[blackwasp]

Back in 2017, a bunch of us decided to head to Spiti in our cars. We were 8 of us in 4 cars. Yup, you read that right. Everyone wanted to bring their own car and tick it off their 'destinations driven' checklist. We had ragh_bhushan's Toyota Fortuner - Furteela Ghonga, IPathan's Hyundai Elite i20 and YCJ and my Abarth Puntos. Three hatchbacks was a tall order in such a trip, but thanks to the support of the Fortuner, we were not worried. Accompanying us were BHPians @Chaand, mahesh_sn and friends Rasik bhai and Omkar.

Plan was to depart on 11th August and we had made a rough itinerary on the timelines. Omkar and YCJ were going to reach my place on the 10th evening and stay the night. We departed early morning at 3 am and both the Abarths headed out together. Picked up mahesh_sn on the way to to the first meet up point - somewhere after fountain hotel. The Fortuner and i20 would join us from the Western suburbs while we would be taking the Thane - Ghodbuner route.

First hurdle - what was supposed to be a quick 45 min trip, took us 3 hrs! We managed to cross the Vasai creek bridge only a few minutes before 6 am. Took a tea break at Hotel Apex in Palghar at 6.20 am. It was decided that the other 2 cars would continue on and we would try to catch up:


We caught up with the others at around 10.30 am at Hotel Honest. The others were waiting for a while. We left after a quick break.

By 5 pm, we crossed Udaipur and decided to halt at Bhilwara. We could have pushed ahead but decided to call it a night after 900+ km of driving. Stayed at Hotel Tulip Continental. One of the pics enroute:


On 12th August, we left before 6 am with only a general route in mind. First halt was at the Hotel Highway King just before Jaipur for breakfast (9 am). We reached Karnal by 4-ish pm. My aunt, uncle and cousin decided to join us from Delhi upto Karnal. Being a Sat, they could find the time for it. By now, we were really hungry so committed a sin by eating out at KFC in Karnal. Ended the day by 9.30 pm at Barog. We encountered some traffic around Chandigarh, but it wasn't too much of a bother.

The gang at breakfast- Rasik bhai missing as he was behind the camera:


We left at a relaxed time of 8 am the next day after a nice breakfast. The hotel was nothing fancy, just enough to spend the night. It was here that I discovered a bulge on my Abarth's front tyre and decided to continue the rest of the journey on the spare tyre. View from the hotel:


First stop was the Chail Palace. We spent some time here and continued. We crossed Narkand by 6 pm and decided to head to Reckong Peo. We called up and decided to stay at the Inner Tukpa - the view of the mountains is awesome. Do note its a basic hotel but clean. Reached hotel by 9.30 pm and requested the staff to prepare a meal for us. Even a simple meal can be so fulfilling and yummy after a long day. Covered around 300 km this day.

View from our rooms the next day:


Plan was to visit Chitkul and then head towards Nako. Some pics from the day.
Karchham dam of the Karchham-Wangtoo project:


Lovely views all around. The roads were narrow and we had to at times reverse back if a bus came from the other side:


All our cars lined-up at Chitkul - the last village before China:


We decided to go a bit further ahead in the Fortuner - had to do a bit of off-road - and this view was the reward:


At 'India's last Dhaba'. Pic by Omkar:


This signboard:


We looked at hotels around Spello but didn't find any decent ones and decided to go ahead to a small village called Pooh. Reached by 9 pm and found a placed for the night. Total distance for the day = 190 km.

The next day - 15th August 2017, we left Pooh at 9 am with the destination set as Nako. We crossed the Khab village and the confluence of Spiti and Sutlej rivers. Stopped for some photos. Barely an hour into our journey, we came to a standstill - the road ahead was blocked due to landslides and clearing work would take a while.

Yash and his black Abarth:


These Army folks too were waiting for the road to be cleared. Had a chat with them, thanked for their services and left after wishing them a happy Independence Day:


This was how much space we had to make a U-turn:


It was pretty tight, but with guidance managed to turn our cars around:


Decided to turn back at this stage. We thought if this road is blocked, why not head from the Manali side to the Spiti Valley? However, when we reached Rampur, heard the news that even that road was blocked. An alternate route via Ani was open, but this was a risk as it was through small villages. We decided to take this option and see what happens. After crossing Rampur by 6 pm, we headed toward Bithal - Luhri on the Sainj - Ani - Banjar road. We were parallel to one of the Sutlej's tributary. It was gushing and at places, we could see the land being washed away. Further, we encountered a long line of cars due to a broken-down truck (the axle broke). Spent over 2+ hrs here and prayed for the truck to be repaired. Managed to find a small shop and got some juice / aerated drinks, chips and biscuits.

