Trip Stats

Total distance : 7450 Km
Distance in hills : 1006 Km
Total number of days (Pune to Pune) : 43
Total number of driving days : 24
Total fuel consumed : 606 lt diesel
Total expense : Little over 2 lac. It includes car servicing, diesel, stay, food, buying gifts and everything else
Cheapest hotel : Rs 300 per night
Most expensive hotel : Rs 5000 per night

Day 42, 43 (May-23 to 24) : The last leg

Sorry for delay in posting.

We visited Laxminarayan temple once more in the morning to see the famous wall paintings in it before starting for Pune. 

It was a longish drive (488 Km) to Indore and a really long drive (670 km) from Indore to Pune the next day. Driving through MP is always very enjoyable. We saw a big dust devil on the way. It was extending right up to high skies. For a change, I did not sleep at all during this drive :)

We had heard a lot about sweets in Indore so we decided to check it out. We had our dinner at Apana Sweets. Sweets were good but not like those we had in Kolkata but the Khichadi (simple dal-rice based Khichadi) was very good. I am sure that Dal Baphala also must have been good but it was finished by the time we reached there.

Drive from Indore to Pune was quite tiring. It took us 13 hours of mainly driving to reach Pune by 11:00 PM in night. Our long trip has finally come to an end. It will take some time before we get over the trip and get back to normal life :(

Wall paintings in Laxminarayan temple

The entrance of the temple is made in shape of an owl, the "vahan" of goddess Laxmi

Family of four on bike near Jhansi

This is how we avoided buying bottled water on the trip!

Some "shayari" on the back of a truck :)

Dusk on a ghat after Nashik

Day 40, 41 (May-21 to 22) Orccha

We spent 4 full days in Lucknow with my grandmother and Bade Papa. After Lucknow, we left for Orchcha.

       On our way, we got a glimpse of legendary Jhansi fort. The fort which was made famous by India's famous warrior queen, Rani Laxmibai. We didn't have time to go inside though. On Sonu Chacha's suggestion, we decided to go to Orchcha in MP. The city is a historian's dream. In all directions, one can see fortresses, temples and other royal monuments. It has so many stories to tell, that one cannot fit them in the small area given in a blog. One of the interesting stories is that of Madhukar Shah. Madhukar Shah became the king of Bundelkhand after the death of his beloved king, Bir Singh. In all of his monuments the confluence of Hindu and Muslim architecture can be seen. The temple he built for shri ram has a distinct mosque like look. Still, the type of the arches show the hindu culture. Combination of two cultures I observe often makes things look very good. However, according to a story, Lord Ram decided to stay at the place he first sat. Hence, the temple was used as a Krishna temple. The ram temple was built around the sitting place of ram.

              In the Jehangir mehal, we saw a Sound and Light show. Compared to Golkonda, the show at Orchcha is much better. The sound effects are extremely good. Lighting to is done in an interesting way. Best of all, we three were the only visitors at the show as this was off season!! I loved the place very much.

Orchha fort during Light & Sound show

Beautiful restaurant of Orchha resort of MPTDC

Orccha Rajmahal from inside

That is my mom inside the fort

Another view of the Rajmahal

Paintings on the walls

Painting of Lord Ram, Sita and others in Mughal style

It was baking hot :(

Chaturbhuj temple. Even this has Mughal architecture

Laxminarayan temple in night

 

Day 35 to 39 (May-16 to 20) Lucknow my second home.

We left Varanasi on the morning of May-16 and reached Lucknow by evening. Lucknow is my father's hometown. I was also born there. We were initially planning to leave on May-20 but decided to extend our stay by one more day.

Visiting lucknow as always was a great pleasure. Apart from my grandmother and my fathers elder brother who stays there, there were quite a few other relatives also that were visiting which made the stay even more fun.

The brilliant Kulphi and Dalmoth are great on taste. We missed Tunda Kebab this time. I and my brother Bharat were busy designing a r.c. aircraft. We learnt that making a helicopter is very difficult with the hub, thrust, Jesus nut turning mechanism and what not. So, we turned from the Chinook to a simple airplane. Even that isn't simple. We buyed a r.c car and dismanteled it to make a remote control motor, rudder and elevator. Learnt how the Differntial works and spent a lot of time moving trains in train simulator.

Day 34 (May-15) : Benaras

My third cousins (Pragati and Unnati)

Benaras / Varansi is a wonderful old city with a very strong character. The temples are intensely carved but due to over-crowding, it has lost its calmness. If you happen to visit Benaras, don't miss the Ganga Pooja. or Ramnagar Saranath too is a must see. It is the first place where lord Buddha gave his first speech. The museum too is very interesting. The ashokan pillar with its four lions is very well preserved. Antother great pleasure was meeting my third cousins there. Shubham, Srushti, Pragati and unnati. Meeting Dhadhaji too was a surprise. Juhi or Srushthi made great Lemon Sherbet. I didn't get to see her drawings though. Again, I forgot to take a picture of her or her brother.

Sarnath

Crowded road in Benaras.

