We and the Roads

It is very hard for me to find a new place everytime. Most of the cities are already covered so we try to find remote country sides. Everyone is already aware of the fascinating English country sides. The old small houses in the villages are beautiful. They have their own pattern and unlike the towns or cities they are mostly empty, which means very few people live there and ofcourse you wont get any Indian restaurant here. So you can get a taste of traditional things.

This is an old travelogue. In the year 2012 I was living at a place called Watford. Watford is only 30 mins from Central London and the last station on London Overground line. We planned to go to Isle of Wight because it was nearby. But instead of taking public transport we decided to hire a car. This was my first roadtrip in the UK. Isle of Wight is only 4 hours drive from Watford. So a weekend is sufficient to visit this place. Its an island in southern England. Surrounded with sea the place is mostly popular for beaches and cliffs. This place attracts a lot of tourists during summer. There are ferry available from 2 different ports which carries people and vehicle to Isle of wight. Unfortunately there are no bridges to the mainlands. We planned to make it short and simple. Only visit few places and enjoy the drive. For lodging instead of staying in a hotel we decided to stay in a B&B. Few days back one of our seniors went there and he advised a good B&B. Wes...

We had a massive gathering during our last Team-bhp Monsson meet (Kolkata Monsoon Meet - 24th July, 2016) . It was the largest Team-bhp meet East India or for the matter of fact any part of India has every seen. Last winter few bhpians have arranged for a overnight meet at Gadiara (New Year Winter Meet, Kolkata (January 2016)) which turned out to be a successful overnight road trip. But the count was less than the day meets we have. Well why am I talking so much about head counts ? Because it is not easy to manage 40 cars and 90 people in a convoy and have a wonderful weekend trip. We did it.

 Before 2010 I was mostly a biker. Many people from Eastern region still knows me as a biker. I have started learning to ride when I was 14 in my father's Hero Honda CD100SS and after that I have owned numerous bikes from TVS Apache RTR to KTM Duke 200. I have done few road trips with our beloved group RoadRollers in the past. We used to do weekend trips frequently. Those were the days when my motto was - "Whatever it is, its better in the wind". I never thought things would change and I would be driving instead of riding. And now when I don't ride at all and I have sold all of my bikes I cant call myself a biker anymore. It was only yesterday when I was browsing my old pictures and found an album from 2009. After going through all the pictures from the album an urge to write a travelogue came up. Fortunately I haven't forgotten every thing from that trip and can write few words. Out of many road trips on bike this one is very close to heart because this...

Continued>> Day 3 - We woke up early as we had to head towards Darjeeling. Darjeeling was just opposite to Ramdhura. While Ramdhura was quite and didnt have proper mobile network Darjeeling was crowded and busy and modern. The plan for Darjeeling was made for shopping and food. On 6th June Monday morning we bid adieu to Ramdhura and started for Darjeeling. We took this route - There are beautiful tea gardens on this way to Darjeeling. The road towards Darjeeling is quite steep.After entering Ghoom we started facing traffic jams. Yes there are traffic jams even in the hills. The road from Darjeeling to Ghoom has toy train lines and the toy train is now in operation, hence the traffic jam. The train line crosses the streets multiple time and whenever a train comes traffic guards stops all incoming vehicles to let the train pass. This was the first time I came to Darjeeling in my own car. I was aware of the traffic and also of the parking problem in Darjeeli...

The closest friends I have are from college. We know each other for almost 10 years now yet we didnt go out much on road trips or any kind of trips. Our last weekend holiday to Henry island which is 150kms from Kolkata was in november. We had a lot of fun there and like any other groups we started planning for our next trip. Though 6 month or more have passed and nothing happened. Suddenly a need of a trip arrived when I was in the UK. This time they required more than a weekend trip. As usual a whatsapp group was formed for planning and people started pouring ideas. Ideas about where to go, when to go, how to go and for how long. Strange thing about planing is the joy and fun. I feel planning is 50% fun of the entire trip. However I was not active this time because I wasnt sure if I would be able to make it or not. Finally after months of discussion the date was fixed. I came back to India on 28th May and 3rd June was the proposed journey start date. Others have booked their t...