moeed

“One-stop to Chennai and non-stop to Hyderabad”


Date: 12th January 2010


The day started off as usual.


5:30 am: Woke up

6:15 am: Started from home for college

6:00 pm: Returned back from college

6:30 pm: Went out for shopping

8:00 pm: Returned back home

8:30 pm: The phone rings, trrring, trrringgg



(Conversation between me and friend)

Me: Hi! Dude, how are you?

Friend: I’m fine. I’ve got a little problem. I have to go to Chennai urgently. Due to the bandhs, the busses and trains are not plying to Chennai. Can you tell me where can I board a lorry to Chennai?

Me: Lorry! Why don’t you come with me?

Friend: Are you serious!

Me: Yes! We’ll start off tomorrow morning.

Friend: No, it’s urgent. Can we start right now?

Me: Okay, I’ll ask my mom and let you know.


(Conversation between me and mom)

Me: Mummy, my friend has invited me to his house for Sankranti. I’ll be staying over his place tonight. We will be flying kites tomorrow.

Mom: It is 9 pm. Have rest tonight and you can go tomorrow morning.

Me: Okay!


(Conversation between me and friend)

Me: Dude, there is a small problem. My mom is not letting me go at this time. Shall we start off early in the morning, say 5 am?

Friend: It’s urgent, do something.

Me: Okay, I’ll have some rest and we’ll start off at 3 am.

Friend: Okay!


9:30 pm: Went out to fill the tank

10:00 pm: Went off to bed



Time for a perol bill.




Date: 13th January 2010

2:00 am: Woke up

2:30 am: Reached friend’s house

3:00 am: Started our journey. We took the NH 9 towards Vijayawada. It was a busy highway; full of Lorries and busses on both sides, driving at high beam which was directly falling into my eyes. I decided to maintain an average speed of 80 – 85 km/h. The highway was fine till the first 50 – 60 km since it was 4 lanes. But as soon as the 2 lanes started, the real trouble began. My speed dropped drastically to 50 – 60 km/h, sometimes it went even till 0 km/h, thanks to the careless overtaking of the Lorries and busses coming from the opposite side. One lorry moves at 40 km/h, the other one overtakes it at 60 km/h and then a bus overtakes the both of them at 80 km/h, literally throwing us out of the road. It was like a rat race among them to see who comes first. These busses and Lorries showed that they rule the highway. There was a very less number of cars and hardly any bikes on the highway at that time. These Lorries and busses were moving in packs. There would be some 10 -15 lorries and busses in front of me and another dozen of them would be coming from the opposite side, leaving no scope of overtaking for me. I kept my cool and just kept trailing the Lorries in front of me, occasionally trying to squeeze into the gaps in between them. As soon as I would find an empty stretch, I would rip to 85 – 90 km/h, and then again come down to 60 km/h as I spotted vehicles coming from the opposite direction. This continued for about 4 hours. As we were about to enter Vijayawada, we encountered fog, dense fog. I was riding through fog for the first time, as I have never encounter fog in Hyderabad. I could hardly see the vehicles coming from the opposite side. I reduced the speed to 70 km/h. Reached Vijayawada and took some quick photos on the Prakasham Barrage.




Me at the Prakasham barrage.



7:00 am: We had crossed Vijayawada and entered Guntur. My friend wanted to take a break at a dhaba as he was new to highway riding and had never sat as a pillion for so long. I pulled over at a dhaba. My face had become completely black due to the smoke from Lorries and there were thousands of bugs all over my face. I washed my face. We decided to have tea as there was nothing to eat at that time. The guy took some 15 – 20 minutes to prepare the tea. Finally we had the tea. It felt really refreshing.



Krishna river covered with fog.



8:00 am: We resumed our journey. We still had to cover about 550 km. We were now on the NH 5. This highway had 4 lanes and it meant that I can maintain good speeds and recover all the lost time. I started picking speed and we were happily cruising at 80 – 85 km/h. The weather was pleasant with clouds in the sky. We stopped for clicking a few photos and didn’t waste much time as it was getting late. We crossed Ongole and decided to fill some petrol.



