this hill had to take me down), and Amit gave me an unusual reply “This is only a warm up, we have to cover still”, then he delivered with a navigator’s support of some step by step instruction to push the accelerator and then release the hand brakes slowly. Finally, after couple of trials, the vehicle climbed with a stutter. By then one of the vehicle from behind had managed to pass by and I had enough space in case if the vehicle had slipped a few inches behind.

Now that we crossed the second hill, we started climbing down the second hill and I desperately needed a stop. We stopped at this beautiful greenery place after a village. Click from the location below. Few more miles to reach Kathmandu, I was already feeling the adventure in the drive.

Adventure on the way to Kathmandu – I

As we woke to a cold morning, it was decided by the forces that govern that we will be taking the less than 90 kms road to Kathmandu through Pharping. As Amit had explained earlier, my thoughts had made me think of this road as a tough road with some hair pin bends (as the ones in Nilgris) and some steep curves. Curves and Hair pin bends are not new to me, my experience of driving different continents had brought in the confidence to take any drive without much difficulty theoretically. But there was for sure a grey area which was clearly indicated by the puzzled looks of Amit because he was always saying Road 2 through Palung / Daman was the one which we were taking for all these months of planning and all of a sudden he was convinced that we will take this Road 3 through Pharping.

Just to keep you guys get back to your calculators, Road 2 to Kathmandu is around 30 kms longer than Road 3. That’s ok and the time duration is around 2 hours more. What does Google say ? Does this mean Road 3 is an easier route ? What is the hidden secret ? Remember guys, Google does not take road condition as a parameter in its Transfer Function. OOPS…

The Hotel served us with Complimentary breakfast which was good enough. The weather was chilly with drizzling. I was back at the Steering of the Terrano at the basement parking and was looking at the steep climb to the ground level. Certainly, that was not a normal basement to ground exit. In all of the Bangalore malls, I haven’t seen such a short & steep climb up a floor for cars. Since the entry and exit were the same to the basement parking, I asked Amit to look for any incoming vehicles so that I am not stuck right in the middle of the climb. Amit would have thought, what a man !!! But I was for sure thinking of how I am going to take the vehicle out of the basement. Finally, I was clear that I am going to keep the momentum to push my front wheel drive out of this hole. Glancing at the curve and steep from the basement, I accelerated in that parking lot and made a sharp left to the steep curve and reached the smooth rocky patch of the ground floor exit. Wow, what an achievement !!! Great job buddy ! I hadn’t thought or experienced a situation wherein the vehicle slows down completely in the middle of the steep climb… Only that if there is such a long and steep climb.

Now back on the road, we were crossing the last stretch of straight and smooth roads for the next 7 days to come. Nice tar road with 2 way traffic, good weather was relaxing start for the day. The AC switched OFF, we were enjoying the fresh breeze. We were crossing Hetauda’s outskirts and I could notice that there were kids walking to schools all along the side of the road. Then as I was questioning Amit about the education in Nepal and was surprised to hear that Nepal parents give important to the Primary education and although there is not a good transport that is available for the kids going to school, parents encourage the kids to walk to the nearby schools even though it is several kilometers of distance.

As we reached the banks of the Trishuli River, I could see that the water force was revealing that we are right at the bottom of the first hill where we need to start the climb. I was always under the misunderstanding that Kathmandu is on the hill and we need to climb the hill. I also believe that some of you readers would also assume the same. Just to clarify, Kathmandu is a valley and we will have climb up and down some of the hills, which we standing in front of us.

  

               

The first surprise in Nepal – Drive to Hetauda

After dinner, still me on the driving seat, we started the drive towards Hetauda. It will be a short one-hour drive to Hetauda and we were at the Rim of the Himalayan ranges already moving from the Terai plains to Ghat sections. The roads were broad enough for a comfortable drive and very similar to the stretches towards Madikeri in Western Ghats.

