As it is taking longer than anticipated to write about our recent Orissa trip, the least I can do is to put up some photos of the trip. So here goes...
Audi R18 TDI
12 years ago
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tentative plan for our Puri holiday in September 2009
Having got over the disappointment of not figuring in the Top 12 of TGDC, it is down to business as usual. The business of planning our next holiday. We plan to correct the blemish in our travelogue of not having driven to the eastern part of the country. We also feel that it is about time Bernard and Allan got to see their birth place. So our chosen location is Puri - we are waiting for confirmation of our stay at Puri as I am writing this. One of the benefits of entering TGDC was that we learnt to make our route maps on google maps. So here is the planned route for our drive.
View Hyderabad to Puri road map in a larger map
TGDC has a downside too - the Mitsubishi dealer in Hyderabad called up asking if we were interested in test driving the Cedia. Felt like telling him that we are only interested in their offer of a SUV for our perimeter drive. LOL.
View Hyderabad to Puri road map in a larger map
TGDC has a downside too - the Mitsubishi dealer in Hyderabad called up asking if we were interested in test driving the Cedia. Felt like telling him that we are only interested in their offer of a SUV for our perimeter drive. LOL.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
The dream drive
Ideas pop into one's head all of a sudden and the mind may be very fertile land, as, what was once a small idea now seems to be an overpowering and all consuming passion.
Like all topics for arguments and debates, the one that proves inconclusive is whether diabetics should drive. When this topic was mentioned to me, I was really bugged, being a diabetic since February 1996. I thought that one good way to end all arguments would be by proving ability through action rather than words. I guess this led to the birth of the idea to do a long, really long distance drive and collect money enroute for charity.
At about the same time, I happened to read a disturbing piece of statistic that said that inthe very near future, one out of every 3 diabetic in the world would be an Indian. So now the beneficiary of the charity was clear - the rural poor diabetics of our country who could not afford treatment.
The route of the drive was inspired by the famous cricketing allrounder of my youth - Ian Botham. Botham had done a trek through the Alps with elephants in the steps of Hannibal to raise money for leukaemia research.
My passion and ability to drive, combined with the romance of driving through Europe, gave me the idea of driving to Europe, preferably through Afghanistan and Iraq, going all around Europe and then returning back.
The feedback I received from friends was not encouraging - very demotivating in fact. And I began to realize that I had to first prove my ability.
This led to the idea of a perimeter drive - now this is long distance enough, through rough and tough terrain and involves enough dangers to prepare one for Afghanistan and Iraq. When did I really get this idea? I am not sure, but it is definitely more than 5 years old. I can say this because I had mentioned my dream of driving to Europe and back to my American friends during my trip to the US in 2004. The said, jokingly perhaps, that the Americans are more generous than the Europeans and thats why it made better sense to drive in America. And one friend even gifted me with a detailed road map book of the US. Now since it is not possible to drive to the US, the long drive that came to mind was a criss-cross one, east to west and north to south. But then once we reached the east, we would have to drive along the perimeter to the north - thus the idea of a perimeter drive was born.
And it was only logical to begin with a perimeter drive of India. The long term goal is to do perimeter drives in all countries, and if this is by invitation it would be all the more wonderful.
So we took up driving to various destinations. A membership with Club Mahindra Holidays, taken in 2002, meant that we had access to resorts in some of the most exotic places in our country. A second holiday package was taken with Royal Resorts taken in 2005 provided us with additional opportunities and options.
Our sons were growing and at present are in Std X and VII. The summer of 2010 seems to be about the right time for the perimeter drive for a multitude of reasons. Bernard is in his X Standard now and so will be ready for something special for the holidays between the completion of his exams and the declaration of the results. We have also logged an impressive mileage on long drives, covering different regions and terrain.
I now consider myself to be specialized in 2 areas, and by specialized I mean “best in class” and that’s no idle boast. The 2 areas are – ghat roads and the 4 lane highways.
