Nahan, Himachal Pradesh to Bengaluru #trip3

Route Map ~2700 Kms

It was time to move back to Bengaluru to join office after year end holidays. I have to take my bike to Bangalore though i was confident to ride down 2700Km on my RE and enjoy real adventure but considering views from friends and family i made up my mind the riding ~2700Km alone is not a good idea. So plan was to send my bike by indian railways. i decided to ride bike up to New Delhi and from there send it via indian railways.

Foggy Road Before National Highway 1

On 2nd Jan 2012 i started from Nahan (Himachal Pradesh)at about 8 am , I was having a backpack with laptop and some clothes. I chose to ride up to Ambala and then take NH1 to reach Delhi. first break was at KalaAmb where i top-up fuel tank and met my in-laws. Moving further on NH72 i reached Naraingarh, from naraingarh i took state highway to reach Ambala as soon i crossed Shahajadpur, road visibility decreased with fog. Headlamp was on but was giving no happiness, travelled at 30kmpl upto Ambala and joined speedy zone. Increased speed to 80kmpl, I did not have breakfast at home so i stopped for a Alloo Prantha and tea at restaurant. After crossing panipat policeman stopped me, now this is interesting incident, i stopped bike removed my gloves, policeman asked me to show documents to other officer who was standing in the road side booth and was checking documents of other 2 wheeler, He was checking documents and was telling something about his washing machine, some comedy stuff .. others were smiling i also joined the queue with a smiling face. Along with the bike documents i had a letter from income tax department and officer took that paper, i remained quiet, he had a look on the letter and said to me," क्या लिख्या यो म्हारी समझ मा ना आवे, Licence दिखा दे " (i don't understand all this, you show your licence). i gave my driving licence which he returned after having a look and i continued my jounney. i reached Connaught Place delhi and called up my friend Prashant. Kept my bike at parking and went to new delhi railway station to enquire about parcel process. After riding from Nahan to Delhi i got a feeling of incompleteness as journey was not sufficient  for me i started thinking to ride further, but after talking to Prashant, Tejinder and Gaurav Gupta i again dropped the plan and started calling various transport facilities, some were charging too high some were asking for no objection certificate etc etc. Railway department was asking for a confirmed ticket after that only i am eligible for sending parcel.  finally at about 8 pm i decided to ride down to bangalore. Cancelled my flight ticket and had nice dinner with prashant.

Rajasthan Entry Pillars

Next day morning i was ready at 9am to leave gurgaun. Started my journey with top-up tank at gurgaun petrol pump and hit the NH8 towards jaipur, I was moving on 90kmph. After moving about 200Km i decided to take a break and all of sudden i got attracted by a roadside board with a restaurant name "Achanak" (Hindi word meaning "Suddenly"). Had nice alloo parantha along with a tea. People were staring my bike and asking common questions cost, milage, etc etc. Continued my journey after food and this time i increased speed i was riding above 100Kmph with a plan to finish today's ride before sunsets.

अचानक Restaurant

Stopped at petrol pump after some kilometers to feed the tank. i noticed that a shield of silencer was hanging out as one of the screw came out most probably due to vibrations. i had touched 120kmph during this time, at Night Prateek has told me to tighten all the screws before starting, but i forgot, few kilometers after petrolpump i found a shop where i could get a temporary screw to hold the shield, also tighten the other similar screws here. After this point i was mostly riding at about 100kmph and enjoying greenry of rajasthan. at around 6 pm i reached udaipur, with help of Prateek's sms and calls i finally managed to find "Pathako'n ki Pol" street and reached Prateek's house.

People Staring my Machine

Had bath and awesome dinner at Prateek's house and a night walk to famous Jagdish Temple and adjoining famous Lake. i was sleeping on the bed at about 11PM which is very early from the usual sleeping habit and as a result i got up early at about 3:30. I dont wanted to disturb Prateek's parents so i remain on the bed trying to sleep again, but i know myself i couldn't sleep after certain hours. finally i got my android and starting internet surfing. After about 1 hour Prateek's father got up and saw me awake, first he was worried i might got up due to cold but i ensured him that udaipur temperature is no cold for this pahadi. I managed to tell him that leaving early will be nice for me to reach pune on time.

Udaipur Palace on other side of Lake

Though he don't wanted me to send without eating something but finally he didn't stopped me. i got ready in some minutes and reached downstairs at parking place. I removed stand and tried to move, bike not heavy and when i looked the rear tyre it was flat. Oh i was really sad at this point. i was very eager to move as soon as possible but uncle told me that at this time no repair shop will be open, and we finally went back to house. He was also not able to sleep after this and sun was also out, finally uncle decided to take me for a morning walk along with search for nearby puncher repairing shops, We were on his scooter and we went to lake, He has showed be huge part of udaipur within short time which added udaipur to travel list. i will surely visit udaipur very soon. Parked scooter at a point and did 1 kilometer long walk, while returning i found a puncher mechanic near petrol pump. Back to house and then i said goodbye to Prateek's parents. We found and removed the nail from the tyre so that it doesn't make more holes in the tube . It was nice exercise to take bike to that petrol pump about 500 mts. After staring for some seconds he said its difficult to fix this tyre later he asked me put bike on center stand. Mechanic decided not to remove tyre from the bike's body instead he opened the tyre from the rim there itself. He got is watertub shifted near to bike and somehow with lot of tube rotation he fixed the puncher. By this time 3- 4 people were gathered watching bike and listening to me. People were not believing that i came from snowland himachal. only thing to prove them was HP number plate on my bike. Finally with a tea and all the best i left udaipur.

