Three Ladies And A Thar: Our Magical Road Trip from Mumbai to Arunachal Pradesh #1
- Nancy Nagwekar
- Feb 1, 2024
- 7 min read
On 19 November 2023, three ladies Nancy Nagwekar, Nandini Satam and Kavita Satam set out from Sanjay Gandhi National Park in a Thar.
Their destination? The easternmost tips of India at Arunachal Pradesh.
It was a journey that took them to Aalo, Menchuka, Yingkiong, Kibithoo and many other places. Here's how it went!
Day 1: Mumbai to Nagpur - 789kms
We set out on 19th November 2023, from Mumbai (Borivali National park) at 7:30 am.
Being Sunday, traffic was less. But it still took us four-and-a-half hours to cover about 160kms and reach the start of the Samruddhi Expressway, which is about 20kms from the Goti toll plaza on Mumbai-Agra highway.
Once on the expressway, we were amply rewarded with wide 6-lane concrete road and 120km speed limit and no traffic. We covered the next 620 kms in 8 hours.
Tips for Mumbai-Agra Highway
Top up your fuel tank whenever you see a fuel pump. Pumps are few and far between, and most are not operational.
Carry some food for the way. This is not like the Pune Expressway. You will only get tea and snacks.
Keep the air pressure in your tires lower than usual. There have been too many accidents caused through tire bursts on this highway. Apparently, the concrete highway, speed and higher tire pressure can lead to tire bursts. We were advised to keep it at 25 (generally we do 30) and because of that we sailed through.
We arrived at Nagpur by 8pm on Day 1, and stayed at a hotel near the Outer Ring Road, to avoid traffic going into the city.
Day 2: Nagpur to Mughalsarai (Uttar Pradesh) - 790kms
We set out early in the morning at 5:45am.
The road from Nagpur to Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) via Pench National Park was really enjoyable. We didn't spot any wildlife except for monkeys. The entry gates into the wildlife area is a few kilometers off the highway.
The road until Jabalpur was good, but after Jabalpur until the Uttar Pradesh border, the road was terrible. It was mostly under repair, causing many diversions, pathetic conditions, not to mention it was clogged with traffic.
After entering Uttar Pradesh it improved quite a bit, but any facilities for travelers were poor. We relied on petrol pumps to use the toilet, and dabbas for food (which mostly cater to trucks).
After Mirzapur, the road goes close to Varanasi, an ancient pilgrim city. We didn't want to enter that (to avoid the congestion and chaos), so we settled for a wayside tourist lodge in Mughalsarai for the night.
Day 3: Mughalsarai (U.P.) to Kishanganj (Bihar) - 677 kms
We hit the road by 5:15am, wanting to cross the river Ganga before the madness starts.
We decided that the best place to cross would be at Arrah-Chapra bridge.
Initially, we were driving on the Delhi-Kolkata GT road, dodging trucks. But at a town called Mohania in Bihar, we found this brand new superb cement road called the Mohania-Arrah highway, which was recently built and didn't allow trucks. It was almost like driving on Samruddhi highway, which we least expected in Bihar.
Two hours of zipping through this road helped us to arrive at Arrah by 8am. As expected, the madness around Ganga crossing started, and we managed to cross it around 9am.
After crossing the Ganga, the poor roads, traffic, diversions, etc., meant we finally reached the East-West Corridor (NH27) near Muzaffarpur around 1pm.
We stopped at a place called "De Motel Lakeview" for lunch and refreshed some old memories. During our first trip to the Northeast in 2018, we had stayed for the night at this place, only to discover the next day that it was neither a Motel nor had a lakeview. It was just a restaurant with one room to spare for travelers!
Back then, this area was not at all developed. We were recommended this night halt by HVK (called the "Human Google of India" by travelers). We remember having some delicious dinner there so we decided to have our lunch.
I must say the entire patch of NH27 has developed a lot. In 2018, we remember not being able to get a cup of tea for 50kms. This time could not have been more different.
We proceeded onward to Siliguri via Purnia. There is a shorter route to Siliguri via Araria-Naxalbari along the Nepal Border. But that road is very deserted, and hence we decided not to take it in evening, as the sun sets around 5pm.
We reached Purina at 6pm. After tea and toilet break, we left for Siliguri at 6:30pm.
As we entered West Bengal, the roads worsened in condition, and the evening traffic chaos also slowed us down. We decided to call it a day at 8pm at Kishanganj.
Kishanganj is a small 'one horse' type of town. They just had a few hotels bang in the middle of the town. It's a old town, and all roads leading to it are very narrow. Mostly, just one vehicle can pass at a time.
