Day - 9 Haridwar to Shahjanpur Page No.10

Page No.10

Date: 30.12.2012 (Sunday)

Start From: Haridwar to Shahjanpur

We reached Haridwar previous day i.e 29.12.2012 (Saturday) late night & it was a horrible journey driving through Sharanpur where there was absolutely terrible road for more than some 50 KMs? 

Haridwar was extremely chill & cold at Night as well as early morning.

We got place to stay at Birla Bhavan to stay all thanks to my good friend & Brother Anupam Shukla who visits Haridwar with his family & stays here & he had put me in touch with.

The best thing about Birla Bhavan where we stayed was the River Ganges flows right below the hotel's walls, meaning when you open the balcony you see the flowing Ganga River.

Just awesome, pictures taken at very early chill morning 6.45 AM.

We were literally shivering when we opened the balcony door to have a look at the Ganges River which was just flowing below. Cold wind was coming inside.

We had a family from Mumbai who had stayed in this same Birla Bhavan.

We took many photos of the water birds & the River Ganga.

Little Shrimeenakshi said she wants to do Dhyanam and sat in meditation for some time and Uthamkumar said he wants to do Yoga.

We left Haridwar towards Shahjahanpur to go towards Nepal Border.

The time was around 11.30 A.M. and the odometer reading was 46222.

We had done 5022 KMs so far.

The distance from Jalandhar to Haridwar covered was 352 KMs & we got an average of 16.1 kmpl.

 I did not take any photos on the way from Haridwar as I was concentrating in driving all the way to Shahjahanpur which was through some bad roads & the distance we had to cover was 695 KMs and it was a long drive through some very bad roads.

On the way we stopped at a Lord Shiva Temple and we offered our prayers and prayed to the Lord that we have a safe journey further on & protect us.

We got sms from my father that one of our Uncle had passed away and that meant we could not visit any more temples till next 13 days which meant till the completion of our trip.

This altered all my plans as I had to re-work on my return trip. I had planned to visit Varanasi and now I could not go to this Lord Shiva Temple at Varanasi the Holiest of Shiva Temples in mark of respect to the departed soul & as per Hindu Rituals we arent supposed to visit temples for 13 days.

May be the kind Lord gave us the last chance in this trip by making us visit him & offer prayers & we performed an abhishek and after we left we had got the sms. We pray we get a chance to visit Varanasi in future.

We reached Shajahanpur at mid night at almost 1 AM. It was really very tough. It was extremely chill, very bad & unknown roads and finally we touched Shahjanpur safely & found a hotel to stay for the night.

Next we will proceed from Shajahpur towards Gauri Fanta to enter into NEPAL. Stay tuned.

This ends Day - 9.

You have just finished reading Day - 9 Haridwar to Shahjanpur.

To Read the Previous Day - 8 Jalandhar to Haridwar click on this link.

http://mn-h2h-2k2k.blogspot.in/2013/01/day-8-jalandhar-to-haridwar-page-no9.html

 

Day - 8 Jalandhar to Haridwar Page No.9

Page No.9

Date: 29.12.2012 (Saturday)

Start From: Jalandhar to Haridwar

Today we are going on the trip from Jalandhar onward to Haridwar which will take us from Punjab into Haryana and we will pass through Border city of Uttar Pradesh & finally into Uttara Khand (4 States).

The Route is Jalandhar - Patiala - Ludhiana - Ambala City - Jagadhari - Yamuna Nagar -Sahranpur - Haridwar

DAY - 8: 29.12.2012 - Saturday
Jalandhar to Haridwar
Start	Jalandhar	29.12.2012
Start Time	8:00 AM
Start Day	Saturday
Destination	Haridwar	29.12.2012
Reach Time	8:00 PM
Reach Day	Saturday
Driving Distance KMs	368
Drive Time (Hours)	7
Highway
Jalandhar	Ludhiana	60
Ludhiana	Ambala City	110
Ambala City	Jagadhari	58
Jagadhari	Saharanpur	40
Saharanpur	Haridwar	100
		368

We had stayed at Maharaja Residency Hotel in Jalandhar.

It is a very good Hotel, great Ambience, Excellent room & room service, food was very good what we had for dinner & breakfast. There was very good hot water early morning.

We got ready by 7 AM and had breakfast & left the Hotel.

Waiting for Breakfast.

 It was Saturday & my wife wanted to offer  prayers to Lord Shani seeking his blessings for our journey further on.

(I am sorry in my earlier previous post in Amritser Golden Temple visit of Page No.8, I had mentioned that one of our Uncle had passd away in Coimbatore & we had got a sms, in fact it was on 30th Dec evening when we were driving  from Shajanpur towards Nepal Border.)

Amritser to Jalandhar Distance we did 92 KMs.

At this Shani Temple we have so far done 4668 KMs. The odometer reading is 45870 KM.

After the Temple Visit I reset both my A & B Trip meter to zero as I did not want to have the ego to show that we did so much in total 4 digit.

We started the journey from Jalandhar towards Ambala Cantt.

We passed an interesting Castle where it was written Bath Castle.

Curiosity got the better of me as to know what exactly it is.

Guess What? (Only 1 Guess! Picture can mislead you he he..)

It is a Marriage Hall!

Only Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich People can come here!! I just took photos!

It is a terrible road for poor truckers what with the incomplete roads by this Company called SOMA.

I believe it is hightime National Highways of India pull SOMA up & ask them to complete the INCOMPLETE Strech of roads which they have left in the same state for quite some time now.