Big Parantha

Last day i have covered about 650Km and today target was to reach pune which was around 850Km, but i couldn't avoid taking breaks as they were must. so I tried to maintain speed above 100Kmph. Road was awesome i was riding towards Ahmedabad  on NH8 after crossing Ratanpur i took SH5 to reach Vadodara directly avoiding Ahmedabad. Just after starting on this state highway i found a Haryana Dhaba. I asked for 2 paranthas and a tea, the haryanavi guy replied back, "आपको तो एक ही बहुत होगा, शाम तक खाने की जरुरत नहीं पड़ेगी " (for you only 1 parantha is enough, you wont need anything till evening). And guy was true it was big parantha bigger than my Helmet, Parantha was like dipped in butter, along with Parantha he gave me plate full black daal. I managed to eat that complete parantha and continued my journey.

Ends Rajasthan Begins Gujrat

This state highway was two-lane road compared to NH which was 6 lane, i was thanking Narendra Modi for such a wonderful roads, after that Haryana Dhabha i left rajasthan and enjoyed Gujrat .. i visited Godhra before reaching Vadodara. After Vadodara i was back on NH8 and speeding up towards Mumbai. Awesome roads at a stretch i speed up and was able to touch 130 top speed. Odometer crossed 3000 mark at which i was suppose to get bike serviced. Morning parantha was enough not have anything during lunch but just to take a break i was looking for a restaurant at Bharuch. and i saw a gurudwara.  I stopped there visited gurudwara where sardarji asked to have prasada (food) at lunger hall. 

Gurudwara Chadar Sahib, Bharuch

I had no space to take any lunch but i went to lunger hall and had glass full of tea. Wherever i stopped and talked about my journey they were all showing a feeling that i am doing something stupid by riding this much distance on bike but here it was different, while i was tightening up my shoe laces, A guy came and said me "होर जी घुम्मण चल्ले"  i was so happy with greeting i had small chitchat with him and got to know that i was at Gurudwara Chadar Sahib and that guy was truck driver i might have crossed him sometime back and he did noticed Himachal number plate on bike. Got some more wishes from the guy and blessings from Guruji and continued journey. Around 1:40 PM i left gurudwara and i knew that pune is more 500km far. Riding and riding i reached Ghodbunder Junction from where i had to get out of mumbai highway and take state highway to reach pune sun was out of sky and pune was 170Km more at this place. Headlamp on and i have decided to not stop before pune, I unexpectedly i couldn't find bye pass and i spent time in traffic jams at thane, mumbra and panvel after crossing these towns i was on NH4 and enjoying the night ride. finally reached pune at about 10PM and it took another 30 minutes to find and reach Magarpatta City at pune. Veera Pavan came at gate of Magarpatta city. Many of his friends were already at his house to see me as he has informed to all that his friend from himachal is coming on bike. We had nice dinner prepared by Saleem, along with Ananth and all Pavan's friends. Along with dinner lot of talks and what not.  

Replaced temporary screw

I was supposed to get my bike serviced at pune and for that i decided to continue journey after 2 days. unfortunately RE at pune refused to service bike as they were already booked for a week. They suggested me to continue journey to bangalore and get bike serviced at bangalore. In these two days i finished some office tasks and little rest and met Kiran Sir and Pandit Akhilesh. 
Finally on saturday morning i left pune at about 8am.This was another 850 km slot that i have to cover awesome road we can actually see kilometers of straight road on this highways ..All straight roads were tempting me to try to reach another top speed point but somehow i controlled myself as bike didn't got serviced i didn't increased about 120Kmph and kept riding 300Km i stopped at petrol pump and again started riding.

last 500Kilometers left

Next stop was at mile stone showing bangalore 500Km took a photo and uploaded to facebook i didn't even waited to see upload complete notification. After this point i was like watching my odometer again and again. Now i wanted to cover it as soon as possible. My eyes were watching for the milestones showing be left kilometes, it was not even 60 -70 kilometers, and i saw a rajasthani dhaba Nice Army green color gypsy was parked in front of dhaba and i slowed down to get some food here . i had nice lunch here and continued ride. I was riding and only feeling was to end the journey as quickly but it was long distance. i  maintained my speed between 100 to 110 kmph. and kept riding Later at about 4:30 i again stopped at a punjabi dhaba of Shri Satnam Singh for a steel glass full of tea. Wife of satnam singh was shouting on the dhaba workers in punjabi. Another old babaji was cutting some vegetables on caned bed. I was feeling as in some punjab village. 

Welcome to Sajjanpur

Awesome had little chat with satnam singh and told him about my journey. He gave some more blessings along with instructions to ride safely. and i continued riding . Finally i was at bangalore at 7:30PM tweeting at some traffic signal at yashwantpur.. I was feeling Happy and satisfied with the journey. Someone has suggested me not to stop at bangalore and keep your ride continued upto Kanyakumari. but Bengaluru was enough for this time .. वैसे भी अब कन्याकुमारी कितना दूर है , किसी रविवार को हो आऊंगा  ;)