New friends on the way

Hi Guys,

today after a couple of attempts I managed to join a forum group called www.team-bhp.com It appears to be the best site for a car owner in India. Though, it has members from all over the world who are interested in cars, the focus appears to be on Indian cars.

I shared my idea with the forum members there via a thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/what-car/36190-very-light-driver-looking-car-all-india-road-trip.html

and got some interesting responses. Quite a few members are of the view that I can/should take my alto on the trip and it will be a lot of fun. But because of my back ache I am reluctant and one of them suggested that I can try on modifying my seat. Lets see what kind of modifications are possible. I love my alto, but since I bought it for 2 years only it might living past its timeline with me, or may be I can take this trip and then sell it off. Safari is the other choice people are recommending. Lets see...

One of the guys mentioned someone who has done this particular trip more than once, got to check it out with him. The feedback was that its no "rocket science" and people actually do it :-).

Interesting!

Will keep posting here what I learn from there.


Cheers!
Jitendra

Vehicle for the trip

Hi Guys,

Here comes the most important part in the planning. The best vehicle. Its got to be an SUV I guess.. what say?

Now we have quite a few options for SUVs in India. We have Ford Endeavour, Honda CRV, Suzuki Grand Vitara and Hyundai Terracan among the high end ones. Then there is the more "affordable" range of Tata Safari, Mahindra Scorpio and Ford Fusion, these are all around 10 lakhs mark. If we compare feature wise Tata Safari is on the highest end, price wise too. So Tata has come up with almost similar tech specs in Sumo Grande, (it looks cute... for an SUV) which is priced more aggressively and has lesser jazzy features like LCD screen etc.

There are some others which can fit the bill like Toyota Innova, Indigo Marina which can be considered, but am not, just for lack of sheer power. This trip could be fun to enjoy the raw power of the vehicle I choose.

So the choice has boiled down to picking one out of Safari, Sumo Grande, Scorpio and Fusion. Fusion looks good and is priced very aggressively but its not something I would like to pick for 2 reasons, one its power which is barely 100PS in the petrol version(diesel is a meagre 68) and two it is from Ford which from my US experience doesn't build cars that one can "enjoy", its more for "use". This trip has enjoyment as priority so Fusion is out. Sumo Grande I can buy a new one, but it does not come in Petrol variant and diesel doesn't make a lot of sense for my 10-15 km per day city driving, so that drops down the list a bit.

Okay, just checked petrol will be very expensive :-|. So for the trip it has to be a diesel car. Can I keep the diesel car after the trip .. may be .. may be not? So I have to buy something second hand, that I can sell of without loosing a lot of money in a month or so. So the Sumo Grande, the cutie, is out. Its too new and may not be available in second hand, even if it is available it would be huge loss in buying and selling.

So my choices are down to either a Safari or a Scorpio. The usual range that I look for in a second hand car is around 12k-15k per year and 2-3 years old. According to www.carwale.com, Safari should cost around Rs.6,36,500 and Scorpio Rs.7.34 for Aug 2005. The average is better by a couple of kms on highway in Scorpio as per net research. Given the price advantage of 1 lakh and my wife likes the look of Safari, I guess it will be a safari. P.S. The pricess are for 30k driven Dicor EX and Slx models respectively, which are second from top.

So my choice of vehicle is Tata Safari which should cost around 6.5L in August. thats AS OF NOW :-).

Cheers!

Jitendra

Gym Vs Yoga for back strengthening

One of the most important tasks I need to undertake before embarking on this trip is to work on strengthening my back. It currently does not allow me to ride a car for more than an hour or 2 hours at max.

So the consideration is between Yoga and joining a gym for some focussed exercizes. Gym seems very inviting for all the style around it and apparently Talwalkar's has a course designed towards strengthening of the back. Another important consideration is that Talwalkars' is walking distance from office, I can just walk in anytime from office. But the disadvantage is that I cannot continue doing these while I am on the trip.

