"3 Banjaare" on astonishing expedition into Seven Sisters's Land from Bangalore - 1

March 10/11, 2017

North East India - this term itself is enough for butterflies swarming in stomach of any enthusiastic traveler. Mr. Tarzan was always talking about this another heaven in our own country since our hangover with Ladakh. He had read a huge no. of travelogues and researched about this not-much-explored part of the earth and bit by bit would live them in his dreams, fascinating Mrs. Tarzan with his narrations who would love to go anywhere with him being his partner-in-craziness in his every quirky plan. The astonishing adventure was about to start from Bangalore to the north-eastern part of India covering three states "Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya" driving all the way with the beloved Honda City !!!

Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan had woken up early in the morning with nice mood as it was the D-day when they were starting off their second dream ride, especially Mrs. Tarzan who was going to have a nice official lunch at JW Marriott following which she would be picked up from her office by Mr. Tarzan in the early evening...sounds perfect start of the trip!!

However, the morning started with very very busy tone making both running over the errands; Mrs. Tarzan was in charge of kitchen for preparing puri, fried chili and fried curry for dinner as she knows very well of the break free ride of Mr. Tarzan and had already prepared laddoos and matharis in the last evening. Before leaving for her office she was running over the checklist of snacks and packed them or semi packed cluttering with snacks bag in predefined corner of Mr. Tarzan’s visibility. She had already packed all the luggage and important items for trip requirements as per her area of jurisdiction and handed over him the instructions not to forget.

Mr. Tarzan, meanwhile was running through Cheetah’s requirements and its accessories including not-to-miss items for the trip including emergency situations, ensuring happy and safe trip for the three of them (who is the third one ??). Half of the day went for him just like that while having good extra nap (he is a night rider as we all know) and later finally boarding the luggage on to Cheetah in multiple trips to and fro imparting some tiredness which he missed to realize in his enthusiasm. Finally, after going through his and his planner cum navigator cum assistant cum bossy’s checklist, he started off the Cheetah (the third one, of course !!!) at good afternoon by 3 pm and reset the reading to zero marking the start of the journey. In around an hour and couple of mins he was standing outside of Mrs. Tarzan’s office who came running to get boarded. It was Friday and by 4 in the evening traffic was building, in fact it was pretty much in the afternoon as well. The navigator (Mrs. Tarzan) had started navigation after settling down in full swing of AC as she was sweating of long eventful day both at home and office.

They decided to take Outer Ring Road from Hebbal till KR Puram to take down towards Tirupati enroute Kolar, but missed a turn to one of the street and ended up a dead road below the flyover. What an start!! Taking a U-turn, they were again back on the track and Mrs. Tarzan came back to her original form navigating through the mesh of streets to beat the traffic and landed them on the ring road. They were moving with an enthusiasm that the same boring road was not appearing burden in an evening traffic. After crossing KR Puram, they took the Kolar road and entered first toll gate in an hour.

As the sky was turning to crimson from sky blue origins, Mrs. Tarzan was regaining her original self and started talking about her day at the office occasionally followed by, “Did you bring along this bag? Didn’t you miss picking this stuff along? Did you eat what I placed on the table for you? …. blah blah…. with occasional slow background scores which would be even turned off whenever she felt being taken over by the music.

Mr. Tarzan needed a break after beating the city traffic in Bangalore and had quick tea break for 10 mins which also ended up cleaning his windshield as night drive preparation as it was 7 pm already. Now the sky started turning from crimson to dark blue and even darker when they were in outskirts of Tirupati. They had a virtual Darshan of Balaji while passing below the Tirumala hills. By now the music was changed to the rocking numbers which Mrs. Tarzan had collected recently day by day for Mr. Tarzan and Cheetah, to accompany her on this long long journey.

With mixed feelings, they were moving towards their destination as the night was growing.

