{"id":253485,"date":"2010-01-31T01:33:31","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T06:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.team-bhp.com\/forum\/travelogues\/74614-trip-bhutan-led-nepal-guns-buddha-bhp.html"},"modified":"2010-01-31T01:33:31","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T06:33:31","slug":"a-trip-to-bhutan-that-led-to-nepal-guns-buddha-and-bhp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/253485","title":{"rendered":"A trip to Bhutan that led to Nepal – Guns, Buddha and BHP"},"content":{"rendered":"
I have always wondered how it would be to drive into another country by road and my added facination for the North East of the
\ncountry culminated in my planning a trip to Bhutan. The trip ultimately fell apart at Varanasi and we modified our trip to Nepal
\ninstead.This is a account of how and what happened along with some important event markers.
\nThe trip would be on my ’91 Gypsy and accompanying me would be my friend and partner of many road trips, Santosh.
\nWe planned too leave on 23rd Jan and return by 30th after Santosh flew in from Hyderabad on 22nd. The trip was planned with
\ngenerous input from Ashit who has lived in Bhutan for 4 years and had planned and executed the flawless trip to Bhutan in December.
\nOur route was to be:
\nNew Delhi – Agra – Kanpur – Varanasi – Gaya ( NH 2) – Nalanda – Purnea – Siliguri – Phuentsholing (NH 31) and then on to Thimpu.
\nI met up with Ashit and planned the entire trip and armed with his kind offer to stay at his place in Thimpu, I waited for Santosh to
\nhappen.
\nThis is when things started falling apart and kind of set the tone for the rest of the trip. Santosh was to take off from Hyderabad at 9:30
\npm on 22nd and as things would have it he left Hyderabad only at 11 due fog in Delhi. I reached the airport to recieve him only ot be told
\nthe flight was diverted to Jaipur, a event that could candel the whole trip as it ment he wouldnt be in the city till the end of next day
\nleaving not enough time to do the trip. I reached home frustrated only to get a call from Santosh that he had landed, the trip was on !
\nWe reached home from the airport at 3 am and this meant that our early morning start was screwed. We could only leave by 1 in the
\nafternoon on 23rd and left Delhi in a hurry to make up for lost time.
\nTime and Date: 2:25 pm 23rd Jan
\nPlace: Greater Kailash 2
\nODO : 7455
\nLeg Distance: 0
\nAverage Speed: 0
\nKilometers in Trip: 0
\nStarted from Delhi at the worst possible time, peak traffic leading out of Delhi slowing us down to a crawl. Reached Ballabgarh amid
\nbad traffic and stopped to pick up fruits. The traffic pettered out as we gunned out of the city and was good going till we hit our first Toll
\ngate at Srinagar Toll Plaza. Paid 35 Rs and were off again. It was smooth sailing, engine at full clip, the temp and fuel looking good not
\nother noises not rattles, life was good and then "thunk" and no response from the accelerator pedal. We coasted to a stop and pulled
\naside right next to a mechanic shop.
\nTime: 5:15 pm 23rd Jan
\nPlace: Somewhere on NH 2
\nODO : 7567
\nLeg Distance: 112 Kms
\nAverage Speed: 37.33 Kmph
\nKilometers in Trip: 112
\nPopped open the bonnet and quick inspection revealed a broken accelerator cable at the carb end. As luck would have it we had
\nstopped at a mechanic shop and he had the spare cable. Fixed the cable and some play in the clutch pedal and a general inspection
\nlater started again. Lost about 40 mins here. Started off and stopped only about 7 kms before Agra.
\nTime: 7:15 pm 23rd Jan
\nPlace: 7 Kms from Agra
\nODO : 7647
\nLeg Distance: 80 Kms
\nAverage Speed: 80 Kmph
\nKilometers in Trip: 192
\nStopped at the "Tee ‘n’ Gee pure veg" restaurant for a meal of roti, dal, fried chicken and omlette! Food was good. Enquired about how
\nth eroad conditions were and were being persuaded to stay back at the hotel as the fog was really bad ahead and no other place to
\nstop blah blah. We thanked the hotel guard for his info and left anyway at 8 to Kanpur.