Yoga is something I have tried in the past. Only 45 mins of yoga and I was good for a day with 12 hours of grueling. The main advantage of Yoga is that I can continue doing it while I am on the trip or when the back starts acting up. But then yoga place is 3 kms fom home and have to go there only in the mornings.. ah lazy me..

Lets see what I choose.. may be I can choose the gym for a few days, gain strength then continue to do Yoga when I travel.

Feedback on the idea..

Its been good 1 week since I have been talking to people getting their views, ideas and apprehensions on this trip. Overall its been a very positive feeling talking to everyone about it. Surprisingly there have been lot of my friends who want to do something similar. To those enthusiasts, I promise to provide as much info in this blog as possible for them to live the journey till they get to make it.

 

Nitesh, mogli and kaushy have been pretty excited. Akshaya was a bit critical of why I am going on highways, there is not much to see there, but he being an art inclined person would be more interested in by lanes and by gullees to see life and experience it. This trip for me is more of where India is going, and there is not much change expected in the by lanes.

 

Mogli sent me an SMS with following stat from a trip organized by India Car :
Total distance : 5979 kms
Toll cost: Rs. 2212
Fuel stops: 21
states covered: 13
Total Fuel: 670 lts
Total Time: 88 hours
Avg speeds: 50 to 83 kmph

 

This was more of a whirlwind tour, with driver teams changing around 6 times on the route and Toyota corolla car was driven non stop.

 

But this tells one thing that this can be done.. cheers!

 

On an important side note, he did not forget to mention that the fastest and slowest sectors were in and around Bihar. Thats a very important bit of info as our dear Alumni Satyendra Dubey sacrificed his life for this very stretch.

 

But I haven't started exercising yet, so the trip is pushed by a week into its start date.

 

Thanks mogli for the stats, guys please do keep sharing in these things, they are very useful in planning.

 

-Jitendra

Things to consider in planning

The main things to consider are :
1) What to do before the trip.
2) What is needed to do the trip successfully.

Before the trip, I would need to strengthen my back which has been ailing for past few years and has been neglected. It has been 4 years since I did some regular serious driving over an hour. So to do a test run I am planning a trip to Bangalore sometime next month, will also be able to attend a friend's new addition to family. Also plan to start exercising regularly to strengthen my back and to build stamina.

Things to consider carrying along are primarily gadgets to guide me and keep my busy. My plan to buy Sony Ericsson 960Wi still stands to make it a gadget I am planning to buy some GPS equipment and compatible software like one listed here:
(Idea credit: Mogli)

Then there are questions (credit: Kaushy) to answer like:
1) Will I travel alone? Still considering, interested in going alone but lets see...
2) Which car? Have my own Alto car, but may be will rent some SUV.
3) Any message to carry around? No. It is a personal fact-finding and learning trip.
4) Any sponsors? This blog could be my partial sponsor ;-)
5) How long will it take? Plan to travel around 8 hours everyday, so at an average of 40 kmph would be covering around 300 kms in a day, so this could take minimum of 20 days..may be more if I plan to take breaks on weekends.
6) Self drive or take a driver along? Driver would make it a leisure trip rather than an adventurous business trip.. what say ?


-Jitendra

Initial Idea..

I read somewhere America moves at the speed of its roads and India had these in minimal numbers, so when Atal ji came up with this idea of building this quadrangle I was very excited and now I want to see it with my own eyes. The idea is to explore the progress (or lack of it) in India and see if I can somewhere contribute to it. How did I come to this idea, only god knows :-), may be I have some idea.

To improve on something, we need to know it and to know India, the best way is by traveling on good old buses or 2nd class train rides, the life around is a great teacher. It has been around 6 years since I traveled by a non-ac public transport across cities, so there is lot of new things to learn for me. This time the mode of transport will not be public but a private or rented one. So here I am trying to make a road trip around India on the Golden Quadrangle.

This blog is going to be my diary for sharing thoughts over the preparation, execution and afterwards of this trip..