With nothing to do, started playing around with my GoPro and got his long exposure shot:


Waiting for traffic to clear. Even when the truck was repaired, it took a while for the vehicles to clear due to the narrow road:


We reached Ani at 10.30 pm and found rooms for the night - it looked like they were shut since a year hence I decided to sleep in the car. I also wanted to tick off this from my bucket list and didn't want to miss this chance.

Next day morning, we decided to turn back for good. Extending this trip was not an option and any further incidents would cause even more delays. We traced back our journey so far and reached Panipat by 5 pm. Since the Fortuner and the i20 were running behind, decided to check out the Jeep showroom at Karnal. It was a brand new place and the funny thing was, even the manager was surprised to see not one but two Abarths. I checked if they had a 16-inch tyre, so I could swap the damaged one, but they had no spare parts as it was newly inaugurated. Left after taking a couple of test drives:


We got a place in Greater Noida to stay and reached by 12.30 am. Total distance for the day = 520 km.

Now, we had some extra days at hand, so decided to spend a day at the Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur. So on the 17th of August, we checked into the nice Hotel Ashok inside the park. It was a quick 3.5 hour trip from Greater Noida via Agra. Also got a chance to drive on the awesome Yamuna expressway. In the park, we had a nice tour where we spotted a lot of birds and some animals too. Sorry, no pics as we were enjoying the moment.

We wanted to keep our cars dirty right till Mumbai. But the nice chaps at the hotel decided they deserved a wash. Hey, we couldn't complain ! The cars were pretty dirty and they cleaned them by hand!


Bharatpur Forest Lodge and a map of the area:


We had this all to ourself for the dinner. The staff cooked as per our choice and the meal was one of the best we had in this trip:


Next day, we left at 7 am and called it a night at a place called Hotel Vrindavan Greens in Neemuch. Distance covered = 515 km. We took the Bharatpur - Jaipur - Kishangarh - Bhilwara - Chittorgarh - Neemuch route.

The 19th August was the last day of the trip. We would reach home by late night. Some protests were going on this route, so we decided to stick to a convoy format. Took the Neemuch - Ratlam - Dhule - Nashik - Route. Yash and Omkar bid us good-bye somewhere around Nashik as they decided to reach Pune directly. Covered 791 km this day and reached home by 12.30 am after dropping Mahesh home. We covered over 4647 km in 8 days and made lifelong friendships over that trip. We still have a plan to someday complete the Spiti trip.

So, guys, have you ever changed your travel plans unexpectedly? Do share your experience here.

PS - As this trip was a while back, hence kept it short. If you have specific questions for me, do ask and I will try my best to reply to you all.

Leaving this picture at the end.... Probably the only 2 Abarths to reach here:


A couple of videos to give you an idea about the road conditions we encountered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq1gQ5_1BhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJr01iiw0ig

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[GTO]

If there was a poll, I'd vote for no . Have to sheepishly admit that my travel destinations are the usual places (nothing out of the ordinary) and the travel itinerary is planned down to the hour. So, no, but that was quite a read. Thanks for sharing!

[pganapathy]

My travel plans are always a guide. Sometimes, we see something more interesting and follow it. Other times, change is forced upon us by circumstance. Yet others have us doing exactly what we set out to do. There is no way to know what will happen any time we set out to travel

[warrioraks]

have you ever changed your travel plans unexpectedly? Do share your experience here.

The first time I read the title - all the Goa plans which never materialised flashed in front of my eyes. Understood after starting on the first post that this is not what you meant.

Hard luck on not being able to reach Kaza. But it is the journey and the company that matters, isn’t it?

Majority of my road trips have been on bike and after the initial few, I have learnt to take such surprises sportingly. The old me used to get really grumpy if we could not stick to schedule or plans.

During my Spiti trip, we had planned to enter from Rampur side and exit through Manali. But Kunzum pass was blocked and we were asked to take a U-turn so came back the same route. Despite that, Spiti has been one of the most beautiful places I ever rode to. Hope you are able to visit it soon.