I was due for the first surprise of my trip. There have been many number of highways, national, state, district, village, pukka, kutcha roads I have driven and it is quite usual to get a mix of driving experience. However, the mix has been always biased with more arrogant drivers (arrogance by not following the rules and the sense) than the ones who follow rules. It is usual, we move to a high power head light than the vehicle stock ones only to counter this road arrogance. We never get a driver (especially the Truckers) who shifts to a lower head beam when you are head on with a lower vehicle and it hits you more. Unfortunately, the Indian drivers are manufactured with these defects because we are warranted with these behaviors all our lives. With all this experience, do anyone of us believe that we will be the drivers who follow the rules. We have been pushed to leave the high beam with the high power head lamps adjusted on one side to point not on the road but to hit the high vehicles on the windshield. So, my imagination of night driving in Nepal was also of the same but things were completely different.

The first truck, I had to overtake on that night changed my thought process of this small nation hosting the biggest ranges of the world. It is surprising that only with the driving behavior that is evident on the road; one can not only derive the cultural difference but also conveniently judge the goodness in people. Once I had conveyed my thought to overtake the truck by pushing the high beam on the headlights, within 2 seconds, I got to see the right indicator blinking on the truck. I had to come out of the surprise that the Indicator was in working condition in a truck to realize that there was a closed communication with another driver on the road. Usually, in India we experience lot of communication, some with actions and some with the local slang, some with loud honking, some more annoying the other. Nevertheless, this communication what I was experiencing is completely different but not new (similar to US, Europe). So, then we crossed this first truck and then I turned to Amit, started understanding the discipline on road and the next vehicle coming opposite had lowered the head beam at a distance when I could barely see the dots of lights. When the other vehicle just crossed me, he flickered the head light once to ensure that his way was clear of any slow moving traffic. Wow, this is really the biggest surprise for my whole trip and I started visualizing the people and their discipline on roads.

It is somewhat fascinating when you as a whole get judgmental (for good in this case), when the experience is good. 

Very quickly, I realized that I should respect the fellow drivers on the road, which I never forgot until I entered India again. For the next 10 days, I shall be experiencing a change in driving habits, Keep to the left, wait for indication from the ahead vehicle before overtaking and the lower beam.

The short and good drive ended at Hetauda at a place surrounded by shopping complexes, which were closed for the day. Very early for the shops to be closed it was just 8 PM wherein usually in Bangalore; I would be struggling to pass the 2 ecospace flyovers and then the Sarjapur junction flyover. This place was already peaceful at 8 PM, but not a chilly winter Bangalore evening weather but a cool weather. Amit had enquired about a hotel and we quickly got into one of the complexes. The security diverted our vehicle into a basement parking which was deeply caved into the ground. After parking the vehicle, we booked a room and were quick to sleep dreaming about the next day drive. Lot of adventures and surprises ahead, I was still digesting the mix of culture first at the Yathayat office and then the dinner, to end with the Road and its drivers.

Birgunj (Nepal Border) to Kathmandu - Being the Invincibles :)

As Amit was speaking Nepalese to the authorities at the border, the person at the other side of the table was checking the form and authorizing with the seal. This piece of paper with the vehicle registration and our names will allow us and the vehicle to get into Nepal. Apart from this permit, we will have to still get the papers from the Birgunj Yathayat (Transport department) office. We were into the marshy roads of Birgunj and started searching the Yathayat. We will have to pay the road tax for the given period of Travel and need to get the vehicle permit. We enquired some persons in Blue uniform to get to the Yathayat office and later I understood from Amit that those were the Nepal Police. I will have to remember this

            

I had always imagined Nepal’s geography and Climate to be hilly and cold. However, this was not the fact, Nepal as a country is protected by Himalayas in the North and the whole country runs parallel to the Himalayas. That means the northern part of Nepal is covered with the Himalayan range hosting the great Mount Everest. Did I mention ever that we have planned the EBC (Everest Base Camp) Trek? Yes, we were going to land at Lukla, which is the most dangerous airport in the world. From Kathmandu to Lukla, we were going to take a short flight and from Lukla we had planned to trek to Namache Bazaar and then to Everest Base Camp. All our trekking bags were ready at the back of the vehicle.