It was dinner time around 10 pm when they finally stopped at a fuel station for feeding Cheetah and all 3 of them rested for a while. Mrs. Tarzan had already got dinner for that day as a token of homemade food which they would be missing for next several days. She asked him if he would like to have some food as she knew he doesn’t prefer full stomach while driving. He nodded to which she didn’t miss further second and stuffed his mouth with puri sabji.

On the way, they crossed the food plaza named NH5 which seemed to be decent option for dining, which they came to know of during their Puri trip. This food joint offers good cuisine and hygienic and unique in its style as it is built over the toll plaza where you can sit and view the vehicles crossing by on toll booth.

The Cheetah was moving swiftly along the length of Andhra Pradesh, crossed Vijaywada when the world was busy with sleeping. Mrs. Tarzan dozed off silently without her knowledge but suddenly got to her senses when Mr. Tarzan asked her to check if they were going in right direction. In hurry and not being up to full senses she couldn’t judge but fall into what Google baba suggested, however Mr. Tarzan realized in couple of minutes that they were about to get into wrong road and took U turn to get onto right track, to which Mrs. Tarzan confirmed getting to her senses. It was then she realized that it was 2.00 am. Beyond this time it is difficult for her to be awake as she always loses her energy with all her enthusiasm and chirping. Mr. Tarzan knows this very well and asked her to sleep but she wanted to sit awake right next to Mr. Tarzan to not to allow his ears rest. By the way Mr. Tarzan also feels empty when he doesn’t hear her voice and squinting he would try to find if she is busy or asleep. If she is busy, she would quickly catch him red-handed and tease him, if she is asleep Mr. Tarzan would turn the music off with a smile and fall in love with her again after having another look at her dangling head over the seat belt covered with her locks having her mouth slightly open.

The night was slipping and she was fighting with tiredness and was dozing off occasionally amid her talks and when it was already dawn, after fighting with sleep Mrs. Tarzan was finally up and played some soothing numbers.

In few more hours they were already about a 100 km from Vishakhapatnam. It was 10 am, they wanted to get fresh and have breakfast so Mrs. Tarzan was at work again to locate a good halt. In couple of kms they stopped in front of BPCL COCO which would serve dual purpose of feeding all three of them. But as they entered inside they were told that it is not open, and when asked about when it will open they were told that 12 pm, and they can’t even use washroom. This was annoying. Seeing all this, a distant guy shouted to go and use common washroom at the backside of the facility behind a load of trucks. Mrs. Tarzan couldn’t go around behind the trucks but told Mr. Tarzan to go and freshen up, wash face as he had been sitting for several hours. In a couple of minutes when Mr. Tarzan returned with cleaner and fresher face they left the place and were back to the search mode and they got one small place beside a petrol pump to stop by. They had quick breakfast and tea, cold tap water felt rejuvenating to them. Feeling fresh, they moved on playing their favorite numbers aloud.

As they were about to enter Vishakhapatnam, Mr. Tarzan enquired, “Which route, Bypass or the Highway? Mrs. Tarzan replied, “What you hate more, truck traffic or the city traffic?”. Mr. Tarzan smiled and asked to navigate to Bypass road. This is good stretch of around 30 km with occasional crowded market and junctions.

The sun was rising high as the Cheetah was approaching Brahmapur. It is the Odisha Border near Ichchapuram where as usual on any State Border, one has to fight through the trucks all over, trucks on the fast lane, trucks on slow lane, trucks on the service road, trucks off the road, all laying haphazardly. Mr. Tarzan was imagining the trucks and started to worry how thick will be this jam and how much time will this eat up. However, luckily as the jam was approaching and getting thicker, Mrs. Tarzan switched on her navigation mode and started looking for alternatives. Soon she found a low-cut divider for turning up to the other side of the road and they immediately moved over. They had known this trick since their first experience on Puri trip. Now they were going steady and fast. On their left were laid a chain of thousands of trucks and they were proud of the wise decision at right moment else once caught amid them there would be no way out or to go in reverse.

