[Indradhanush]

"Each experience is an arch where through gleams that untravelled world"



On May 17th 2008 I with my wife and daughter started on a road journey from Bhopal, heading for the Himalayas. A journey which would take us through the Sun baked lands of Madhya Pradesh, through the ravines of Chambal, on the killing feild roads on gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh, to the magical land of Kumaon.


A house warming ceremony of one one our relative was planned at Haldwani. School holidays were on and we were looking for just the right excuse to have a vacation. Our all previous long distance ( > 500 Kms) holidays have been the standard ....take the train to the nearest station and hire a cab from there... This time again was no exception and booked the train tickets well in advance.

The plan was to hire a taxi from Haldwani and visit Kausani - Choukori - Munsyari - Jageshwar and back to Haldwani to catch return train to Delhi and then to Bhopal. But in our last trip of Ooty-Mysore i had seriuously got bored
with this train and taxi combination. As the days approached a spark was ignited...why not do this in my own car...I had a good car (Honda City Exi) capable of doing this trip.....and the spark turned into a raging fire with the help of some people like you in another forum(Indiamike).

Researched about the route and road conditions and decided to do it. However the most difficult part was to convince wife . A trip from Bhopal to Uttarakhand would mean long distances in car...a preposition difficult with a 5 year old kid. Don't ask me how but i managed to convince her that we would be better off with our own car in the hills.
Also had to hear things like...Are you mad...from my parents...but again the fire inside was too strong...

Couple of days before the trip workload in office increased suddenly. Some unforseen issues leading to long evenings at workplace. Happens most of the time with me. Finding time for preparations was getting difficult. Still I managed to tick one by one the things which I had planned to take. Whenever we go on a trip either my wife or my daughter will start falling sick. Then a rush to the doctor to get a quick fix. For this emergency situation i had kept my train tickets till the last two days. I saw my wife and kid both were fine. Went ahead and cancelled the tickets.

Next morning, a day before we start I found myself down with a throat infecton. It wasn't that bad, thought I would manage it. Tomorrow was the D day and planned to sleep early. But as usual last minute preparations are always there and could only manage to go to bed by 11:30.

[Indradhanush]

On the morning of the journey I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and i had fever. Out came thermometer and it showed 100. Great !! A drive ahead of about 900 KMs to Haldwani and i was running fever. Could'nt ask for more. Did'nt tell my wife about it.

Started at 7:00 in the morning from Bhopal and drove for about 2 hrs and started feeling horribly wrong. Though the AirCon was on but the sun's direct rays from the side were getting on to me. I was sweating profusely,could'nt open my eyes and was in no position to drive. Have been on many road trips 200-500 kms long but never felt like this. It was panic situation for me. I had only two options with me

1. Turn back
2. To ask my wife to drive on one of the major highways of India the AB road. (Agra-Bombay)

My wife drives a Zen Estillo but never drives my Honda or rather I never give it to her. I decided to trust my wife and decided for option 2. Told her I was not feeling well and wanted her to drive. She looked at me wide eyed, could'nt believe what she was hearing but did'nt say a word. She understood the situation.
I went to the back seat, popped in a Paracetamol and lied down for about 45 mins while my wife drove. Paracetamol started to work and I felt a lot better. Took over the wheel from wife near Guna. (200 km from Bhopal) and drove till Agra without any hiccups. Reached Agra at 5:00 in the evening (560 kms from Bhopal). Fuelled up at Agra. Checked the milometer. Car was giving an average of 18.5 km/l with 100% AirCon on. ( though I have clocked much better mileage )

A couple of years ago Madhya Pradesh had the distinction of having some of the worst roads in the country. Now i can proudly say that it has some of the best roads. In the last 6 months me and my friends have travelled extensively in MP and roads have been excellent through out.
As we proceded towards Aligarh from Agra I was about to be reminded of those bad roads in UP. It took us 3 1/2 hours to cover a stretch of 90 kms. There is no Agra bypass hence one has to cross the whole Agra city. Then the road upto Aligarh is horrible. Not a meter without pot holes.
Reached Aligarh at 8:30 at night. Aligarh is a place where I think there must be a million cycle rickshaws. Roads are narrow and jam packed with these rickshaws. I think people prefer to buy a rickshaw and hire a man for hauling them. There is no space to drive anything else. A hellish place to drive... ( sorry if any Aligarhi BCMTian out there.)

It took me an hour yes a full hour to locate a decent hotel which had a car park. Stayed in hotel Anand Palace. Was supposed to be the best in the city. An AC room for Rs.900. The only good part in the room was the AC...(so much for the best in city). We were tired, had dinner at the hotel,took antibiotics for throat and slept. Tomorrow wanted to get out of this wreched place as early as possible......

[Salil]

Sounds good. keep it coming. Waiting for the next part. And do include photographs.

[BHARAT]

Hmmm.. So next ...

[SSSK]

.....we are waiting.....

[anupmathur]

C'mon, Indradhanush! Are you ill again?

High time you fired another salvo!

[Indradhanush]

Sorry guys for the delay...... weekend and no internet at home..

As for the pics...didn't take any till Haldwani.......actually i never thought i would be writing a travelogue... .....will keep in mind next time...

Here is day 2 experience......

