Checked out of Le Meredien around 4:00pm. I had requested them for a late check out and they charged a fee for that. In any case it was fine.
As usual I was stopped near Savaner police check post. This stop was quick, and I left after usual check for papers. We bought some oranges on the road and continued our drive towards Bhopal. This was the latest that we had left Nagpur towards Bhopal.
Stopped at Hotel Meghna for our evening tea break around 6:30pm.
The roads approaching Bhopal have improved significantly. There are small segments that are still under construction but still a significant improvement on the past.
I wrote about my father's passing away in a blog post in my other blog. He passed away of COVID-19 during peak of pandemic in April -2021. Because of the peak of pandemic, he was cremated with COVID protocol on the next day after his death and we decided to hold off to other rituals for a later date and time where it might become safer for people to travel.
September 2021 during pitru paksha, we decided it was the right time to continue and complete the first set of rituals related to his passing away. After his cremation, we had kept his last remains in our garden and asthi visarjan was the first step to kick start the set of rituals that were to follow.
Here is the travelog of the road trip that we undertook to bid final farewell to my father.
Again we were following the college timelines, so I had time to walk around in the morning and see the places. As I mentioned in previous blog, we stayed at MP Tourism Holiday Homes. So here is a tour of the property if you wish to stay there.
After breakfast we decided to walk around the town. The first place to visit was the Narmada Kund. Here is a short video from Narmada Kund.
After spending some time in Narmada Kund, I decided to visit Kalchuri Temples which are just across the road from the Narmada Kund.
Then we just walked across the banks of the river for some time and then it was time to continue our return journey. The plan for the day was to reach Nagpur. We left checked out from the hotel and left for Nagpur.
Here is our journey.
Finally we arrived at our hotel in Nagpur. We stayed at Le Meridien in Nagpur. We find this place to be most convenient to stay.
Christmas 2020 turned out to be a solo trip. I just went to Bhopal and visited some place around Bhopal. It was a regular road trip with nothing out of the ordinary.
Here is the complete travelog in form of a video playlist. Click on the video below and watch all the videos.
07-October-2019 05:25 AM Started from Bhopal. The goal at the end of the day was to reach Hyderabad. Cattle and all other types of domesticated animals are becoming a serious problem for driving in MP. Earlier it was restricted to only UP.
Found a Reliance petrol station just after Hoshangabad. Decided to fill up the car there.
Stopped at a Dhaba midway near the border. The place was not really great. I just had a paratha and tea and continued on.
12:30 PM Tried to take ring road for crossing Nagpur for skipping all metro construction, was not of much use. I still ended up taking 40 minutes to cross Nagpur. 2:30 PM Crossed Hinghanghat 3:30 PM Crossed Pandharkawada 4:15 PM Crossed Adilabad 5:05 PM Crossed Nirmal 5:50 PM Crossed Nizamabad 7:55 PM Entered Hyderabad ORR 8:50 PM Reached my hotel in Hyderabad. 08-October-2019 04:30 AM Started from my hotel back towards Bengaluru. I took ORR and got on exit towards Bengaluru. 05:30 AM Exited ORR 07:30 AM Had horrible breakfast at a roadside Dhaba after Pullur toll. 09:30 AM Entered Ananthpur.
11:30 AM Arrived at Bengaluru Airport. I had to pick up family here. So had lunch here, picked them up and then left for home. 1:30 PM Arrived at Home.
Finally got the call from BMW Munich Motors Nagpur. The tires had arrived, the car was ready. I took a morning flight from Delhi to Nagpur. Reached the service station. Finally it was great to see car with new tires.
1:45 PM Left the service center, got on to Nagpur ring road towards Betul. 4:30 PM Crossed Betul, the good highway was over. Stopped at Hotel Meghna and Restaurant for belated Lunch.
The roads near Budni, Itarsi, Hoshangabad are a bittersweet story, there are portions of four laning that are complete and at the same time, some of the roads have developed large potholes. 09:45 PM Reached home in Bhopal.
25-September-2019
I got up hoping against hope that BMW Munich Motors might have two tires and I could still salvage my vacation. The service center guy finally called at 11 AM and gave me the bad news. There were no spares tires available. The worst news was that there were no spare tires available in any service station all over India. The ETA for tires was 05-October-2019. It was official, the vacation was ruined.
I visited the service center, did the necessary paperwork for the insurance claim and took a train to go to Bhopal.