Many a times, Maps will show you roads in such towns. But they are only roads through which a 2-wheeler can pass, forget a Thar.
Maneuvering the Thar in such towns is a pain. We preferred to stay in a hotel by the highway. The hotel was bang in the middle of market square. But thankfully, they had secure parking and almost soundproof windows, so we could have a good rest for the night.
Day 4 : Kishanganj (Bihar) to Guwahati (Assam) - 547kms
We had about 550kms to cover from Kishanganj to Guwahati. So why did Google show that it would take us 13 hours? We had driven to Guwahati from Siliguri 5 years ago. Once we hit Dooars, it had a nice 4-lane highway right till Guwahati.
We were estimating it should not take us more than 8-10 hours. How wrong we were.
Our plan was to ride on the East-West Corridor Highway, via Siliguri, Sevoke, Dooars, Malbazaar, Hashimara and Alipurduar. Even though Sevoke is a perpetual traffic jam point, the drive along the tea gardens after that was very scenic. And we knew from experience that the road had loads of food options.
We started out at 5:30am. The morning drive was very scenic, through tea gardens enveloped in fog. The road too was pretty decent.
Around 7.30am, we stopped at a small tea stall run by husband and wife by the roadside. The tea was really so good that each of us had 3 cups of tea, and some nice cookies. This really saved the day for us later.
At Ghoshpukur we got diverted and enticed by the new 4-lane bypass to Fulbari and Jalpaiguri. At Fulbari we again asked some shopkeepers, who told us the road ahead again was a 4-lane highway to Guwahati.
However, we were soon stuck on the old village route to Alipurduar, with no way out. The road was not wide enough to even overtake a scooter or the totos (e-riskshaw), which we have come to hate.
We couldn't get anything to eat on the way, no toilets, and the drive was the worst we experienced so far. We crawled at 20kmph for hours.
We landed up in the middle of Alipurduar town. It was so congested that we had no space to park or drive. Honestly, it was one of the most congested towns we have driven through.
At 11.30, we had had nothing except tea and cookies. Finally, we found a spot to park and a place to eat, where the washroom was pathetic.
After struggling for 6 hours, we finally reached the East-West corridor. Almost the entire East West corridor was under repair because of road-widening, and the building of flyovers. Maybe this road will look pristine 10 years from now, but on that day, it was our most pathetic drive so far.
We stopped at Bongaigaon, our first entry into the Northeast. There, we found a nice Cygnett hotel (probably a 4 star), just to have chai, snacks, and to calm our nerves.
After Bongaigaon, it was back to the grind. There wasn't much traffic, but the road conditions were bad. Even when there was no work going on, it was not at all maintained.
We reached Guwahati only around 8.30pm. It had taken us a good 15 hours for just 547 kms. It was the most frustrating day to drive.
We were booked at the Rains Inn at Paltan Bazaar, and Neil (my son, who is presently stationed at Shillong) had come to meet us. That cheered us up a bit and we went and had a nice Manipuri thali dinner.
We had exhausted our energy, so we decided that the next day we would leave at 7am instead of 5-5.30am, and catch up on some sleep.
Day 5: Guwahati to Dibrugarh (Assam) - 463kms
By the time we left Guwahati, it was 8am. Our initial target was to reach Ruksin (Arunachal border), but we decided to revise our stay based on our progress.
The morning half drive was really nice. There were 2 route options, and we decided to take the route via Kaziranga for its scenic route. We had to drive below 40kmph for the entire stretch of Kaziranga.
We were amply rewarded, as we got to see rhinos, water buffaloes, swamp deer, grazing, from the roadside itself.
We didn't go into Kaziranga National Park, as we had already explored it in 2018. But we stopped for a delicious Naga lunch at the same restaurant where we had our first Naga thali, 5 years ago.
Assam is a nice place to have food from all the North Eastern states, probably because it shares borders with all the six sisters. Even in small towns and villages, one can get cuisine of neighbouring states.
After we crossed Kaziranga, the roads became really bad. Progress was really slow, so we decided to stay at Dibrugarh for the night.
We were lucky to get a really nice hotel (Hotel Golden Orchid) at a very good price. They were very hospitable and gave us a nice huge room, with a hot water shower that didn't turn cold in 2 minutes. After a tiring drive, a long hot shower is bliss.
Dinner was delicious as well and we had a comfortable rest and sleep.
It took us 5 days to get here, but Arunachal was finally a stone-throw away.
The next day would bring us to Aalo, our first stop at Arunachal Pradesh, where our trip truly began!
READ ALL ABOUT AALO SOON ->
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