            

Now coming back to present, the marshy bad roads filled with trucks moving towards Hetauda be the Tribhuvan Highway named after one of the modern times King of Nepal. After missing a left turn, we took a U-turn in a junction and finally reached a street filled with Water because of the heavy rains the same morning. I had always heard of Nepal as the most friendly nation to India but the bad roads and the water stagnated streets, got me a feeling that was closer to the realities of India except for India had better National Highway infrastructure. Thanks to the government headed by Mr. Vajpayee. I had missed the most important point here which is more realistic to compare than the ones which I mentioned, how did I miss this ? It’s the people !!! When I say Nepalese people, most of you will picturize the Hindi speaking Mongolian Nepalese people (very honest and meticulous) whom you would have hired as security and domestic help back in your urban dwellings. However, I could only see a handful of the Mongolian Nepalese after I had entered Nepal. The majority ones were Indians, sorry Nepalese resembling Indians. Welcome to the Terai region of Nepal (southern part of the Nepal). Most of the Terai people are Indians migrated years back.

            

We parked the vehicle outside the Yathayat office and walked inside the gate. There were few officials sitting inside a room filled few government with files. The whole campus was closer to my thought of any small town RTO office in India. Nowadays, most of the RTO offices in India are reconstructed and computerized, but this office in Birgunj was yet to get the Digital blessing. Amit approached an official who mentioned that it is not possible to get the permits the same evening since it was close to the end of office timings. The time was around 5:15 pm. As I had understood from the mannerism of the official, that with some handling, we will be able to get the permit, Amit was already on the job negotiating and finally we got the permit papers for 10 days including permits for Kathmandu, Pokhra, Hetauda etc etc. This permit was more than enough for us to complete our journey in and out of Nepal.

            

We started driving through the Tribhuvan Highway towards Hetauda and it was getting dark. After the experience of the permit papers, I was getting ready for a more like Indian scenario in all my experiences but Amit sharing some pointers, which could become surprises for me and completely away from the Indian way. During the sunset, we crossed the Terai region of the Highway. After the day long drive and the hectic traffic in Raxaul had made us tired. We had to refuel with some good food and from now and for the next 10 days in Nepal, I will have to land into any restaurant that Amit will opt. I would not doubt his choices given the couple of years, we worked together and we knew each other.

            

We stopped at the side of the Highway with a row of restaurants for Dinner It was still 6:30 pm and the stove was still getting hot in all these restaurants. Highway restaurants are owned by families, their residences built on the first and second floor of the restaurants. After having good rotis, parathas in the last 2 days driving across North of India, I was expecting Amit to get me some rotis and Dal (already missing Rice but used to the Chappatis, Rotis). I was hearing the first surprise when Amit told me that we would only have Rice in Nepal (hearing of the great Tamil King Rajendra Chozhan, who travelled all across the Sub-continent to hoist the Tiger Chozhan dynasty flag on Himalayas). This was the first surprise, which challenged my prejudices. Rice with curry is the dinner for Today. Hungry and still waiting to taste the food, Amit was again talking Nepalese but the context was understood as I watched the owner cooking Chicken curry. Amit will not miss the Chicken in the order. J

Since it had rained for the past few days in Bihar, the air humidity caused the hindrance to the airflow through the AC ducts because of the condensation on the evaporator pipes. Ok, let’s not get too technical about it. We had to switch OFF the AC to leave the condensation to clear off frequently.

               

 

As we entered deep into Bihar and got off the NH27, the state highway roads got worse by the kilometer and it was getting worse to worst. You could very well understand the state of the roads in the pictures. Our goal set to cross the international border into Nepal before sunset pushed us to skip our lunch and with the bad roads, the time was running fast but we moved slow. The last stretch to the Border was the worst road we encounter in whole of our trip. All this because of the detour we took to enter Nepal through Raxaul (Bihar) and not through Sanauli (UP).

As we were just 11 km to the border to exit India and enter Nepal, we did not know that these 11 kms is going to take us 3 hours to cross. It was around 2:30 pm we were just 11 kms away from the border but between the bad roads and the trucks that were moving towards the border. We did not have place to move and cross these trucks, which were stagnant. The police were stopping these trucks and we were witnessing arguments between the truck drivers and the cops.

