[Krish1309]

Finally, I am here with my first article on Team BHP, after multiple tries since becoming a member of this esteemed group couple of years back.

Prologue:
I learnt driving on a 2009 Alto LXi, my dad's first car, and have been driving her from day 1-till date. My wife lovingly calls her as her 'Sautan'. I was born and raised in Siliguri, a city in West Bengal - located at the foothills of The Himalayas. After staying across the country for education and job, I am currently staying in Bengaluru.
The 15 year old beauty, Lady Alto, is my daily driver and serves all purposes on the city and the highway, absolutely seamlessly. With a heavy heart it's now time to pass the legacy on to my younger sister - who was planning to buy a used car for her needs.
We decided to purchase a suitable replacement for the beauty, which was honestly a difficult find. After test driving all premium hatchbacks and compact SUVs in the market, we finalized on XUV300 TGDi W8 (O) Napoli Black. Got it delivered on Jan 1 2024 in Siliguri because we wanted our parents to witness the moment. My wife calls him 'The Black Stallion'. And I call him 'My Sautan'.



The story:
Well this story is about our first of many long drives with the Black Stallion - Blacky. Getting him from Siliguri to Bengaluru.



I have done this route in the past, partially with Lady Alto and partially on one of my friend's Baleno. So a lot of research was not required for this trip. We planned the trip during our wedding anniversary - which was dicy because of a work related trip during the same time. My leaves were approved 4 days in advance and I jumped with joy. Booked flight tickets to reach Siliguri on Feb 16. Our journey with Blacky started on Feb 18 (Sunday). Here's how we planned the trip:
Feb 18: Siliguri to Kolkata (574 kms)
Feb 19: First service at Shree Automotive Rajarhat
Feb 20: Kolkata to Puri (510 kms)
Feb 21: Stay at Puri to celebrate anniversary
Feb 22: Puri to Vizag (465 kms)
Feb 23: Vizag to Hyderabad (660 kms)
Feb 24: Hyderabad to Bengaluru (575 kms)

Synopsis of the journey:
Total distance travelled acc to trip meter: 3108.7 kms
Total fuel consumed: 215 litres
Total cost of fuel: INR20,000
Number of toll deductions: 42
Total toll paid: INR4,363

Brief notes of each day:

Feb 18: Siliguri to Kolkata
Fuelled up the previous day at Indian Oil COCO Matigara. Planned to start early by 5:30 am. My parents were accompanying us till Kolkata. Got delayed for whatsoever reason and practically started from home at 7:15am. Took the Hill Cart Road exit to NH31. Traffic was starting to build up and the roads already had lot of busses, autos and bikes. I thought no one wakes up that early on a Sunday morning!
Soon after crossing Bagdogra we experienced dense fog for about 15kms, which made it a difficult drive. NH31 is mostly bumpy due to patch works. However with the opening of Dalkhola flyover and new 6 lane NH34, road conditions improved.





We usually avoid stopping for food and therefore have home-cooked or packaged food and warm water for tea handy. Anyhow, we had to plan a customary pitstop at Raiganj (190kms from Siliguri) to meet my maternal relatives and have breakfast with them. For toilet breaks, I prefer stopping at large petrol pumps - Bharat Petroleum Apna Ghars, if we find one. That was technically our first stop as well. We reached Raiganj at 10:15 am. A planned 30 min break became 75 mins - because why not!! Haha!



There was some traffic after crossing Malda and heavy traffic on the Farakka barage bridge, which reduced my speed. Our next stop for the day was at Palsanda in Murshidabad at MN Ghosh Indian Oil for refuel of both the machine and humans. Toilets were almost non-existent at this station, which made it uncomfortable for my mom and wife. After a 20 min break here, we resumed. I was contemplating heavy traffic after crossing KrishnaNagar, which made me not stop anywhere in between. As expected, average speed and fuel economy both dropped soon after crossing KrishnaNagar. Reached our Kolkata home at 8:30pm. I was impressed with the total driving time of around 11 hours on the Siliguri Kolkata highway.
We went outside with my sister for tea at Sharma Tea Salt Lake and a quick drive around New Town. Craved for dirty street food and had those for dinner.




