It Was Time for me to head to Jaipur once again, this time for good. Wasting no time, i checked out my schedules and went ahead to book the Bangalore-Jodhpur Service of VRL Travels.
This was my first time trying the UP side of the service (SBC-JDP) as all the two times i`d taken the service from JDP to SBC and all were on 1398 only.
So I was pretty much excited to take the trip. This trip also incidentally had the 3rd combination of the drivers, so I was pretty much waiting forward to. Haseem Patel and Nisar Ahmed Were on Wheel towards Jodhpur this time.
My Boarding Point and Timing were From ARC at 07:30 am. I wanted to take the bus from the workshop itself, but I had to ditch it and take the bus from ARC itself. The Bus arrived at Sharp 07:30 am and sported a new Pilkington Glass from Volvo and a Closed Circuit Camera Assembly.
I Boarded the Bus, and had a nice déjà vu :D The Bus picked up passengers and moved on towards the next boarding point at Rajajinagar.Saying So, the bus finally Exited Bangalore at 08.40 am. I spotted the SRS B11R (KA01 AC 1303) heading out to Abad.
Patel asked me to watch the fun and I Occupied my regular Seat #0 (Cabin Seat) . :D Patel bhai just rocked, keeping the bus at a very calm speeds of 90 kmph and headed out . We Approached the New VRL Checkpoint Near Tumkur and had a nice, Pleasing Breakfast. This Checkpoint has the VRL Management themselves operating the hotel and the results really showed. The Pricing was just perfect and the dishes were excellent. The Passengers just loved the hotel and wished the management operates the hotels themselves along the route which currently are on contract to different caterers. The Quality factor and VRL are just Synonymous with each other, and it was sparkling all over the place.
Feeling Happy,Contented and Proud, We Left the place towards Hubli. The SRS was nowhere to be seen and it had not passed us till then. Patel Bhai pushed pedal to the metal and was keeping the bus at decent speeds. We Reached Varur , Filled up diesel at our regular Fueling partner pumps and at Exact 01:10 pm had our Lunch. We then were told that a pick up bus was dispatched to fetch passengers from Hubballi city and were asked to wait. The Delay was a bit too much and the SRS B11R passed us then.
We then decided to play along and watch the SRS go ahead. We were cruising at sedate speeds and watched the crazy things SRS was upto on the narrow stretch between Hubli and Belagavi. The B11R was extremely rash driving, forcing two wheelers off the road,doing zig zags, playing with the truckers and often evoking angry response from the traffic. He was speeding at approximately above 100 km/h and we were just going calmly at 80-90 km/h. We reached Belagavi just behind it, at an delay of just 2 minutes. Here I observed that the SRS crew were not in uniform ! I had a unexpected meeting with Mr Santosh and Mr Nagesh Vannur and a nice lil chat with them here!
We again departed from Belagavi and proceeded towards Kolhapur. The Highway was pretty much superb from here, and it was again doing a constant 104-107 kmph. The bus stopped near the Maharashtra RTA Checkpoint to pay taxes. We almost lost a hour here due to the slow office work by the officials. Nisar Ahmed took over the controls. I was thinking the bus will lose speed, but I was proved wrong! Nisar Mamu just was awesome this time, keeping the bus at 107 constant, Hitting a accelerated speed of 115 kmph ; Even as the SRS continued its rash driving on the way. It almost hit a Tata Pickup Truck after Kolhapur .
We Soon reached Pune and had dinner. The Dinner stop was around 45 minutes and Patel Bhai again took controls and in no time, we were cruising on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. The Bus had a drop near Thane and it dropped the passenger and headed on towards Ahmadabad . The Bus reached the Gujrat Border and We again went to pay the taxes at the checkpoint, where the SRS came after we came in. We again lost a hour again as there were a lot of people waiting for the taxes to be paid. The Payment took just 5 minutes against the 40 mins taken by MH RTA ! Gujrat has a complete computerized system against the full manual system by MH.
We Soon stopped at Hotel Ronak and had a hearty breakfast. There were the SRS B11R and a Paulo Multi Axle Sleeper at the Hotel. They Departed approximately 15-20 minutes before us. We Departed towards Ahmadabad after a sedate breakfast .
We Reached Ahmadabad at Exact 09:50 am. The SRS B11R and the Paulo Volvo Sleeper came in 20 minutes after us as they took the longer route towards the city after the Vadodara EWay.
The Real Journey Started from here. Nisar Mamu took the wheels again and it was back to old times. He was again cruising at speeds above 85 km/h and rarely crossed the 95 km/h mark. We stopped for lunch somewhere before the Rajasthan Border. We had a nice lunch and Nisar mamu continued to drive till Abu Road Checkpoint of the Rajasthan RTA. Again we lost 45 minutes paying taxes as again even Rajasthan was a manual entry state.
It was almost a 2 Lane Road after Gujrat as the National Highway work is in full swing after Abu Road. Patel Bhai again took over and was again making up for the lost time. We Reached Sanderao in no time for a very nice tea break where I met the VRL Travels incharge here. A Very Nice and a dedicated man I can say J
We proceeded towards Pali. The Road was literally hell from here. Stupid trucks cruising at 50kmph, cows & buffaloes all along and some of them even were resting inside the potholes and speed breaker cervices.
The road just got worser as we reached. It had rained heavily in the region and the whole stretch right from sanderao was just hell.We crawled and made our way towards Jodhpur.
We Reached Jodhpur at 9 pm and filled up with 250 litres of diesel, Averaging 3.13 kmpl!
We Finally Crawled inside the city and I went with another satisfying journey! 1398 You just rock baby!
This time my travel took 36 hours as we were delayed due to payment of taxes at Maharashtra , Gujrat and Rajasthan Checkpoints ( a hour each at an average) and a small communication gap at Hubli.