Foreigners waiting for ganga pooja

Ganga Pooja

Day 33 (May-14) : Bodhigaya

        We decided to enjoy Bihar and not rush through it. So, after Nalanda we halted at Bodhgaya, the place where lord Buddha is said to be enlightened. The B.S.T.D.C. hotel was beautiful. It took some effort to find it. We initially gave up and went to a decent looking hotel called Siddarth. The rate was 5000/- a night with no guarantee of AC as electricity was unreliable. We resumed our search and finally found the BSTDC hotel. The rates were just 735/-, the location was much better and uninterrupted AC was assured!! I think people underrate government hotels.

We learnt that standard food like mixed veg too gets the local flavour.

             Bodh gaya, is a very peaceful place. The Bodhi vriksha there is of the fourth generation. It is presently 150 years old. There is no problem of Pundas there, so the place gives a better peaceful effect. Some things are unexplained, for example, the question of what exactly am I? A constellation of thoughts perhaps, but you are something else of course to be able to observe it!. The answer of this question is what Buddha probably experienced.

We left Bodhgaya by 12:00 PM and reached Ramnagar before 5:00 PM. Ramnagar is one side of Ganga while Varanasi on other side. My father had spent 4 years in Ramnagar and we went to see his old college and house. We also had the famous lassi there. You had to fight through the crowd to get it. Other than that, I found it to be a peaceful place. Two or three peacocks had settled on a tree behind my dad’s old house. Ramleela takes place on avery big scale in this place. The entire city becomes the stage, and people who are rich enough see the thing from elephant backs.

Reached Varanasi in night and checked in a UPTDC hotel near railway station.

Small stupa

Bodhi vriksha

The middle column in railing is from Ashoka's time ie 2300 years ago!

Penancing monk

Buddha's statue

Dharam chakras

Thai temple

Sunset on Ganga in Ramnagar

Ramnagar fort. It belongs to King of Kashi (Varanasi).

Diving in to Ganga for a bath

Day 31,32 (May-12 and 13) : Nalanda

We were initially planning to drive through Bihar quickly. That we learnt would have been a great mistake. For we would have missed all the major Buddhist pilgrims, the Nalanda university and the great food.

Our first plan was to go via Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur. However after reaching pretty close to Darbhanga and Nepal border, we realized that the bridge there had been washed away in last year floods and had not been built as yet. So we had to backtrack 75 Km in night to halt at Purnia for night. Decided to take the Maoists infested area tomorrow to Gaya and then to Varanasi.

               Leaving aside the lawlessness(we didn't witness any), Bihar is just wonderful. We had to go through Maoist problem area as the highway bridge was broken. We halted at Nalanda. The college is of dimensions 5km x 10km. However only 500mt x 500mt of it is excavated. An amazing fact about the university, is that when a certain portion of the complex became old, the kings simply filled it up with soil and built a new one over it ! The university had all facilities, including baths and a proper drainage system. The door gaurds would ask the students questions. Correct answerers alone would be allowed inside the complex.

      As we walked over the stairs of the place, I could imagine the great scholars running up and down the same stairs, great minds at work.

A simple house in a Bihar village 

Corns drying on the road

A de-railed train

Restored drainage system from centuries ago!

The university

Big temple complex

Storytelling stairs.

Day 30 (May-11) : Gurudongmor

Yesterday’s walk helped a lot.   I didn’t feel a thing while mom got a bit of headache because of altitude. We went through an army post. The soldiers there gave us tea and soup. The lake was magnificent and the road was as wild as it can be. After the place where the army checked our permits, for 5-6 Km we went through an area where there were no fixed roads. It was like a high altitude plateau at around 16000 ft. One could make their own path!

There was only one other Jeep going to the lake that early in the morning. The tourists in that car were probably feeling so cold that they had outsourced even the job of clicking the pictures to the taxi driver! The driver used to stop the car every once in a while, take the camera from the tourists and click pictures. It was very weird. Those guys threw empty wafers bag also from their car. We picked it up and gave it back to their driver when we caught up with them.

We also spotted a couple of Himalayan marmots.  The lake has circumference of around 3 Km with a Buddhist temple on the farther side. Jawans from Sikh regiment have also built a Gurudwara on the closer side where the road ends. They gave us free hot tea. We spent around 90 minutes there before starting back. Even while driving back, we kept stopping often and clicking pictures.

 Let the pics speak for me... 

Peeping snow peaks

Me again

Long way to go

Approaching the lake

Dad

Himalayan Marmot

Make your own road

Gurudongmar Lake

Clarity

One last look at the beautiful lake

A loitering cloud and its shadow

Splash

We dropped the idea of going to Pelling. Instead, we decided to go straight to Singtam that day and then drive on to Lucknow via Bihar on following days. The road to Singtam was very bad. Waterfalls actually went over the road! Rivers were flowing on the road, and the worst of all, the narrow road was bustling with many huge trucks. Our widecar had to be backed and taken through narrow places, with a deep cliff on one side. It was night so not many pics could be taken. I had to be out of the car to keep guiding dad to carefully manuver the car. It is a tough job for a cleaner. The road clearance of the car really helps!

 We finally reached Singtam at around 8:00pm. it becomes very dark in the east at this time. We stayed at a place called Shimma lodge. Again, I was to sleep alone. However this time mom took my place. The place was dirt cheep. Compared to the other places there, and the one where we stayed in Omerga, the place was great value for money.

What a road

That is a stream flowing on the road

Effect of pressure difference between 17,300 ft and 4000 ft! We drank water from this bottle at the lake and this is what happened to it at Singtam