NH 5





My salute to the Kargil Heroes




10:00 am: We were back on the highway after the refueling. It was getting a bit hot as it was noon, but we didn’t feel much of it as we were riding. We crossed Nellore and Tirupati and were heading towards Chennai.



A beautiful landscape enroute.



1:00 pm: We crossed the AP border and had finally entered TN. Chennai was still ahead. We had covered most of this route in AP.



Toll Booth ahead.



3:00 pm: Finally we reached Chennai. It was a bit hotter than Hyderabad. My friend asked for directions as he knew Tamil, and we reached Egmore. He had to board a bus from there. I dropped him over there and took a room in a nearby hotel. The receptionist asked for an id proof. I gave him my college id card. He was shocked when he came to know that I came all the way from Hyderabad on my bike. Took some rest at the hotel and decided to explore the city.



The peaceful highway.



5:00 pm: As I was feeling extremely hungry, I went to a restaurant and had a sumptuous meal. The food was really tasty. I decided to check out the Marina beach, asked a few people about the directions. Now I faced another problem, the problem of communication. I didn’t know Tamil and the people didn’t know Hindi. It was a tough job, asking for directions. I tried asking the auto guys, but they were explaining in Tamil. I finally managed to reach Marina beach somehow.



Clouds all over.



7:00 pm: Parked my bike at the beach and roamed around for a while and clicked a few photos. I decided to check out other places as I didn’t have much time at hand. I didn’t ask for directions to anyone, just followed the roads. Passed through University of Madras, followed the sign boards and reached Besant nagar and Adyar from there. I was going where the road would lead me to, clicking photos here and there. I was feeling tired and wanted to go back to my hotel and take rest. I was trying to look for a way back to my hotel, but I was going in a loop on the same roads over and over again.



Leaving roads behind and moving ahead.



9:00 pm: I finally managed to find a person who knew Hindi, and asked him the directions. He also didn’t know the route to Egmore. But still he wanted to help me, so he stopped his bike at a bus stop, asked a guy and then translated and explained the route to me. I thanked him and followed his instructions. It was good for some time, but again I lost the way. I was wondering, whom I would find again to ask for directions. Luckily I spotted a college student. His name was Selvam. I asked him for directions. He too was unsure of the directions. He told that he would ask the directions to a nearby shopkeeper and would let me know. He took out a notebook from his bag and drew a map for me. He carefully explained the route to me and tore that paper from his notebook and gave it to me. He even gave me his mobile number and told me to contact him, incase I lose my way again. I didn’t have words to express my gratitude to Selvam for his immense help. I wonder what I would have done, if he was not there. I thanked him profusely and bid him goodbye. May God bless Selvam. His map came in handy in finding out my way.



Spotted hills



10:00 pm: Finally, I reached my hotel. I went to bed immediately as I had to start off for Hyderabad, the next morning.



Mountains?




Date: 14th January 2010

8:00 am: Woke up and got ready for the ride, didn’t have breakfast as I wanted to reach Hyderabad before evening. I asked the receptionist for the directions to the highway. He explained the route to me, and I started off.


9:00 am: Filled the tank at a nearby petrol pump and I was locating the way to the highway. I found a few Lorries on the way. I guessed that they might be going to the highway as well, so I followed them. My guess was right, they were heading towards the highway and I reached the highway in no time. Since I had a sound sleep and I was completely fresh, I decided to test my limits. I decided to ride non-stop till Hyderabad. This was the first time that I would be riding non-stop for such long. I maintained a steady pace of 85 – 90 km/h as I didn’t want to strain the engine too much. I wanted to ride non-stop, hence I could not click any photos. At a few stretches, the train was going exactly parallel to the highway. I thought of checking the speed of the train, so I rode along with it. It was doing about 90 – 95 km/h. The NH 5 was practically empty, which meant that I could easily maintain a good pace and cover distance swiftly.



Taken at Chennai



3:30 pm: Reached Vijayawada and refueled the bike, resumed the journey without wasting any time. As soon as I crossed Vijayawada, it started to rain heavily. I had to drop the speed to 60 – 70 km/h. I rode for sometime in the heavy downpour, and then the rain subsided. I gradually increased the speed to 80 – 85 km/h. Now I was on the NH 9, covered the last 250 km with ease.