I can narrate numerous stories to illustrate this – will just touch highlights with no details for now – jeeps that were passing us left and right, as we were in our Maruti 800, on our first drive to Nagpur in 1999; but when we came to the Keshkal ghat, with numerous short distance hairpin bends, steep slopes, land slides and workers on the road, they preferred me to lead, overtaking us immediately after the ghat section concluded; during our drive to Manali, this time in the Esteem in 2007, we were stuck in a traffic jam caused by politicians on way to a public meeting – we managed to overtake all cars in the convoy and then vanish out of sight of the leader. We had done about 500 kms in the ghat on that trip (to and fro) and thought that was an achievement – but that distance is dwarfed by the 973 kms we did on our Uttarkhand trip in 2008 – climbing up before Dehradun, to Mussoorie, to Auli, to Badrinath and back, to Binsar and finally got to the plains just before Corbett after passing Nainital on the way. Then there is the scary drive on the narrow Munnar roads, through the Chinnar wildlife sanctuary; the drive up the ghats leading to Kodaikannal, in pouring rain, with an Corolla failing to keep pace with us and stopping; the drive from Kalka to Kufri, passing on a road so narrow that the Esteem just about managed to hang in there; the ghat section we encounter on every trip to Goa; the drive to Tal Cauvery in Coorg; that’s about enough I should think.
The next field of expertise is the 4 lanes – on the Pune-Mumbai highway we overtook so many cars, you name the make, clocking 160 kmph, that my sons christened the car “the Hyderabad Sultan’s Express”. I need not mention the Ahmedabad-Baroda Expressway, the road from Agra to Delhi and Chandigarh, the recently opened NH7 section between Hyderabad and Jadcherla that was once ruled by the Volvos driven by maniacs.
We have logged an excess of 115,000 kms in our Maruti 800 and Esteem combined, with a wide range of experiences – overtaking at 0 kmph on the clock on the road from Belgaum to Goa (place called Anmod) and competing with a Punjab Roadways bus in foggy conditions on the road to Chandigarh; from taking an hour to drive up the 3 km stretch leading to the Clifftop Resort at Auli (rocky road rendered slippery by an untimely rain than nature chose to welcome us with and then the 1004 kms in a single day’s drive, from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh to Hyderabad during our return from the Uttarkhand trip (this was done despite a leaking radiator, which needed to be topped up every 2 hours).
I forgot to mention a couple of things – I am the only driver in the family – Ruby not knowing to drive and having no license and Bernard and Allan being underage. I know I run the risk of being disqualified from TGDC but that is only if someone reads this. I am willing to take this risk as I feel that anyone reading this and having one’s heart in the right place, will surely waive off this requirement – after all “rules are made to be broken”. Also, if we are disqualified from TGDC, we may still be sponsored for our perimeter drive. The second thing is that I drive single handed – that’s my style. The reader may note that I have made it through “frozen shoulder” on both hands. And my left hand is weak by birth. Any one arguing my claims – may please refer this site later when I narrate more of our experiences.
The next reason is that The Great Driving Challenge (TGDC) has served as a catalyst. Thanks to this contest, we realize that there are organizers and sponsors who are willing to invest in those interested in driving, writing their experiences and photography. After entering this contest, we have learnt to make maps on google maps, opened accounts in flickr, started this blog and we now feel that this is already a good beginning. Now to do for TPD (The Perimeter Drive) what we did for TGDC. Anyone knowing us will realize that we believe in “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
There is so much to write about but for now, we should attend to the problem at hand. Flickr allows to upload only 100MB of photographs. And as we cannot write about all our trips, we hope that the photographs will speak for themselves. Hence some links are provided below. We got out digital camera in 2004 and after that our first trip was to Pondicherry. We have been unable to locate all photographs of our trips and also we need to scan in the photos of the trips made before the digital camera was acquired. In order to overcome the Flickr issue mentioned above, we have loaded some photos on Picasa and Orkut.
For photos of our Mussorie stay, please see below. Photos include those taken at Kempty falls, which is a short distance from Mussoorie.
We stopped at Agra on our way to Manali in January 2007. This was our second trip to Agra, but we did not have our heartls fill on our first visit, when we were returning from our trip to Kufri in 2004. Here are some photos from our Agra trip.
The following slides show phots of our trip to Manali in January 2007. It my be quite long and so we decided to break it up into many smaller ones based on the place visited or the activity. Photos from Manali and its neighborhood follow
These are photos of Manali city only
We went for a trek to a frozen waterfall, at altitude. We walked behind the waterfall and returned via a different route. The pictures do not fully reflect the thrills of the trek or our tiredness and relief at having come down in one piece. View on.
It did not snow at Manali during our stay - so we went to Gulaba camp and Solang valley to experience snow. What's a trip to Manali without lots of snow?
We went to a quaint place named Naggar - it is famous for a stone castle which is earthquake proof and even more so for being the adopted home of the painter Roerich. We made the trip with a doctor, Dr. Guruprasad of Kakinada and his family. Here are some snaps.
Our last trip was to the desert state of India - Rajasthan. And what an amazing state. The dal bhatti was something we will never forget. Also, the Mehrangarh fort and the Umaid Bhawan Palace. Here goes, some of our favorite memories.