Finally, someone gave us an idea to get into the field nearby and then bypass the traffic on the main road. In addition, we were able to move forward but this idea was useful in some places but not everywhere given the marshy roadside fields where we did not want to take any risk of being stuck with our 2-wheel drive.

As we reached the border, there was no checking at the Indian check post. We crossed the Indian check post and entered the no man’s land where there was no traffic with all Trucks left behind, it was close to 5 PM.

               

Now we were into Nepal with a sigh of relief that we crossed the Border into Nepal, I don’t know if Amit had been thinking of the mountain adventure challenge ahead but I was feeling accomplished that most of the trip is completed. Standing in Nepal, as waiting for the permit papers to be ready in that humid evening, I was “not” able realize the challenge or the courage that we were going to raise in the following day to finish the most difficult memorable part of the drive.

Gorakhpur, UP to Raxaul, Bihar:

As we crossed, Gorakhpur city, we witnessed the non-Auto Rickshaws which depicted the existence of the one of the oldest modes of transportation in India. As any other tier 2 cities in india, Gorakhpur was flooded with 2 wheelers. Atleast 1 in 5 bikes had gas cylinders tied to the rear seat. Now don’t assume that Gorakhpur has Gas powered 2 wheelers, it is only that the gas cylinders are transported. Unlike, the gas cylinder delivery that happens in the South India, Gorakhpur people had to pick their cylinders from the agency because most of the houses don’t have detailed addresses for the delivery man to deliver the gas cylinders. 2 out of 5 bikes was carrying an entire family, another typical tier 2 city middle class mode of transportation. Now that we had reached the interiors of UP, the response from the bike riders had slightly changed from MP, only that they did not respond to any horn. The loud horn of my vehicle only created the Noise pollution but the real intent of the honking was not met.

We were driving into Bihar through the NH27 and were following the Google maps since it always guided us through the route with shortest time to reach. As we were inside Bihar, the Google maps pushed us to take a diversion into an internal road. As we took the road diverting from the NH27, few meters ahead the road got narrow but well tarred running between fertile agricultural lands.

We did not realize that we had lost until we reached a point where a few meters ahead was a Pond but google was still showing a road. My vehicle was not a Hovercraft and hence we could not swim across the pond to reach the other side, the option was only to take the right side road to ensure that we are in the right direction.

After few seconds, Google maps rerouted with a new route now showing that we are in the correct way. After few minutes driving ahead, still following google maps, we entered a small-unpaved street. As we still believed and moved ahead in the road, we entered a gate of a house, which had few goats and buffaloes. We managed to turn around within the same place without anyone noticing us and as we turned around the SUV, the goats got panicky. We did not have any intentions of picking the Goats J

We did realize that Bihar village roads were not recorded appropriately in Google, that means someone has just drawn roads on paper and waited for some driver to experiment. We were victims of this Google experiment and decided to forget the directions provided by Google and decided to drive in the direction of the NH27. How did we know the direction of NH27 ? Google maps showed us the direction in which we were moving and the direction of NH27. It was like we were driving off road for Google. After few enquiries (thanks to my Hindi skills), we escaped few roadside thorns and finally reached the Highway and decided to stay on the Highway whatever time it takes.

Day 3 :

Drive to Nepal :

The earlier night we had informed the Hotel caretaker to get someone who can fix the puncture. We insisted that the puncture needs to be fixed by 7:30 am (I would say the sleep was just OK for me to get the steam for another day long drive) so that we stick to the plan of reaching Kathmandu on the same day. I was ready by 7:30 am and reached out to the reception and the caretaker sent a boy to look for the puncture shop. After 15 mins, he told me that it will be 9 am by when the puncture shop will be open.

As Amit also reached the reception, it was 8:15 am and we were still waiting for the clock to tick 9 am. Although we had carried a puncture kit, we did not have the air pump hence the puncture kit was of no use. We did not get the puncture fixed but the Hotel caretaker got us good breakfast. We just got served with hot Aloo Parathas and Tea. That gave us some energy to start the day.

Meanwhile, we were informed that the puncturewaala, who was just 100 metres away from our stay, was not ready to come down to get the puncture fixed. As we did not have any progress till 9 am, we decided to get this done ourselves. So, we visited this puncture shop and requested him for some help but he was sure that without the getting the tyre to him, he cannot help get the puncture fixed.

