Saturday 9 December 2017

Quick Trip to IIM Indore

I had to visit IIM Indore in relation to my thesis finalization and I did not make any flight bookings until the last minute. So I decided to drive to the place.
18-November-2017
05:55 AM Started from home, took the outer ring road towards Hebbal.
9:15 AM Crossed Anantpur.

11:20AM Stopped at the new food court little after Kurnool. It is called Stop 'n Go Travel Plaza. It has a restaurant, Cafe Coffee Day and some other restaurants.


12:45 PM Entered Hyderabad Outer Ring Road.

2:00 PM Reached Cafe Coffee Day at Nagulapally just outside the Hyderabad towards Nagpur.
8:23 PM Reached Hotel Le Meredien, Nagpur.

19-November-2017
08:15AM Checked out from the hotel and started towards Bhopal.
09:08 AM Stopped by Maharashtra Traffic Police near Savner. They asked for all the documents, I had all the documents in the physical copy but the insurance copy was removed by the service center last time around. I only had the soft copy. This place has pretty much zero network. It took almost 20 minutes of time to download the soft copy of insurance and show it to the cop and then he let me go.

10:30 AM Crossed Multai
11:00 AM Crossed Betul and into the bad roads.
The condition of forest roads from Betul to Itarsi is in a much-improved condition. Even though it is a two-laned road but the surface is pretty good.

2:00 PM Reached Bhopal.

20-November-2017
07:15 AM Started from Home towards Indore.
08:40 AM Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day in Pappu and Pappu Ka Dhaba.
10:30 AM Checked into Sayaji Hotel. Here is my review of the hotel.
2:00 PM Went to Indian Institute of Management Indore.


4:45 PM Reached back to Hotel. Met some friends in the evening and decided to leave back to Bangalore the next day.
21-November-2017
7:40 AM Left the hotel after breakfast.
10:15 AM Reached Bhopal. Had to meet a friend.
12:30 PM Reached home in Bhopal. Had lunch.
1:22 PM Left home towards Nagpur. The plan was to reach Nagpur and spend the night there.
4:40 PM Stopped at Hotel Meghna very close to Betul. This is one decent place on this circuit if one wants to have bio break.
7:47 PM Reached Nagpur, checked-into Le Meridien Hotel. It is kind of difficult to cross the Nagpur city nowadays because of multiple metro and flyover construction.
22-November-2017
05:10 AM Checked out of the hotel and left.
6:35 AM Stopped for chai at a small shop in Wadki.
9:54 AM Stopped at Divya Hotel and Restaurant in Jangampally. It is a decent place on this stretch right on highway if you don't want to venture into towns apart from few dhabas on this stretch of national highway. So if you need to use restrooms etc this is the best place to stop.



11:20 AM Entered Hyderabad outer ring road.
12:00 PM Exited Hyderabad outer ring road towards Bengaluru
12:52 PM Crossed Mahboob Nagar
2:07PM Crossed Kurnool
3:32 PM Entered Anantpur

3:40 PM Stopped at this nice little place called Hyway Lounge just on the edges of Anantpur town towards Bengaluru. The place was good but service was quite slow.


6:15 PM Reached Devanhalli Toll. The FasTag lane was blocked by a guard. He did not let me go through. I was charged twice, onec by FasTag system and next time by the toll operator.
It took a total of 12 minutes to get out of this toll. Bengaluru ORR is being redone and because of that coming from Airport towards K  R Puram is just an experience from hell. Hopefully all this pain would be worth something in future.

It took almost 2 hours to reach from Airport to Near about HSR.

Friday 8 December 2017

The Resurrection

Our car broke down while returning from Pangong Tso. It was an extremely frustrating experience when the machine gives up on you even though you have taken good care of it.
BMW Road Side Assistance asked to leave the car and leave the key with somebody from whom they can take it. We did that. The car was finally picked up on 27-September-2017 at 5:40 PM and dropped off at the service station in Chandigarh on 29-September-2017 around 9PM.
The initial diagnostics suggested multiple unrelated parts failed at the same time. It was puzzling but true.
28-October-2017 
Finally after a month, I landed up in Chandigarh to pick the car. It was fixed and ready to go.,
12:20 PM Got the delivery of vehicle after repairs and straightaway started back to Bangalore. The plan was to drive as long as possible and take a break for the night.
3:20 PM Stopped at Haldirams for a late lunch. Continued onwards after a half an hour break.
5:45 PM Entered Yamuna Expressway.

6:56 Arrived at the rest stop midway on Yamuna Expressway. Had a coffee break for around 45 minutes and then continued towards Agra.
Hotel Mansingh Lobby
8:48 PM Reached Hotel Mansingh in Agra. Decided to stop here for the night. Here is my review of the place.

29-October-2017
5:10 AM Started from the hotel. 
Cattle on highways in North India has become an extremely dangerous issue. See the above video. One has to very careful in driving.
7:10 AM Crossed Gwalior
8:15 AM Crossed Datia
9:05 AM Crossed Jhansi
10:20 AM Crossed Lalitpur
11:20 AM Stopped at Hotel Deepali in Sagar for a Breakfast.
3:35 PM Stopped at MPTDC Motel at Rookhad. It is a nice place for a small break and food.



6:36 PM Reached Le Meridien in Nagpur which was the pitstop for the night.

30-October-2017
4:50 AM Left the hotel. As the luck would have it, was stuck at Hinghanghat Railway crossing for 10 minutes.
8:28 AM Stopped at Singh is King Dhaba just before Nirmal. Unfortunately, the food was disappointing this time around.
12:20 PM Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day near Mahboobnagar.
3:25 PM Stopped at Bluemoon Foodcourt near Anantpur
6:30 PM Crossed Hebbal Flyover and got on to Outer Ring Road.