From Bramhapur, at around 50 km there is a very big and beautiful lake, Chilika. So, on the highway as one climbs up the hills and descends down, there is point on the right where you can catch the glimpse of first view of chilika lake. After passing between the hills, this point open into a broader landscape which gives a glimpse of beautiful lush green lands of Odisha where you can spot some random truck moving in distant road disappearing among the woods surrounding the lake. This had been Mrs. Tarzan’s favorite spot for a quick break after the Puri trip. However, there is nothing as such or any landmark making this place as view point but it’s worth a halt.

The weather was gradually turning pleasant with clouds started hovering over as they were at the junction to Puri where Mr. Tarzan called for a quick tea break. From this junction, there is one road emerging from right of the highway towards Puri which around 50-55 km away. From here they had gone to Puri on their Puri trip, so this was the last point on this highway they had been familiar with.

Mrs. Tarzan longed for some samosas but he could not find them. Samosas are non-resistible in such pleasant weather. From here Bhubaneshwar is around an hour journey and then from there, Cuttack is a 40 min stretch which is densely populated comparatively in whole Odisha, passing through river Mahanadi. And since it was already evening people started going back to home making it more packed and adding up to the commuting time. After Bhubaneshwar, it started turning darker with sun sinking down and more of dark clouds, and eventually started drizzling, so Cuttack was drizzling further making it worse to cross the city traffic.

Mr. Tarzan started worrying again as he was planning to cross Odisha Border and reach Kharagpur for night halt so that they can plan the day and reach early at Siliguri, but it seemed destiny had some other plan. He started getting furious and accelerated more but Mrs. Tarzan was feeling otherwise. She knew he was tired and needs rest and moreover she could not find good hotel in Kharagpur or nearby place. It was 7 pm and complete dark while they were still at large to the border by good 150 kms.

Mrs. Tarzan suggested, “Let's go to Balasore.”, as she can see some property there on google which looked okay for a night halt. But convincing Mr. Tarzan is not easy who was trying to manage on big potholes on the highway which seemed to be devastated by trucks. Meanwhile, being tired Mrs. Tarzan just dozed off for a couple of mins, which worked as magic and Mr. Tarzan decided to act on her advice. She asked to enter the Balasore city by this comparatively wider road parallel to highway in search of the hotel she found on google. They both were trying to locate it but it is not on the map, however with its name and landmark as a petrol pump in small town, probably it was not that tough to be located hence they took this chance. As they located one petrol pump with similar name, there stood one decent restaurant and Mr. Tarzan thought they have found it but Mrs. Tarzan wanted to be sure before getting parked so she enquired the security guard. They were told that this is restaurant only, hotel is down the road ahead after “teen naali” and at left, this is the only part they make out of the conversation and assumed it to be 3 signals. After 3 signals they looked at left and were uncertain whether it was supposed to be road on left or on the same road at left, they enquired at the street and went ahead for a look on left road but it was not there. A tired and furious Mr. Tarzan announced, “Let's go, nothing good is happening and it's already 9 pm. I don't know where will I take you to”, listening to which Mrs. Tarzan calmly replied, “Let's give last chance and just go straight and if we don’t find it we will do whatever you think is right”.  Meanwhile Mr. Tarzan started thinking of alternatives. As they moved ahead a hundred meters, Mrs. Tarzan screamed, “There is the petrol pump but where is the hotel?”  They moved a bit ahead and there stood a tall building beyond an open area which she tried to look up for its name "Hotel Barjorjis Banjara" and there she found it. Hit the bull’s eye !!!

They parked, enquired and booked a room finally at 9:30 pm for the night halt. A limping Mr. Tarzan set out for a walk while Mrs.Tarzan checked-into the room and ordered for dinner with his favorite fish as she knew he would love it. Merrily she took hot shower and waited eagerly for Mr. Tarzan while watching TV, and they enjoyed nice food after long time spending a night and a half on the road!!


Route Map :

Distance : 1669 KM
Toll : INR 1530
Diesel : INR 6550
Hotel : INR 2000 - Hotel Barjorjis Banjara

Part 2