On the way, we enquired 2 other puncture shops. It was surprising that within a span of 100 metres, there were 3 shops which meant that this was a good business venture and just can elaborate the state of the affairs on the Gorakhpur roads. Me and Amit started pushing the vehicle up with the mechanical jack and with the humid we had started sweating. We towed the tyre to the shop at the junction and I should say Amit was good at towing the tyres. We just got reminded of our childhood play with Rubber tyres.

There were 2 nails which had to be removed and the puncturewaala did a good job to secure the rest of the journey.

Change of Plans:

Thanks to the amount of trade that happens between India and Nepal. Most of the essentials are carried by Trucks from India into Nepal and hence there are many border entry points to Nepal. We had planned to enter the Nepal border through Sonauli (Uttar Pradesh) and reach Hetauda (Hetauda is the common point for three different routes to Kathmandu).  Let me explain you about these roads first,

Road 1 : Mugling road

Road 2 : Palung / Daman Road (9 hrs 30 mins, 310 Kms)

Road 3 : Pharping Road

Road 1 is a long winding route which is mostly used by the Trucks since this road does not demand the sharp turns making it easier for the heavily loaded trucks.

Road 2 runs through the highest point at Daman and this is the highest road of all the 3 roads. It is usually ventured by private vehicles (cars, Vans and Small trucks).

Road 3 is the shortest of all the routes to Kathmandu from Hetauda but also has the sharpest of the curves and most frequently impacted by Landslides. Mostly ventured by 4 wheel drive Utility vehicles.

Roads to Kathmandu from any of the border entry points are mountainous hence the conditions of these roads change often, thanks to the land slides, rain and other factors of traffic. Amit started enquiring about the situation of the roads to plan the further trip to reach Kathmandu. Our actual plan was to enter Nepal at Sonauli, UP, which is, close to Gorakhpur and take the Road 1 or Road 2. As per this plan, we had to start early morning from Gorakhpur and reach Kathmandu by evening.

After the enquiry about the road condition, we realized that the plan had to be changed. Road 1 was closed because of a massive landslide and all the Trucks had been diverted through the Road 2. This means we will be stuck between trucks and the journey will be slow. Now that we don’t have any option of taking Road 1, we decided to get into Nepal first and reach Hetauda. That way we will get more time in Road 2 and allow the traffic situation to ease in Road 2. Given the good condition of roads in India compared to Nepal, we decided to drive parallel to the Indo-Nepal border and enter Nepal at Raxaul, Bihar.

Day 2 : Continued

As we were reaching Sagar, the Google maps was still showing the Mahoba NH34 route for us to get into UP since the Jhansi route on NH27 was a 15 mins slower than NH34. So, we decided to take the NH34 route to enter UP and then take the NH27 late without touching Lucknow. Now, that we decided to move away from NH27, there was no choice but to reach Gorakhpur because we will not be hitting any other City before Gorakhpur.

We stopped at a Roadside Dhaba in MP for lunch.

As we were in the later afternoon, the Sun was burning and Tanning Amit. Thanks to the government regulation of “No Cooling” on the glasses, Amit had to be innovative and stick his handkerchief to the glasses to avoid the burns.

We entered UP at Mahoba early evening and realized the roads here were not at their best, it would for sure drag us into a late night drive. As we were pushing through the highway, we could witness the heavy truck traffic heading towards Kanpur, the raw material for the Leather Industries and particularly the trucks were avoiding the long route through NH27 only because of the Toll charges (may be). Particularly the industrialization around Kanpur and Lucknow had pushed lot of trucks from south India carrying raw materials into these cities.