24-September-2019 05:30 AM Left my home, quickly got on to Outer Ring Road towards Hyderabad. The original plan was to stop-over at Hyderabad but decided to continue till Nagpur.
08:40 AM Crossed Anantpur and took a customary picture of the ISKCON temple on the outskirts of the temple. 09:10 AM Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day just after the toll near Ramarajupalle. I believe the toll plaza is called Kasepalli.
CCD at that time in the morning did not have anything to eat. So after a quick cup of coffee, I left. 11:00 AM Crossed Kurnool. 1:00 PM Entered Nehru Outer Ring Road in Hyderabad. 1:41 PM Exited Nehru Outer Ring Road towards Nagpur. 2:19 PM Reached Cafe Coffee Day in Nagulapally. Stopped there for what would be the lunch for the day.
As you approach Telangana-Maharashtra border, the road side amenities dwindle. There is no decent place to stop and have even Tea. So I decided to just continue driving and hit my destination for the day, i.e. Le Meridien Hotel in Nagpur.
Around 6:10 PM as I was nearing Hinghanghat, I drove over what seemed like a harmless pothole and from there onwards, my trip unravelled.
As you can see in the video above, the car hit a sequence of potholes at not very high speed but few minutes later, I received an alert related to Chasis function.
At this time, I stopped. It was dark and raining but as soon as I got out of the car, I knew that the trip was over.
Rear Tyre
Front Tyre
Both rear and front tires were complete slashed and off the rim. I suspected that Nagpur being a smaller service center, BMW probably will not have these tires in stock since the car had launched just a little more than a month back.
Flat Tyre monitor
Finally, the tire monitor caught up with the sequence of events and I had a flat tire alert and the chasis alert went away.
So, after 989 kilometers of drive on day 1 of my vacation, the car was useless. I called BMW roadside assistance and they showed up after around two hours.
The flatbed guy arrived and he was not very confident of driving the car, so I had to drive it to a flatbed truck myself.
The car was loaded on the flatbed and was on its way to the workshop.
I went with the tow truck till the hotel and finally called it a day to an eventful evening.
It is the month of April again and summer vacations have started. Along with the whole nation is about to undergo general elections. Being on the road during elections is a difficult proposition in India. There is additional checking and you have to be prepared to be stopped and the whole vehicle checked at any point on the road. In order to minimize the inconvenience to ourselves, we decided to restrict our travel plans to areas which have already undergone voting or areas where voting was scheduled much later. We could not completely accomplish this, but we gave it a try.
The primary tourist places to be covered were Panna, Chitrakoot, and Khajuraho. As a bonus, I also visited the National Museum in Delhi which was a delight. Here is the itinerary that I followed.
The trip was total of 5321 kilometers, consumed more than 500 liters of diesel. The total toll paid through FasTag was Rs. 3290. There were few instances of toll payment through cash since the machine was not working. We can assume that the total toll payment was closer to Rs. 4000/-.
04-May-2019
Our original plan was to do a single drive from Bhopal to Bengaluru. Unfortunately, we did not get up in time and got ready in time so we decided to split the return drive into two segments. 7:15 AM Started from home in Bhopal. 10:20 AM Stopped at Hotel Meghna and Restaurant just before Betul for a cup of tea. 1:10 PM Reached Hotel Le Meridien for Lunch but unfortunately even after waiting for 30 minutes they did not serve anything. We left the place without eating.
2:02 PM We stopped just after Borkhedi Toll Plaza. There is a small restaurant and toilets. We had something to eat and started after 20 minutes. 5:25 PM Stopped after a Toll Plaza near Nizamabad. I was surprised to find an electric vehicle charging point in the middle of nowhere. 6:30 PM Stopped at Samanya Hotel near Kamareddy for a 20-minute break. 8:50 PM Reached Oakwood Residences Kapil Hyderabad.
19-April-2019
We had planned on leaving early, but then we decided to have breakfast and leave. By the time we left the hotel, it was already well past 8 AM.
8:30 AM Checked out and left the hotel. Immediately got on to Outer Ring Road towards Nagpur. 10:30 AM Reached Divya Resort and Restaurant in Kamareddy. It is one of the few places where there are reasonably clean toilets.
