Summer 2022 -- Really Hot

Summer 2022, I decided to drive to Bhopal and then decide if I wanted to go somewhere further. There was a wedding to attend in Sagar, MP.

14-May-2022 I started early morning (4:40 AM) towards Hyderabad. 8:30 am I crossed Ananthpur and stopped at Cafe Coffee Day near Gooty. 12:45 PM I reached Hyderabad Outer Ring road. 2:30 PM I reached the Cafe Coffee Day near Nagulapally. After a brief stopover as a lunch break, I continued on. Finally at 7:50 PM I arrived in Le Meredien, Nagpur which was the stop for the night.

15-May-2022 Next day morning I took it easy. Since my destination was Bhopal, I decided to leave after breakfast. Left the hotel around 8:15 am. Drove pretty much non-stop and arrived in Bhopal at 2:15 PM.

20-May-2022 This was the day I had to attend a wedding in Sagar. Left Bhopal around 4:00 pm and arrived in Sagar at 7:00 pm. The evening was spent at the wedding venue and left from the wedding at 1:00 am. 

23-May-2022 Finally it was time to leave Bhopal. Earlier I had planned on visiting some of  the fort towns in Rajasthan but it was too hot. The temperature was touching almost 40 degree celsius on some of the days. I decided to head back to Bhopal where the weather had turned pleasant. At 4:20 am I left Bhopal. Crossed Nagpur city around 8:45 am. Drove pretty much non-stop and stopped for Lunch at 2:00 PM  at a restaurant around 1 hour before Hyderabad. After an hour break and lunch, left for Hyderabad and arrived in Hyderabad at 4:15 pm. For a moment I thought I could continue to Bhopal, but decided against it and checked in to Fairfield by Marriot near Gachibowli.

24-May-2022 Checked out of the hotel and started the journey towards Bengaluru. Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day before Ananthpur at 1:00pm. Had a small lunch there and then continued driving towards Bengaluru. I was running low on petrol, so stopped at Shell Petrol Pump near Aroor at 4:30pm. After refuel and a tea, continued towards Bengaluru and arrived home at 6:30pm. 

The total journey was around 3,500 kilometers.

Jan - Feb 2022 : Day 4 : Day trip to Sagar

03-February-2022

We had something important to be taken care of in Sagar. So we did a day trip to Sagar. Left our home in Bhopal around 6:00 AM.

 

Arrived in Rahatgarh around 7:30 AM. We thought to have our breakfast here. Somehow the quality of food was different from in past.

We arrived in Sagar around 9:15 AM. We took care of some of the things that we needed to get done in Sagar city during the day.

We left Sagar around 6pm.

We arrived Bhopal at our home around 9:30pm.

Day 20 -- 06-October-2021, Bhopal to Bhedaghat

 06-October-2021

Finally we had bid our departed father adieu. All rituals complete, we had to start our return journey. A small thing still needed to be taken care off. My dad's one of the last wish was to visit Amarkantak. So I decided to return to Bengaluru via Amarkantak.

12:00 PM We could leave Bhopal due to online classes only by noon. We decided that we will not be able to reach Amarkantak in time, so we decided to make a night halt at Jabalpur. We did not want to go into the town so we decided to stop in MP tourism motel in Bhedaghat.

3:00 PM We stopped in Sagar at a family friends house for Lunch

10:00 PM We reached our hotel in Bhedaghat.

Summer 2018 -- Day 2

08-April-2018

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.

Day 9 -- Jabalpur to Bhopal

16-04-2017
Slowly tiredness was setting in, so we decided to take is little easy. We started from Jabalpur only by 11 AM. Straightway we continued towards Bhopal, via Damoh and Sagar.  We stopped only at Sagar for Lunch.

1:55 PM Reached Hotel Deepali in Sagar. Left at 3:00 PM

5:30 PM Reached Sanchi Stupa. We were late so we straightaway went inside. It is always breathtaking.

During the third century BC, the Mauryan emperor Asoka  (Circa 213-36 BC), the great patron of Buddhism, selected Vedisagiri (Sanchi Hill) for the foundation of a Buddhist establishment because the hill ensured quietude and seclusion necessary for monastic life. It was situated near the rich populous and patronizing city of Vidisha. He erected here, a stone column and a brick stupa. The Sunga period (second century BC) witnessed the stone encasing and enlargement of the stupa of Asoka (Stupa 1), Erection of balustrades Round its ground, berm, a stairway and Harmika, reconstruction of Temple 40 & building of stupas 2 and 3. During the Satyavahana regime (first century BC) four lofty gateways were added to Stupa 1 and one gateway to Stupa 3. Structural activities are on a slow pace during the reign of the Kshtrapas of Malwa (early centuries of the christian era) and Sanchi imported images from Mathura during the period.  Four images of the Buddha are placed against the beam of stupa 1 facing the four entrances. Temple 17 and some other edifices were the contributions of the Gupta age.  During the seventh-eights centuries A.D., several buddha images were installed and temple 18 erected the foundations of an earlier edifice at the site several temples and monasteries were built during the medieval period when the Pratiharas and Paramaras of Malwa flourished in the region. Amongst these, the Temple 45 is typical for its dimensions and exhuberant ornamentation.

