Christmas 2015: AIM 2015

The plan for christmas 2015 drive was to basically visit our homes in Delhi and Bhopal. We got to know that HVK AIM was also planned in north, we decided to club it with our plan. Once the schedule of AIM was clear, we realized that we have to be in Chandigarh on 24th December, so we had to prepone our original plan.

Here is the day-wise schedule of AIM.

1. 21-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - Day 1, Bengaluru to Hyderabad.
2. 22-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - Day 2, Hyderabad to Bhopal 
   
3. 23-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - Day 3, Bhopal to Delhi
4. 24-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 4, Delhi to Shoja
5. 25-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 5, Shoja
6. 26-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 6, Shoja to Mandi long drive
7. 27-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - Day 7, Mandi to Delhi with stopover in Chandigarh
8. 28-December-2015 & 29-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - Day 8 & 9 Stay at Delhi
9. 30-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - Day 10, Delhi to Ujjain
10. 31-December-2015 Christmas 2015 - Day 11, Stay at Ujjain, Reach Bhopal in evening
11. 01-January-2016 Christmas 2015 - Day 12, Stay at Bhopal
12. 02-January-2016 Christmas 2015 - Day 13, Bhopal to Bengaluru

That ended the drive, a total 6081 kilometers, 107 hours of driving, Almost 600 litres of diesel, 13 days on the road, temperature difference between +30 to -10 degrees. Finally stopped worrying about the toll amount but must be more than Rs. 2000/- probably closer to Rs. 3000/-.

Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 13, Bhopal to Bengaluru

02-January-2016
Finally last day of the drive, we start from Bhopal and end in Bengaluru

4:45 AM Left Bhopal got on to ring road and on Hoshangabad road.
5:45 AM On to Hoshangabad road
6:00 AM Crossed Obaidullagunj
6:35 AM Crossed Hoshangabad
6:55 AM Crossed Itarsi
8:15 AM Crossed Betul
9:35 AM Crossed Savner
9:55 AM Entered Nagpur
10:30 AM Exited Nagpur
11:30 AM Reached Hinganghat
12:55 PM  Reached outskirts of Adilabad
1:41 PM Stopped at a dhaba near Nirmal for lunch
2:10 PM Started back on highway
3:10 PM Crossed Nizamabad
4:30 PM Entered Hyderabad Ring Road
5:50 PM Reached Hill Park restaurant near Mahboobnagar
6:50 PM Crossed Mahboobnagar
8:05 PM Crossed Kurnool
9:03 PM Crossed Gooty
10:05 PM  Crossed Anantpur
10:48 PM Crossed Penukonda
11:45 PM Crossed Chikkaballapur
12:10 AM Entered Bengaluru ring road
12:45 AM Reached Home.

Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 11, Ujjain to Bhopal

31-December-2015

This was a short drive day, we just need to reach Bhopal.

6:50 PM Started from Ujjain

9:20 PM Reached Bhopal

Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 10, Noida to Ujjain

30-December-2015
Finally we were in the return leg of the trip. The day's target was to reach Ujjain.
6:00 AM Started from Noida, partly because of the road condition between Jhansi and Gwalior and partly because I did not want to drive on same road again, we decided to go towards Neemuch route.

8:00 AM Stopped at Shiva Oasis restaurant just after Neemarna.
10:30 AM Crossed Jaipur
12:25 PM Crossed Ajmer
1:30 PM Stopped at a road side hotel for chai
2:10 PM Crossed Bhilwara
2:30 PM Stopped at the restaurant with Reliance petrol bunk. Ordinary restaurant.
4:40 PM Crossed Nimbahera
5:10 PM Crossed Neemuch
6:00 PM Crossed Mandasaur
7:30 PM Crossed Jaora
8:00 PM Crossed Nagda
9:00 PM Reached Ujjain

Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 7, Mandi to Delhi via Chandigarh

27-December-2015
The plan for the day was to leave early from Mandi, reach Chandigarh quickly, meet couple of friends and end up in Delhi by the end of the day.