Even though all the toll plazas are supposed to have clean toilets, toll plazas in this sector are not good places for the rest stop. 3:30 PM Reached Le Meridien in Nagpur. The primary reason for stopping here is clean facilities and to have lunch. We had planned on having something quick like sandwiches but for some reason, their lunch service was extended that day and we had lunch there. 4:25 PM Left the hotel for onward journey. As metro construction in Nagpur in advanced stages, crossing the city has become difficult each day. 8:45 PM Stopped at Sai Krishna Resort Garden in Itarsi for tea and toilet break. There was some wedding going on in the resort but the restaurant was open so we used the facilities. 11:30 PM We reached our destination for the day.
The was a trip that I enjoyed a lot. We saw places that were very different than each other and offered something interesting to view.
During the trip, we drove a distance of 6065 kilometers in approximately 107 hours. Approximately 610 liters of diesel was used up. Approximate toll amounts were more than Rs. 4000/-.
06:54 AM Stopped at Wadki for a cup of tea. 10:25 AM Stopped at Divya Resort and Restaurant for brunch. 1:32 PM Stopped at M Food Court for a small break. 2:15 PM Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day at Sankalamaddi in Stop N Go Food court for lunch. 5:10 PM Stopped at Hotel Blue Moon Highway food court for break. 9:45 PM Arrived in Bengaluru.
05-45 AM We started towards Noida which was our destination for the day. We decided to go via Chhindwara. The roads on this section are good but they are not divided road. Also, it is very difficult to get any amenities on this route till you are back on the highway. 07:55 AM Crossed Chhindwara
09:15 AM Crossed Narsinghpur and got back on the NH-44. 10:35 AM Reached Sagar, stopped at Hotel Deepali.
If you intend to stop at Hotel Deepali in Sagar, please be careful. Google map shows two hotels with the same name. You need to go to one that is just 1 kilometer away from national highway. The other one shows a diversion of more than 8 kilometers. 12:20 PM Crossed Malthone 12:50 PM Crossed Lalitpur 1:50 PM Crossed Jhansi
3:20 PM Stopped at the Cocina Highway Retreat just on the national highway. I have been stopping in Barista for which I had to take a one-kilometer diversion into the city. This restaurant was just on the highway and newly opened so I decided to give this one a try.
The restaurant was a hit and miss, the food was just average, facilities were also average. But the place was full of students from nearby colleges and it was just too noisy, almost bordering rowdy.
4:05 PM We started after lunch. Crossed Morena at 05:15 PM. 5:45 PM Crossed Dholpur. 7:10 PM Entered Agra. Crossing Agra is always a challenge. I have not understood why there is not a better way to get on to Agra Ring Road while coming from Gwalior. 7:40 PM Entered Yamuna Expressway. 8:25 PM Stopped at the rest area in the middle of Yamuna Expressway for a coffee. 10:15 PM Exited YEW 10:40 PM Reached Noida.
The destination for the day was Nagpur. The road was empty and with white topping work on ORR over, it was hassle free drive towards Airport. Over the last few years, we have found Le Meridien in Nagpur as a good place for a night stopover. 07:00 AM We stopped at Mc Donalds near Bengaluru Airport for a brunch. The place had just opened and it took longer than what I had expected to get the food and coffee. 09:40 AM Crossed Ananthpur. Took my customary photograph of Iskcon in Ananthpur. 10:15 AM Stopped at the Cafe Coffee Day in Ramrajupalle just after the toll. It is a good place for a break. There is a petrol bunk nearby as well.
We continued onwards with our journey. 12:38 PM We stopped at the Stop N Go Food Plaza for another break. This place also has a Cafe Coffee Day.
Two cafe coffee days even have an identical design of fixtures. 2:00 PM Entered the Nehru ORR in Hyderabad. 2:45 PM Exited ORR towards Nagpur
3:24 PM We stopped at another cafe coffee day in Nagulapally.
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.
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.
Finally all the pieces fell into place, Dussera was earlier this year so it was possible to drive to Ladakh during Dussera school vacations. Still cramming the itinerary was becoming difficult, so we decided that I would start driving earlier and the family will fly directly when the school vacations start. Following was the decided route plan.
The trip was an interesting trip. Unfortunately it had to be cut short due to vehicle failure. After more diagnosis it seems like BMW technician in Ludhiana ignore a error code related to Diesel Particulate Filter. He told me that there is an error code but nothing to worry about. That resulted in exhaust being completed clogged and finally catastrophic failure. Goes to show the fragility of technology in modern cars.
We completed approximately 5000 kilometers of total 7800 kilometers planned, we completed all the tourist attractions that we intended to visit. The return journey had to be abandoned and we had to fly back.
As we speak the car is still being repaired since some parts had to be imported from Germany.
