Thursday, March 31, 2011

Chennai to Mumbai - road trip!

"Indian roads are not like US roads", "Do you know people at times drive on opposite sides on Indian highways?", "Do you know how many dogs/cows/people try to cross the highways in India and cause accidents?", "Do you even realize the distance?" are just a few of the questions I have been asked by people in the past week or so. All this because I decided to drive my Alto from Chennai to Mumbai. Of course with the interesting companionship of the fiance.

The more I think about the drive, it seems very similar to the cross country road trip we did in the US, only much shorter and seemingly a little complicated, thanks to the questions in the first paragraph. But I have thought enough about it and spent sufficient time reading about the long distance road trips people have done in India. My conclusion: it's not that big a deal. Roads definitely are much better in India these days (especially the freeways that form the Golden Quadrilateral and the likes) and needless to say, our enthusiastic level is slightly on the higer side!

So, we decide to set off and here goes the plan: We leave from Chennai friday morning and reach Bangalore where we plan to meet Amar. We will then spend rest of the day atBandipur national park, thanks to my new found passion for wild life photography. Time per mitting, we might visit Mysore as well. Rest of the road trip is pretty much driving, where we are planning to do Banglore to Belgaum on saturday and Belgaum to Mumbai on sunday. Not a very exciting or a touristy plan per se, but driving on NH4 in itself should be fun!

We will be sure to post pictures and God forbid, the fiance might even write a travelogue in this blog! Now, be good and wish us luck!

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    The roads are very good, I came from bombay to Bangalore, took me roughly 17 hrs. we started @6am Moring from Mumbai and reached bangalore by 11PM after a while in the night after 9:30 I started feeling tired and sleepy, otherwise the road trip was very good, Mostly its NH so no worry, also you will love the Belgaum road on way to maharashtra feels like you are driving inside a Garden.

    Have fun enjoy the drive, you will love it.

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