6:00 AM Left the hotel and started back towards Chandigarh.
7:15 AM Stopped at a road side dhaba who was getting ready to start making Aloo Parathas. Had breakfast and tea there.
7:50 AM Started back the journey
9:15 AM Crossed Nauni
10:25 AM Crossed swarghat
11:00 AM Crossed Kiratpur Sahib
12:30 PM Reached friends place for lunch.
2:00 PM Started for second friends place
2:20 PM Reached second friends place
4:40 PM Started back for Delhi

Bangedup car on highway

Every now and then one encounters a vehicle that one gets reminded of safe and defensive driving.
5:40 PM Crossed Ambala
6:25 PM Crossed Kurukshetra
7:15 PM Crossed Karnal
8:05 PM Crossed Panipat
8:10 PM Stopped at Hotel Swarn Mahal just after Panipat.
8:45 PM Started back towards Delhi
9:30 PM Crossed Sonipat
10:30 PM Reached Noida

Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 6, Shoja to Mandi

26-December-2015
This was the day of the return drive, we had to drive in a convoy and reach Mandi by the end of the day.

9:00 AM We started back from the resort.
10:00 AM Crossed Jibhi
11:30 AM Crossed Larji
Here is a timelapse of the complete drive for the day.

12:20 PM Stopped at a dhaba for tea and buiscuits.
2:00 PM Stopped at Bayohari for Lunch
3:30 PM Started back after Lunch.
5:45 PM Reached Mandi, The night halt was in Hotel Shingar.

Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 5, Shoja

25-December-2015
This day was reserved for checking out places around Sojha. We had a leisurely breakfast and then decided to go to Jalori pass. On asking locals, there were varied opinions. Many told us that the road to pass was closed while some suggested that we can easily go.
Finally we decided to take a chance and drive up to pass. We decided, if it got too tough, we will just come back.
Here is the complete video of drive.

11:15 AM We started towards the Jalori pass.
11:55 AM  We reached the pass. We stayed around the pass for almost one hour and fifteen minutes.
1:10 PMWe started back from the pass
1:50 PM We reached the resort. Here are some of the pictures from the day's visit.

Christmas 2015 - AIM - 2015 Day 4, Delhi to Sojha

24-December-2015
As per original plan we were to leave Chandigarh by 10 AM, we were informed that the drive has been preponed because of the possibility of bad weather at destination. We had planned on leaving Delhi for Chandigarh around 5 AM hoping we would reach before 10 AM. But now we had to prepone it. So we decided to leave Delhi just after dinner.

2:15 AM Checked out from the hotel and started the drive towards Chandigarh.
3:05 AM Crossed Sonipat
3:45 AM Crossed Panipat

4:25 AM Crossed Karnal
4:45 AM Crossed Kurukshetra
5:25 AM Crossed Ambala
6:00 AM Reached one of the hotels in Chandigarh where AIM fellow drivers were staying.
7:30 AM Started from the hotel towards Mandi.
8:15 AM Reached at the Heritage Haveli restaurant. Stopped for breakfast.
9:30 AM Started after breakfast.
10:05 AM Crossed Kiratpur Sahib
11:55 AM Crossed Bilaspur
12:30 PM Stopped for a tea.
2:20 PM Reached Mandi, met up with the rest of the AIM team. Had lunch at Shingar hotel.
3:45 PMStarted as part of a convoy towards the final destination for the day. Here is the timelapse of complete drive as part of the convoy.

6:00 PM Crossed Jibhi
Lsat 10 kilometers to Sojha, there was a concern regarding snow on the road. We stopped below the final climb for almost an hour before continuing further.

This final streth was tough on cars partly because of very bad quality of road and partly because of occasional snow on the road.
8:00 PM We were in the PWD guest house in Sojha where everybody had gathered for the dinner. Once we had dinner, we got into our hotel room and called it a day.

Christmas 2015 - Day 3, Bhopal to Delhi

23-December-2015
4:45 AM Started the journey towards Delhi.

Dhaba

5:25 AM Crossed Sanchi
5:33 AM Crossed Vidisha
6:30 AM Saw one dbaha fellow lighting up his stove, decided to have a tea, just around Rahatgarh.
7:10 AMCrossed Khurai
7:30 AM Crossed Khimlasa
7:45 AM Crossed Malthone
8:01 AMFound a dhaba open, decided to try my luck for breakfast. He was willing to make some aloo parathas. The place was not great, no toilets but the food was cooked fresh and there were no other options around. For some strange reasons all the hotels and dhaba's in this region give you extremely small qualities of chai. You are almost required to have two of them for any practial effect.