[Jeroen]

Have you ever had to change your travel plans due to an unexpected problem or development?

Interesting experience, thanks for sharing!

The number of times I had to change my travel plans due to unexpected problems or development is literally countless. Both professionally as well as personally. This happens when you get to be my age and have been travelling, living and working all over the world. Travel has always been an integral part of my professional and personal life. You travel a lot, you are going to experience a lot of stuff going wrong on you.

Professionally my travel plans started getting impacted by the Coronavirus as early as mid January already. I was due to travel to Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Australia. Even though there were no restrictions in place at the time, my company decided from very early on to stop all international travel. I had already planned for some 4-6 more trips throughout the year. All got cancelled due to the current crisis.

The worst unexpected problems/development professionally would have been the few times I found myself all of a sudden in war zones, be it civil or otherwise. I got myself into such situations several times over in several African countries in the 80s and 90s.

I got stuck in Yakutsk, Siberia, once with my team. Only once we had arrived and worked for several weeks and wanted to fly back we found out our travel agency had messed up. Our return tickets were not valid or something like that.

We had about a dozen credit cards and various travel checks with us, but nobody would accept that. In the end I had to put a call to our HQ in Sweden and get somebody to fly in with a suitcase full of cash, so we could buy new tickets.

A lot of my personal travel tends to be pretty loose in terms of what we will be doing, where we are going. So adapting to whatever happens is usually not a huge thing and just part of enjoying travelling.

Some years ago we were visiting Srinagar. As soon as we landed some unrest broke out. Army out in force, endless road blocks. We did make it to our house boat on the lake. And that is where we stayed for three days. We had been looking forward to explore the area, but it was just not possible. So we made the best on our house boat, met up with various other house boat people. Everybody, literally, in the same boat!

Here in Europe during our annual tour of Europe with the Dutch Alfa Romeo Spider Register we have had several situation where we need to replan parts of a trip. Because all of sudden roads were closed, once our hotel had burned to the ground when we arrived. In the Alpes we once had planned to cross with the car - train underneath the mountains. But the train had broken and they could not tell us when it would be fixed. Several passes were still closed due to snow, but we still found a way to get 25 Classic Alfa Spider across to Italy! Great fun, but not what we had planned for. We had to improvise, figure out a new route, we had no idea about where we would / could stop for a coffee, lunch or even where we would be staying for the night. And believe me, when you have a group of 45 people and 25 cars, those are things you would normally plan in detail and well ahead. So we just improvised, everybody enjoyed the unexpected and we had a great time, very different what everybody had been expecting.

When things don’t go to plan, it becomes a bit more adventurous. So better make the most of it!

Certainly when it comes to personal trips and holiday, we like to focus on the travel together, rather than on the destination. It makes for a very different mind set.

Major disruptions to our travel plans tend to be due to medical emergencies in the family. Over the years we had to cut short holidays and trips because of something happened to a family member.

And work related incidents have often impacted our holiday plans. Where I had to cancel or shift a holiday because of pressing matters at work.

As I fly a lot (although not at the moment).

I have had my share of aviation problems that messed up my travel plans big time. On my way from Delhi to Mumbai once the plane developed a cabin pressure problem and we had to return to Delhi. Missed a hugely important meeting with our customer.

I have been stuck for days on airports all over the world, because of flights getting cancelled, weather related to stuff and the occasional terrorist related incident.

The important thing when things go wrong during travel be it professionally or personally is to make sure everybody is safe. Stay relaxed and find different options to continue. Always try to enjoy and make the most of unexpected changes. Because fighting them is likely to be a very frustrating experience and not likely to get you anywhere.

Jeroen

[narayans80]

Our Gujarat trip in holiday season of 2019 (our longest drive till date) had its share of surprises.

The biggest one was me forgetting my wallet and realizing it at Tanguturu toll plaza. Planned an unplanned stay in Amadavad on day 3 and got it shipped by my folks there. Am surprised how I made through MH that onwards trip without the paper checking stuff.

Other surprises in no specific order:

1. Osmanabad-Dhule non-stop without food due to CAA protests.
2. A rearranged Somnath-Dwarka-Porbandar drive due to solar eclipse.
3. Sidewall cut at Narara
4. Glow plugs conking off at Porbandar - No changes in trip except a visit to MASS. Couple of them were eventually replaced on return to Madras.
5. Meeting Parag Sachania - We played hide and seek the entire trip eventually meeting in the most unlikely location.