Feb 19: First service at Shree Automotive Rajarhat
Our car had done 1050 kms by the time we reached Kolkata. Pre-booked the first service at Shree Automotive. It is claimed to be the largest Mahindra service center in East India and Google ratings were good. Reached by 11am and got the car ready at almost 5 pm. They hardly did anything except for running the status check and washing the car. I requested them to adjust the clutch pedal. It's really long and gives me a leg workout everyday. They told it's not possible to adjust and it would get better with usage - please comment if you know how to make it slightly easier.
The behaviour of the staff and cleanliness was good. Overall good experience.
Met a friend and a cousin in the evening. Kolkata is really a well for foodies. You see food and you jump. That's it.

Feb 20: Kolkata to Puri
Planned to start by 8:30 am after a comfortable sleep. All the junk I ate in the last 36 hours did their job. I made uncountable trips to the bathroom even after being completely ready. Finally left the city at 12:30 pm after bidding goodbyes to parents. Every goodbye is with a sigh. Had to refuel and for heaven's sake could not find 1 petrol pump, without a significant detour, anywhere in between Laketown and NH16 Howrah. Refuelled to the brim and then there was no stopping. We didn't have a hotel booked and MMT showed crazy prices for hotels in Puri. I had OTDC Panthanivas in mind but rooms were not available online. So we had to reach as early as possible.





My stomach was not the happiest, but thankfully I didn't have to stop because of that. Lesson reinforced that we should not have junk food. There's a saying in Bengali which translates to "Greed is a sin leading to death" - Very true.
The roads were brilliant, in fact the best in this entire trip. Fresh tarmac, hardly any bikes and e-rickshaws or squids along the way. Some traffic while crossing major cities, but that's accounted for. Stopped 3 times: once for a power nap, once for a evening tea break, and a toilet break.



Entered Puri at 9pm. Refueled and then searched for hotels. Truly, hotels in Puri charges a bomb for nothing. I was happy we finally found available rooms at OTDC Panthanivas puri for 2 days. Checked in the hotel at 10pm, ordered room service before the kitchen closed, ate and crashed!

Feb 21: Stay at Puri to celebrate anniversary
This was not part of our original plan. But got added because we reached Puri really late and we wanted to offer prayers to Lord Jagannath on our anniversary. This was my wife's first visit to Puri. We thought we will make the most from our stay. Got ready by 8:30 am after breakfast to leave for Chilika lake and offer puja in the evening. But before leaving for Chilika, I thought of contacting our known Panda for the prayers. He told that Darshan is closed that evening because of a monthly ritual of painting the deities' faces and therefore suggested to visit the temple by 11am. We prioritized religion over nature.
Went to the adjacent private beach (Golden Beach) - which recently got a Blue Flag Beach status and spent an hour there.
We were advised to reach the temple using public transport to avoid unnecessary delays and hassle. We returned from the temple by 2 pm. It was scorching hot outside therefore had to take a short break before heading out again.
We started for Konark temple at 4pm and slowly drove to reach by 5:00pm, just in time for sunset. Experienced the remains of such an engineering marvel built in history. No wonder it's preserved so well by the archaeologists.
Called it a day by having Jagannath mahaprasad. That was our third anniversary celebration.



Feb 22: Puri to Vizag (465 kms)
This was an easy stretch. Shortest one as well.
Left the hotel at around 9am. The first 50 kms after exiting Puri was bumpy because of uneven concrete roads. After touching NH 16, roads got better but there was continuous local traffic up until Vizag. I had stayed at Ginger hotel in Vizag in the past. Hence blindly booked that hotel, oblivious of the fact that it shifted location to Gajuwaka on the Kolkata-Chennai highway, the other side of the town.



We entered Vizag city limits by 4:30pm so thought of visiting the popular spots. Went to Rushikonda beach and spent some time there and other viewing spots along the coastal road. Wanted to visit the submarine museum but it was closed due to Indian Navy's Milan festival. I visited back in 2018 and wanted to take my wife there - maybe in our next visit. Crossing the city and reaching the hotel took a lot of time. Checked in at 7:30pm, had dinner and crashed.