We made a trip to "God's own country", Kerala, in January 2008. This was our third trip to Kerala (second by car) and we loved it as much as the previous ones. We stayed at Poovar and Asthamudi. Also visited Kanyakumari, as can be seen.
Kodaikannal trip photos from visit in November 2007
And finally, Lonavla trip photos taken in October 2007. I had time to caption the photos, so no further words on these for now
Like all topics for arguments and debates, the one that proves inconclusive is whether diabetics should drive. When this topic was mentioned to me, I was really bugged, being a diabetic since February 1996. I thought that one good way to end all arguments would be by proving ability through action rather than words. I guess this led to the birth of the idea to do a long, really long distance drive and collect money enroute for charity.
At about the same time, I happened to read a disturbing piece of statistic that said that inthe very near future, one out of every 3 diabetic in the world would be an Indian. So now the beneficiary of the charity was clear - the rural poor diabetics of our country who could not afford treatment.
The route of the drive was inspired by the famous cricketing allrounder of my youth - Ian Botham. Botham had done a trek through the Alps with elephants in the steps of Hannibal to raise money for leukaemia research.
My passion and ability to drive, combined with the romance of driving through Europe, gave me the idea of driving to Europe, preferably through Afghanistan and Iraq, going all around Europe and then returning back.
The feedback I received from friends was not encouraging - very demotivating in fact. And I began to realize that I had to first prove my ability.
This led to the idea of a perimeter drive - now this is long distance enough, through rough and tough terrain and involves enough dangers to prepare one for Afghanistan and Iraq. When did I really get this idea? I am not sure, but it is definitely more than 5 years old. I can say this because I had mentioned my dream of driving to Europe and back to my American friends during my trip to the US in 2004. The said, jokingly perhaps, that the Americans are more generous than the Europeans and thats why it made better sense to drive in America. And one friend even gifted me with a detailed road map book of the US. Now since it is not possible to drive to the US, the long drive that came to mind was a criss-cross one, east to west and north to south. But then once we reached the east, we would have to drive along the perimeter to the north - thus the idea of a perimeter drive was born.
And it was only logical to begin with a perimeter drive of India. The long term goal is to do perimeter drives in all countries, and if this is by invitation it would be all the more wonderful.
So we took up driving to various destinations. A membership with Club Mahindra Holidays, taken in 2002, meant that we had access to resorts in some of the most exotic places in our country. A second holiday package was taken with Royal Resorts taken in 2005 provided us with additional opportunities and options.
Our sons were growing and at present are in Std X and VII. The summer of 2010 seems to be about the right time for the perimeter drive for a multitude of reasons. Bernard is in his X Standard now and so will be ready for something special for the holidays between the completion of his exams and the declaration of the results. We have also logged an impressive mileage on long drives, covering different regions and terrain.
I now consider myself to be specialized in 2 areas, and by specialized I mean “best in class” and that’s no idle boast. The 2 areas are – ghat roads and the 4 lane highways.
I can narrate numerous stories to illustrate this – will just touch highlights with no details for now – jeeps that were passing us left and right, as we were in our Maruti 800, on our first drive to Nagpur in 1999; but when we came to the Keshkal ghat, with numerous short distance hairpin bends, steep slopes, land slides and workers on the road, they preferred me to lead, overtaking us immediately after the ghat section concluded; during our drive to Manali, this time in the Esteem in 2007, we were stuck in a traffic jam caused by politicians on way to a public meeting – we managed to overtake all cars in the convoy and then vanish out of sight of the leader. We had done about 500 kms in the ghat on that trip (to and fro) and thought that was an achievement – but that distance is dwarfed by the 973 kms we did on our Uttarkhand trip in 2008 – climbing up before Dehradun, to Mussoorie, to Auli, to Badrinath and back, to Binsar and finally got to the plains just before Corbett after passing Nainital on the way. Then there is the scary drive on the narrow Munnar roads, through the Chinnar wildlife sanctuary; the drive up the ghats leading to Kodaikannal, in pouring rain, with an Corolla failing to keep pace with us and stopping; the drive from Kalka to Kufri, passing on a road so narrow that the Esteem just about managed to hang in there; the ghat section we encounter on every trip to Goa; the drive to Tal Cauvery in Coorg; that’s about enough I should think.