Hot aloo parathas

8:35 AM Crossed Lalitpur
This region of country is extremely problematic to drive. You change the state multiple times and you see trucks lined up on border multiple times.
9:30 AM Turned towards Gwalior rather than Shivpuri. I had heard that it is better option compared to the actual N-S corridor which goes via Shivpuri
10:10 AM Crossed Datia
11:35 AM Crossed Gwalior
1:30 PM Entered outskirts of Agra. Crossing Agra is extremely messy. I don't understand why there is no decent byepass. May be there is this belief that if you are coming to Agra, you must be going to visit Taj.

2:30 PM Crossed Agra and entered Yamuna Expressway. I found YEW to be an extremely overrated expressway. First of all the speed limit is just 100, there is very little traffic on the road and the tolls are extremely high. None of the petrol stations in expressway were willing to accept credit cards.
4:30 PMI was in Noida
Since my destination for the day was a hotel near internation airport, I had to cross the whole city to reach there. I was advised to exit YEW at Palwal and then byepass most of the city but I missed that exist and ended up having to traverse the whole city.
6:00 PM I reached the hotel and checked in.

Christmas 2015 - Day 2, Hyderabad to Bhopal

22-December-2015
The plan was to get up early and continue on the journey to Bhopal.
4:45 AM As I got ready to leave, realized that by car exit has been blocked another. Took a good 10 minutes to get the keys and get back on the road.

4:50 AM Was on ORR

Road side breakfast

5:10 AM Exited ORR and joined the Nagpur Road.
5:41 AM Stopped at a road side hotel which had some hot idlies and coffee ready. Did the breakfast there.
Started back in 10 minutes.
7:00 AM Byepassed Nizamabad
7:45 AM Byepassed Nirmal
8:20 AM Crossed Adilabad
8:50 AM Crossed the border
10:00 AM Crossed Hinganghat
11:00 AMEntered Nagpur, decided to get into the city and try some restaurant. Found a Haldirams closest to the highway and went there for lunch.

Haldirams at Nagpur

Stopped for approximately 50 minutes. The food was all right but not great.
12:30 PM Crossed Savner
2:00 PM Crossed Betul
3:30 PM Crossed Itarsi
4:00 PM Crossed Itarsi
4:45 PM Crossed Obaidullagunj
5:10 PM Crossed Mandideep
6:00PM Was at home in Bhopal. Overall an interesting and evenless drive. There are not many food places on the way. Most petrol bunks won't accept credit cards. There is one in Itarsi that does it.

Christmas 2015 - Day 1, Bengaluru to Hyderabad

21-December-2015
I was driving along, so started after half days work in office.
1:45 PM I started from home towards Hyderabad. I am used to starting the drive early in the morning, this time I was starting in afternoon and the traffic at the start of the drive was a great dampner.

2:30 PM Crossed Hebbal flyover and got onto the road towards airport.
2:55 PM Crossed the airport toll.
3:00 PM There was a road blockade by local farmers few kilometers before Chikkaballapur. Waited there for the blockade to lift.
3:50 PM There was no sign of blockade lifting, so decide to explore alternate routes. One route that showed up on google maps was going via Nandi Hills, so decided to take that road.
4:30 PM Joined the NH just after Chikkaballapur. In the whole exercise lost almost one hour.
5:00 PM Crossed Bagepalli
6:10 PM Crossed Anantapur
6:30 PM Saw a new food court called Blue Moon restaurant just before the Reliance. Stopped there for Tea. It is a good clean place for food. Can't comment on the quality of food because I just had tea.
6:50 PM Started towards Hyderabad.
8:00 PM Crossed Kurnool
9:15 PM Stopped at Bharati 97 Food n Fuels. It is one of those rare places on this highway where both petrol station and a decent restaurant with clean toilets etc is there.
10:45 PM Got on to ORR in Hyderabad, the day's stop was at a Oyo Rooms hotel in Gachibowli.  The hotels itself is not great but was sufficient for a night's sleep.