The One-Third India Trip

As some of you might be aware, I was on vacation for most of July 2022. Highlighted here are a few noteworthy items that I usually get asked, or those that I wish to keep a record.

Why is this called "One-Third India Trip"?

We traveled across almost a dozen states in India during this trip: Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. India currently has 36 entities (28 states and 8 union territories), so 13 out of 36 is almost one-third!

What was the high-level route map?

Screenshots of our route are available here: https://anandiitm.tumblr.com/tagged/one%20third%20india%20trip

This is only an approximate high-level route. The actual routes which we traveled were usually longer and slightly different because we took some detours or visited several places on the way.

How did you plan all this?

We're extremely grateful to Google Maps. This trip would simply not have been possible without it. We kept a separate dedicated old phone just for navigation. I ensured to download Offline maps for all the places we were going to visit, along with its surrounding areas. Phone network and internet data was mostly good everywhere. Having a Jio subscription would've been great, but we managed with Airtel, BSNL and Vodafone-Idea. Most of the hotels provided complimentary Wi-Fi, so that helped us in researching for the next day's plan.

There were times when some of the roads we went on didn't exist in Google Maps. We sometimes had to skip places because of non-existent or improper locations in Google Maps. Apple Maps was terrible in comparison! We were eventually able to visit more than 90% of the places that we had planned.

Did you plan this trip?

I had very little involvement in the planning. Except providing some guidance and prodding fellow travelers, I didn't really plan any of the places. However, at the beginning of the trip I suggested going to Sikkim and parts of North-East India due to lesser crowds at this time of the year (it's off-season). The only places that were really planned in advance were: Kasi, Sikkim and Bodhgaya. Rest of the plan was made on the fly.

How do you pick and choose places?

Look for places that have a huge number of ratings (not high rating) in Google Maps. For example, consider Taj Mahal at Agra in India has a 6-digit number of ratings, i.e., more than 100,000, making it one of the most popular places to visit. The rating itself doesn't matter! Popular places to visit in Gangtok usually had just 3-digit number of ratings, whereas the number of ratings for tourist places in larger cities such as Hyderabad have at least 5 digits. Similar strategy was applied to pick popular restaurants, hotels, etc. We thank everyone who gives ratings for popular places in Google Maps, since it helps people like us who plan our trips this way :)

Tripadvisor and similar websites aren't very good in India. For example, the #1 tourist place in Tripadvisor in Nagaland was Kachari Ruins. However, the actual place where it's located is in complete ruin (pun intended) and had poor reviews in Google Maps. The alternate location was in a museum that didn't have any great reviews. We found similar issues in other states and cities in India too. So, although the lists in Tripadvisor and similar websites could be a good reference, they aren't reliable. The Google-Maps-Ratings approach worked best for us so far, and I'd recommend that for anyone who are planning their own trips.

In addition to the above, we also refer tour packages to order the places to visit. If you refer all the possible tourism packages in Sikkim, we not only visited all the places in them but more than that! So, what we did was a tour with all tourism packages combined in less time and money than any of those individual packages.

Why don't you go for tour packages?

This has a detailed account of my past experience with a tour package: https://anandmiitm.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-wild-can-it-get.html

As you can guess, it's difficult for me to synchronize with regular tourists. I'm fast paced and don't match with that of the crowd. I prefer being adventurous, explore, and be curious. The downside is that we need to prepare well in advance, be flexible and plan properly. However, if done well, I've found that it's very much worth it!

What were the general recommendations followed to plan the journey?

• Prefer travel during the day, that is, avoid night driving. There were, however, a few days when I drove in the night. Although I've always advocated an early start, unfortunately we almost never achieved that. Note that different places in India have slightly different sunrise and sunset times, so we had to take that into account too!
  