The next field of expertise is the 4 lanes – on the Pune-Mumbai highway we overtook so many cars, you name the make, clocking 160 kmph, that my sons christened the car “the Hyderabad Sultan’s Express”. I need not mention the Ahmedabad-Baroda Expressway, the road from Agra to Delhi and Chandigarh, the recently opened NH7 section between Hyderabad and Jadcherla that was once ruled by the Volvos driven by maniacs.
We have logged an excess of 115,000 kms in our Maruti 800 and Esteem combined, with a wide range of experiences – overtaking at 0 kmph on the clock on the road from Belgaum to Goa (place called Anmod) and competing with a Punjab Roadways bus in foggy conditions on the road to Chandigarh; from taking an hour to drive up the 3 km stretch leading to the Clifftop Resort at Auli (rocky road rendered slippery by an untimely rain than nature chose to welcome us with and then the 1004 kms in a single day’s drive, from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh to Hyderabad during our return from the Uttarkhand trip (this was done despite a leaking radiator, which needed to be topped up every 2 hours).
I forgot to mention a couple of things – I am the only driver in the family – Ruby not knowing to drive and having no license and Bernard and Allan being underage. I know I run the risk of being disqualified from TGDC but that is only if someone reads this. I am willing to take this risk as I feel that anyone reading this and having one’s heart in the right place, will surely waive off this requirement – after all “rules are made to be broken”. Also, if we are disqualified from TGDC, we may still be sponsored for our perimeter drive. The second thing is that I drive single handed – that’s my style. The reader may note that I have made it through “frozen shoulder” on both hands. And my left hand is weak by birth. Any one arguing my claims – may please refer this site later when I narrate more of our experiences.
The next reason is that The Great Driving Challenge (TGDC) has served as a catalyst. Thanks to this contest, we realize that there are organizers and sponsors who are willing to invest in those interested in driving, writing their experiences and photography. After entering this contest, we have learnt to make maps on google maps, opened accounts in flickr, started this blog and we now feel that this is already a good beginning. Now to do for TPD (The Perimeter Drive) what we did for TGDC. Anyone knowing us will realize that we believe in “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
There is so much to write about but for now, we should attend to the problem at hand. Flickr allows to upload only 100MB of photographs. And as we cannot write about all our trips, we hope that the photographs will speak for themselves. Hence some links are provided below. We got out digital camera in 2004 and after that our first trip was to Pondicherry. We have been unable to locate all photographs of our trips and also we need to scan in the photos of the trips made before the digital camera was acquired. In order to overcome the Flickr issue mentioned above, we have loaded some photos on Picasa and Orkut.
For photos of our Mussorie stay, please see below. Photos include those taken at Kempty falls, which is a short distance from Mussoorie.
We stopped at Agra on our way to Manali in January 2007. This was our second trip to Agra, but we did not have our heartls fill on our first visit, when we were returning from our trip to Kufri in 2004. Here are some photos from our Agra trip.
The following slides show phots of our trip to Manali in January 2007. It my be quite long and so we decided to break it up into many smaller ones based on the place visited or the activity. Photos from Manali and its neighborhood follow
These are photos of Manali city only
We went for a trek to a frozen waterfall, at altitude. We walked behind the waterfall and returned via a different route. The pictures do not fully reflect the thrills of the trek or our tiredness and relief at having come down in one piece. View on.
It did not snow at Manali during our stay - so we went to Gulaba camp and Solang valley to experience snow. What's a trip to Manali without lots of snow?
We went to a quaint place named Naggar - it is famous for a stone castle which is earthquake proof and even more so for being the adopted home of the painter Roerich. We made the trip with a doctor, Dr. Guruprasad of Kakinada and his family. Here are some snaps.
Our last trip was to the desert state of India - Rajasthan. And what an amazing state. The dal bhatti was something we will never forget. Also, the Mehrangarh fort and the Umaid Bhawan Palace. Here goes, some of our favorite memories.
We made a trip to "God's own country", Kerala, in January 2008. This was our third trip to Kerala (second by car) and we loved it as much as the previous ones. We stayed at Poovar and Asthamudi. Also visited Kanyakumari, as can be seen.
Kodaikannal trip photos from visit in November 2007
And finally, Lonavla trip photos taken in October 2007. I had time to caption the photos, so no further words on these for now
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
An introduction - to my travels by car
And so the day has finally dawned, when I put my fingers to the keyboard. I have always intended to chronicle my travels but while "the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak". What catalysed this effort - not one factor but a combination of the following - a dream, a contest and the knowledge that if I do not do it now, then I am never going to do it.
The Chinese have a saying "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". That's how the family's passion for travel began - with a small drive. And that's how my efforts to chronicle these trips begins - with this introduction.
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