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Rs 250 a night for a room and everything else…

It was the usual Thursday evening when I gave a ring to “Mohit” on a possible visit to somewhere during the weekend and as I predicted, he was all set to go. We were nearing weekend so the only undecided question was “Where to go?”. Being a “Punjabi”, he insisted on going to Mussoorie (Nandan will understand why I am saying so) but after exploring, we finally agreed upon Udaipur. The little more exploration about the transportation, city, tourist spots, staying facilities etc, put the final nail into our plans. So, there we were ready to go to Udaipur - The City of Lakes & Palaces.

As Mewar Express was over booked, we both agreed to go to Udaipur by DTC run Volvo. It started at 6:00 pm sharp from ISBT, Kashmiri Gate; the fair was Rs 700/- and after crossing Gurgaon it caught NH-8 route. The best part was that the seats that were quite easily available. I boarded Volvo from Kashmiri Gate while Mohit caught it from Gurgaon. Bus crossed Jaipur and Bhilwara. From Bhilwara, it took a left exit towards Udaipur bypassing Chittorgarh on the way.
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After loitering in Manali for a day, gathered my stuff, had breakfast, paid the bill and moved on… Home beckons.

The ride from Manali to Pandoh in itself was beautiful, invigourating and refreshing.  Not having to bother too much about timelines today meant that I would be able to enjoy the scenic beauty as often as I wanted to and could muck about wasting time in enjoying the simple pleasures of life… dipping my feet in the chilly waters of Beas.

Riding along the Beas reminded me of my earlier foray in this territory with a couple of friends (mentioned here).  That was one hell of an experience.  Lessons learnt from that ride sure came in handy on this ride of epic proportions.

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When we started our trip to the backwaters of Kerala, in all the travel books we had read, area around the backwaters was referred to as the “Venice of the East.” Till we reached Kollam and explored it, we were finding this comparison exaggerated. Our visit to Kollam changed our complete perception about these backwaters.

In my guidebook, half-day trip to the Monroe Island, organized by DTPC was suggested. DTPC office is situated near the bus-stand in Kollam. I booked the trip in the morning. When I enquired about the number of co-passengers we should expect, I was told that in general booking for around 8-10 couples was done. When we reached at the assembly point after lunch we were surprised to know that on that day ours was the only family interested in the trip.

On normal days a mini-bus goes from Kollam to Monroe Island, on that day they apologized and arranged an auto-rickshaw. On the one hand, we were happy that fewer tourists meant less crowd and we could request for slight changes in the itinerary according to our liking. On the other hand, lack of tourist interest lowered our expectation and suggested that this tour had lost favor among tourists.

Monroe Island is at a distance of around 25 Km from Kollam. At Monroe Island our guide Sujith and rower RadhaKrishanji received us. The name “Monroe Island” might arouse in some readers’ minds memories of Marlyn Monroe. I am not aware of the origin of such a name for this island. However, let me assure you that the Island was as beautiful.

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Allahabad was our first night-stop on that great drive to orient which I wrote some time back. For a better period of our planing, we were finding ways on how to reach Gorakhpur by first night, we would flip over the maps one more time, calculate the distances again, try to get updates on East-West Corridor by NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) but it still was as far as 750 KMs and hence not a place where we could reach when we call quits on Day1. The constraints were same viz. assume that we are not clocking more then 60 KM an hour, no driving when it gets dark, plan for unplanned stoppages, remember we have a 3 year old baby, also remember that we are just 3 people, and do not forget to remind yourself that we are not driving towards Canada (read Delhi-Mumbai) and rather going towards Mexico (Delhi-Patna) and so on. So even though nothing changed in the realm of geography while we were amidst planning, our appetite for accepting a distance of 650 odd KM as a day-drivable thing grew gradually. Its a very peculiar thing where a next-big number, somehow, doesn’t appear as big. So when one fine day, we thought that why not go via Allahabad - Banaras towards Patna, our plan passed the test. Suddenly we had decided that we would be staying at Prayag on Night 1. I believe Prayag (aka Allahabad) had to happen so it happened.

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