• Have a clear plan for the next 24 hours, including a finalized hotel to stay for the next day. We've typically found to have a pleasant trip on days when we had a good plan in advance.
• Since we were traveling in our own car, we planned to visit places that we usually cannot go in standard tour packages. However, there were a few exceptions of course.
• Check the weather forecast in advance to avoid surprises. For example, if there's a forecast indicating 100% chance of rain for entire day, then perhaps rethink the plan.
• Assume an average of 30 minutes for each place to be visited, with an hour for each meal. So, if the plan for a day includes 6 places to visit with 8 hours of driving, then we can assume to be having dinner around 8 PM if we start at 8 AM after having breakfast.
• Consider the timings of the places to be visited. Note that the timings specified in Google Maps are not always correct, so we sometimes had to check with the locals, read the reviews written in Google Maps, or find out through other means.
• Google Maps also has an option to specify the arrival/departure times. We got a better idea of the route and commute time by using that, because otherwise the travel time would usually be lesser when we're researching next day's plan in the evening (travel times are usually less in the night).
• If planning on a larger screen, then open Google Maps in multiple tabs in the browser. One for the finalized route, another for finding places, etc. However, if planning on phone using Google Maps app, then use multiple phones or devices to speed up the research.
• Although I advised my fellow passengers against sleeping while traveling, it was not always possible. To keep myself engaged, I took more than 500 (6 GB) songs that were always playing whenever the car was running.
• There were a few days when we simply traveled from one hotel to another without visiting any places due to lack of proper planning. Ideally we should've shortlisted the places in advance prior to the trip.

Why did you choose to travel to the North-Eastern part of India in the middle of monsoon season (in July)? Isn't it the worst time to go there with respect to the weather?

When I checked the weather forecast in June, it indicated an unusually lesser chance of rains, which made us go ahead with the plan. We were advised by almost everyone about weather being bad in July. The warnings were applicable in almost entire country, not just the North-East! Honestly, we went prepared and were afraid that all the places we visited would mostly be either cold or soaking wet. There were also flood warnings in some areas; refer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Silchar_Floods.

There were a few minor spells of rain sometimes or hot-and-humid climate, but otherwise nothing so bad to severely impact our journey. We consider ourselves extremely lucky as there was almost no rain wherever we went, compared to what we were expecting. One of the restaurant owners in Sikkim told us that no one visits Sikkim at this time of the year because it's usually raining heavily 24x7. Same was the situation in other parts of North-East India that we visited. Seems like we picked the sweet spots of dry weather days (there were heavy rains a day before we left Sikkim).

As mentioned in how-to-plan section, I always took weather into consideration when planning. I usually check multiple weather websites and forecasts several times a day to get a better idea. I have a habit of checking the weather even on sunny days when going to office or when I'm at home not going anywhere, so I've some intuition of what to make out of the weather forecasts and predictions. As a frequent traveler I believe it becomes a routine to check weather, similar to checking news, emails and messages everyday.

How would you compare to previous travels?

The closest comparison would be our trip to Spiti-Ladakh. Few of my opinions and responses would be same as before, so please refer: https://anandmiitm.blogspot.com/2019/10/trip-to-kinnaur-lahaul-spiti-ladakh.html

Since I didn't have a backup driver in this trip, I ensured not to stretch myself too much. However, there were times I drove more than 12 hours in a day.

How was the car and the drive?

The car (Tata Harrier) is awesome.

Ground clearance is great. It's so good that most of the places I was just bothered about fitting the width of the vehicle and not how bad the road was.

On the highway, I was able to maintain an average speed of 80 kmph including halts for breakfast, lunch and dinner! So, usually if the road is good then I would easily cruise at 110 kmph. I was almost always beating the estimates of Google Maps.

It was rare for someone else to overtake me. However, I'm not overconfident and also didn't drive in a reckless manner. I'm sure we wouldn't have come back in one piece if that wasn't the case.

Note: I drove the entire trip! The total distance (as per car's trip meter) driven was nearly 8,000 km (approximately 5,000 miles).

How would you compare Tata Harrier to other cars?