\nTime: 2:00 am 24th Jan
\nPlace: Hotel President, Kanpur
\nODO : 7926
\nLeg Distance: 279 Kms
\nAverage Speed: 55.8 Kmph
\nKilometers in Trip: 471
\nAbout a 100 kms before Kanpur we hit fog, and boy was it bad. Traffic simply stopped dead. No movement absolutely and that made
\nthings worse because people who could or needed to move were stuck behind traffic. In zero visibility we manuevered to the head of
\nthe pack of stopped vehicles. A WagonR driver, a local, asked if we were from the army and could help as they needed to reach Kanpur
\nsoon. We decided to help by leading them. Switched my lights to low beam, switched on my GPS on the phone and my wipers and
\nstarted out. Using the line markers on the road and the general orientation of the road from the GPS, we crawled on the road the
\nKanpur. We realised that we had become a pack leader for 60 odd vehicles including truckers. The NH2 is surprisingly well made. Most
\nvillages are bypasses by building the road elevated and bordered off on both sides to reduce road incursions. On the flip side it means
\nthat to stop for food or access the village one has to exit the NH and those exits are hard to see in the day at high speed forget at night
\nor in fog conditions and are not at all marked. We reached Kanpur at about 1:00 am and with much difficulty reached the city as the
\ninner roads had no markers. We had to rely on my GPS to see how the road turns and plan accordingly. Helped the driver to a place
\nwhere he could go on from and reached the hotel at 2 am.
\nHotel President: filthy, dusty and cheap. Checked into room 315 for 500 Rs and after making the beds with our sheets ( dont want to
\nthink about the ones they provided) hit the sack.Woke up early at 7 and after a quick review of the fog situation finally left Kanpur at
\n9:35 am. Decided against stopping anywhere to maximise the distance to be covered during daytime. Felt for the first time things a re
\ngoing wrong. Gut feeling that the trip was falling apart but pushed the though away and continued on. Got stuck in a jam at Chodgra
\nwhere a bridge under construction made life hell. Frustration building, cuss words flowing till we jumped the kerb and after some yogic
\nmanuevering left the jam behind. Only a Gypsy for this.
\nTime: 4:30 pm 25th Jan
\nPlace: Outside Varanasi on NH 2
\nODO : 8243
\nLeg Distance: 317 Kms
\nAverage Speed: 52.8 Kmph
\nKilometers in Trip: 788
\nAfter a break for lunch at a Reliance Khana Khazana, we were cruising along till I heard a loud whine from the engine bay, after a
\nmoment of panic we slowed down and parked aside on the shoulder and popped the bonnet. A prlim inspection revealed a jammed
\nalternator. Again luck on our side( or is it?) we were about 100mtrs from a mechanic. Slow drive to mechanic and just before I can turn
\nthe ignition off the fan belt gives way. The ‘mistry’ ( thats what mechanics are called here in UP) askes me if he should fix the old one
\nore order a new one for 1000\/- , he says its faster to put in a new one and we agree. A new one is brought in and th eprice is bumped up
\nto 1250\/- finally at 5:50 pm we leave with a new alternator. We cross Varanasi on the bypass and after a toll bridge near Mughalsarai the
\nalternator light comes on and the vehicle starts stuttering, we just manage to enter Mughalsarai and catch the last mistry before he
\nshuts shop. The owner of the shop, a cussing but helpful sardar, tells us that the new alternator is shot and he has a refurbished Lucas
\none for 2000\/- and says the local ones are crap. He asks 2k and the old alternator for the refurbished one. After some discussion and
\nno budging from him we get it replaced but the battery is drained so he sets off to get another from a friend. Another mechanic joins the
\nparty and finally things are fixed at 10:30 pm. We are asked to drop the mechanic at his place 12 kms enroute in our way. We think its a
\ngood idea as we would have some one to help if things broke again. We set off in peak fog outside Varanasi and crawled to the
\nmechancs home and realised there is no way to go further due to the fog. Decided to turn back to varanasi. This proved to be a wise
\ndecision.
\nOn the way back about 5 Kms from the town, the lights started dimming and the engine sputtered to a halt. The self made no noise at all
\n. Not a whirr at all. The fog was blinding and we were in the middle of the NH2. Pushed the car aside.The thick fog meant that there was
\nno traffic on the road and the occasional truck was not willing to stop. Cant blame them I guess. So we take out our mobiles to realise
\nSantoshs phone is dead and mine has low power. We were hoping to use the car charger to recharge but the battery was now dead. I
\ntried calling Ashit and just managed to give him our location and situation before I get a low battery warning on my mobile. I was in mid
\nsentence when the battery died. I stepped out to find it chilling cold ( it was 4 degrees outside) and decided walking was out of
\nquestion. We looked at each other.<\/p>\n

To be continued. Pics coming up as well.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always wondered how it would be to drive into another country by road and my added facination for the North East of the country culminated in my planning a trip to Bhutan. The trip ultimately fell apart at Varanasi and we modified our trip to Nepal instead.This is a account of how and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}