Feb 23: Vizag to Hyderabad (660 kms)
This drive was special. Coz the destination was a city that we both loved, Hyderabad. I spent 6 years of my life and the first 2 years of our marriage in this city. We started from Vizag by 9:30am. Since we were staying right on the highway, it saved us from the city traffic. This day was the longest drive, distance wise. The first stop was after 2 hrs, a refueling stop near Kakinada. Filled up to the brim and then no stopping till we crossed Vijayawada. The Rajamundry bypass is excellent. The last time I drove on this highway, crossing Rajamundry took a bit of time, this time it was a breeze. Although crossing Vijayawada gave us some pain.
Stopped at a ApnaGhar on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad highway for a washroom break, followed by ice-cream.
The next stop was at 5pm, for a 5-min powernap and green tea, somewhere in the middle of Hyderabad and Vijayawada. These powernaps are extremely important when you do long drives.
Reached Gachibowli by 8pm. Visited all the places close to our heart and re-lived the memories around our favorite food joints. Hyderabad aya aur biriyani & kebabs nahi khaya toh kya khaya.
Checked into a newly built Ishtara business hotel in Kondapur. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. Rooms were very basic and small. It is a good pg, but not a hotel. Anyhow, I wanted to leave the hotel asap. I was feeling claustrophobic.
Woke up early. But by the time we checked out, it was 8:30 am already. Went for a quick drive around hitec city, had idli and watermelon juice for breakfast, fuelled up, explored the beauty of the city and vroom. We were set for our final leg of the journey.

Feb 24: Hyderabad to Bengaluru (575 kms)
Bengaluru here we come. Feeling thrilled that we are finally reaching home, no more hotel stays. Also bit numb that the journey is going to end today. Afterall, every start has an end. The experience we gathered across the states, the breeze, the variety of food & culture, the endless roads and the parallel moving trains - all were so ecstatic. On the way we took one tea & snacks break and one toilet break. We reached in one full tank and didn't have to refuel neither our car nor ourselves. We touched Bengaluru at 5:30 pm and were at home by 6:10pm.



This was a much anticipated journey of a lifetime. Loved every bit of it. The car, the roads, the songs, everything was just perfect! After this long journey our Blacky got a thorough wash and then parked in the garage, for now.



Thank you for reading. Until next time.

[SithDefender]

An excellent and well-written travelogue with amazing pics as well! Worth reading a second time !

[toppor]

Hey Krish, nice to meet someone from Siliguri, I stay in Bagdogra, would love to meet you when you come next time around. Your black steed looks smashing, here's wishing you many more happy miles!

[kosjam]

I was wondering how you were planning to use a Siliguri/WB registered vehicle in Karnataka with its strict policing of outside number plated vehicles, only looking at your BH numberplate I understood...

Great write up. As someone who just did the same route except in the opposite direction, I concur with the general hotel/amenities condition on the entire eastern highway, WB to Vishakhapatanam. It was bad enough in the winters, I wonder how people, especially bikers, must be managing during the summers.

Anyways, a beautiful car, and an excellent drive diary as well.

[Krish1309]

Originally Posted by toppor

Hey Krish, nice to meet someone from Siliguri, I stay in Bagdogra, would love to meet you when you come next time around.

Hello. It's nice to meet you through this forum. I will certainly catch up when I am back home. Thank you for your compliments.

Originally Posted by kosjam

I was wondering how you were planning to use a Siliguri/WB registered vehicle in Karnataka with its strict policing of outside number plated vehicles, only looking at your BH numberplate.

Haha! Yes, that was the primary reason for getting a BH registration. However, I have been driving a WB-registered vehicle all the while, and whenever I see a cop, I chant all the mantras I know.

I agree about the road amenities and riding in summer. That's one reason we planned the trip in February.


Thank you for reading.

Originally Posted by SithDefender

An excellent and well-written travelogue with amazing pics as well! Worth reading a second time !

Thank you so much for reading and the compliment.

[Shyam92]

Originally Posted by Krish1309

Finally, I am here with my first article on Team BHP, after multiple tries since becoming a member of this esteemed group couple of years back.

Apologies for going off-topic. For how long does the 'Newbie' tag stay on?

[subie_socal]

Originally Posted by Shyam92

Apologies for going off-topic. For how long does the 'Newbie' tag stay on?

Till we complete 25 posts.

There's also strict moderation in this period.

[Shyam92]

Originally Posted by subie_socal

Till we complete 25 posts.

There's also strict moderation in this period.

Oh wow great! No wonder why the forum contains top-notch contents. Thanks