Question: How do you get two Bongs to go on a road trip?
Answer: Easy actually, just tell them about all the food they can sample along the way!
That was the easy part. You see, about two weeks ago two of our friends (who happen to hail from West Bengal) approached us at MotorScribes and wanted to know what it takes to do a road trip from Pune to New Delhi. Since we do spend a lot of time behind the wheel and have undertaken many such journeys in the past, I guess we gave them the impression that we were experts in the field of road-tripping across India. Regardless, they took the gamble and we got down to planning their epic first road trip in a Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 that would take them through Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan , Haryana and finally on to New Delhi – covering a distance of approximately 1700km (including some small diversions for a bit of road-trippin’ tourism).
Arunav and Abhinandan Chatterjee (no they are not related, however our kickass proprietary surname-frequency-calculator tossed up that ‘Chatterjee’ makes up for 48.26 per cent of all Bengali surnames) came over to our office and we spent an evening discussing the details. We spoke about the general route, what to pack, what to avoid, the dangers of road travel, the finer points of driving on the highway, and why it’s important to avoid all the signs that offer ‘Child Bear’ and other such dubious products along the highway! We spoke about the best practices behind the wheel and we finally got down to discussing the safest pit-stops as well as our highly recommended ‘must have’ food list to sample along the way. I swear to God, their eyes lit up when we finally got to the topic of food! That glint of happiness in their eyes, the joys of eating something new and then tweeting about it -the appeal was immediately apparent!
What had Arunav and Abhinandan convinced however was our discussion on avoiding getting drowsy behind the wheel. They said they had that covered, however we were concerned and when we questioned them as to what their plan was, we immediately realized that it was a stupid question on our part. Bongs don’t need music, chocolates, cool drinks or anything else (not even Sunny Leone!) – they actually come armed with the best arsenal to tackle drowsiness – the gift of discussing a topic to its very limit- it’s in their very DNA. Get two Bongs together in a car and tell them that they have to spend the next 27 hours together, they will most probably come up with solutions for eradicating poverty, cleaning up India better than PM Modi and how to harvest Hilsa on Mars! Yup, they had it covered.
So the night before the big day, the two Chatterjees packed their trusty little Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 and at the break of dawn , armed with all the information they could garner from us, they set out on their epic road trip. Seeing that enthusiasm and the kick they got just thinking about the possibilities of such a journey was a reminder of why going on a road trip is so much fun. I guess it offered us seasoned journalists a chance to live that moment again – a moment that is quite frankly forgotten to us, considering the sheer amount of driving we do every year! On that note, I now give you their story.
Bongalto! (As told by Abhinandan)
We love food, like driving, but absolutely adore automobiles and have been friends with the blokes at MotorScribes for a while. It was on their advice (not all of it sound) that we decided to undertake this drive. Our journey began from an early dawn in Pune with lock, stock and barrels packed into an Alto 800 that had an additional 300 kilograms to bear (We found out at a weight enabled toll both somewhere in Rajasthan)! The car was 2014 model VXi with just 10000 km on the odo, plus it had us 100 kilogram guys (a.k.a Bongs) on board with a total of seven bags and a massive bag of snacks. Yeah , the car was weighed down, but we were kicked about the journey and couldn’t have been bothered about the fact that all this luggage would eventually impact our mileage a bit (plus our friends at MotorScribes never told us to travel light, so we’ll just put the blame on them).
We got from Pune to Mumbai in the regular three and a half hours that the Expressway allows for and went straight to the Taj Mahal Palace right in front of the Gateway of India for a quality morning coffee and breakfast. We were travelling in style and nothing tops the Taj on that front! We spent some time sightseeing around Mumbai including some pictures near the Sea link. Once we were done being tourists, we got back to the first task at hand – getting out of Mumbai! We made our way up toward Bhayandar and stopped at the Fountain rest stop for lunch. (RT this post with a question and we will tell you why this place is a must stop and what you should have! )
Post lunch we made our way towards Ahmedabad along NH8. A brisk highway run and we managed to pull in to the capital city of Gujarat at around 10:30 pm. Having only stopped for refuelling our car and some quick refreshments along the way helped us make it in good time. By now we realized that Google Navigate was fast becoming our best friend on this journey. In our quest to find suitable accommodation, we ended up discovering another fantastic App for the road traveller called Roomstonite. Through that we managed to stay at a Premium OyoRooms at 40 per cent off on the rack rate at that hotel! With accommodation sorted, and before a good night’s sleep, it was time to religiously dig out a great place to dine. Our cravings were answered at Bakhtiyar Gali and Manek Chowk (I’d heard about it on TLC). So, with a stomach full of some great grub, we happily dozed off to bed only to wake up early to head out to our next destination – Udaipur.
It was a quick run from Ahmedabad to Udaipur and the Alto 800 chugged along at a pace that can best be described as brisk for such a car! While in Udaipur we got down to some more photography and topped off the entire experience with the best Aaloo Puri we have ever tasted in our lives courtesy the Lakend Hotel. Fantastic stuff and a must-have if you are looking for nothing but the best.
Post that meal, I felt that the Alto definitely weighed heavier-especially when you consider the sheer amount of food the two of us consumed. Back on the road, we punched in our next destination – Jaipur, and we also managed to get a room booked at a high-end hotel for just Rs 2400 thanks to Roomstonite! Lady luck was definitely favouring our road trip every step of the way, and we were having a blast!
We reached the city of Laal Maans (as we call it, otherwise it is popularly known as the Pink City – Jaipur) by nightfall . By this point we had covered close to 1450 kilometers (including all our extra running around finding food and sightseeing), yet we were rather surprised as to how fresh we felt. Our initial concern while setting out on this trip was that we would be knackered driving a small car halfway across India, but it wasn’t like that. The roads so far were great and the Alto was surprisingly comfortable. Anyways, back to the point. In Jaipur we grabbed a bite to eat (no surprises there on what we ate right!) and got a good night’s rest post that scrumptious meal.
Now we were on to our final stretch – the home stretch of 250 odd kilometres from Jaipur to New Delhi. We encountered the worst stretch of our drive with seven really bad patches thanks to a lot of road work in progress along this section of the journey. It felt like it took ages, but we finally made it to New Delhi where we had a home-cooked meal waiting for us! It was the perfect way to end this #gastrotrip and while we were happy to reach our destination, it did dawn on us that the joys of road tripping around India are not as farfetched or arduous as most people tend to think. Us Chatterjees would do this again without a doubt!
On a parting note, I would like to thank my trusted Alto 800 for doing this journey without a glitch, my friend Arunav for being a part of this epic drive, MotorScribes for all the advice and of course all the cooks and chefs along the way – our real heroes!
Note: Abhinandan Chatterjee works as a Consultant and is a self proclaimed foodie. He has recently discovered his love for road travel as it encompasses his two passions – automobiles and discovering great places to eat! He can be reached through his twitter handle @humanwareworks. We do believe he could benefit greatly if he grew a moustache!