[saket77]

2015-April. Don’t exactly remember the month but at that time I was ready for my maiden Sikkim trip on my motorcycle. I even had the luggage packed. The bike was ready. But then due to a series of earthquakes in North India and sudden prolonged bad weather conditions in Sikkim put my plans in doldrums. I kept pushing my date one day at a time and kept a tab on the weather conditions directly with help of a friend in Sikkim. Zeroed in a final date but still it rained and landslides were common in Sikkim by then.

I couldn’t have lived in this constant state of confusion, so with a heavy heart I had to cancel my solo trip altogether. Since this would have been my first trip to Sikkim for which I longed for years, it made me really sad.
But then as they say ‘all good things take their time’- it happened next year (2016) in December. I can only say that we literally had a trip of lifetime. I was joined by BHPian Swapnil and it still remains the best and the most adventurous trip of my lifetime. The travelogue is here on TBHP as well.

Regards.

[sharatravan]

Leaving aside the usual holiday destinations and tourist circuit where the chances of things going wrong are highly unlikely, all of my travels are usually planned keeping uncertainties in mind. In fact, I normally keep multiple sub-plans inside the master plans so that we make the most of the available time in case the original plan doesn't work. And it has helped me a lot of times in the past - the most recent ones being in Ladakh, where we decided to take the Agham-Shyok route at the last moment when we were told by the locals that the road is in a relatively good condition and we could do it instead of the usual Khardung-La route(which we already covered while going to Nubra), and Sikkim, when we couldn't do much of South Sikkim because of a landslide and instead, spent additional time in Pelling.

Over the years, I've built a mindset of expecting surprises at the most unlikeliest of times, and this has helped me plan better for my travels and everything else in life as well. I also try fitting in suggestions of the locals on the go, if I find them interesting enough to be covered on my travel. In most of the cases, this has helped unlock some breathtaking and virgin views untouched by regular tourist nuisance.

[adamkathy23]

Aren't you folks awesome! It would take courage to take(not just 1 but 2) low slung vehicles to the most dread hills. Add the lack of support for Fiat up there to the mix & it makes it all the more exciting.

Do go again & do share!

[sarav_a]

We got stranded at Kolkatta when Rajeev Gandhi was killed in bomb blast in Sriperumbudur. We were a 20 member group, and were to return to Chennai by Coramandal express that night.

With no food available, we managed for two days on just bananas and tinned rasgullas that were for distribution to near and dear ones back home. Those days railway booking was manual, and have to stand in queue for more than 12 hrs to cancel and rebook our tickets.

A good experience anyway..

[MadiMaama]

An excellent thread.

Here is my experience from December 2019

A few buddies and me had sketched out an elaborate plan to cover the NFR zone of the Indian Railways in December. We had even booked our tickets 120 days in advance, including a ticket for two of us from Aluabari Road to New Jalpaiguri by the legendary Sikkim Mahananda Express, all booked at the counter.

What happened on the eve of our departure was protests in Bengal due to the CAA bill. Our Shatabdi to NJP left Howrah at 6 pm and reached NJP the next day at 0430.

Our next train to Alipurduar, the Kanchan Kanya Express was delayed, but by the time we reached Alipurduar, we learnt all trains entering this region was cancelled. We were stranded in the middle of nowhere. A lunch and a creaky bus ride to Coochbehar and we took a taxi to NJP.

The next morning, 3 of us boarded the NJP Udaipur Express to Mavli in Rajasthan while the other companion on this trip took the Darjeeling Toy Train to Darjeeling and was to flyback to Bangalore from Bagdogra.

On board the 2400 km 3 day trip, we chalked out our plans. We would alight at Mavli, take the MG train to Marwar, board the Ajmer Intercity, and the Swarna Jayanthi Rajdhani to Delhi. From Delhi, we chose to take the Vande Bharat Express to Varanasi, have darshan of Kashi Vishwanath, board the Shabd Bedi Express to Kolkata and flyback from Kolkata as per initial plans.

On day 2 of the train to Mavli, we got news that situation was really bad in Kolkata, so we cancelled the flight tickets, and instead two of us chose to fly back from Lucknow, having decided to take an overnight train to Lucknow from Varanasi (Ekatmata Express), while the other friend would take the Mysore Express from Varanasi to Solapur and then take a bus to Bijapur.