Stupa 1 (second century B.C.) consists of a plastered dome crowned by a triple umbrella within a railing and contains within its core the brick stupa of Asoka. A circumambulatory path approached by a double stairway is built against its base. The ground balustrade marks another procession path around it. Four gateways (first century B.C.) provide access to the stupa from all four directions. The height and diameter of the stupa are 16.46 and 36.60 meters respectively. The inscribed parts of the railings, pavements, and gateways are the donations of a large number of devotees from Vidisha and other parts fo the country. The scenes carved on the gateway generally depict Jataka legends, scenes from the life of Gautam Buddha, subjects connected with the history of Buddhism, Past Buddhas, and miscellaneous decorative motifs. The four images of Buddha installed against the drum are the additions of the fifth century A.D.

Stupa 2 resembles Stupa 3 in shape and size, but without any gateway. It has a large balustrade with four cardinal entrances and double stairway, leading to the top of the drum. Its reliefs mostly exhibit decorative motifs with some life-scenes of Buddha. General AlexandeCunnighamam found inside the dome, the corporeal relics of ten Buddhist teachers of at least three generations at a height of 2.13 meters above the terrace.

Monastery 51 is a well preserved quadrangular structure remarkable for its stone walls veneered with bricks. Probably the roofs of its cells and verandahs and the verandah pillars had been of wood.  To the west of the monastery lies a giant stone bowl.

Temple and Monastery 45 of the medieval period, stands on the ruins of an earlier structure of the seventh or eights century.  The presence of Ganga and Yamuna on the door-jambs of the temple shows that the Buddhists adopted typically brahminical motifs as well the spire reduce to a bare core was originally embellished with carvings on three sides of the temple or remains of monastic cells.

7:30 PM We reached Bhopal.

Christmas 2016

The plan was to travel to see the remaining places in Rajasthan during Christmas of 2016.

Following itinerary was followed for this trip.

• Day 1 -- Bengaluru to Nagpur
• Day 2 -- Nagpur to Bhopal
• Day 3 -- Bhopal to Noida
• Day 4 -- Noida to Hanumangarh
• Day 5 -- Hanumangarh to Bikaner via Kalibangan
• Day 6 --  Binaker to Jaipur
• Day 7 -- Jaipur to Agra via Bharatpur
• Day 8 -- Agra
• Day 9 -- Agra to Sagar
• Day 10 -- Sagar to Bangalore

The distance covered was  5476 kilometers. Approximately 3000 rupees of tolls were paid during the journey and approximately 550 liters of diesel was consumed. This was the first trip after the demonetization so the cash expenses had to be kept to a minimum.  All the fuel expenses were done electronically by credit card and most of the toll expenses were done using FasTag. Wherever FasTag was not working, PayTM was used.
I had booked quite a few hotels with Hotels.Com. Couple of those booking were with Hotel LemonTree in Jaipur and in Hyderabad. Both of these hotels called me and wanted me to tell them my credit card over the phone. I refused to give the card because I was not sure who called it. Both the hotels told me that they would cancel my bookings.

Day 10 -- Sagar to Bangalore

31-December-2016
The original plan was to drive up to Hyderabad on this day. We started early at around 5:15 AM.
During our last drive, we had taken this route till Nagpur, but the road was pretty bad 100 kilometers around Nagpur. We were advised that it is better to take Narsingpur-Chhindwara route.
7:00 AM We reached Narsingpur. We were told to find breakfast in Narsingpur, but we ignored that advice, at our own peril, thinking that we will find something on the way to Chhindwara. There is practically nothing on this route till Nagpur. Few dhabas that you see on the road don't open before Lunch.
8:25 AM Crossed Chhindwara.
10:00 AM We reached Nagpur. We were hungry, and we straightway drove to this place called The Breakfast Story. Unfortunately, that was an unfortunate decision. We waited there for quite some time, but the place was completely booked.
We finally left that place and reached Le Meridien at around 10:50 AM.
Five-star hotels are not good for doing things quickly. Since we had reached after their regular breakfast hours and before regular lunch hours, they told us they will cook something for us but it took quite some time. We could get out of this place only by 12:20 PM.
1:10 PM Crossed Hinghanghat. Bad roads start, at least some construction work is in progress, so there is hope that this section would improve in near future.
3:00 PM Crossed border, we see good roads again.
3:15 PMWe crossed Adilabad
3:55 PM We reached Singh is King Dhaba just around Nirmal. This has become our favorite place to stop on this section of road. The food is hot and quick.
At the time we also decide to not stop in Hyderabad. Even though we are running late, we decided that since our hotel has anyway canceled our booking and this is new year eve, it is better to continue driving and stop at Bengaluru.
7:15 PM Entered the ORR in Hyderabad and exited at 8:00 PM.
8:40 PM Stopped at Cafe Coffee Day near Mahboobnagar for dinner.
11:10 PM Crossed Kurnool

Just before Gooty, we ushered in the new year.
12:50 AM We crossed Anantpur
1:33 AM We crossed Penukonda
2:30 AM We crossed Chikkaballapur
As we crossed the Airport, we realized that traffic police had closed all the flyovers as a precautionary measure on New year eve. So we had to crawl through till Hebbal.
3:30 AM We reached home.