Day 2

Aligarh--Atrauli--Narora--Moradabad--Rudrapur--Haldwani (250Kms)

We were tired and hence gave ourselves the luxury of getting up at 7:00 in the morning and after breakfast proceeded towards Haldwani at 8:30.
( should have left earlier ). You cross the Ganga near Narora Atomic power plant. The road was decent but already there was substantial traffic on it. Just 5 kms after crossing Narora a fresh accident between a UP roadways bus and a Mini Truck had took place. My car was 3 vehicles behind the mini truck. Traffic was blocked from both sides. The driver of the mini truck was badly injured and his legs was stuck in the wrekage. All hell was broken loose. The villagers and passerbys were all trying very hard to save the life of the driver. Pulling with bare hands, rods, tractors....the blood curdling screams of the driver....it was a gruesome scene...
Minutes ticked by and after one and a half hours there was no sign of the driver coming out. Gas cutting torch was called from nearby town. When we started from Aligarh we had 3 litres of water with us. And in one and half hours of summer heat that was fast finishing up. The heat was getting unbearable and my wife had started questioning my decision of coming by road. My daughter was drained out ..... Things were getting desparate...
A Mahindra jeep came from behind and parked right by my side. I said road is blocked and you will further block the other side also. The driver got down, went to asses the situation and came back. He said " Saab this may not open for another three hours. There is a way down to fields and through the village and will open on the road just after the jam. If you want you can follow me." I asked whether my car can go through the feilds..?? he replied Yes if you can really drive.!!
He backed, made way for getting down and lowered his jeep for the fields. Now the feilds in UP are a good 10 feet below the road. Now i understood what highway means..."HIGH" way. Later on i came to know that higways are designed like this only 10 feet above the ground level and that is why they are called highway. On seeing the jeep going down one Maruti 800 followed him. Never in my dreams had i thought of taking my car in fields ment for Tractors....but desparation forces a man take to take crazy decisions. I made a U turn and gently lowered my car on the slope to the feilds. On seeing my bravado a maruti swift and a mahindra logan followed suit.
The next 1 km was on a path on which Tractors ply. It was becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the car getting a bang at underbelly. On false move and a bang below at a wrong place and thats it..you are finished. Now the narrow path turned into the village where there was drainage, slush, water on track. The car began to slide dangerously and i barely managed to avoid getting rammed into walls of the houses. Mud track through feilds, Huge bumps, sliding car in the village track...i was getting more offroading than i had ever thought off.
Somehow managed to come on the clean approach road which was joining on the main highway. And then..WHAT THE HELL IS THIS... There was a gate being constructed on the approach road. The roof of the gate was cast a day before and was supported on centring logs....the road was blocked ..... The villagers were laughing like mad at us. You can verywell imagine our situation now. We were truly f*****.

[Indradhanush]

All of us got out from our vehicles. We could identify 2 approaches to the road. First one was round about the gate with a 10 foot 45 degree climb in loose mud/sand. The other was a bit far with the route through trees and bushes.
The jeep drive decided to take on route 1 and in the 2nd attempt barely managed to climb on the road. Possibilty of a car going that way appeared remote. However the maruti 800 fella decided to take it. Halfway and the small wheels of 800 began spinnig wildly and got stuck. Neither going up nor back. We called the villagers for help. After some good amount of pushing it came down. We decided to take route 2 and with me in front somehow managed to reach the point where the climb began. The same loose mud/sand but a little less angle of approach. I gritted my teeth, first gear and pressed the accelerator. Climbed halfway and wheels started spinning madly. Floored the pedal and suddenly got traction...Vroooomm... i was on termac...Straight out of a movie...car launced in air and landing on termac...i could barely manage to avoid going on the other side..that would have been some scene. I think the other 3 cars must have also managed. Not sure about the 800. Did'nt look back.

As we entered Chandausi, a town about 35 kms before Moradabad. Traffic was moving at a snails pace. A maruti Zen was ahead of me. Ahead of the maruti was a huge tractor-trolly carrying bricks. A small speed breaker came and BANG BANG BANG BANG......4 bricks had fallen from the trolly. 3 dents on the bonnet of the Zen and a windsheild crack. Two furious men came out and ran and stopped the trolly. I sensed trouble and quickly overtook them. I couldn't believe what i saw...the tractor had its front 2 wheels in air. The weight of the bricks was so much that it had lifted the fron two wheels. The two men having heated arguments with the driver who was in no mood to relent. I didn't wait for the fist fight...and carried on. Moral of the story : Keep distance.
Took the Moradabad Bypass and continued towards Haldwani. The road is good all the way. I was amazed by the industrial development taking place in Uttarakhand. A lot of big manufacturing and pharma companies have come up in the SEZs opened by government. It certainly has benefitted from sepearting from UP.
From Tanda Mor a beautiful drive beween tall trees upto Haldwani. Be careful here...cars from delhi zip pass you at break neck speeds. I was driving at 80. A Honda Accord and a VW Pasat were having a race and they must have overtook me at around 130-140. Finally reached Haldwani at 4 PM in the evening. Phew....

[prem.arora]

Welcome Indradhanush, good account, keep it flowing!!!

[Prasham]

@ Indradhanush: Yaar, the log is great but where are the pics?