bombay to bangalore..

been wanting to get my car from mumbai to bangalore for a long time.. finally managed to.
left mumbai at 5am in the morning.. got hold of ashok's driver for company.
1000 odd kms..and a tank full of fuel..and my laptop+pendrive filled with my fav music..
yep.. i thought i was prepared.

:))

reached lonavala at 6:30 am..stopped for fuel+bfast.

by 10 am was a few kms short of Peth Naka on NH4 when we heard a weird sound from the rear right tyre. stopped to investigate. discovered all that 160kph driving had taken its toll on the tyre. the tread had cracked and the tube was barely being held in place by the tyre tread.
big deal!! we shall use the spare one...(or so we thought)...
surprise!!! my service guy hadnt checked my spare, and it had a lovely little puncture and was completely deflated.
so we stuck to the "terribly pregnant" looking rear tyre and drove slowly to the nearest puncture repair joint.

its true.. we mallus are indeed everywhere.. the shop turned out to be run by 2 young chaps from kannur/kottayam respectively. Sunil ran the tyre joint, while suresh ran the small resto next to it.both were very happy to meet and talk with some1 from back home..(hehehe.. yea..its funny...me parading around as a malayalee..i finally did confess that i was a mumbai product..)
the 2 boys were so glad to meet and talk to me, the puncture repair and 2 cups of fantastic 'naadan chai' was on the house!!

the next bit was uneventful till we passed Nipani..i remembered it being shruti's hometown.. tried smsing her to confirm the same..but no luck.

the roads were abs brilliant with the driver belting the lancer at speeds of 160kph constantly.. and me shitting bricks becuz i really didnt seem to share his confidence in my car.

by 2 pm we had covered 700 odd kms and decided to stop for lunch. found a nice little "kamat's" resto ( of the vithal kamat chain)..

the only irritant so far being the toll booth every 60 odd kms...i seriously felt NHAI should instead just come up with a single pass for the whole stretch.. but i guess its not exactly feasible as certain parts were being managed by state govts and certain parts were even managed by pvt cos!
(note that i am not cribbing abt paying the toll.. the roads were abs brilliant!!! and deserved every rupee i paid!)

a case of 'speakin too soon'.. with 300 kms to go.. the quality of the road took a drastic "u-turn" for the worst...
and we barely managed to even touch 50kph..3pm to 7pm was the time it took us to negotiate the last 300 kms till the city limits...

and once again, my trusted "steed" gave up on me.. and this time the headlights konked off.. my driver was visibly afraid of being pulled up by cops for driving with no lights.. but then again.. i was too tired and impatient to stop and search for a mechanic.. so i decided to push on..

from 7pm to 9:30 pm.. a distance of 20odd kms.. from the yashwantpur to indira nagar..(yes.. im still a newbie in blore.. and have no sense yet of the general road directions)..
finally after wat seemed like going around in circles and stopping at the same red lights every 30 mins..i reached home.

due credit to my "trusted steed" for never stopping or failing to deliver on performance.. minor glitches were all it threw at me.
(8yrs and neglect havent yet taken its toll)

tday morning decided to return the favour by giving it a personal wash...
and as i write this, i look out my balcony and find it sitting all neat and clean waiting for the nxt ride..
:))

PS- took a few snaps on my pathetic phone during the trip..faithfully reproduced below.