Either SOMA is not interested in completing the project as they must have quoted a very low & bad price against their competitors and arent interested to further loose more money and definately must have taken care of all the NHAI people who are handling this project! Because even NHAI doesnt seem to care!

Who cares? Next time bring Rahul & Sonia in these roads!

It is also sad that the local states like Punjab & Haryana arent also escalating this issue.

Worst still the public are not taking any action and are taking this lying down. Common people from Punjab & Haryana just stop the traffic & do Rasta Roko for 1 week and block NH1 and do not allow any traffic to go and at the end of that month the project will be competed with war footing with all the heat generated!

Trust me terrible incomplete roads in most of the places. Same is the case with the Chandigarh to Delhi highway.

This definately leads to lots of accidents too. At some places you drive like Breeze & at maniac speeds. 

Remember Speed Thrills but KILLS!

I was so happy to see this well maintained FIAT Premier Padmini still on the NH1 highway. It reminded me of our own Premier Padmini which was owned by my father & I learnt my driving.

WAY TO GO FIAT.

The car you made way back in the 60s / 70s is still on the road still.

Happy to see that the driver is still enjoying driving it. I felt so happy that they still retained it. Respect!

I had a Grande Punto tailing me and trying to overtake me.

The driver came on me aggressively trying to overtake me where there wasnt even an inch for me to move to give him way. He started to honk & tried to push me off!

It reminded me of the same duel I had with another Grande Punto during my Bhutan Trip while passing through Andhra. The Linea had won then comfortably & I had taken a high speed chanse through my own hand held cybershot SONY. Why does it have to be another FIAT?

This time it was a Sardar & his anxious friend sitting next to him who were chasing me.

Probably the sardar must have told his friend Bet we will overtake this TN Plate Linea Arramse.

Easier Said than done. Well game ON and we went..it was a pure dance.

FIAT Linea versus FIAT Grande Punto well it takes a lot of Balls next it also takes a lot of Brains to move through all that traffic maintaining very high speed as well as overtaking properly.

I was easily doing 120+ without a sweat!

Traffic judgement is very important & at these speeds one error & it is game over!

The Linea was performing like knife through smooth butter.

The poor Sardar tried all tricks to overtake and even came too close to my left too close. Again lost out. It was surely driving him NUTS!

At these speeds it is also very difficult to overtake & pass with all the slow moving trucks, cars etc around too.

I dont know some how he wasnt at all able to pass me for very long time. I did not give any room too. He was mad.

My wife had had enough of it and says why?

I said common pure fun! Linea Versus Punto!

She said we are here to enjoy the road trip & not have a duel and that brought some sanity back!

At last she said enough is enough and the Brains got the better of the Balls & I pulled my legs off the pedal easing it and the Sardar does a suicidal overtaking manuover without him realizing that I had eased on the pedal and narrowly missed rear ending a sugar cane loaded tractor that came his way as he was overtaking blindly from extreme left in a desperate effort to pass me.

He had to go to the extreme left of the road where there was a big ditch almost out of the road to avoid a direct rear ending the tractor trailer tyres screeching & probably his & his friend's heart & whatever else must have come into their mouth! He He..

They will surely remember this duel for some time though and will feel happy that they finally overtook the Linea!

It has been captured so nicely by our onboard camer video recorder! 

I switched on my favourite Scorpions Music & was enjoying listening to Dust in the Wind!

Welcome to Haryana State. Time 2.30 PM. we are on NH1.

Here when we reached Ambala Cantt I stopped and called up my good friend Anupam Shukla from Greater Noida & asked him to help with directions.

He immediately called by his good friend Sonu owner of Kalra Bus Services who own a lot of Private Transport  buses which go all over UP, Uttarakhand & into Nepal.

Sonu got one of his best Driver called Shabbir and gave his number. We later took Shabbir Bhai on con call & the way he gave directions my GOD so clear & so precise every inch of it.

He gave such simple directions without confusing and we were clear how to reach Haridwar and onward to Nepal throgh Shajanpur & Gowrifanta which is Indo-Nepal Border.

Sincere thanks to Anupam Shukla, Sonu & Shabbir Bhai for all the help & support.

We have to take left to go towards Haridwar.

 Remember in my previous day's Blog I had mentioned the great love for Daru the Punjabis & Haryanwees have.

They have colorful Daru Ka Adda what with colorful brand promotion & rates displayed like garment shop!

We come from Haryana into Uttar Pradesh briefly at Sahranpur.

The roads from Sahjranpur towards Haridwar are horrible full of big pot holes & driving was so difficult. We were litrally cursing the UP Govt which has neglacted this part of its state.

We lost a lot of time. There are no decent hotels to have food, the poor kids went so hungry without food and it lead to a lot of discomfort.

We reached Sahranpur and no decent hotel to have any food & we saw a road side hotel where it was making only veg food and with no other option we had some veg noodles & some other stuff.

The kids hated it and we too. Well the result of bad food will be known the next day. Food posioning, vomiting, pucking, loose motion, dehydration! Oh it was bad the next day after we had left Haridwar.

We completed exactly 5000 KM of our trip here at 8.20 PM on our way to Haridwar.

Welcome to Devbhoomi UTTARAKHAND

We reached Haridwar at 9.30 PM and the distance from Jalandhar to Haridwar was 351 KMs.

Anupam Shukla once again helped us again by putting us in Birla Bhavan where he comes often & stays with his family. Sincere thanks to Anupam.

It was extremely chill & cold that night & guess what no room heater and our room is right next to full flowing cold River Ganges!

You have just finished reading the Day - 8 Blog Trip from Jalandhar to Haridwar.

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