It was dark already as we entered the NH27. As we entered NH27, it was 8:30 PM and we were 200 kms away from Gorakhpur. From here on it is the busy NH27, which will lead us to Gorakhpur by 11:30 pm. For some reason, the distance and the busy highway did not make us hungry, so we stopped for some tea and continued our trip. We crossed Faizabad at 10 pm and as we were on the bridge crossing the mighty Ganges near Ayodhya, we were heading towards a Traffic Jam. We had crossed 80% of the bridge and it was then we were behind the huge traffic Jam and it was only Trucks all around. Behind us were some taxis and private cars. With all the head lights switched off, me and Amit were realizing that people are planning to have a sleep over the bridge and there is no evidence of the Traffic Jam getting cleared. It did make us nervous since we needed a good sleep and ready to cross the border to Nepal the next day. As we started quizzing the other Truck drivers, we realized that Traffic Jam on the bridge is a very common occurrence and it happens most of the days. (NH27 is one of the Lifelines of India, since it connects the Indian Mainland with North East part of India; hence, it is supposed to be one of the busiest highways in India).

As I started gazing through the lights sparking in Ayodhya and the reflections on the Ganges, took some pictures and whatsapped the same back home. Me and Amit had planned to take a dip in Ayodhya when we drive back from Nepal. Now that I was sitting on the bridge in the dark, Amit quickly vanished in between the trucks in the front and came back after 15 mins, giving a ray of hope for us to move to the other side of the highway (opposite) since there was curb shoulder which was connecting both the sides of the Highway and the few trucks that were between us and the shoulder were clearing to move to one side (thanks to the good Samaritan, taxi drivers). We got our space to move forward and climb over the curb, the terrano ground clearance helped climb with ease and we were quickly on the other side of the highway. By then, the clock was showing 11 pm and we were in the other side of the highway, the flashers switched ON and the vehicles head on shying away after we flashed the headlamps.

As we were reaching the outskirts of Gorakhpur, Amit started hunting for a stay through our another companion Google (Google is both a trouble maker and a helper). In this case, Google could not help us much. We were dragged into the interior of Gorakhpur and ended by in streets where the Ganesh Murthy was glittering in the spot lights and the streets were so narrow that in some cases we had to stop and ensure we do not hit a wooden pole that held the shaamiyaana above for the Ganesh Visarjan.

And finally we could see some hotels in a street cluttered with plastic bags and we landed in one hotel where there was a security guard that was awake. It was 1:30 am and we had to wake up the hotel caretakers and enquire for rooms. As we unloaded some essential luggage from the hotel, I witnessed that the right side rear tyre was completely flat. Sure that it was a nail that could have hit in the narrow streets of Gorakhpur. As we parked the vehicle to the side of the road close to the open mori, I was thinking about the next exciting day when we had to cross the international border and oops now that we had some puncture fixing work before we hit the road again.

Day 2 :
Drive from Nagpur :

                 

We started driving from Nagpur after a quick breakfast at around 7.30 am, with me still sticking to the Driver seat. Amit was happy to stay at the navigator seat with the Google maps showing the blue arrow pushing us out of the City.

We were quickly out of the City and discussing about our next stop to be Gorakhpur (UP) that will be a 1050 kms drive for the Day ahead. Our first stop after Nagpur was at the border entry to Madhya Pradesh (MP). The weather still cloudy was not so Humid and with the winding Highway and the lush greenery on both sides did make us enjoy the drive. Forgot to mention that we were in the NH47 now.

                               

The National Highway in this part of MP is still a 2 lane Highway but the roads had still put up well to the heavy trucks that move between North and South. We were heading towards Sagar which is right in the middle of MP and from Sagar, we will had to still decide to take the Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow route or get into UP at Mahoba through the Highway 34 which will be still a two lane highway.

                               

As we were crossing MP slowly (compared to the first day drive), I started getting the differences between the South and North. There were increased number of 2 wheelers on the Highway, sticking to the left side of the road, it was required to be super cautious because there were few instances where the driver dragged the 2 wheeler to the middle of the road and somehow a simple buzz of the Horn was not reaching him, so at times I had to push the Horn continuously to get him to feedback by glazing at his rear view. People did use the Highways for their daily commute which made me realize that urbanization in MP is not as it happened in parts of North, West and South India. Still people stayed in villages and commuted to nearby towns for their jobs... 