Perhaps we could score all cars this way (higher score implies better car):

1. Entry level hatchbacks: Maruti Suzuki Alto, Hyundai Eon, Renault Kwid, etc.
   
2. Premium hatchbacks and sedans: Maruti Suzuki Baleno/Ciaz, Maruti Suzuki Swift/Dzire, Hyundai i20/i10, Tata Tiago/Altroz, Toyota Glanza, Ford Figo, etc.
3. Sub 4-meter (compact) SUVs: Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Hyundai Venue, Tata Nexon, Ford Ecosport, Nissan Magnite, etc.
4. Mid-level SUVs and MUVs: Hyundai Creta/Alcazar, Kia Seltos, Mahindra Bolero, Toyota Innova/Hyryder, etc.
   
5. Full-fledged SUVs: Tata Harrier/Safari, MG Hector, Jeep Compass, Mahindra Scorpio/XUV500, etc.
6. Premium SUVs: Ford Endeavor, Toyota Fortuner, MG Gloster, Jeep Meridian, Volkswagen Tiguan, Skoda Kodiaq, etc.

It was easy to figure out while driving too that Tata Harrier is superior to so many other cars that it usually gets compared with. At the time of choosing a car to buy, I was contemplating between Hyundai Creta and Tata Harrier. Now I've full confidence that we went with the right choice!

This trip would not have been possible if we had traveled in Figo.

Any accidents during the trip?

Yes, but all minor. I was used to driving a hatchback (Ford Figo) previously, so I'm not yet very comfortable driving SUV. For example, at Gangtok (Sikkim) I bumped a road divider and caused quite a bit of damage near the left front wheel. In another instance at Gaya (Bihar), the left two wheels of the car drove off the edge of the road into a slush - a few locals pushed the vehicle to help it get back on the road. Thirdly, at Ranchi (Jharkhand) I seem to have parked the car too ahead causing a dent in the front bumper. The car repairs have costed me nearly INR 60k.

How were the roads?

Most of the national highways are good. In general, if a toll is levied, then we could expect good road. However, that's not always true. There are no tolls in some states, such as Sikkim and Nagaland. Roads are in good condition for most of the tourist places in Sikkim (except near remote places). Nagaland roads are bad almost everywhere.

Some of the roads in the hilly areas reminded us of roads from previous Spiti trip! There were water crossings, minor landslides, slushy and rocky roads, etc. but this time we were in a much better car, so we didn't face any issues.

Most of the highways in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand have natural speed-breakers! That is, cattle (mostly cows) on the roads.

What about floods, landslides or other road closures?

Yes, there were flood or landslide warnings at some places according to Google Maps. However, we had confidence that national highways would never be cut off. It took us longer due to some diversions, but otherwise we were able to reach any significant places. Google Maps usually showed good alternative routes.

There were a few instances when we had to take detours - once in Sikkim (due to flooding between Gangtok and Pelling), and another between Gangtok and Guwahati (we were forced to take a 2-hour detour by going up to Fulbari due to a landslide on one of the road).

In one instance, the road was turned to single lane because of an active landslide. The relevant authorities ensured that the traffic didn't come to a complete halt. We had to wait for about an hour, but luckily we didn't get stuck.

Once there was a National highway closure near Sambalpur by the locals in protest of a kid's accidental death three days before. We managed to get out of the traffic, went back about 20 km, manually planned to take a diversion via a state highway, thus adding around 2 hours additional time of travel on that day.

How many places did you visit?

Close to 90 in total. A separate post was needed to list them all: https://anandmiitm.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-one-third-india-trip-details.html

Few highlights:

• We got close to the bordering areas of: Nepal, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
• There's a place in Bihar where there was vast agricultural land on all sides, as if we're in the middle of the ocean (but instead of water, it's just an endless field).
• We got to see a variety of landscapes - mountains, hills, plains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, etc. India is huge! Most of us cannot comprehend the diversity in India. We only scratched the surface.
• We visited most of the prominent monasteries in Sikkim, and in other states we mostly went to waterfalls, lakes, temples, forts, markets, museums, parks, etc. We came across innumerable waterfalls in hilly regions, so visiting a waterfall in the plains was usually a letdown.
  