Day 3, plans went for a toss as our train reached Mavli nearly 6 hours late, due to fog. Thankfully, there was a special MG train running that time which would leave Mavli at noon. We chose to take a taxi to Nathdwara, and after darshan, we boarded the MG train at Nathdwara. We booked tickets for the Ahmedabad Agra Express till Jaipur and then the double decker to Delhi from Jaipur.

After we reached Delhi, not much changed in our plans thankfully.
As to how we got tickets easily, we had to make use of the quota system in Indian Railways to figure out ways to get confirmed tickets. We paid a lot more, but it was worth it.

Hope this is worthy of this fine thread

Ani

[Stribog]

Most of my trips are well planned and touch wood have not had the same issues on the road you have faced. One trip though was an exception.

Had a few meetings in Vigo Spain (start of long eventful Europe tour), land via Barcelona and I reach but no luggage. I land at 2230 hrs on Thursday for a Friday 1030 meeting, so not a chance of buying anything either. I always carry basic stuff in my hand luggage, a t-shirt, shorts and clean undies but nothing you could show up to a meeting in. This time though I texted my business contact the scene and changed the meeting to a pool side meeting in my hotel, so I could actually attend the meeting in shorts.

Meetings done, next day I had to depart to Hamburg for a conference. Flight was at 11 AM on Sat. Show up at the airport on time and was informed that the flight was delayed (the airline agreed to reroute the luggage to Hamburg as I was going to be there for 5 days, and gave me a 500 eur cash voucher to pick up some basic stuff, Zara had a sale so did pick up some decent stuff to last me for 3-4 days). No problems, I waited. After 3 hours was informed that the airport was shut for some reason and they will bus us to another city 3 hours away by road....and off we went, can't really complain because the views in Galicia were awesome.

Reach this place by 1600 ish, flight departs at 1800 and I reach Hamburg fully 12 hours behind schedule as this was a via flight, via Paris iirc.

Hamburg was uneventful, luggage reaches as promised by Tuesday night so nothing lost. Pretty sucessful conference and I am off to Prague next. Show up on a Sunday morning for 0930 flight. Wanted to get some site seeing in Prague on Sunday as had a packed 4 days ahead of me.

By 1230 we all knew something was up but there was no info and you had massive queues everywhere. Not a single plane had taken off in these 3 hours. But there was no delay notice so I could not just leave so I found a reasonably quiet corner, lay down and took a nice nap. 2 hours later I wake up and nothing. By 4 though the news was out, there was a massive power outage (it even made international news iirc) and all flights cancelled.

Sigh.

I still don't buy the story because you had SWAT units and the whole place was crawling with cops. Spotted a TV unit and started a conversation and they suspected some terror threat.

No matter I had to rush out of the place because I knew that the airport hotels would fill up and I didn't want a long trek to the city. Booked it online as I walked the 15 mins to it and got one of the last few rooms. Was waiting on queue to check in when an Indian family (mom, dad and an infant) loaded to bear asked if they could speak to the hotel and transfer the booking if I was okay with it. They had so much luggage and an infant and apparently had been transiting from the USA (and dropped in to meet some relative) and were tired. Good Samaritan that I was and having no luggage, I agreed and the hotel did too and off I went back to the city to my hotel which thankfully still had rooms.

Got a text that night that my flight will now leave at 1730 Monday morning.

Thankfully it left on time.

Fag end of the trip was via Heathrow, and the final bit of drama took place there. I had been given a gate number on my boarding pass and checked into the lounge near the gate. 30 mins before boarding close time I. Make my way to the gate aaaand it had been changed. I usually check the boards obsessively but forgot this time.

So literally ran like Usain Bolt on fire and barely caught it.

It was a great relief to land in Chennai, go home and just collapse in my own bed.

[mmxylorider]

Fortunately, so far - no. Alternative options, lesser pre-booked or non-refundable options have helped. The closest we came to a trip cancellation was when our UK visa was issued 2 days before the travel.

but road trips - nah, rough it out. Heck, back when I was in college (and hostel) and with a couple of friends decided to make a trip to Mumbai, we hitched a ride in a truck since train and bus tickets were not available. This was early 90s and that experience allowed me to fully appreciate Saif's acting that specific scene in Dil Chahta Hai. :-)