August'17

Day 1 :
Drive from Bangalore to Hyderabad
Started my drive at 6 am morning and on the way at Hyderabad, plan was the pick up Amit from the Hyderabad airport where he would land at 2.30 pm. As the journey was more than 500 kms, I had asked one of friends to accompany me till Hyderabad. Bangalore - Hyderabad NH44, a 4 lane highway with atleast half of dozen tolls. Although the toll fees hurt my wallet, the drive was pleasant and we reached Hyderabad well before the schedule. Given the further delay of Amit's flight, we had a chance to get to a nearby Hyderabadi house to taste the famous Chicken Briyani.

Drive from Hyderabad to Nagpur:
Plan for the first day was to reach Nagpur and stay there for the night. After picking up Amit, we started the drive to Nagpur through the long stretching 70 km by pass of Hyderabad. Although Amit was open to share the load of driving, a fully charged me could not move out of the driver seat. National highway 44 extending to Nagpur, was not the same as the one till Hyderabad. There were still lot of work in progress patches, which basically made us gear down quite often. Given the thick green cover around the highways around the Maharashtra border helped us to relax and get some ambient air inside. It was bit humid but still we enjoyed the nature. It did had rained in the morning and there were marshy patches, which Amit comments as “Curd Rice” J. We stopped once in between for a cup of chai and loaded some water bottles, our Stomach did need the lubrication to Digest the Briyani. We were stern on having the Dinner at Nagpur. Finally, after all the road diversions and marshy patches, we reached Nagpur. The speed at which the Metro work is progressing in Nagpur did surprise me given the fact that it was just 1 year back when I was here, there was no trace of any Metro work.

We got into a Hotel on the same road just to ensure our exit from the city the next morning would not be time consuming. It was 10:35 pm, we reached the Hotel. The whole drive from Hyderabad to Nagpur had taken us 7 hours 20 mins (this time faster than Google by 1 hour)

I should say it's a dream come true but then it's not just that dreams come true as we say, it takes the passion and commitment and the right ingredients, time that makes the dream achievable.

After driven across Europe (2009) and eastern part of the USA (2007), the roads and the cars were by far more sophiscated and the technology of GPS had engrossed into the lives of the drivers  (atleast by 2009, where we specially request for a Garmin / TomTom GPS navigation device with the rental vehicle). Indian subcontinent back then was waiting to leap frog into the new Highways, Smart phone based navigation and the better cars.

It was in the year 2015, when me and Amit used to drive to office together in my Swift, I used to tell him about my dream of driving across the Subcontinent and he used to return me "do you really think you can afford a long leave". As days passed, I did move from the Hatchback to the SUV Nissan Terrano. I had to settle for the 85PS variant considering the simple plain driving with a mix of possible few trips to the western ghats. Then we had the same discussion  (me and Amit) of the Subcontinent drive and by then Amit had surely moved to replying, "let's drive to Nepal" and used to quote his experiences with the 4 wheel drive Nissan pick up trucks in Nepal. I used to patiently cross him saying "this is a simple 2 wheel drive and no where in comparison to the bulky 4 wheel drive heavy weights".

May'2017
After 2 years, I was complaining myself of not able to drive my SUV as I used to drive the Swift earlier. Within 2 years, I had driven it across southern India few trips of 500 kms and once had a terrible experience of getting stuck at the bottom of a non tarred steep road (when I had wrongly taken a road in Wayanad) wherein my 2 wheel drive could not take up the slope instantly and had to get back to create the momentum and speed to get through the steep.

It was Amit who initiated the topic again of driving to Nepal and instantly I confirmed positively. As weeks passed, Amit started his usual push and pull to get things done and I had to accept a date where we planned to drive to Kathmandu, then plan a landing at Lukla and do the Everest base camp Trek. All flight tickets from Kathmandu to Lukla done considering we both will drive from Bangalore to Kathmandu.

July'17
My vehicle was due for the yearly service and as per the standards, the service guys confirmed that oils are changed and the vehicle is in perfect condition. Couple of weeks after the service, there was an unusual lag in the Turbo kick in and I had to send back the vehicle to service station again to be checked. Thanks for the warranty cover, Nissan replaced the Turbocharger and my vehicle was back with the Turbo power. Nevertheless, this episode could not pull me down on my drive plans.

I am set to write the experiences from my drive from Bangalore to Kathmandu and back. So, wait for my recurring blogs on this great adventure.