At Vijayawada



7:00 pm: Reached Hyderabad.

8:00 pm: Reached Home


9:00 pm: I wanted to transfer the photos to my laptop, so I connected the camera to it. After the transfer was complete, I deleted the photos immediately from the camera because I didn’t want anyone at home to know about my ride. I wanted to upload the photos, but something went wrong and the laptop hung up. I tried to bring it back to normal, but it didn’t work out. Finally I had to manually restart it. As soon as I restarted it, the hard disk got corrupted and all the data was wiped out. All the photos of the ride were lost. With a heavy heart I had to format it. Lesson learnt: create a backup of the photos. Luckily, a few photos were stored in the device memory. I have posted those here.



Tips from my side:

Don’t plan to ride on the NH 9 in the night, as it is the worst thing to do.

Carry maps with you, since you may face problems communicating with the people if you don’t know Tamil.


The route from Vijayawada onwards, towards Chennai is really superb. You can cover distance quickly. But there aren’t much dhabas on this stretch. You will need to take a detour from the NH 5. So, the best thing to do is to have your meal in between the Vijayawada – Hyderabad stretch as there are a good number of dhabas on the NH 9 itself.


Plan your trip well in advance as there are a lot of places you can visit on the way as well as in Chennai.


There are plenty of petrol pumps on the way, so you wouldn’t face any problem regarding that. You can get a tank full done from Chennai as petrol is cheaper there.


Create a backup of your photos.

You can find affordable accomodation near Egmore station.



Approximate distances:

Hyderabad – Vijayawada: 270 km

Vijayawada – Guntur: 40 km

Guntur – Ongole: 115 km

Ongole – Nellore: 125 km

Nellore – Tirupati: 135 km

Tirupati – Chennai: 145 km



Alternative routes:

Hyderabad – NH 9 (Narkatpally) – Bypass road (Miryalaguda) – Narasaraopet – NH 5 – Chennai: 635 km


Hyderabad – NH 7 (Kurnool) – NH 18 (Khajipeta) – NH 205 (Puttur) – NH 5 (Cholavaram) – Chennai: 681 km



Statistics:

Total Distance covered: 1837 km

Total Fuel spent: Rs. 1800

Total time on saddle: 24 hours



The Album:

Picasa Web Albums - moeed - Chennai

Liked my travelogue? Click below to know how to vote for me.

Aryan

Best Travel Blogger Contest Thread Approved.

Nice. I would've liked a more detailed text though. However, a very good competition to the other travel blogger threads.

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moeed

Thanks for the quick approval bro! Actually I came to know about this contest today itself, that's why I couldn't add more to it.
Thanks a lot for the appreciation

yaser_kb100

OMG - Moeed, I am falling short of words. Hyd - Chennai one stop and Chennai to Hyd non-stop - nice travelouge - You and your Platina hmmmmmm

Amazing experience it must have been. The return journey took only 10hrs? Bet it would have been a single digit number with a higher cc bike under you. Hats off to you mate. hmmmmmm Sankranti!!!

aargee

Its a good travelogue, unplanned, yet managed & had some fun. Good man, way to go. I like your travelogue; it gives an impression as if someone is narrating you.

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kunni_9/11

nice moeed
amazing trip
sudden and yet planned!!

yuv_biKING

thats a Agile ride...
A small suggestion: if you would have spoke in Telugu you could have found more people to help than getting the help in Hindi

ravi@17bhp

I must salute your enthusiasm Moeed. Nice log there.

But, Vijayawad to Hyderabad in 3.5 hours is simply unbelievable. Even Hyderabad to Vijaywada at night in 4 hours is also unbelievable. If you really have done, one more salute to you and the Platina.

The fastest time I reached to Viajayawada was around 4.5 hours with my speedo above 100 kmph all the time on my Zma, that too in day time. Night time it took me almost 5.5 to 6.5 hours with a couple of breaks. 3.5 and 4 hours with pillon on Platina, on NH9, at night, with rain and fog is simply unbelievable.

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