What about your budget (expenses)?

The fuel itself cost us nearly INR 50,000 for entire trip. In addition, we spent nearly INR 90,000 for food and accommodation. Tolls for highways cost us INR 7,000.

In total, we spent nearly INR 50,000 per head (excluding shopping, donations at temples or monasteries, etc.).

Since we traveled during off-season, our expenses were quite low. For example, we stayed at Summit Golden Crescent Resort & Spa, Gangtok for INR 2,300 per day, but during season the tariff would've been more than double of that!

Just the Sikkim leg of our trip itself would've cost us more than INR 50,000 per head if we had gone through a travel agency!

Any unforgettable experiences?

• Food in Nagaland and Manipur: Their authentic cuisine was unpalatable and the smell was quite repulsive for us. It simply cannot be described. You've to experience it to find out. I believe it was fermented bamboo shoots.
  
• Leeches: I was bitten by leeches twice (both in Sikkim). When I was bitten the first time, I luckily realized soon enough that there's a leech on my foot before there was too much bleeding. I accidentally discovered that leeches would drop off if we apply some hand sanitizer at the place it's bitten. Otherwise, it was not possible to yank it off. I discovered much sooner the second time that there's a leech since I quickly realized and identified the feeling of its bite. Dropping a small amount of sanitizer helped get it off much sooner than the previous instance. In both cases, as advised by one of the hotel staff, the blood flow was stopped by placing a small piece of paper at the place of bite. The marks could be seen even after a month! I got to know later that applying salt is a lot more popular than placing a sheet of paper.
  
• Waterfalls: Standing at the foot of a tall waterfall is a wonderful experience! Couple of great experiences were at Sada Chiru Waterfall and Phamrong Falls.

Any other important things?

• Luggage: We packed a huge bag of winter and monsoon clothes (jackets, gloves, thermals, rain coats, waterproof boots, etc.) but thankfully didn't have to use most of them!
  
• Shopping: In this trip, we primarily shopped at Lal Market in Gangtok. We found that usually the places closest to the country borders are great for shopping! Also note, bargaining is a skill.
  
• Fuel prices: BJP-ruled states had the lowest price. Unfortunately, the price of fuel in Telangana is one of the highest in the country! To give a rough idea, diesel costed about INR 82 per liter in Assam, and INR 95 per liter in Telangana.
  
• Documents: Personal documents such as Aadhaar were required everywhere, especially at all hotels and border areas. Vehicle documents were also checked at a few places. Traffic rules need to be followed (for example, wear seat belt). Some states enforce speed limits - Telangana is too strict in my opinion since I got a speeding ticket from our own state whereas no other state bothered. I believe Odisha too had speed guns. Few states such as Maharashtra and West Bengal stopped us to check Pollution certificate! Our vehicle's pollution certificate had expired a couple of months ago, and I missed that. We managed to get away in West Bengal, but paid INR 1,000 to the policeman in Maharashtra to avoid a much higher amount as fine (INR 3,800).
  
• Covid: Protocols weren't followed almost anywhere. No one asked for our vaccination certificates, but all of us got precautionary booster doses within a month prior to travel. Face masks were mandatory in very few states such as Sikkim, Manipur, etc. In the first few days we wore masks but after a while we just followed whatever the locals were doing because we were easily being identified as non-locals (and thus getting bad deals).

Overall, was it a great trip? Did you enjoy?

It was a great trip because we went around a lot and visited several places, but I did not enjoy since I believe it could've been better. More details here: https://anandmiitm.blogspot.com/2022/09/how-to-enjoy-trip.html

Pictures please?

I've uploaded a few selected pictures here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SWPh6PBkjnhRENVH6

Although they may seem like a lot of pictures, it's less than 20% of all the photos that were taken! That is, ~670 out of ~3800.