Day 9 -- Agra to Sagar

30-December-2016
9:30 AM We started from Agra after the breakfast. The roads were foggy and the progress was slow.

11:20 AM After two hours of driving, we were near Gwalior. This section of the route has pretty much zero facilities on the highway, so we decided to take a small detour towards the Gwalior town and stop at the Barista.
The place is good, and it is around one kilometer from the national highway and the approach road to the place is not crowded at all. So this makes for a good stopping point particularly if one is traveling with the family. Here are my thoughts on the place.

We continued after a small break at Barista and soon hit the bad Gwalior-Jhansi section of the road. This road is pretty bad and shows no sigh of being improved. 

1:20 PM We realized that we were near Datia and decided to stop at MP Tourist motel for a lunch. That would save us from going into Jhansi city to look for food. When in Madhya Pradesh, it is always a good idea to look for MP Tourish Motels, they are pretty good for small breaks and food.

Jhansi Fort

2:30 PM We started after lunch.

3:10 PM We crossed Jhansi

4:10 PM We crossed Lalitpur

4:40 PM We crossed Malthone

5:20 PM We were in Sagar.

Day 8 -- Sagar to Nagpur

14-October-2016
We had made a plan to visit Sagar university just to have a drive through.

We left university at around 12:15 PM, reached hotel, had lunch and then set off for Nagpur.
2:00 PM  We left Sagar and joined the NH-44 towards Kanyakumari.
4:00 PM We crossed Narsingpur.
5:00 PM We crossed Lakhnadon.
While driving we saw that the road is good and we continued on NH-44, the road gets really bad some 140-150 kilometers before Nagpur.

If you end up going on NH-44 towards Nagpur, a good place to stop is MPTDC Rookhad Highway treat.
 
The road is really really bad and it takes more than two hours to traverse the road of less than 60 kilometers.
08:40 PM Reached hotel. Here is my review for the hotel.

Day 7 -- Gwalior to Sagar via Orchha

13-October-2016

8:40 AM Day to leave Gwalior. We were so fed up with the bad food in Taj, we decided to try some local stuff for breakfast. We were told that a shop called S S Kachoriwala may be a good bet. So we checkedout and headed for the shop and then leave to Orchcha.
It is a non-descript shop but makes hot kachoris and samosa. We got some packed and left.
It is approximately three hours journey to Orchcha. We reached there around 12 PM.

We straightaway headed to Betwa Retreet, a MP Tourism hotel for some refreshment before going to Orchcha Fort.

Betwa Retreet

Raja Mahal

Raja Mahal

The construction of the Raja Mahal was started in 1531 AD by Raja Rudra Pratap (1503-1531 AD) and was completed by the year 1539 in the reign of Bharti Chandra (1531-1554 AD). Later on, his successor Madhukar Shah (1554-1592 AD) made some alterations and additions giving it a final shape. Designed on a square plan, the palace is divided into two wings, with five stories on three sides and four stories on one side. The Darbar-e-aam and Darbar-e-khas are quite imposing. The subjects of the painting are mainly the life and deeds of Lord Rama and Krishna. The incarnations of the god Vishnu have also been painted. Nayak, Nayikas, Rag, Raginis, Wrestling, Folk, Hunting and Vignettes and Royal Amusements have also found a place in depictions.

Paintings on the roof

Paintings on the roof

Paintings on the roof

Paintings on the roof

Paintings on the roof

Paintings on the roof

Paintings on the roof

Paintings on the roof

Jahangir Mahal

Jahangir Mahal

According to common belief Jahangir Mahal was constructed for Jahangir reception by Veer Singh Deo (I). It is square in plan with four bastions at each corner which end in a ribbed dome at the top and have four kiosks at the corner of the base of the dome. The chajja on the corners of the first story is held by a series of elephant brackets at regular intervals on all sides. All the chambers of this palace had been decorated with paintings the remains of which are visible only in few rooms. The Jahangir Mahal is the culminating point of evolution of Medieval - Indo - Islamic architeture, an example of Harmonied imagination and organized execution.

View of Chaturbhuja Temple from Jahangir palace

Fifteen cenotaphs to the bundela kings and members of their clan are located on the southern bank of river Betwa. These include the chhatris of Madhukar Shah, Vir Singh Deo, Jaswant Singh, Pahar Singh & others. Most of the cenptaphs are designed in Panchaytan style. These are constructed on an elevated square platform. The sanctum sanctorum too is square shaped and in the center. The upper potion has been made angular with arches. The peek of the sanctum sanctorum is patterned in the nagar style of temple architecture.

3:40 PM We reached Orchcha Resort that is adjacement to Cenotaphs complex and had a quick dinner.
4:30 PM We just walked around the place for some time and then left for sagar.
8:54 PM We reached sagar and checked into Hotel Deepali. Here is my review of the hotel.